Libertarian Librarian

So, is bias inherently bad? Liberal or otherwise? If the faculty member signed neither letter, what is the real issue? Is bias really bad or is it really only bad when someone with an obvious bias masks themselves in objectivity? In this case, then, the faculty member was fairly blatant in his liberal bias. Others can take his opinion at face value and do with it what they wish.

Which is an interesting question. My response follows, but I just read an interesting analysis from Fred Siegel (not exactly a member of the vast right-wing consiparacy) that goes to the heart of the problem. It's a subscription link, so it may or may not work (and it's from the future-- it won't actually be published until Monday, March 21). Key point:

The reality, as Professor Post recognized, is that many professors now literally profess. Far from teaching the mechanics of knowledge, they are in fact preachers of sorts, spreading a gospel akin to that of Howard Dean. And if they are part of grievance- studies departments, like Ward Churchill or Joseph Massad, there never was any expectation of objectivity: They were knowingly hired as activists and are now puzzled as to why this has become a problem for some of their students and the larger public. After all, what they preach is built into the very orientation students are given when they arrive on campus. New students at many schools are quite literally given a new faith in which the world is divided into victims and victimizers, with little room for common ideals of citizenship or rationality, and no basis for debates that approximate the give-and-take of politics.

This is the danger of bias-- when it never meets any contrary arguments, when it simply is fed back to the speaker by all those around him or her, it becomes mantra, not perspective. It becomes undeniable in its ponderousness, and any who think that the bias is not an accurate reflection of reality are condemned, ridiculed and dismissed as irrelevant.

For what it's worth, here's my full response to the reader's comment:

No, bias is not inherently bad-- we all have them, and I appreaciate knowing them ahead of time. There are two major problems with bias in academe these days.

The first is that the bias is far, far too heavily weighted to the left. A hugely disproportionate percentage of faculty and staff are democrats/liberals, and much of that bias is now bleeding into the classroom, thus influencing students. Which would be okay if they received counter influences from the other side of the spectrum. But since there are few conservative voices in today's universities, the faculty's bias serves more as indoctrination than as one perspective on the world.

The second problem is that many faculty don't realize, or don't acknowledge, that they have this bias. This causes them to present their slanted viewpoints as "balanced and fair." Thus, any views that are more conservative than the faculty's come to be seen as far-right or extreme. The whole spectrum of opinion winds up scewed way to the left, so that centrist positions seem radical, and extreme left-wing positions seem run-of-the-mill.

Thanks for the comment!

Universities should be a place for free and open communication between ideas and concepts across the entire spectrum of perspective. Sadly, they usually are far from this ideal these days.

Labels: Oh That Ivory Tower, Politics

Posted by: Nick W. / 1:41 PM