Entropic

A friend of mine referred me to the following article, entitled "Yale Goes to War: How Disasters Happen" ( http://www.berkeleydaily.org/pdfs/08-01-06.pdf - page 9).

It's essentially a prolonged tirade on the Yalies in and related to the current administration, culminating in the point: "It’s not that Yale has distinctively failed to endow its graduates with moral character befitting public service. It’s failed at a distinctively high level, because its old-boy network is so strong."

The author attempts to deny that he's bashing the school itself or the current generation of students, but the headline and first half of the article are rather malicious. Even the ending, which is a somewhat sappy and tacked on apology recognizing Yalies have done many great things, does not sweeten the general bitterness with which this Dartmouth grad writes about the old 'Y'. It's good to see that the joke that of George W. Bush going to Yale is still funny to some people after 5 years. I guess some fads just take longer to get to the west coast...

zephyr151

Leftist, inane hogwash.

Yale is known as one of the most liberal campuses in the country.

filmxoxo17

Eh. When you're always in the public eye. It's natural. Usually Yale avoids this because most people gun for Harvard. The author is baffled as to why so many Yale grads hold prominent positions in politics. It makes him mad. That's all.
edit: oh grammar, you got me again!

maineparent

Zephyr151,
given the liberal environment on almost every campus.....which I attribute to age of college students, first taste of freedom, yada-yada....
is it possible that clusters of like minded folks, finding themselves in the minority, ie at Yale, might bond in a stronger manner? hence, owe a leg up to their buds? We know Bush and Kerry were both members of Skull & Bones, are any of the others that are mentioned in the article?

Cronyism has been around forever.....sometimes, however, the planets are perfectly aligned....and viola, we have a perfect storm.....

I did find some of the language, used by the author, ie Cheney happy to order up a 2nd Iraq war for the Bush family......it's not like 4 guys from Yale can wreck a country alone, it takes a virtual residential college.....Cheney's long time Yalie consigliere.....John Yoo cooked up the judicial rationals for torture..... don't mean to suggest some Old Blue agenda behind this self-selected red-state-oriented ghouls.....

Almost like reading JK Rowling......

Anyway, thanks for sharing Entropic.......

zephyr151

Frankly, the fact that they all went to Yale is irrelevant.

Yale has long had a very strong presence in the political arena (it was God and Man at Yale, after all), but I find all of this conspiracy-theorizing simply that--inane blabber from the far left.

It doesn't add to any educational or political discourse and should therefore be ignored.

Sure, conservatives bond. Does it translate into a Yale conspiracy in the White House? No. I write for the conservative newspaper where I go to school, and I'm a DLC Democrat. They do bond, but there are no conspiracies.