Are Liberal Universities A Problem?
Joseph N. Abraham, M.D.
First of all, a disclaimer: I tend toward the liberal more often than the conservative. Having said that, I don't generally read liberal commentators, but almost always read George F. Will, a highly-respected conservative editorialist.
My reasons for reading Will are simple: George usually gives good reasons for his arguments. Agree or not, I can see a logic to his conclusion.
And even more than that, Will doesn't always toe the party line. When he objects to what other Republicans are doing, he says it. That is a critical attribute for any political pundit, and even, any citizen: if everyone is thinking the same way, who's thinking?
However, I disagree with a current topic that George has taken up. He contends that higher education is dominated by liberals, and improperly so.
Consider that the branches of the US Armed Forces comprise a larger share of the US budget than any other office; add in Veterans Affairs, and it is even larger. Well, the Military, and perhaps as significantly, the many industries who support and earn a living from those Military dollars, are dominated by conservatives. Why isn't that a problem?
Large corporate interests now influence our private time, by constantly advertising their services and products to us. Most of the entertainment and news outlets are now also owned by large business, and critics constantly decry the loss of independence in news. Big businesses are run and staffed by people who, not surprisingly, are almost all conservative. So here is an enormous educational counterbalance to our colleges, and one that influences us from cradle to grave, not just for 4 years. But there is no outcry about that.
And our Churches, which ostensibly are our moral guides, are increasingly moving to the right. Evangelical churches, the fastest growing part of Christendom, overwhelmingly vote with conservative candidates. But Will doesn't worry about those.
So we have to ask Mr. Will if his concern about an influential part of American becoming too partisan? Or is he just worried that it aligns with the other party?
With that, we need to consider analytical thinking, critical to America, but also to the doctrine of Free Will. If teenagers and young adults only experience conservative concepts then have we circumvented their Free Will? If our students are not exposed to liberal ideas, have we extinguished the student's ability to think objectively, in order to serve contemporary (and possibly transitory) political ideas?
This is no small point. For their non-college lives, our students are immersed in corporate-- i.e., conservative-- content. How will we expose students to liberal ideas, if we don't do it in college? How else will they ever get a chance make their own choice, and make up their own minds?
George Will cannot argue that we should deny students the same democratic freedoms, and the same religious freedoms, that he exercises.
Nor can he argue that this arrangement has hurt the democracy. Even though liberals dominate higher education, the electorate regularly alternates between the two parties, and the two political stances... suggesting that, in fact, they are sufficiently exposed to different ideas, that they are thinking for themselves; and that exposure to different doctrines produces a stronger, not a weaker, citizen.
As a final consideration, we need to ask what role our centers of higher learning play in our way of life. If conservatives "conserve"-- defend traditional practices, values and ideologies; and if research institutions research, then the two must disagree. Universities are expected to question and prod what we believe, in an attempt to approach the essence of what is true, and valuable. Universities have always challenged conservative approaches; neither side is always right, but the debate leads to progress. Universities are liberal, because that is exactly what we expect them to be.
And so, to be effective, our universities must be liberal.
With deference to George F. Will, we should not be asking our universities to be anything other than liberal. That standpoint is critical to progress, and to our way of life.
Joseph N. Abraham, MD is the president and founder of booksXYZ.com, the non-profit http://booksXYZ.cm) bookstore listing over 2,000,000 books. He is also author of Happiness: A Physician Biologist Looks at Life, a synthesis of biology, Zen and http://booksxyz.com/profile.php?id=5) medicine.
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