Who is More Dangerous to Young Minds

The conservatives are angry that so many universities have a liberal leaning faculty. Now the sciences, the maths, the business courses, medicine are probably attracting realists going to school so that they can enjoy a higher income. The problem, as the conservatives see it, is in the "liberal arts" fields - the literatures, the philosophy departments, sociology, history departments. The people who teach these courses and the people who choose to go into these fields are probably idealists. As such, money may not be their main motive and ipso facto few conservatives are in these fields (except for potential lawyers). The graduates are stuck with degrees that are useless unless they teach, enter the "helping" professions, or write - all occupations that spread liberal ideas. No wonder the right wants it stopped.

Now lets look into the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary definitions of liberal and conservative. A "liberal" is defined as "one who is open minded or not strict in the observance of orthodox, traditional, or established forms or ways". Liberalism is defined as "a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties." A conservative is "one who holds to traditional views." Conservatism is "a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and prefering gradual development to abrupt change."

To summarize, we have two choices: Those who say "We can do better" or those that say "we are the best". Those who want more liberty and those who want less and more order.

I have two little complaint stories about conservative teachers and I am sure conservatives have complaint stories about liberals. For most of last year, I volunteered at the school library. The librarian was hard right and bought personal books with school money, but that type of dishonesty wasn't why I quit. She bought absolutely no books on the environment and discarded the ones that were already on the shelf and bought crap like Bible stories, William Bennett, and Dobson books.

When I was a senior in high school, we had a Civics class (called Present Day Problems) taught by a charismatic coach. All the girls were in love with him and one girl would even "faint" regularly because he would carry her out of the room and she enjoyed being held in his arms. As a textbook, he used the book The Naked Communist. I found out later that this was published by the John Birch Society.