<p>D’yer Maker - that’s wild. I can understand where the Oberlin poster is coming from; they are competing values, to some extent. Although, I’m a little surprised that they would see more than an ounce of daylight between Obie and Wes in that regard. For example, I’ve always felt that Williams and Middlebury exemplified the commmunitarian ideal, camped-out as they are, in deep snow for much of the year. The trope was always that if you didn’t arrive already knowing how to ski or lace on a pair of snow shoes, you would learn soon enough or be forever banished to the library on weekends. </p>
<p>I don’t think the Left at Wesleyan really expects to gain recruits or to make converts among the conservative or seriously apathetic middle. But, if you read some of the editorial comments which regularly appear in <em>The Argus</em>, there is a sense that they are legacies of a certain tradition of questioning authority that goes back pretty far:
[Wesleyan</a> University, 1831-1910 … - Google Books](<a href=“Wesleyan University, 1831-1910: Collegiate Enterprise in New England - David Bronson Potts - Google Books”>Wesleyan University, 1831-1910: Collegiate Enterprise in New England - David Bronson Potts - Google Books)</p>
<p>To that extent, yes, there is a huge market for communitarian sentiment at Wesleyan, but it’s not just one community we’re talking about, here; there are literally dozens of different communities at Wesleyan, some not always clearly distinct from each other. The one thing they have in common is a need for augmentation, coalition, revival, or some combination of the three, and that’s where the libertarian aspect comes into play: they can’t gain converts without demonstrating that they can play well with others.</p>
<p>Hope this helps (I have to admit that was something of a head-scratcher, for me. :p)</p>