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May
29
Jacob Levin over at The Sample Gates writes about a new professorship at the University of Colorado Boulder — a “professor of conservative thought.”
Having heard this, any jokes I could make about UC Boulder suddenly seem inadequate. So great is the political bent on their campus that they are thinking about hiring a Professor of Conservative Thought. This is not someone in perhaps their Economics or political science department who teaches a subject and is in fact conservative, but rather someone whose job it is to think conservatively.
It will be very important for the professor of conservative thought to be granted immunity from the various university speech codes and other academic restraints designed to limit thought and debate since it is likely that every weapon available in the arsenal to silence dissent will be used against this professor.
While conservatism on campus is a rare thing, students can still learn to be conservative by virtue of exposure to their liberal professors who often become negative examples. Observing liberalism in operation in America — just look at the top two liberal cities in America — is enough to send someone searching on their own for an alternative philosophy that works in the real world.
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6 Responses to “Professor of Conservative Thought”
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As a recovering liberal, I can add a little insight into their thinking on this one. Liberals love to pretend like they are great philosophers when they indeed do stifle debate.
Some liberals do realize what they are doing though and immediately try to undo that by offering an alternative viewpoint… often from a person with some pretty big flaws of his own… notice that they won’t make honorary professors out of famous conservatives, they’re essentially picking an average conservative Joe who supposedly is going to be the balance for the entire school.
It’s actually not a bad sign though. When I became a conservative… I didn’t really become a conservative. I’m still a liberal at heart, but I’ve embraced the “open minded philosophy” this school is professing and came to VERY different conclusions than my liberal comrades.
I came to the conclusion that Conservatives were actually… right.
Most of the time.
Maybe this professor of Conservative Thought is just a starting point… maybe the school is in the infant stages of an ideological shift.
(And then again… maybe not)
Hi Kevin,
Very insightful.
I suspect there are many recovering liberals out there — it’s never a sudden process (at least not for anyone I know) that changes ones political viewpoint. And, I assume that most liberals are liberal for all of the right reasons. They are seeking justice, equality, freedom and a better life. Unfortunately, liberalism can’t provide this if the lessons from history are to be remembered.
I probably wouldn’t be somewhat conservative today if I hadn’t been exposed to liberal thinking in college. Some of it comes from being young and uncertain about ones future. The thought of a “safety net” is always a great thing when the future is uncertain and when someone is just starting off on their journey through life.
While I’m not hard-core conservative — I’m more of a libertarian at heart — I do see that it ends up being a better system than liberalism because conservativism is the system that mirrors the way that most people learn to be self-sufficient in their own lives.
Liberalism can be compared to parents letting their kid live at home for many years after graduation from college — all of the parental compassion ends up running the risk of limiting the child’s overall quality of life. In its worst forms, liberalism allows the state to take control of the lives of others because it becomes so entangled in the daily lives of its constituents. When the government provides all, it can also deny all to those it doesn’t like.
No government is ever going to be caring and really concerned about any individual, despite all of the rhetoric because there is no way that a government bureaucracy can ever really care about its constituents. Despite its stated intentions, government bureaucracies end up existing to expand and capture more power and funding.
Liberals at heart are seeking love and compassion. Unfortunately, government bureaucracies can never provide what the liberals are looking for.
[...] Professor of Conservative Thought [...]
Some great thoughts in the post and discussion hereafter. I have a feeling they might find a “closet” liberal to represent conservative thought as he (or she) has learned it from a textbook
Hi Dan,
It will be interesting to see how it turns out for the school. It’s interesting that they have to create a special position for a (rare?) conservative professor.
Thanks to the article, Now there is more reason to comment than ever before! Everyone should participate. I am incorporating what your wrote to our project!