Yes, it’s a terrible move for U.C. Irvine. And Leo’s right about the rest, too. I would certainly hope that left-leaning academics would support someone on the right who was treated similarly.
Yeah, except you and I and most everybody else knows damned well they wouldn’t, and so calls for the right to do what the left would never, ever dream of doing - that is, support the intellectual freedom of a conservative - end up ringing hollow. After a few decades of turning the other cheek and showing how high-minded you are, and getting kicked in the teeth for it, you begin to wonder why you bother. And even though, theoretically, you know you should because by your own standards it’s the right thing to do, doing the right thing tends to lose its attractiveness.
Thus does leftist hypocrisy degrade everything it touches.
I personally wouldn’t lift a finger to help Chemerinsky. The meta project of leftist intellectualism is to grab total control of academia, and in service to that cause they’ve trampled every intellectual standard of freedom they claim they support. They can go to hell, and take Chemerinsky with them. I count his firing as a victory for intellectual freedom in the larger sense, just as I would count Stalin being unfairly fired for sexual harassment the same way.
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I feel the same way. I’m a bit amazed that Horowitz is making so much noise about this, given his deep understanding of the tactics of the left (particularly Alinsky). I wouldn’t hire a politically-minded leftist to mow my lawn, much less acquiesce to one running a new law school.
Bill, you’ve got it exactly right. Screw these Stalinists and their enablers. I’ll start worrying about their intellectual freedom when the ratio of dem to rep donations is less than 2:1, rather than the 49:1 as current!
Sorry Bill, I have to part with you on this one. When we abandon our principles, we turn into the other side.
As corny as this sounds, I remember a line from Batman Begins:
Dukat - “Compassion is a trait your enemies will not share.”
Bruce - “That’s why it’s so important; it distinguishes us from them.”
Irvine is having its day in the sun. Those country bumpkins are basking in the glow of the notoriety. They made the NYT, for God’s sake !!!
Since this whole thing started they’ve received over 2,000 applications for faculty and staff. Mtv, the OC, Laguna Beach….everyone wants to move there, not to mention the free housing given to all new faculty courtesy of The Irvine Co. ie….Donald Bren.
Trust me, UCI isn’t hurting. They’re loving every moment of this kind of publicity, which even Mtv couldn’t buy !
It doesn’t matter who runs that school. When have you ever known of a school backed by the initials UC to fail?
Russ is right.
I wouldn’t put much effort into rehiring Chemerinsky either. But I would support firing the UCI Chancellor for being incompetent enough to cause this whole fiasco in the first place.
Hiring someone to run a law school isn’t like hiring someone to haul away some yard waste. You’re making a long-term committment (it would be a pretty bad place for a revolving door position). Anything in his background important enough to fire him over ought to be researched before making the offer.
But then perhaps I’m overqualified to run a major university.
Well, maybe so, maybe not. If you display compassion for your enemies, and as a result, you become an extinct footnote in history, are you a dumbass, or not?
I’m still fond of my analogy: Chemerinsky, who has battled against academic freedom, indeed, First Amendment freedom, for conservatives his entire career, seems an unlikely candidate to plead for mercy from those he would be just as happy to extirpate. If Stalin had been removed from Soviet politics due to means that those he slaughtered might have found improper, is the larger politics and ethical environment improved, or lessened?
I’ll stand with my initial take.
Because its the right thing to do?
The future of education is not bricks and mortar.
Let the fossils die quietly.
Doing the right thing never loses its attractiveness, and leftist hypocrisy won’t degrade conservative values because conservatives won’t allow it to.
Leftists may well gain complete control of the academy, but if they do the academy will cease to matter and it will be replaced by some other institution(s). The academy is not the prize. Our values are.
Given his political leanings, UC Irvine shouldn’t have made the offer to Chemerinsky. However, given that the offer was made, it should be honored. Part of the right’s value system is honor, and it does more good to demonstrate to young people whose values may not be fully formed that the right actually lives by its values, as well as those which both sides support (such as academic freedom).
The Chancellor, by his actions, is not just doing damage to the reputation of UC Irvine, he’s also doing damage to reputation of the Right. By hiring a candidate who is unacceptable for whatever reason, he’s showing himself to be stupid, which only reflects badly on himself, and possibly his institution; by withdrawing the offer after it was made, for a political reason, he’s showing the right to be dishonorable.
Sorry, this is wishful thinking so laden with wishfulness that it
borders on bullshit.
The single biggest threat to conservative values is that leftists complete their long march to take complete control of the academy. The damage they have already wrought in partially accomplishing that endeavor is well nigh incalculable.
Hm. Judging by the sudden spurt of activity, I must have gotten an Instalanche here.
(….)
Yep. Thanks, Glenn, and welcome, Instapunditeers! Hang around and get your blood pressure raised! BTW, I don’t think Glenn is “hopelessly naive,” I just don’t think he can cite very many instances where the left side of the spectrum has marshaled itself in support of academic freedom and speech rights for conservatives.
