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03/11/2004: "No stoopid people need apply"
As everyone knows, American academia leans left. Not like the Leaning Tower of Pisa leans–more like the way a ski jumper leans out over his skis when he sails off the jump. Professors who are registered members of left-wing political parties (Democrat, Green, etc.) outnumber members of right-wing parties (Republican, Constitution, etc.) by staggering proportions–for example, at Williams College (MA) only Republicans can be found on a faculty of almost 200; at the University of Colorado at Boulder, leftists outnumber rightists in the English department 37-0; at Brown in the history department, it's 17-0. You get the point. Recently, the chair of the philosophy department at Duke, Robert Barnard, explained why this is so. He was quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, but since I can't find it on their site, I'll refer to the citation of his remarks by The New Criterion:
Last month, The Chronicle ran an advertisement placed by the Duke Conservative Union which called on Duke's president to address herself to the lack of political diversity among Duke's faculty. Duke in this respect looks a lot like most other universities: in its history department, for example, there were thirty-two registered Democrats, a few unaffiliated faculty and, yep, zero Republicans. Nothing unusual there: just the usual academic understanding of diversity in action. What was a bit unusual was Professor Brandon's explanation of the preponderance of left-leaning faculty at Duke. "We try to hire the best, smartest people available," Professor Brandon told The Chronicle.
"If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire. Mill's analysis may go some way towards explaining the power of the Republican party in our society and the relative scarcity of Republicans in academia. Players in the NBA tend to be taller than average. There is a good reason for this. Members of academia tend to be a bit smarter than average. There is a good reason for this too."
It is not often, we think, that academic arrogance makes quite so blatant a spectacle of itself. Everyone knows that professors as a group tend to think they are smarter and politically more virtuous than anyone outside the professorial flock, but generally they communicate this conviction indirectly, through snobbery and other forms of patronizing behavior. There is something almost touching about Professor Brandon's naked braggadocio. It is also nice that he manages to mangle John Stuart Mill and commit eighty-seven (some have detected ninety-four) logical mistakes in the space of his few sentences.
In our view, John Stuart Mill has a lot to answer for, but he never claimed that "stupid people are generally conservative." He would never have been so stupid. What he wrote, in a footnote discussing Disraeli in Considerations on Representative Government, was that the Conservative party in England was "the stupidest party." We trust that the chairman of the philosophy department at Duke University will appreciate the distinction.
In his letter complaining about the unpleasant response he had had to his comments, Professor Brandon announced that he would leave Mill out of his discussion. This was a wise decision. It might also be wise were he to take his own advice and "read more Mill." He might then avoid the atrocious logic of his opening sentence: "If, as John Stuart Mill said …" Exactly how, Professor, does it follow from what you say Mill said (only he didn't) that "then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire"? And how does Mill's "analysis," or whatever it is you think of as Mill's analysis—in fact, it is an unsupported contention thrown out for rhetorical effect—how does it explain "the power of the Republican party in our society"? How does it explain "the relative scarcity of Republicans in academia"? It doesn't. Of course, we know what you mean. You mean that you regard people who share your politics—which are the politics of 98 percent of the Duke faculty—as smarter than people who don't. But doesn't a professor of philosophy, albeit a professor of philosophy at Duke, have an elementary obligation to represent accurately a thinker he cites? And shouldn’t he make some effort to reason coherently and not simply emote?
Wonderfully put.
