For The American Mind, a publication of the Claremont Institute, aka “the Claremonsters,” Alexander Riley interviews controversial U. Penn law prof Amy Wax. She has some excellent insights, especially about the dysfunctions of academia, and why the emphasis is now on “feelings” instead of facts.
One way to think about what’s happening is feminization. Female priorities of harmony, of acceptance, of nurturance now hold sway over the so-called traditionally male priorities of truth-seeking, rationality, and evidence-based argumentation which was conducted with sportsmanlike civility, almost as in a game.
Ask women, even women within universities, “Do you think it’s more important that vulnerable people feel comfortable and safe, accepted, nurtured, included, or do you think it’s more important that people have free speech, untrammeled debate for the purpose of truth-seeking?” Twice as many women will say that the first priority trumps the second. With men, it’s absolutely the reverse. You can see in universities, especially in the parts of the universities that have become dominated demographically by female faculty, the shift in the priorities. Now it’s even happening in the sciences, which is really disturbing.
Both DrsC are glad we’re retired. We got out before the worst of this nonsense happened. Hat tip to RealClearPolitics for the link.