“the academy will cease to matter” I think not. We have credentialitis here in the US. Many employers use a sheepskin as a proxy for actually evaluating an employee and or checking their references. Jobs which should require no more than a two year degree require a BA.
Think of no conservative being able to be employed in any job where a college degree is required. That is the leftists desired end state.
“The single biggest threat to conservative values is that leftists complete their long march to take complete control of the academy.”
No, the biggest threat to conservative values is that we will degrade ourselves and take the quick and dirty path to reach our goals. Honor and integrity aren’t things we can toss aside temporarily on the vain belief that we’ll get it back once we’ve won. As for suffering extinction at the hands our enemies if we show compassion, give me a break. Liberals aren’t the “enemy.” They aren’t out to kill us.
I hate to say this, but I stand with you. So far our “fairness” has allowed conservatives and libertarians to become completely extinct (or very deep under cover) in the media, arts and education. This allows the CRIMINALLY insane ideas of central planning to infect generation after generation. Not to mention it might undermine the west in — literaly — the fight of our lives. Sorry, guys, but in this case our fairness means we go in and fight by Marquis de Queensberry rules while the other guy is brandishing a broken bottle. I know on whom I’d bet in this fight. Don’t you?
P.
Hey, I didn’t get a harrumph out of that guy.
It’s not compassion that distinguishes us, it’s the willingness to argue a point, and general belief in the abilities and rights of an individual to think and act for himself. Leftists try to capture media and education, so as to “frame the debate”. As a group are they are enemies of Socratic debate and reason — and so they will eventually find themselves at odds with civilization itself.
This is one of those posts that makes me think of the late Sam Kinison in “Back to School” telling Rodney Dangerfield, “I like the way you think. I’m gonna keep my eye on you.” Well stated.
Keep in mind folks, that some of the loudest harping about this episode is coming from people like Hugh Hewitt, who is employed by Chapman Law School, which is in Orange County. Hewitt would want nothing more than for UCI to have a leftist ideologue as the new UCI law dean. Better for Chapman that they wouldn’t have to compete for donors in conservative Orange County. One of Chapman’s biggest donors is Argyos (former ambassador), who is very rich and very conservative. UCI has been working on guys like Argyos for a long time and a conservative law school may finally get his attention.
Same goes for Stephen Bainbridge of UCLA Law School. These guys can “take the high road” while promoting their own underhanded interests.
I think Hugh and Stephen are good people, but I’d consider their interests in this situation as well.
Mrs. Weiss (#4),
“Country bumpkins”? Please don’t insult rural folk that way. There may be a few people in the “horsey set” in Irvine, but most of the city suffers from way too much central planning. The street system confounds casual exploration, and there seems to be little possibility for unplanned contacts or friendships between people in the commercial, university and upscale residential areas. Hard to imagine an off-brand gas station there.
I was happy working there, but I was far more comfortable in any of the older nearby communities when I was on my own time, whether in the lowest-rent districts or the unbelievably expensive beachfront areas. I was grateful for the occasional intrusions into Irvine of skunks from the Back Bay. Made the place seem less sterile.
I can’t think of a better location for the establishment of a centrally-planned, elitist, socialist law school. And there have been past reports of some rather ugly actions by the university’s Muslim activist organization(s). A new leftist law school might have a ready-made client base. Wonder if it will happen after all the attention this kerfuffle has brought to the frequent ideological totalitarianism of the University Left?
He’d probably say the conservative was a fundamentalist… ergo dangerous to freedom… needs to go… blaw blaw blaw….
Chemerinsky is a walking message ad for the fact that hate speech, and more general university speech, codes are one way streets… if they weren’t, they’d be used to shut him down…
Whatever. Based on Drake’s statements it’s apparent that the end result will be either Drake resigning and his replacement installing a leftist in the position or Drake not resigning and installing a leftist in that position. In fact, in order to make sure that all lingering doubt about this is gone, I’d be surprised if the faculty is not purposely heavily biased to the left just to be sure.
This episode isn’t about Chemerinski, it’s about what an idiot Drake is.
I happen to believe there is opportunity outside a degree.
The fact that I’m a non-degreed aerospace engineer may have something to do with it.
To say there is no alternative to the education industry is crazy. The alternatives are small. But so was home schooling once.
Let me add that the only sustainable victory is a moral victory. Which is why morale is so important in a war.
Once you lose your morality, morale is not far behind.
In any case taking on the academy toe to to is stupid except as a holding action. Their power is credentialism. So our struggle is not for this or that post or x number of tenured professors. Nope. What we need to do is end total support for credentialism. We can start with supporting graduates of on line universities.
Home schooling leads the way.
Oh no? When George Soros, one of the richest people on the planet (who happens to own the Democrat party in fee simple) talks about how the US needs to be de-Nazified, he and his associates become MY enemy.