Posted on 12/03/2004 8:17:38 AM PST by bondserv
The Politics of Academic Scientists: Democrats Vastly Outnumber Republicans 12/02/2004
A news item in Science1 entitled “Academia as a ‘One Party’ will probably attract the attention conservative talk show hosts:
Universities in the United States are very keen on fostering “diversity” as long as it’s not ideological diversity, according to the National Association of Scholars (NAS), a conservative group of academics. Last year NAS surveyed members of scholarly societies in six fields in the social sciences, asking which political party they identified with. About 30% of the 5486 people polled responded; of these, 80% were Democrats. Economist Daniel B. Klein of Santa Clara University in California and Charlotta Stern of the Institute for Social Research in Stockholm, Sweden, conclude that because the prevalence of Democrats was even higher among younger academics, it appears that “lopsidedness has become more extreme over the past decades, and ... unless we believe that current professors occasionally mature into Republicans, it will become even more extreme in the future.”The ratios of Democrats to Republicans varied from 3 to 1 in Economics to 30 to 1 in Anthropology, with Political Science, History, Philosophy and Sociology scaling in between.2 Surprising as it may seem, it appears that Republicans are an endangered species on college campuses.
“The ‘one-party campus’ is a problem irrespective of what one’s own views happen to be,” the authors warn. (Klein says Stern is a liberal and he himself is a libertarian.) They suggest that measures could be taken--such as “proportional voting on curriculum and hiring decisions”--to enable political minority voices to be heard. (Emphasis added in all quotes.)
A ratio of even 2 to 1 is deadly to the minority. A ratio of 5 to 1 means marginalization. Someone of a minority viewpoint is dependent frequently on the cooperation of her departmental colleagues for many small considerations. Lopsidedness means that dissenters are avoided or expelled, and that any who survive are very unlikely to be vocal critics of the dominant viewpoints.
These facts are inherently important. Academia is a major part of the political culture; it profoundly influences how tens of millions of Americans will understand social affairs and, indeed, their own personal selfhood. The next step, then, is full awareness. All interested parties—students, parents, taxpayers, and the faculty themselves—should become aware of the facts.
Here is our long-sought data to corroborate what we declared was intuitively obvious back on 09/22/2003: the Darwin Party is virtually synonymous with the Democratic Party, most of whom are liberals, secularists and socialists. Who are the ones writing all those Darwinian just-so stories in the science journals? Are they the neutral, objective, unbiased scientists in lab coats? Do they represent the cross-section of American culture, values, and ideals? No: they are the same ones protesting the war against terrorism, voting for same-sex marriage, standing silent as courts trump the will of the people, and loathing the military. Since Republicans are more likely to hold conservative family values, attend church, believe in God and oppose abortion, this should make the light finally go on about the connection between Darwinism and secular liberalism, and make academics question whether Darwinian evolution is strictly a scientific issue. It’s also alarming to note the rise in anti-Semitism on college campuses, as Palestinian terrorists are given a pass while Israelite actions for their own defense are painted in the vilest terms. Notice also how the liberal academics also see the U.N. as the solution to all problems and castigate America for not taking action global warming. Are these mere coincidences? Do you begin to suspect that on some issues political idealogues are co-opting “science” to rationalize their world views?
Whatever the cause, and whatever it means, the political situation on American campuses is severely broken and needs “affirmative action” in the best sense of the phrase. How ironic that the party that parades its values of inclusiveness, diversity and tolerance should have such a wildly one-sided political spectrum in the very institution that is supposed to represent the open marketplace of ideas. These statistics should alarm Democrats as well as Republicans; imagine Congress with ratios like these, and the laws they could pass to perpetuate their dominance and suppress dissent. No one should stand for this kind of inequity in academia. We suspect that if parity is ever achieved, the Darwin Party will lose its hubris and be forced to get off the sofa (see 12/22/2003 commentary) and do real science. If that happens, Darwinism is doomed.
therein lies the problem.............
;^)
Most "scientists" are bottle washers and button sorters.
Robert Heinlein
A short perusal of the site that originated this thread, should leave no room for someone to think anything but that most folks in the Education Establishment are "boxing their clown". :o)
I like that one.
There are some really good scientists, but unfortunately they are few and far between.
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