[MD] Dynamic Development at all costs?

[Krimel]

[Platt]
But that's precisely the problem. The intelligentsia rule by volume and
repetition because they all speak from the same script. As social critic
Michael Barone wrote recently, "America's colleges and universities have
become, and have been for some decades, the most closed-minded and
intellectually dishonest institutions in our society."  

[Krimel]
Ok, a Harvard educated Fox news pundit that's fair and balanced. What is
Barone bitching about here? Multiculturalism, what shock! Extreme examples
of political correctness are easy targets. Who actually advocates it? It is
ridiculed by the left and right. But what is it an extreme form of? Why it's
civil rights. The good old day that Barone pines are the ones Raygun
reflected on in one of his debates with Carter: those good old days when we
didn't have a race problem. It really wasn't a problem when good ol' white
boys were about the only ones in college or the board room or in restaurants
or the front of the bus. In that yesteryear when women were barefoot and
pregnant, had diner ready and who fetched beer on command. Back when a Spic
was a Spic, a Hebe was a Jew, a Chink was a Chink and everybody knew their
place.

Yeah, I miss those days too, but good riddance. If a student calls another
student on campus a "water buffalo," he deserves an ass whippin' not
sensitivity training. If colleges do enact speech codes, it is probably to
reduce ass whippin's not to curtail speech. As for quotas, as a recent
victim I agree they are necessary evils. But I have to admit the emphasis is
on necessary. We made enormous progress in these areas in the country. I
would say the degree and rate of change is nothing short of revolutionary.
But it has not been without cost or consequence. Colleges and Universities
have been and should be leaders in this respect. If things have tilted out
of balance, we should all work to set it right. But the fact is in the
fantasy world of Raygun and the neocons, the world was truly out of balance.
Except back then no one had the guts to complain and when they finally did
the shit hit the fan.

So is that what you are objecting to here; the fact that society has changed
its tune and not longer tolerates demeaning people on the basis of race
creed or color? You have stated your distain for the principles set forth in
our founding documents often enough. Is this just more complaining because
we are actually starting to live up to them.

As for Barone's complaints about the deleterious effects of postmodernism;
surely you can't be supportive of that complaint. After all what is Pirsig's
gallery of truths but an impressionistic portrait of the postmodern? It's
all just stories about the truth; all just stories to be judged on aesthetic
criteria, right? Hiphop and Shakespeare just pictures at an exhibition.

As for Barone's complaint about, "history departments with multiculturalists
who insist that all societies are morally equal except our own, which is
morally inferior." That is just a distortion but one that must resonate
easily in those who still claim that we can do no wrong, that slavery and
genocide are fine when we do it. Being honest about ones own failings is
only detrimental when we fail to repent of our sins. Or when, in the case of
neocons, we regards sin as virtue.

In the interest of academic freedom if anyone wants to read Barone's piece
it is here:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/10/ivory_tower_decay.html 

[Platt]
This site is about Pirsig's ideas in case you haven't noticed. It is not
just a platform for your materialist/reductionist views.  

[Krimel]
You are quite right this is a place for people to articulate their views.
You might consider trying it some time. But I guess it is easier to stick to
distorting Pirsig's.