It’s being asked of Hollywood, so now I ask it about that other supposed hotbed of liberals, higher education. We’re always hearing how leftist American colleges and universities are (or, perhaps more precisely put, the faculty and staff at those institutions). Is this true, and if so, why?
The only answer I’ve heard to this question is that during the Vietnam War all the liberals went to the universities so that they wouldn’t get drafted. Surely it’s not as simple as that? What is it about higher education that attracts so many liberals?
How about the influence of religion? Can we say that there is a negative correlation between fundamentalist/evangelical religious people and higher education?
I think we can safely say that the fundamentalists learn very much to the right. If we can say that the more education a person has, the more likely they are NOT to be fundamentalist, then perhaps that might partially explain it.
I don’t know, but there do exist fundamentalist and/or evangelical institutions of higher education (as well as institutions run by other denominations). Perhaps once you filter out all the people who choose to attend or teach at such institutions, there are fewer religious people at secular schools.
Back to the OP: I think one factor is that many academic disciplines stress critical thinking, questioning authority, and (if you want to get noticed/published) finding new slants or theories and challenging established views. The “challenge authority” mindset is more liberal than conservative.
It may also be self-perpetuating: liberals attract more liberals and make conservatives feel unwelcome.
I’m sure it depends on higher education in what. My perception is that engineering is rife with conservatives and psychology, for example, tends liberal. I also think that higher education in general exposes one to a variety of ideas, broadening one’s perspective (roughly consistent with the theory I suggested for why actors would tend to the left, if they do).
As I understand it, Science, Math and Engineering(I supossed buiness degrees as well) tend to be more conservative dominated, while liberals tend to be more into things that are more artistic and creative.
Assuming that’s true, why is there that distinction?
Granted I went to college and grad school in the mid 60’s and I went to FSU but------
I don’t remember any liberal professors.
All I ever remember were super conservative profs (with tenure–so they could say any damned thing they pleased even off subject without fear)
One guy, who was teaching a French Lit class, loved to get off subject and tell us all that ---------there was no possibility of 6 million Jews exterminated in WW2, because he had personally visited the gas chambers in Germany ---------and there was nowhere near enough capacity to accomplish even close to that.
He also told us about how he hated the “singes”======French for monkey---------equaled black people in his mind. Could go on for hours about how the"singes" were destroying modern civilization.
“Liberal professors?”
Not in my experience. Bunch of loony tune conservative profs.
I think religion is one key part, as **Dalej42 **pointed out. Academics tend to be less religious because they are interested in questions that can be answered by reason and empirical study rather than faith. In our secular western world, religion is usually separated from academic study (and has been since the enlightenment, so it’s unlikely that this is a side effect).
Also, the academy doesn’t pay all that well (comparatively). Wealth correlates with conservatism, so it makes sense that when you compare professors and i-bankers, you find more Democrats in the former and fewer in the latter. The ivory tower also functions as a refuge from the corporate, profit-driven world–which is more likely to attract people fleeing from the distasteful parts of that world.
Finally, education has historically correlated with having more progressive views. Why there is this connection, and which is the cause of which, is a deeper question. I suspect that it has something to do with liberals being more interested in answering life’s big questions, and conservatives being more interested in the realpolitik of everyday living.
It’s quite simple really. What’s the first thing you think of when you see the word “radical”?
If you said “out there,” or “extreme,” or “liberal” or “fundamentalist” or something to that effect, congratulations. You’ve been suckered in by the general anti-education thinking in America. “Radical” originally meant “getting to the root of” (hence, one used to be able to say that 3 is radical 9). What is education if not getting to the root of all the varied and sundry phenomena we see around us? Getting down to the truth of things means getting past everything we know up until that point, and that means being progressive. That is why those in and around facilities of higher education are “radical.”
I can’t beleive I’m getting suckered into this debate, but what the heck…
Except the fact that the original meaning of “radical” is, well, meaningless. People don’t use it that way anymore. Besides, one can be a radical rightist as well as a radical leftist. Double besides, progressive does not mean getting to the truth. You just defined your way into your answer, ignoring that you are using two words differently than the vast majoirty of the population.
As for the OP, may I suggest a narrowing of focus. Let’s look at some smaller segement of adademia. Maybe the to 25 schools in the country. Pick your way of ranking them, then let’s get some data on the faculty. So far, we’er all just guessing.
My guess (if its even true…I actually agree with Hentor that it depends on the subject from my own college experiences) would be that folks of a more ‘conservative’ bent tend to go into private industry, while folks of a more ‘liberal’ bent enjoy the ivory tower world of higher education.
Be intersting if someone took this on…especially if we could then break it down somehow by subject taught.
I was in the physical sciences at the University of Maryland in the 1990’s. I don’t even know what the political opinions of most of my professors were- that subject just never came up in science classes.
One reason is that many academics depend directly on government funding for their success. Successful grant writing is a fact of life for faculty that want to be successful and that involves asking for a handout (usually from the government). Budget cuts in general are something to be feared because if the supply of grants in their area of research are reduced, that threatens their livliehood directly. Conservative philosophy can be considered an implicit threat to people in some academic areas. Besides grants directly related to the person’s research, they may also feel passionate about an area (art, mental health) that they want the government to become more involved in.
I agree with dalej42’s assessment above, as unpopular as such assertions are in today’s quasi-religious, political climate. In my experience, as well as those of many of my peers, there seems to be close to a direct inverse proportion of those with advanced degrees who lean left to those with non-secularist degrees or little higher education who lean right. No cite(s) for my admittedly personal perspective at the moment…but shortly.
I believe it’s a little more than that actually, Thuddy. I think higher education, if education is truly what it is, as opposed to simple indoctrination, is a process that widens one’s perspectives and as such opens one up to the potential of the understanding of concepts that help explain the whys and wherefores of…well…everything. The resulting clarity further promotes critical thinking which leads even further into examination, investigation, invention, etc…, which tend to be secularist principles…hence left-leaning.
Conservatism tends to promote a conformist ideology, presenting solutions that reward those who adhere to long-established and therefore believed immutable precepts: Fire Hot, Homosexuality Evil, God Creator, etc… Critical thinking is encouraged only inasmuch as it serves to advance conformity to the set palette of precepts.
So, though I agree with much of what you stated, I feel it’s not liberals who make conservatives feel unwelcome, but the conservative’s inability to relate to the world outside their personal doctrine that helps to foment the discomfiture they experience.
Although it’s worth pointing out that the “liberal” in “liberal arts” doesn’t have the same meaning as “liberal” defining the left-leaning political-social orientation.
Originally, the “liberal arts” consisted of grammar, rhetoric, dialectic (logic), arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. (Notice the math and science there?) The meaning of the term has evolved, but as it’s used nowadays, it still sometimes includes math and sciences—just not professional or occupational training.
Well, many colleges/universities have a Department of Religion (or Religious Studies). But not all who study/teach religion are, themselves, religious; and those who are (at least at secular or nondenominational schools) tend, I think, toward the liberal side of their religion.
(Keep in mind that religious does not equal conservative, however much the religious conservatives want you to think so.)
That’s a good point. I hadn’t thought of it before, but you may be onto something here!