Replies

Another Sociology Professor.

When I was in college, I took a sociology course, and thought it was interesting. A book we had to read for the course was “Walden II”. I found it interesting. Everything was so ordered and precise. That kind of structured...everything...was appealing to me. Planned townships...buildings...roads...all planned with each other and efficiency in mind...it was attractive in the orderliness of it.

But the professor was problematic. Not in his political views (which I don’t recall him speaking out on) but in his views about teaching.

He would get extremely depressed if the class wasn’t engaged, to the point it was uncomfortable to see. I went up to him after class one day and asked if he had ever given thought to getting into a different line of work, and he said...yes.

I forgot about the class, but as I got older, I began to think about that class, and that book, Walden II. And when I do, I feel pangs of anger. I have always been conservative, even as a little kid I rejoiced when Hubert Humphrey was defeated (Though I know that to many, Nixon was not great shakes as a conservative)

But there was something about the insidiousness of that course and that book (Walden II) that they presented all those clean, orderly things in a sterile environment where everyone was reasonable, nobody shirked work or got paid more or less than they “deserved”, all the kids were raised by a community effort to the exclusion of the biological parents...and everything just worked great!

I look at it now, and it makes me feel a little sick to realize I had completely missed what that whole book and the course with class projects about planned cities...

...and government...

...and enconomy.

I had missed what that whole course was really all about, I was so focused on planning things efficiently for my project “town” that I missed all the tyranny inherent in it.

So when I see these kinds of news articles, it never surprises me when it is Sociology professors.