"A reliable commodity that Yale can buy"

"Looking at Iraq, Cole sees glass that's half empty," runs the headline under this Harvard Gazette photo of the University of Michigan historian as keynote speaker of a "Religion and Nationalism" conference at Harvard Divinity School last year (Photoshop montage incorporates StrangeCosmos.com image of 9/11 falling man)

"But seriously, if [Juan] Cole had kept to scholarly work and away from polemics, would anyone care about him? Would Yale?" writes Sol of Solomonia, taking the ball we tossed in our last post and running with it. Googling to get ourselves up to speed on the prospective Yale professor of Middle East studies called by The Yale Herald "a notorious anti-Western firebrand," we found that Alex Joffe, director of Juan Cole's nemesis, Campus Watch, is not impressed:

Cole’s classes in the modern Middle East, because of his reputation and his name, would be exceptionally well-enrolled . . . At the bottom line, he’s predictable, a reliable commodity that Yale can buy. Is he the best Middle East historian, is he the best teacher, is he the most penetrating mind that’s out there that Yale could find? Certainly not.

Speaking of polemics, "I do find Mr. Cole somewhat over the top," adds Sol's reader Daniel in the comments: 

He does not write in a scholarly manner. He is abusive and quickly offended.

Abusive and quickly offended. There's a lot of that kind of thing in the blogosphere these days, especially -- as Ann Althouse found to her dismay last year among her own commenters -- on the left side of the aisle: 

What I've noticed, over and over, is that the bloggers on the right link to you when they agree and ignore the disagreements, and the bloggers on the left link only for the things they disagree with, to denounce you with short posts saying you're evil/stupid/crazy.

Our response to Ann at the time: 

As for leftists' trashing of a lovely human being like Ann because she writes something they disagree with, we suspect that has to do with the left's current plight of waking up to find themselves on the wrong side of history.

It must be nice when you wake up to find yourself on the wrong side of history only to be lulled gently back to sleep by sweet lullabies from the Yale Center for International and Area Studies search committee.

One more thing re reader comments. There seem to be few if any critical ones at Juan Cole's  blog, Deformed Informed Comment.  He screens comments -- a not uncommon practice among high-profile bloggers -- and apparently tossed two we attempted to post there yesterday, including one offering a link to his quotation comparing Sharon's "regime" to Hitler's [imprecisely quoted by John Fund yesterday, but we agree with Sol that he catches the spirit if not the letter of the law]. Cole's blog, Cole's choice. But those who would listen to only yes men are at risk of losing touch with reality. His latest whiny, adolescent, don't-confuse-me-with-the-facts ad hominem attack:

What kind of journalist just makes falsehoods up and puts them in someone's mouth? What kind of newspaper allows that? [Well, since you asked and won't allow us to comment at your blog, may we suggest the New York Times?] And in order to damage someone's career? Isn't that a tort?

By the way, has John Fund ever apologized for his repeated assertions in 2002 and 2003 that Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction" and that therefore the United States needed to go to war and get thousands of its young men and women blown up? What else has he gotten wrong? With this kind of track record of grievous error, why does he deserve a privileged perch as an influential talking head?

There are track records and one-track records, Mr. Cole.

Comments

[goomp]

It looks to me as if the Ivy League Colleges have become the Poison Ivy League Colleges. When alumnae/i begin to react with abstention of contributions, changes for the better will begin.

[Richard Landes]

there's a lot to be said for the concerns of the students too. the information and style/level of analysis in MESA and Poli Sci is so poor that it will eventually/soon not provide any avenue to serious work.

it's a race between how bad a given direction has to get before things change significantly, and waking up in time to deal with the mounting challenge.