"The Breakdown of Higher Education: How It Happened, the Damage It Does, and What Can Be Done" by Professor John M. Ellis, should be a good read? Yes!

Just listened to the author, and he is amazing in his analysis of the slow erosion of our culture through radicalized education.

He says in 1999, the balance of college professors hired was, per five, two to the political right of center and three to the left. In 2020, we no longer have a pool of conservative people upon whom to draw, and if we did, they would never be hired. In 2020, there IS no center. There are 50 hires on the left, and perhaps ONE to the right.

You may discuss if you wish, but would probably be better reading some of the points Ellis makes...to think about what we can do.

He said something very frightening. Without the balance of law and order, together with liberal or progressive thought to cancel the extremism from both, one or the other group will eventually become insane.

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Abstraction · 61-69, M

I agree that higher education has tended to lean left.

I'm not sure I agree on several points - but then I'm only responding to your summary:
1. That erosion of culture is primarily caused by radicalised education. I would point to the
a) polarisation of media - where media groups don't even pretend to be impartial any more.
b) Campaigns of misinformation - including international efforts to destroy the west by China, Russia, Saudis, etc. Did you know that there is a Russian journalist works for an American news agency and has created many conspiracies that are quoted all over the place on Twitter, Facebook etc? I can point you to him. He also writes for Sputnik in Russia.
c) Social media becoming the primary news source for many people - which amplifies misinformation because there is no accountable journalism.
d) Creation of stereotypes to hate and reinforcing those stereotypes constantly with often made-up stories: the idiotic Trump supporter. The feminazi. The extreme greenie. The welfare mothers... I don't know how many times I've checked out these stories and found them either to be false, or really be about a few unbalanced people but told as if all the right wing or left wing people agree with them.
e) Conspiracy theories. These are damaging because people discount verifiable information because they're sure they are being manipulated.

2. That the left-leaning education is a conspiracy of radicalisation - and that we are heading for a doomsday situation with it. What was his evidence that the radicalisation is there and that it is effective? People rarely change their political views.

3. The last point. No-one wants law and order abolished. If you've heard that this is the position of the left, it will be either a) b) c) d) or e) above at work. 'Defunding' (terrible term) - if that's what he's referring to - is not about abolishing law and order or police. It's about strengthening it and lowering crime based on what has proven to work. I'm happy to talk about that, it's really interesting. You're probably aware with your background that sometimes police are called to address situations that would be better addressed or prevented by other social programs. Then there are times you need armed police on the spot or God help us all.

4meAndyou · F

@Abstraction He did, in fact, mention the media as being part of the problem. I think he also mentioned several firings of conservative professors, intimidation, doxxing, threatening violence toward their family, and their own students surrounding them on campus and intimidating them, and also mentioned that their own Dean might fire them after sending an email instructing them to perform the firing offence...caving into the insanity and violence of the students. He mentioned that now, such conservatives can no longer be hired.

4meAndyou · F

@Abstraction One of the John Stuart Mill quotes he gave I do not recall in any degree of accuracy. I tried to find it...but paraphrasing, Mill wrote that without law and order balanced by progressive thought, one side without the other would become insane...and he said that is evident in the violence and the cancel culture we see today.

4meAndyou · F

John Stuart Mill: the Harm Principle was one of his sources:

"The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others."

Human Liberty

For Mill, human liberty covers three (or four) distinct areas:

1.Freedom of thought/ freedom of expression
2.Freedom of action, whereby those actions cause no harm to others
3.freedom of association, where such associations are freely formed and not for the purpose of harming others.

No society in which these liberties are not, on the whole, respected, is free, whatever may be its form of government; and none is completely free in which they do not exist absolute and unqualified. The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest . . ."

Abstraction · 61-69, M

@4meAndyou I agree with this, in essence. I don't think it's either left wing or right wing (obviously with the exception of extreme right such as facism or extreme left such as communism.) Social democracies would support these principles also.

I think the nuance is in things like requiring people to pay taxes and the like.

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Namor69 · 41-45, M

"Don't let the kids drink the kool-aid" ...another great book!! 👍

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