Division of Labour: The Winter follows the Summer

January 27, 2005

The Winter follows the Summer

There is a chilling flip side to the assault on Larry Summers. No doubt the same people that attack Summers for raising probing questions don’t think twice about indoctrinating their students in the latest fashionable ideology. It has always been my strong belief that the college campus should be a forum in which the young and the old are free to test unpopular and novel ideas. However, I have been astonished lately by the willingness of my colleagues to use the power of the podium to advance their pet social agendas.

As an undergraduate student in the early 1960s in charge of inviting guest speakers for the economics club, invitations were extended to the entire range of the political spectrum, from the John Birch Society to the Communist Party. Moreover, all of these speakers were received without protest and were listened to politely. This was a much different time and a much different situation than exists on campuses today. By the end of the 1960s most campuses became radicalized. While the nominal purpose of the radical movements was to open up debate on campuses, the real effect was to drown out less popular ideas. And those ideas that were most often threatened were those in defense of private markets.

Hayek argues that liberals believe good government depends on good people. If government is bad it must be that bad people have somehow taken control. It is a surprisingly simplistic view of the world, adopted by many who consider themselves ponderous intellectuals. It contrasts strongly with that of conservatives, who are willing to accept people as they are. Conservatives put their faith in the system rather than individuals. That may sound strange, because we are always told that it is the liberals who emphasize social forces and it is the conservatives who emphasize the individual.

It is because liberals put their faith in individuals to form a more perfect government that they must monitor individual imperfections. It is of crucial importance that these imperfections be rooted out, whether by shouting down offending ideas or by a more pernicious trip to the gulag. The liberal ideology is incompatible with open debate. The only purpose of open debate as Larry Summers now knows is to root out those with offending ideas. It is to label those who want to limit the federal intrusion into women’s rights misogynists and those in favor of equal opportunity racists. To take a judicial nominee like Charles Pickering who stood up to the Klan and label him a racist, can only be justified if the ends trump the means. With the rise of the liberal domination of campuses it is no wonder that debate has been reduced to ad hominem attacks and one-sided presentations.

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