
Conservatives and higher ed - jseliger
http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Conservatives---higher-ed-7920
======
barsonme
Speaking as a conservative (albeit a fairly moderate conservative) I found
this article to incredibly easy to agree with and on-point. Perhaps I wouldn't
be able to say the same if I were left-of-center.

Because I'm college-aged, I ran through my close friends (equal parts liberal
and conservative) and sorted through them by their future careers:

Lawyers: only one self-identifies as liberal, Economics: zero self-identify as
liberal, Politics (including teaching): zero self-identify as liberal,

while:

HR & related: zero self-identify as conservative, Social work: zero self-
identify as conservative, Art & design: one self-identifies as a conservative.

It's a clear dichotomy between the ideologies, and the author really explains
it perfectly when he says that conservatives prefer what's "concrete".

Honestly, we need more political diversity in _all_ fields. Even though I
self-identify as conservative, we need more liberals in economics and more
conservatives in the social sciences.

Liberals have made great headway in areas like same-sex marriage, and that's a
good thing. Conservatives can take a lot of credit for building strong
economic foundations (because of or in spite of government regulation). But by
having such a stark difference between the two styles of thinking and letting
that carry over to academia and career choices it only inhibits both
ideologies' advancements.

~~~
dragonwriter
Outside of your circle of close friends, there's not really a shortage of
liberal economists even if the field might skew somewhat conservative
(likewise, though you may have no self-identifying-as-liberal close friends
planning to go into politics/teaching, neither of those fields is particularly
short of liberals, and same with lawyers).

> Honestly, we need more political diversity in all fields.

Why? Particularly, why shouldn't _what people value_ have a very real
relationship to _what they choose to do with their life_?

> we need more liberals in economics and more conservatives in the social
> sciences.

Economics _is_ a social science. And, frankly, I think we need more
_scientists_ in the social sciences (incl. economics) and fewer ideologues of
any stripe (not fewer people that _have_ an ideology, that would be nonsense,
but fewer that pursue the field with an axe to grind for an ideology.)

> Liberals have made great headway in areas like same-sex marriage, and that's
> a good thing. Conservatives can take a lot of credit for building strong
> economic foundations

I think that the case for the former belonging to "liberals" is a lot stronger
than the case for that latter belonging to "conservatives".

> But by having such a stark difference between the two styles of thinking and
> letting that carry over to academia and career choices it only inhibits both
> ideologies' advancements.

What's the alternative? Ideological quotas in professions? How do you enforce
it?

~~~
barsonme
> Why? Particularly, why shouldn't what people value have a very real
> relationship to what they choose to do with their life?

Yes. We should push the youth to want to do what they love, but also let them
know other options exist. It shouldn't be weird for a conservative to want to
be a social worker.

> Economics is a social science. And, frankly, I think we need more scientists
> in the social sciences (incl. economics) and fewer ideologues of any stripe
> (not fewer people that have an ideology, that would be nonsense, but fewer
> that pursue the field with an axe to grind for an ideology.)

Sorry... I think you know what I was getting at though. And I agree we do,
although I believe the article was about those who _have_ an ideology versus
those who wear it on their sleeve.

> I think that the case for the former belonging to "liberals" is a lot
> stronger than the case for that latter belonging to "conservatives".

Could be. It really depends how you look at it. FWIW it's more common for
business owners to lean conservative, if only fiscally.

> What's the alternative? Ideological quotas in professions? How do you
> enforce it?

You don't. It's a cultural thing, not something you can (or should) ever
enforce.

