Why do so many liberals want to be professors?
Professor Is a Label That Leans to the Left
Typecasting, of course, is not the only cause for the liberal tilt. The characteristics that define one’s political orientation are also at the fore of certain jobs, the sociologists reported. Nearly half of the political lopsidedness in academia can be traced to four characteristics that liberals in general, and professors in particular, share: advanced degrees; a nonconservative religious theology (which includes liberal Protestants and Jews, and the nonreligious); an expressed tolerance for controversial ideas; and a disparity between education and income.
The mismatch between schooling and salary complements a theory that the Harvard professor Louis Menand raises in his new book “The Marketplace of Ideas.” He argues that the way higher education was structured by progressive reformers in the late 19th century is partly responsible for the political uniformity of today. In the view of the early reformers, the only way to ensure that quality, rather than profit, would be rewarded was to protect the profession from outside competition. The tradeoff for lower salaries was control; professors decide who gets to enter their profession and who doesn’t.
Once competition was subject to insiders’ decisions on whose candidate’s idealogy matched theirs, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Typecasting, indeed.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the alternative, such as being a plumber or a Porsche mechanic is too difficult to learn. Teaching is much easier and pays about 2/3 of the former two professions.
And you get summers off, Pat!
While Academia has always tended liberal/Democratic, there used to be a substantial minority of conservatives/Republicans on campus. Moreover, the professoriate did not stigmatize conservatives/Republicans to the degree they do now.
Story from a science faculty of the 1960s. One professor put up an anti-Vietnam War poster on his door. Two doors down a professor put up an American flag. The professor in the middle put up a DMZ sign- he was a liberal Republican, BTW.
OldMan – great story! It’s really sad that it couldn’t happen today. The American flag would be determined by the administration to be “offensive”.