Thoughts from
San Diego on Law, Politics, and Culture

 
Juan Non-Volokh temporarily retires
By Tom Smith

But he'll be back, under his true colors, I infer. I think his decision to blog anonymously was prudent. He says he thinks bias against conservatives in the academy is overstated by some. He might not still have had that view if he had been signing his real name all along. It always best to complement others for their tolerance from a position of safety. That lion, says the photographer in the Land Rover, would never attack a human.

I agree that much of the bias is unconscious, but so what. Most ignorance is unconscious, too, and we typically don't give people a lot of credit for being ignorant. Apart from that, there is the loneliness and tedium of being the only conservative in your faculty or even town. Bias or not, there are strong reasons for smart, young conservatives to seek their fortunes elsewhere. It is hopeful to say this will change over time, but I doubt it. The universities are too thoroughly of one color to transform themselves, and I think it is neither possible nor desirable to change them any other way. What I do expect is the continued growth of alternative institutions, among which blogs and other alternative media will figure largely, in which 'other voices' may be heard. When the printing press came on the scene, the Church did not change so much, but Christianity sure did.
posted by thomas at 1/22/2006 08:02:00 AM