4 ms·

Haven't universities been like this for ages? I seem to remember stuff about the hippies and vietnam protests and so on. To my understanding, social progress ha

Haven't universities been like this for ages? I seem to remember stuff about the hippies and vietnam protests and so on. To my understanding, social progress has been the province of the young for decades if not longer, as it has been the province of the not so young to wring their hands about it.

prudhvid 5y ago
Yes, younger generations are more progressive, and is a good thing. However, silencing diversity of thought is really not a good scientific attitude
Lamad123 5y ago
Universities (Western ones at least) have always been like this since the foundation of the University of Bologna in 1988 whose curriculum included a certain amount of "saracenic education" in a very anti-saracenic environment!!
- greendave 5y ago
  Err.. that’d be 1088. Saracenic education in 1988 would’ve been quite something, I’ll wager!
Jensson 5y ago
Difference is that those hippies now grew up and run the universities.
kragen 5y ago
Social progress is the opposite of censorship; that about-face is what the article is about.
PerkinWarwick 5y ago
>Haven't universities been like this for ages? I can honestly say that when I went to college people were essentially apolitical. I don't remember anything you might view as a campus protest and the biggest fuss on the main mall were students arguing with a rather obnoxious Pentecostal preacher who showed up every year. (in case you all aren't familiar with him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Jed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Jed )
- UncleMeat 5y ago
  I think you'll find if you spend time on universities today, they are essentially apolitical. And I strongly suspect that if you looked for articles written when you attended school, you'd find people complaining in various directions. The difference is whether you are just going to class or getting your news through articles filtered through social media and link aggregators.
  - PerkinWarwick 5y ago
    >I think you'll find if you spend time on universities today, they are essentially apolitical. An interesting experiment would be to compare English Department reading lists in the 1970's vs. now. My bet is that you'd see quite a difference. It's not that the College Marxist Club had it's meetings in the basement at any particular time, but that politicization and social movements of the day have been normalized into daily life. I will stick to my guns in saying that there were 0 (zero) demonstrations of a political nature during my stay. For all I know, it was a low point in such activities (which likely gives me a short temper on the modern world). Frank Zappa played there every year though. ...hah, now that's an interesting angle I hadn't thought of. I went hunting for reading lists for the graduate students. A course on the '19th century English novel' has, wait for it, 7 female authors and 2 male. And one of the two men wrote 'Portrait of a Lady'. That's a pretty interesting way to shift the conversation.
    - UncleMeat 5y ago
      > ...hah, now that's an interesting angle I hadn't thought of. I went hunting for reading lists for the graduate students. A course on the '19th century English novel' has, wait for it, 7 female authors and 2 male. And one of the two men wrote 'Portrait of a Lady'. That's a pretty interesting way to shift the conversation. Do you find yourself being just as concerned when the reading list is 7 male authors and 2 female authors? Or only in this direction? If this counts as political, then boy howdy were curricula in the humanities political in the 1970s when there was basically zero time spent on the voices of women.
kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
The difference is that now we have people looking for any excuse to be offended rather than protesting legitimate wrongs. "You won't use my self-imposed variety of Newspeak? How dare you!"

prudhvid 5y ago

Yes, younger generations are more progressive, and is a good thing. However, silencing diversity of thought is really not a good scientific attitude

Lamad123 5y ago

Universities (Western ones at least) have always been like this since the foundation of the University of Bologna in 1988 whose curriculum included a certain amount of "saracenic education" in a very anti-saracenic environment!!

greendave 5y ago
Err.. that’d be 1088. Saracenic education in 1988 would’ve been quite something, I’ll wager!

Jensson 5y ago

Difference is that those hippies now grew up and run the universities.

kragen 5y ago

Social progress is the opposite of censorship; that about-face is what the article is about.

PerkinWarwick 5y ago

>Haven't universities been like this for ages? I can honestly say that when I went to college people were essentially apolitical. I don't remember anything you might view as a campus protest and the biggest fuss on the main mall were students arguing with a rather obnoxious Pentecostal preacher who showed up every year. (in case you all aren't familiar with him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Jed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Jed )

UncleMeat 5y ago
I think you'll find if you spend time on universities today, they are essentially apolitical. And I strongly suspect that if you looked for articles written when you attended school, you'd find people complaining in various directions. The difference is whether you are just going to class or getting your news through articles filtered through social media and link aggregators.
- PerkinWarwick 5y ago
  >I think you'll find if you spend time on universities today, they are essentially apolitical. An interesting experiment would be to compare English Department reading lists in the 1970's vs. now. My bet is that you'd see quite a difference. It's not that the College Marxist Club had it's meetings in the basement at any particular time, but that politicization and social movements of the day have been normalized into daily life. I will stick to my guns in saying that there were 0 (zero) demonstrations of a political nature during my stay. For all I know, it was a low point in such activities (which likely gives me a short temper on the modern world). Frank Zappa played there every year though. ...hah, now that's an interesting angle I hadn't thought of. I went hunting for reading lists for the graduate students. A course on the '19th century English novel' has, wait for it, 7 female authors and 2 male. And one of the two men wrote 'Portrait of a Lady'. That's a pretty interesting way to shift the conversation.
  - UncleMeat 5y ago
    > ...hah, now that's an interesting angle I hadn't thought of. I went hunting for reading lists for the graduate students. A course on the '19th century English novel' has, wait for it, 7 female authors and 2 male. And one of the two men wrote 'Portrait of a Lady'. That's a pretty interesting way to shift the conversation. Do you find yourself being just as concerned when the reading list is 7 male authors and 2 female authors? Or only in this direction? If this counts as political, then boy howdy were curricula in the humanities political in the 1970s when there was basically zero time spent on the voices of women.

kevin_thibedeau 5y ago

The difference is that now we have people looking for any excuse to be offended rather than protesting legitimate wrongs. "You won't use my self-imposed variety of Newspeak? How dare you!"