I figure, hey: With a lead like that? How’re you going to pass on this one:
…David Horowitz, who’s included a Cole entry in his new book, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. According to a press report, “Cole called the chapter on him ‘dishonest’ and said that it is ‘if not libelous, then verging on it.’ He declined to say if he’s planning any legal action.” But in the very same press article, Cole seems to undercut any possible claim that Horowitz has done him harm: “I think [Horowitz] has no impact whatsoever. He’s not relevant to our academic governance or the way we make decisions in the academy.” So Cole himself has dismissed Horowitz as harmless.
Just how does anyone do “professional harm” to a tenured full professor?
Well, just read on and find out!
(H/T to Stanley Kurtz)
I’m noticing a theme lately.
As someone who will very likely be a professor in a few years, I’m wondering, are liberal professors really that dangerous?
I think you’ll be OK, Eric. You talk to people who don’t share your views
I think the academic tenure system, warts and all, is really a blessing in disguise. It was intended to attract men and women of ability to the pursuit of knowledge, and offer some economic security so they they could concentrate on doing just that.
Tenure more or less succeeds in that purpose, but it also shelters feckless ne’er-do-wells who would be booted out of any other profession where results and accountability actually matter.
These marginal thinkers are not in a mental institution or in electoral office [try to tell the difference sometimes]. Instead they’re right where they should be: so well protected from the consequences of their faulty ideas that they have no incentive to leave the nest and actually test their utopian visions against harsh reality.
So we put up with their whining or tune them out. The only power differential they have is over unfortunate students who must either ignore or go around them –actually a good life lesson. Tenure is a honeypot, that has the side effect of keeping bozos out of arenas where they could do some serious harm.
Protected from the economics of the marketplace, they are still subject to the marketplace of ideas. Universities no longer have a sole monopoly on the creation and dissemination of knowledge. Real scholarship [like good blogging] can be found in unlikely places. And real scholars are not threatened by the marketplace of ideas–they help shape it. Victor Davis Hanson and Michael Ledeen come to mind.
So an academic-turned-journalist feels threatened by criticism? He can dish it out, but not take it, eh? If others in a position to know dispute the scholastic viability of his work, we are free to agree or disagree, even though we may have no influence on tenure decisions. We may decide instead to read the scholarly works of his critics, and perhaps even decide they are better. He cannot command our attention, or prevent better ideas from challenging his.
He may get his tenure [which he would never risk giving up], and gradually lose his serious audience. There will always be moonbats to impress, so he won’t suffer. Unable to influence serious debate or policy, he’ll just eventually …be.. ignored.. But with tenure, so his personal “victory conditions” are met.
Can anyone say: “mission kill”?
For a very readable discussion of tenure, from the University of Houston:
http://www.uh.edu/fs/TITF/history.html
Kramer writes:
“Just how does anyone do ‘professional harm’ to a tenured full professor?”
Out of context, I’d answer: Ignore ‘im. (There’s nothing they fear and hate more.)
Eric:
“As someone who will very likely be a professor in a few years, I?
Kramer writes:
“Just how does anyone do ‘professional harm’ to a tenured full professor?”
Out of context, I’d answer: Ignore ‘im. (There’s nothing they fear and hate more.)
Eric:
“As someone who will very likely be a professor in a few years, I’m wondering, are liberal professors really that dangerous?”
May I be nosy and ask, are you a liberal hoping not to be a dangerous professor? If so, Captain Lex’ response is perfect.
I loved my liberal professors in college, because their arguments required hard work and thought to counter, and their passionate advocacy was untainted by rancor. I know a few like them now, but they’re outnumbered by those who don’t hold opinions so much as attitudes; who don’t appreciate the politest disagreement and are annoyed by even having other views brought up.
CPT J: I think your comment is terrific.