Politically Correct Coup
According to Alan Dershowitz, Larry Summers was run out at Harvard for all the wrong reasons. Here’s a glimpse into what happened:
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which forced Summers’ resignation by voting a lack of confidence in him last March and threatening to do so again on Feb. 28, is only one component of Harvard University and is hardly representative of widespread attitudes on the campus toward Summers. The graduate faculties, the students, and the alumni generally supported Summers for his many accomplishments. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences includes, in general, some of the most radical, hard-left elements within Harvard’s diverse constituencies. And let there be no mistake about the origin of Summers’ problem with that particular faculty: It started as a hard left-center conflict. Summers committed the cardinal sin against the academic hard left: He expressed politically incorrect views regarding gender, race, religion, sexual preference, and the military.
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In the minds of at least some vocal members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, expressing such politically incorrect views is the academic equivalent of provoking Islamic extremists by depicting Prophet Mohammed in a political cartoon. Radical academics do not, of course, burn down buildings, at least not since the 1970s. Instead they introduce motions of no confidence and demand resignations of those who offend their sensibilities (while insisting on complete freedom of speech for those with whom they agree, free speech for me but not for thee!).
It seems to me that free speech for only some of the people or only some of the times isn’t much like the free speech of decades gone by. Still, that’s exactly what’s happening these days on college campuses.
This is yet another indicator of the mental vacuity of the far left professors of the world. It’s a shame that only a handful of radicals can set policy at what once was the premier university in America.
How the mighty have fallen.
Cross-post at LetFreedomRing