We think it is fair to assume that the Little Kitteh that came to dinner — above staring at things we don't see in the early morning light — is of above average intelligence and education in the school of hard knocks.
"I think it is fair to assume that most Harvard graduates are of above average intelligence and education and tend to believe in such things as evolution and global warming. It seems most Republicans do not," sniffs warmenist Edward G. Shufro, M.B.A. ’58 in a letter to the editor of the May-June issue of Harvard Magazine. Darwin's theory of evolution, yes. That's science. AGW? That's an article of faith. We were gratified to discover that Mr. Shufro — principle of a "targeted investment management" partnership co-founded by his father in 1938 — has generously supported, among other Democrat shining stars, three of our personal favorites, Joe Sestak (PA-7), Ed Markey (MA-7) and Carol Shea-Porter. Oh, and let us not forget Shufro's $2,300 gift to the Al Franken Recount Fund. Talk about above average intelligence.
Shufro's letter was only one of a number of spluttering tribal responses to an earlier letter from that rare thing, a Harvard alum who hadn't bought the narrative. Responding to an article in the previous edition of Harvard Mag that reported 90 percent or more of Harvard graduates in Congress are Democrats, Peter McKinney '56 had had this to say:
The development of independent and critical thinking in undergraduates should be a major goal of an education; otherwise the process is indoctrination. The statistics on the political affiliations of the incoming Congress suggest that this is not happening at Harvard College. Could this be a reflection of the ideological imbalance of the faculty?
Education or indoctrination? Thomas Sowell's words on the occasion of the railroaded resignation of Harvard President Lawrence Summers five years back come to mind:
His fatal flaws were honesty and a desire to do the right thing. That has ruined more than one academic career …
Even if every conclusion with which students are indoctrinated were true, unless those students develop their own ability to weigh opposing arguments, these conclusions will become obsolete as new issues arise in the years ahead. These "educated" people will have developed no ability to analyze opposing sides of issues.
Robert Stafford '86 exemplifies the type. Impervious to facts on the ground, he has holed himself up comfortably in his lamestream-media-facilitated anti-Palin Pauline Kael bubble, preferring not to be confused with the facts. His letter to the editor touches all the tribal hot spots, including class guilt:
In my grandfather’s GOP, a degree from an “elite” university was an asset: it was evidence that a politician was smart, or hard working, or, sadly, that he was at least from the right sort of family. In Sarah Palin’s GOP, “elite” is an insult. What’s more, in Palin’s faith-based GOP, candidates are all but required to espouse the view that the world is 6,000 years old, that the “theory” of evolution is false, and that anthropogenic climate change is a sinister liberal myth.
The poor guy has bought the media spin whole cloth. Joel Z. Eigerman '63, J.D. '67 seals the deal:
The second and greater fallacy is the assumption that because there are two major political tendencies in this country, properly educated people should divide roughly equally between them. This presumes that both are equally possessed of rational arguments, and this is unfortunately not true. Although the Republican Party, within living memory, disposed of leaders and ideas that could be called rational, for the last 30 years to be a Republican has increasingly meant to deny scientific truth, to subscribe to patent fantasies regarding our national history, recent or more distant, to espouse social and economic theories whose bankruptcy was demonstrated 80 years ago, to work for the enrichment of the few and the impoverishment of the many, and generally to substitute magical thinking for reason.
The poor fellow, like so many of our fellow Americans on the left side of the aisle, is projecting again. As we wrote in our post "Sissy Willis uses Darwin to utterly demolish Marxism":
"Sissy Willis uses Darwin to utterly demolish Marxism," twittered tahDeetz this afternoon. We'd sent her a link to one of our uber posts from way back in February of 2005, "Bloggers are 'cracking, popping, drilling and peeling their victims open." Take THAT, you leftists claiming to own Darwin even as your core collectivist beliefs fly in the face of the economic logic of nature and human nature that underlies Darwin's theory of natural selection.
Update: Lonely Conservative links:
If only we had all gone to Harvard …
Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.
It is so apparent that many intellectuals are indoctrinated by leftist ideas and are ignorant of the true history of civilization.
Posted by: goomp | June 05, 2011 at 05:25 PM
"I think it is fair to assume that most Harvard graduates are of above average intelligence and education and tend to believe in such things as evolution and global warming. It seems most Republicans do not."
It's also fair to assume that most Harvard graduates have closed their minds on these two questions, and did so before they finished their first semester there. Is that such an advantage? Evolution is a theory, not a law, Mr. Shufro, and as we have seen, even the laws of physics and chemistry do not hold exactly and universally as we had previously supposed. The operative term would be humility, and an awareness that our own understanding is limited. Is believing that the earth existed for billions of years such a great advantage? Is there anything that occurred more than six thousand years ago that is of any use to how you operate in the world today? The key distinction in someone who believes God may have created the world in six days and those that do not is not a limited conception of the world, but rather a limited conception of God. You can believe that everything we see today evolved over billions of years time, it does not threaten me. God could have done it as you believe. Why is it that the belief God may have done it all in six days so threatening to you?
