While reading the book “Managers Not MBAs” by Henry Mintzberg I came across this quote that epitomizes my view of modern academia and its liberal affliction.
The second handedness of the learned world is the secret of its mediocrity.†-Alfred North Whitehead
Using this quote as a starting point, Mintzberg goes on to detail the negative trend of continued management by analytics (MBA) being promoted in business schools rather than actual management and real world experience (here is a more business oriented take on the quote). This is precisely what has encouraged the pervasiveness of liberal ideology in higher education today.
Professors increasingly are judged reputable by society because they have been judged to be superior by their peers. They are not successful in the real world, nor have their theories on social change met with success when tested (the best example of this being that the end result of liberalism, socialism or communism, both colossal failures). Neither have their peers been similarly tested. This results in the liberal group think that college students are baptized in today. As one of my economics professors stated “How can you blame them, most have never been out in the real world.”
How do we change this situation? It’s not easy but, here are a few things to start with.
- Encourage students to think for themselves
- Support academic freedom through organizations like FIRE
- Express your discontent with the university when things are not as they should be both in and out of class.
- Favor or promote professors with real world experience (they can be hard to find when the real world is so much more lucrative).
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- Republican Party of Wisconsin State Convention 2010 - May 21st, 2010
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Huh, I go to a liberal arts school and we really don’t have that problem here except for a professor or two. (I will grant that my minor adviser is an exception.) Then again, most of the professors here have real world experience…the professor who teaches directing and advanced acting is an esteemed professional director, the scenic design and set building professor is a professional set designer in Chicago, the economics professors have a background in applied econ, the psychology professors have done high-profile research, etc.
I disagree that socialism and communism are the “end products” of liberalism. They are extreme forms of it, not an extension of it. I wouldn’t call fascism or theocracy “end products” of conservativism, although they are forms of it. Liberal republicanism is an end unto itself, not an evolutionary step.
What hooey. It appears your economics professor is the one who needs to get out in the world.
In the law schools, the professors generally are past litigators, and in almost all cases I know, practicing or formerly practicing lawyers who put their mettle to the test often in courtrooms.
In the business schools, the professors work with the world’s leading corporations and other organizations on the toughest problems. Their work is tested in the marketplace. It’s rare to find someone in a business school who doesn’t have years of experience.
In political science, the professors are most often campaign consultants, at a minimum — many are veterans of the hard political wars in the trenches, in campaigns as front line managers, in legislatures, in government.
Economics professors are rather protected. They may be the exception.
Liberalism’s end product should be a good education, and according to economic theory propounded by the very conservative Chicago School, should result in liberty.
What country are you living in? Come to America, see the facts for yourself. The picture you paint is not one of America. It’s much different here.