<p>Another good article, this one by an MIT economics professor, reflecting on his personal recovery from an outmoded worldview. Should be required reading for most Parents Cafe threads.</p>
<p>“If 1968 were an influential thinker, it would have many disciples who share its folk beliefs. Those folk beliefs are the mental security blanket still being clutched by my liberal friends, even those who are not old enough to remember 1968. I want to contrast the way the world might have appeared to a reasonable liberal in 1968 with the way events have unfolded since then. Afterwards, if you still prefer the folk beliefs of 1968 to my views today, so be it. But at least you have an opportunity to reconsider.”</p>
<p>“A rational response to this record of powerful evidence against the Conventional Wisdom might be to reconsider one’s views, as I have done. Instead, it seems to me that liberals have become more close-minded and more dogmatic.”</p>
<p>Funny, that’s how I view many Republicans I know. I made a vow to myself not to participate in these pseudo political discussions which seem to be more about clubbing the stupidity of anyone who criticizes Bush, (even by other liberals or Democrats) but this one ensnared me in it’s trap. </p>
<p>In 1968 I was 12 years old and learning by osmosis to be a Republican. I too examined the world view and came to the conclusion that the world was a lot more complex than I had realized and that political solutions weren’t necessarily found by following dogmatic political beliefs. I began to vote by issue and candidate - not an easy thing to do since it requires reading and listening more than I was used to and it was easy to be preoccupied with my own small world and to believe that my vote didn’t matter. </p>
<p>I’m no intellectual and there are plenty of individuals here who are far more articulate than I, but I understand the game Republicans play on this forum and the subject of this thread is indication of what passes for political discusssion. It’s a shame.</p>
<p>“A rational response to this record of powerful evidence against the Conventional Wisdom might be to reconsider one’s views, as I have done. Instead, it seems to me that liberals have become more close-minded and more dogmatic.”</p>
<p>I guess everyone reads what they want into this, but when I read this I immediately thought of my very liberal brother. Back in 1968, he was my hero in terms of being open-minded. We didn’t always agree on things, but he was always willing to look at the other side of issues. Now, however, he is completely stuck on his views and refuses to deal with contrary opinions and facts. </p>
<p>Sure, there are Republicans who have the same problem, but if you look at them from a macro level, I think it is quite evident that they have changed with the times and have adopted what was good about 1968 liberalism. Kluge’s very well written testiment to what he believes in from yesterday brings this point out - for the most part, the things that Kluge holds dear to rationalize his liberalism, have been adopted by conservatives as accepted status quo. Things like civil rights, social security, etc. have become mainstays of both the liberal and the conservative mindset. </p>
<p>The author’s point was very well taken in that the liberals should have just declared victory; instead they are so adament about their position that they refuse to acknowledge that perhaps there are conservative views that also may result in overall good - things like school vouchers or elimination of tenure for teachers.</p>
<p>Your response speaks to the limits of the article, which I found weak-minded in terms of its logic.</p>
<p>“A rational response to this record of powerful evidence against the Conventional Wisdom might be to reconsider one’s views, as I have done. Instead, it seems to me that liberals have become more close-minded and more dogmatic.”</p>
<p>Either the author here is claiming that liberals as a whole have become close-minded and dogmatic, in which case he is indulging in the sort of facile generalization that hampers so much political discussion (on both sides of the aisle), or he is attacking close-minded liberals, an argument hardly worth making, since we can all agree that being close-minded and inflexible is bad, very very bad.</p>
<p>What really astounds me is that the right wing behaves as if they were an oppressed minority. They control all of the government, much of the media, most of the religious organizations, and they feel threatened by a few random professors most of whom are in the liberal arts and in the least influential places in a university. They seem intent on driving any one out of public life who doesn’t agree with their view of the world. When does the torture start?</p>
<p>I don’t get it. You won, at least for the moment. But these things do have a way of changing.</p>
<p>“I understand the game Republicans play on this forum and the subject of this thread is indication of what passes for political discusssion. It’s a shame.” </p>
<p>The political discussions on this forum are whatever we all make of them, Liz. You can add something thoughtful, or you can be petulant. Your choice.</p>
<p>“When I read the title of the original post, I thought this was going to be a thread about how we’re bogged down in an ill-advised war overseas.”</p>
<p>Spoony, the fact that you would jump to that conclusion was precisely Professor Kling’s point. When I read the article, I saw so much of the same tired group-think that I read here on our political threads, whether it comes from self-styled Progressives, aging hippies, or younger wannabees. The section on economics and the “Sixties” reaction to Milton Friedman was particularly on point, with regard to the economics arguments that fly here. Did you get that far? Or was it just too “weak-minded” for you to bother with? Or are you again making Professor Kling’s point: </p>
<p>“liberals in 1968 came to the overriding conclusion that: Anyone who is not a liberal must be incorrigibly stupid.”</p>
<p>Or “liars”…or “vermin.” Been reading the posts lately?</p>
<p>Apologies for format—The site is running VERY slowly in my neck of the woods today, and none of the vB coding is working at all.</p>
<p>“The right wing control[s] all of the government, much of the media, and is threatened by a few random professors most of whom are in the liberal arts and in the least influential places in a university”</p>
<p>Are we talking about the United States in 2006? </p>
<p>Since all politics are local, do you know many school boards that are controlled by the right wing? Further, I read “somewhere” that in 2005, the Democrats regained a plurality of legislative seats nationwide and controlled 20 State legislatures. The right wing? 20! </p>
<p>How many daily newspapers do you know that are extolling the virtues of the right-wing?</p>
<p>What is the percentage of tenured educators who confessed to vote republican?</p>
<p>David Horowitz and Eli Lehrer of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture did a study in 2002 analyzing the publicly available voter registration information for the faculty and staff of 32 elite US universities and colleges. </p>
<p>If you want to find a lot of conservative Republicans holding professorships or high administrative positions in colleges, you are looking in the wrong places. Look at Bible colleges. Bible colleges are mostly what you get when far-rightwing educators are in charge.</p>
<p>“If you want to find a lot of conservative Republicans holding professorships or high administrative positions in colleges, you are looking in the wrong places”</p>
<p>And is this just or representative of the political landscape of the country? Oh, I get it … if I am not liberal I better get a new Bible in my backpack. Well, come to think about it, I’d rather tote a Bible than the copy of Das Kapital that adorns the nightstand of so many educators.</p>
<p>Their Democrats for G-d sakes. So what? Since when did being a Democrat make you an enemy of the people or an ideologue. Most Democratic politicians are a bunch of wishy-washing twinkies. In any case unlike Republicans there is a range of Democrats that runs from Joe Lieberman and further to the right to the left. Republicans are becoming the most anti-American group to come along in years. They dont understand what it means to live in a democracy.</p>
<p>Like I said the right wing wants to control everythingno differencesno dissent allowed.</p>
<p>That’s what so great about a free country - you can follow any book you want, or none at all. My point is that there is nothing stopping right wing conservatives from running colleges. But when left to their own devices they often choose to establish and run colleges that are more like Bob Jones and less like Harvard. It’s their choice.</p>
Let me get this right, it is OK to say that Republicans are anti-American but when a Republican questions a Democrat’s vote on something they are accused of calling him or her unpatriotic. No double standard there for sure.</p>
<p>As far as the “democracy” issue, the Republicans are the ones to want to re-institute democracy - you know the democratic concept of voting for things rather than having rules created by 9 people in black robes.</p>