Assassinating the Intelligentsia
Over at an interesting Weblog called BlueOregon, billed as a place for Oregon progressives to gather around an online water cooler to discuss the news, there is an interesting discussion going on about civil society and academic freedom under the headline:
Assassinating the intelligentsia
An excerpt:
A few weeks ago the World Affairs Council's Young Professionals met in the upstairs room of a Portland brew pub to ponder the definition of "civil society." The conversation wandered like a Bedouin, touching on questions of health and elder care and personal freedom vs. social order. But by the third microbrew all had agreed on one thing: a civil society cannot exist unless critical thought is promoted, from kindergarten through the university level.The subject came up again last weekend at PSU, where a panel of academicians spoke calmly but urgently on the matter of "Academic Freedom Under Siege." Unbeknownst to most of us, the neo-conservatives have been taking a mighty swipe at academia, that last American bastion of critical thought. They've targeted female, foreign and minority professors, "outing" them as leftist liberal intellectuals. If you don't believe it, check out a popular new web site, www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org.
We've discussed these issues before here at The Locust Fork and it is a real problem for the future of our democracy, so check it out.