Thomas Sowell on Why Larry Leaving is Bad

The inimitable Thomas Sowell on yet another chilling effect of the resignation of President Summers:

"Despite incessant repetition of the word "diversity" in academe, the tragic fact is that the academic world is one of the most intolerant places in America when it comes to diversity of ideas.  Even the president of Harvard dare not step out of line...Even if every conclusion with which students are indoctrinated were true, unless those students develop their own ability to weigh opposing arguments, these conclusions will become obsolete as new issues arise in the years ahead. These "educated" people will have developed no ability to analyze opposing sides of issues.

Students are getting half an education at inflated prices and learning only how to label, dismiss and demonize ideas that differ from what they have been led to believe. Their "educated" ignorance is a danger to the future of this country."

Full article text here.

Comments

[Sissy Willis]

All may not be lost. Like the Danish imams who fanned the fires of "Arab-street" cartoon hysteria only to have their attempts to repress freedom of speech in the West blow up in their faces [Buy Danish!], Harvard's radical FAS malcontents may have unwittingly sown the seeds of their own destruction by revealing the raw power grab behind their heavy-handed attempts to repress freedom of speech on campus.

[Crystal]

uhh the same was said of summers a year ago by the perceptive and/or hopeful among us.. we just figured that summers little virulent biases and lack of social tact would backfire big time and he'd end up unwittingly advancing the cause of women, minorities and liberal fanatics. if he had just kept his mouth shut, harvard would have had a much better chance of remaining a bastion of patriarchy and oppression.