Anti-intellectial liberalism

This is an interesting article on the liberal environment on college campuses.

The problem is that the simple trappings of deliberation make academics think that they've reached an opinion through reasoned debate -- instead of, in part, through an irrational social dynamic. The opinion takes on the status of a norm. Extreme views appear to be logical extensions of principles that everyone more or less shares, and extremists gain a larger influence than their numbers merit. If participants left the enclave, their beliefs would moderate, and they would be more open to the beliefs of others. But with the conferences, quarterlies, and committee meetings suffused with extreme positions, they're stuck with abiding by the convictions of their most passionate brethren.

At a recent colloqium here in the physics department a speaker mentioned before beginning his talk of how scary election tuesday was and, not to my surprise, he he recieved a large amount of laughter from the audience. I wanted to pipe up with "Well, it could have been even scarier, John Kerry could have been elected" but, of course, I would have been flayed alive for that comment so I kept quiet.