This, This, Ten Thousand Times This!

Why didn’t more professors oppose the Gramscian march or at least stick up for free speech? (NewNeo)

(4) For the most part, professors are people who have done well in school and never left it, staying to take on more power and prestige within that setting. Therefore I don’t think they are selected for courage, or for even necessarily for thinking for themselves (with exceptions, of course). For the most part, they have been very good at taking in information and then giving it back again, perhaps with a small advancement on current knowledge in a very circumscribed field. So there may be more people in academia who are selected for conformity, and they are less likely to buck the prevailing winds. 

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my world.  It all ultimately goes back to my assertion years ago that the intellectuals are still having a hissy-fit that the Age of Reason did not end with them becoming philosopher-kings, but with the rise of industrialists.  Of course, now that they are moving to control the institutions, they are becoming the very aristocracy (complete with birthrights!) their ancestors wanted gone.  If they're lucky, they will realize their mistake before the Montagnards show up. 

My Eventual Future: Dissident

 

Understanding and Embracing the Role of the 21st-Century American Dissident

We need to awaken to the reality that we are not a majority. We are not a vocal minority with the same rights as the majority. We are now dissidents. We do not have the same voice as our ever-strengthening oppressors, and we do not have the same rights that they enjoy.  (NB don't just read this quote; go click the link and see all of it)

I have increasingly few illusions about my long-term prospects.  At some point, there will be a version of a loyalty test instituted for academics (it's already being contested at some schools), and failure to swear allegiance will mean non-renewal.  And the very historians who tut-tut the whole McCarthy era will be the ones who flock most readily to it and be willing to denounce their neighbors as subversives. 

No, they're not the ones who distress me.  I had their number years ago.  It's the ones of you who privately tell me that you have reservations but do not speak and do not act, relying upon me to use my abilities to fight the fight.  

It is no longer enough.  Either I will go to my tent like Achilles, or into exile like Yoda.   I am fortunate in that I do have the ability to walk away and reinvent myself.  I've done it before, I can do it again.  But most of you don't have that luxury.  

And do not assume the revolution will not come for you.  The Montagnards always come for the Girondists.

Posted without further comment

 

Why It Pays to Be Grumpy and Bad-Tempered

Being bad-tempered and pessimistic helps you to earn more, live longer and enjoy a healthier marriage. It’s almost enough to put a smile on the dourest of faces.

I've always enjoyed the Peter Principle and hated experts

When the Experts Fail, Everyone Else Pays the Price  -- David Mamet (WSJ)

 The virus here is government—or at least the incompetents who advise our rulers and cannot admit the legitimacy of dissension. Absent intervention, this virus may eventually kill the host organism. 

God, I love Mamet!  It's a pity he's mostly Out Of Favor nowadays.  This article speaks to so much of what I have seen in government and academia.  But Mamet curiously omits any mention of the Peter Principle: in any organization, individuals tend to rise to their level of incompetence.  So it is with government agencies.  Dr. Fauci comes to mind.  The Right is not immune to this sort of thing, but since the Right is currently out of power, we will ignore them for now.