GasBandit said:
Charlie Dont Surf said:
Also, according to polling, people with post-graduate degrees are much more likely to be liberal than conservative. Professors are... surprise... all people with post-grad degrees!
Yep, the longer you are sheltered by Academia, the less you have to deal with the real world, the more your mind turns to the left.
"Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities and we didn't have to produce anything. You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've
worked in the private sector. They expect
RESULTS!" - Dr. Ray Stantz
Yeah, we're totally sheltered. Your evidence for this "sheltering" is....?
Maybe it's because we don't have to compete and scramble to win like a private busine...oh wait. Nope scratch that one. I have to write grants, prove myself to conservatives and liberals alike, and generally justify my existence on a daily basis the way your average corporate grunt sure doesn't have to.
No one has ever "sheltered" me or given me anything for free! I don't get to
keep my job just for performing adequately unlike people in the quote-unquote real world. Tell me. If you go through the next three years doing only what your job description says you have to do, will you be able to keep your job at the end of those 3 years? I wouldn't be able to. I have to be better. You know, like the rhetoric Republicans masturbate to. Do you have to come up with your own business plan, work out the finances, pay yourself somewhere in all that, all while writing the NEXT business plan because each one lasts only a year or two? All while running a third business of teaching a bunch of unappreciative (which is incredibly soul-sapping) students who make it their jobs to search for errors in what you're doing? It's like I'm starting one of those small businesses conservatives lap up
all by myself every 1-3 years, while maintaining a "real" job of teaching. And no one catches me if I fall. If I miss a grant in one of these
highly competitive (another buzzword you guys like) funding programs, no one says, "Aww, shucks, Jack. Here's a check anyway." No, they cover their eyes and say, "Sorry, better luck next time. Better go find some consulting work to feed your kids this summer!"
I don't live at the school or even in a neighborhood surrounded by academics. I, like all professors, live in the real world. I deal with the consequences of my actions just like anyone else. I don't know where this haven-like "shelter" is. If you find it, let me know. It ain't an easy job. It's a
fun job, but it's a lot of competitive, stressful, performance-oriented work.
What else could I be sheltered from? Political issues? Hell, everyone wears those on their sleeves here. More than most workplaces.
All that aside, I don't think I agree with the original point anyway. I know just as many reds as blues here. The last freakin' college luncheon we had erupted into a heated debate about Obama with plenty of supporters on either side. I think there are a lot of outspoken, unafraid liberals at universities, but I don't know if I agree anecdotally that there's a huge imbalance.
Stantz is a fictional character. He'd be out of a job like Venkman at the end of his tenure-track period if he didn't produce results.