[MD] Pirsig the Subversive Professor

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

[Platt to Horse]
Of course, you can dismiss the evidence if you wish, just as many have dismissed
the evidence of an abundance of left-wing college professors, not to mention
the mainstream media. 

[Arlo]
Perhaps the fear rhetoric being used reminds them of what happened to Pirsig
himself...

"The state of Montana at this time was undergoing an outbreak of
ultra-right-wing politics like that which occurred in Dallas, Texas, just prior
to President Kennedy’s assassination. A nationally known professor from the
University of Montana at Missoula was prohibited from speaking on campus on the
grounds that it would "stir up trouble." Professors were told that all public
statements must be cleared through the college public-relations office before
they could be made. ...

The newly elected governor was trying to fire the college president for both
personal and political reasons. The college president was not only a personal
enemy, he was a Democrat, and the governor was no ordinary Republican. His
campaign manager doubled as state coordinator for the John Birch Society. This
was the same governor who supplied the list of fifty subversives we heard about
a few days ago."

Earlier, Pirsig and John had this exchange.

"Something else that ought to interest you," John says. "They were talking in
the bar about Bozeman, where we’re going. They said the governor of Montana had
a list of fifty radical college professors at the college in Bozeman he was
going to fire. Then he got killed in a plane crash."

"That was a long time ago," I answer. These steaks really are good.

"I didn’t know they had a lot of radicals in this state."

"They’ve got all kinds of people in this state," I say. "But that was just
right-wing politics."

John helps himself to some more salt. He says, "A Washington newspaper columnist
came through and put it in his column yesterday, and that’s why they were all
talking about it. The president of the college confirmed it."

"Did they print the list?"

"I don’t know. Did you know any of them?"

"If they had fifty names," I say, "mine must have been one." 

If people are "dismissing evidence", maybe its because they've wised up that
such nonsense is "just right-wing politics", as Pirsig said. 

Arlo