The problem is that academics think that academic freedom, a great institution, by the way, extends out into society as a whole. The less realistic of the bunch are thoroughly surprised when their more ridiculous statements are excoriated by those whom they consider to be unwashed, unsophisticated, and unintelligent.
As a result, bugaboos and goblins are seen everywhere. Wolf packs, conspiracies, etc., must abound since, naturally, their thinking is always correct. After all, aren't they the best and the brightest, the A-students?
The arrogance is unbelievable.
I know a few. In fact, a good friend is the head of the Political Science department of a major university. He's a right-winger, too, but he's also insufferably arrogant, a fact of which I often remind him. The cocoon created by tenure and academic freedom, though necessary for proper scholarship, creates arrogance at the same time as it is mistaken to extend beyond the campus walls. The responses to criticism on the part of the unwashed are also often predictable--the whining, the suggestions that they are being censored, yada, yada, yada.
Makes me wanna puke. |
