Why They Are The Way They Are
From Roger L. Simon's
web-site comes a great
commentary on a subset of academia and their actions at a conference...
bq. My wife Sheryl sent me--we email each other from adjoining offices--this
Boston Globe report on political dissent at the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association--the yearly "meetup" (in modern parlance) of college and university literature teachers. Apparently there wasn't much of it, dissent that is, at least from the pro-war side.
bq.
"In more than a dozen sessions on war-related topics, not a single speaker or audience member expressed support for the war in Iraq or in Afghanistan. The sneering air quotes were flying as speaker after speaker talked of "so-called terrorism," "the so-called homeland," "the so-called election of George Bush," and so forth."
He goes on to say:
bq. Why am I not surprised at this monolithic point of view in academia, which should be the bastion of free expression? [Who would be?--ed.]
The University Class is one of the most rigid in America in its thinking. The interesting question is why. One of the answers is obvious. The Boomers who have inherited the universities, and are cocooned in a sinecure not dissimilar to civil service, have hardly any outside pressure to reconsider or even question their values (except for today's students, many of whom, apparently, are getting sick of them).
At a conference like the MLA, whose primary raison d'etre is job search, the pressure to conform is compounded. Attendees with pro-war views would naturally be reluctant to express themselves for fear of losing out in the marketplace. I know I'd keep my mouth shut in such an atmosphere. I already know not to broadcast my pro-war views when going to a meeting in Hollywood. (It works. So far--touch wood--there isn't "coverage" for blogs!)
Emphasis mine... The reference to Hollywood is because Roger is a screenwriter as well as a novelist.
Posted by DaveH at January 8, 2004 8:19 PM