The question is flipped on global warming. Here, the science appears contrived and based on very thin speculation, yet there is almost a dogmatic belief in this theory in Harvard brainiac types such as Mr. Shufro. I expect to see his head rocking back and forth and tantric chanting to accompany his pronouncement of catastrophic and never before experienced temperature swings.
Curious.
Great post, Sissy.
Posted by: nicholas | June 06, 2011 at 04:13 PM
The dogmatic belief cuts both ways. You'll never want to believe that global warming is a reality. One can find Al Gore obnoxious and even acknowledge a sensationalist and indoctrinated drink-the-koolaid acceptance of global warming by some on the left and still understand that global warming science is not based on "thin speculation."
When a bunch of lefties in the Pacific Northwest start screaming about Global Warming I do not take it seriously. When the Pentagon, the Russians and the Chinese make economic and strategic planning decisions that are influenced by likely global warming-caused changes, then I take it very seriously. It's one thing to not buy into the doomsday scenarios that some on the extreme left are screaming about. It's quite another to deny what the rest of the world can see quite clearly.
Posted by: Curt | June 06, 2011 at 06:12 PM
The dogmatic belief cuts both ways. You'll never want to believe that global warming is a reality. One can find Al Gore obnoxious and even acknowledge a sensationalist and indoctrinated drink-the-koolaid acceptance of global warming by some on the left and still understand that global warming science is not based on "thin speculation."
When a bunch of lefties in the Pacific Northwest start screaming about Global Warming I do not take it seriously. When the Pentagon, the Russians and the Chinese make economic and strategic planning decisions that are influenced by likely global warming-caused changes, then I take it very seriously. It's one thing to not buy into the doomsday scenarios that some on the extreme left are screaming about. It's quite another to deny what the rest of the world can see quite clearly.
After the melt down at Hadley CRU it was so obvious that scientists concerned had played fast and loose with the facts of global warming that it essentially became not worth the discussion. I see there are hold outs, which is fine. Just don't be planning on making massive wealth transfers on the basis of the coming calamity. Certainly the Chinese are not, as it was they and the Indians that torpedoed the efforts of the warmists to strangle the world economy at Copenhagen. No dice. I've written about it a few times, such as:
http://nicholas-whatthe.blogspot.com/2010/02/canadian-journalists-have-feathers.html
http://nicholas-whatthe.blogspot.com/2010/02/global-warming-alarmists-unconcerned-by.html
http://nicholas-whatthe.blogspot.com/2010/02/dr-jones-splains-it-all-away.html
http://nicholas-whatthe.blogspot.com/2010/02/alarmists-out-in-cold.html
and so on, but I don't bother with it any more.
You're right to point out that the theory's most vocal proponent, AL Gore, is a gaseous ball of blather, and as such he has in fact been the theory's most appropriate spokesman. Chicken Little writ large, as it were, with the difference being that Chicken Little actually believed that the sky was falling, and made every effort to warn her neighbors to take what action they could, whereas AL Gore knows AGW is a bunch of hooey, and takes no action whatsoever, except the occasional effort to release his inner chakra. Clearly, he's as big a joke as that other great voice from the left, film maker and ace documentarian Michael Moore. That's BIG!
Regardless, you miss the point, which is that there is a marked complacency, a smug self assuredness, on the part of the left, as well demonstrated by Sissy's examples of Harvard educated sophisticates, which they seem to find comforting but which in fact in no way improves their ability to think critically or to take an honest look at their surroundings and come up with solutions that are beyond what they have already tried before. They are a prisoner to their own belief system:
"The government is the best tool by which to even out life's inequities."
"Amen."
"Government can do great things and create a great future."
"Ave gloriosi."
"Capitalism leads to misery and hardship."
"Amen. Amen."
I suggest to you such limited thinking may not be to their advantage. It certainly is not to the advantage of the country.
Posted by: nicholas | June 06, 2011 at 11:26 PM
Harvard grads are merely educated fools. That doesn't make them really smart in the business of real life. The proof of this comes if one attends any Mensa meeting. These meetings are filled with a great many people with astronomical IQs and not a lick of common sense!
Posted by: Gayle Miller | June 09, 2011 at 11:21 PM
Who said global warming isn't real? I'm sure it is. So is global cooling. The real question is why it happens. That is the point of contention. We don't really have enough information to conclude it is sun spots, ocean currents, coal plants, some combination, or none of the above.
Posted by: Harrison | June 11, 2011 at 06:50 PM
"Most Harvard grads tend to believe in such things as evolution and global warming"
Yup. And...
Most Harvard grads should blow it out their squeakholes.
Also...
Being that Ivy League know-it-alls have been the leaders (and wreckers) of this country for the last 60 years, it's pretty safe to say that most Harvard grads shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the levers of power in America.
Buckley was right when he said that the first 100 people in the Boston phone book would probably do a better job of running the country than the entire Harvard faculty. He should've added a caveat about being governed by Harvard alumni as well.
Posted by: KingShamus | June 12, 2011 at 01:24 PM
Of course they believe in lies. Thats what liars do. It is truly amazing when being introduced to a harvard puke. They all let you know how great and beautiful they are. And why you should think their way. Get rid of socialist education. Booksmart=Retard in everyday life.
Posted by: herbal incense | July 29, 2011 at 07:11 AM