> One of the great puzzles of American society is the position of the Ivy League. It is a bastion of privilege and power, and yet full of left-leaning professor

> One of the great puzzles of American society is the position of the Ivy League. It is a bastion of privilege and power, and yet full of left-leaning professors who one might imagine would favor the redistribution of wealth. Re-imagining social norms -- not a conservative predisposition -- has nothing to do with redistributing wealth. It is precisely the requirement for a shared mindset, or a demonstration of willingness to adhere to ideological dogma, that requires generational and selective admission. As the re-imaginings take to greater heights of fancy, the distance from the non-indoctrinated society at large (which generally feels and thinks via principles and not ideology) increases and this requires and motivates a greater degree of insularity by an establishment. It is certainly true that some children of the ideologically and/or culturally "unwashed" masses will arrive at the 'acceptable' socio-economic conclusion (due to their superior intellect) -- whether they acknowledge this consciously is not germinal -- but the risk to an establishment (regardless of their leaning on the fabled 1 dimensional L/R spectrum) to an 'open admissions and integration' policy are simply too great.