Right Track

The New Criterion:

Liberals have pushed back against the charge of ideological discrimination in hiring with an entirely valid point: You guys don’t show up! There simply aren’t many conservative graduate students in the humanities and social sciences. If the top 200 universities set out to hire a conservative for each of their humanities departments, they’d run out after about 75; in some departments, they might run out of qualified conservative job candidates after about two. And if you can’t find newly minted Ph.D.’s for tenure track jobs, you have to poach the thin ranks of conservatives already in academia somewhere, leading to no net increase in conservative presence in universities.

Let me suggest something a tad different: Conservative aren't dumb enough to take Ph.D's.

One of the hallmarks of a conservative mind is practicality. They believe in freedom, rule of law and all that jazz because, on the main, it works well. Individuals who approach life in such a fashion are less likely to waste their time in academia. Consider the sales pitch: Spend nearly a decade studying an arcane subject with little applicability outside of university, face job prospects upon graduation that would drive most sane men toward drink and then look like a smart ass poseur toward friends and family. Oh and did we mention the routine abuse from tenure faculty?

There are some who pursue advanced designations out of a sincere love of learning. The vast majority, however, go to graduate school, especially in the humanities, because they're afraid of the real world. They're graduate zombies.  Just as real zombies inhabit a place between the living and the dead, MA and Ph.D candidates exists in a similar netherworld. They are not exactly unemployed layabouts, but nor are they in any real sense productive members of society. They typically do not live at home with their parents, but they're not really independent either. Neither fish nor fowl they float delicately through life on grants, loans and part-time jobs.

Now gentle readers does that sound like an appealing existence? Didn't think so. Then again most people who read this blog are conservatives or libertarians. The job descriptions I've come across in the e-mails and comments run from IT and finance drones to engineers to lawyers to the self employed. What's do all these people have in common? Hard headed practicality. They don't pretend that wishes are horses or that pigs have wings. They refuse to worship the Gods of the Academic Marketplace who promise us these beautiful things.

When I come across the occasional anti-liberal arts screed on the web I resist the temptation to comment. The problem, I keep wanting to say, is not the degree but the people who take the degree. There are plenty of liberal arts graduates with good jobs, but their personalities are very different from most BA holders. They tend to have excellent people skills, a basic sense of professionalism and a keen attention to detail. They studied a particular subject out of personal interest, not because it was easy. While they'd like a career in a related field, they're willing to be flexible when necessary. 

That type of mentality is simply not going to waste their youth in the futile cesspool of academia. And why should they? The traditional university model is on the verge of being blown up. If they want to study a chosen field they can do so on their own time, as I do, or pursue online courses. As for influencing people here's an idea; start a website. More people read this blog in a typical week than showed up for any first year class I attended. 

A blog is also much cheaper. 

 

Comments

[big al]

With the theme of this posting an alternate name for your blog could be "Sons Of Martha" which would also keep up with the Kipling references... :)

[Roseberry]

I lament the lack of young conservatives in academic life (as an old and lonely conservative in academic life). I have supervised nine doctoral students,none of whom was a conservative, but at least they weren't crazy and would at least engage in debate.

The universities need some sane young professors,and students need them even more, but I agree that it will be a rough ride.