Liberals against academic freedom dominate Harvard

Gerard Baker:

TWENTY YEARS AGO the American philosopher, Allan Bloom, published a book called The Closing of the American Mind, a devastating indictment of the nation’s universities and, more broadly, of its cultural elites.

Its premise was that the spirit of openness, a willingness to consider ideas freely, the great virtue of American life and the guiding ethos of a university had been perverted into a cultural relativism. From the 1960s liberal philosophy had taken hold, defiantly asserting that truth was in the eye of the beholder, and that notions of absolute ideals or virtues were anachronistic. In this new world, liberal democracy was no better than totalitarian theocracy, Plato’s philosophy was no more valid than Marianne Faithfull’s and Mozart should be considered on the same terms as the Monkees.

The resignation of Larry Summers as President of Harvard University this week indicates that the closing of the American mind is a continuing process, remorselessly squeezing the light out of its academic enlightenment.

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There is much more. There is also this by Barry Casselman:

The resignation of Harvard President Lawrence Summers is only the most recent incident in the chronic decline of many of America's most prestigious colleges and universities. It has been a long process, perhaps beginning with the Vietnam War era when college campuses became the site of choice for many protests and radical political activity.
The issue of the war in Vietnam was fueled by profound changes in American life. A new generation which had been in its youth preceding and during World War II was taking political and economic charge. And another generation (born during and just after that war) was forming a new youth culture.
Of course, each generational transfer has its own character and circumstances. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was an unprecedented velocity of technological and economic change. That generation also knew only a state of world war, a circumstance we now narrate as the Cold War between Western democratic capitalism and Eastern totalitarian communism, a war fought mostly in the regions of the so-called Third World or in undeveloped nations in Africa, Asia and South America.
By the 1980s and 1990s, the velocity of technological, medical and social change became so rapid that the "modern" social contract no longer seemed to be enforceable. The revolt of the 1960s became normal standards as its youth took charge, in its turn, and a new youth generation appeared. A protracted world war that had begun in the 1930s against fascism and continued against totalitarian communism was abruptly ended.
The computer and the Internet indelibly altered contemporary life here and throughout the world. A state of "world cold war" was briefly succeeded by isolated global conflicts and localized problems. America became a sole superpower. Then a new world war against terrorism began.
While all of this was going on, America's educational system remained structurally the same. Yes, new discoveries were incorporated into curricula, and technological modifications were made. But the basic structures of primary, secondary and college education remained unchanged.
When the phenomenon of "political correctness" appeared, it not only was embraced by most of the nation's political, educational and cultural elite, but it soon became dominant in the education culture. This was most notable at the college and university level, where so many people who who were alienated from contemporary America life were drawn and found refuge in tenured sanctuary.

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There is more of this too.