Tenure

The American left has been shooting itself in the foot by scorning populism.

When Multiculturalism is examined, one does not see much concern for the "traditional" cultures of white Americans. This is fine when Multiculti is a lens for self-improvement but it has mutated into a hatred of "white trash." This is sad, and not what Multiculturalism is about at all.

I come neither to bury nor praise Multiculturalism. I mention it because it is a stunning leading example of the way leftists in America have lost any claim to populism.

"We are the 99%!" This is populism. And when Occupy finds its agenda it must be populist.

An easy and important target is the tenure system. Please consult this book for all the details. In a nutshell:

Replace tenure with multiyear contracts. Despite fears concerning academic freedom, higher education will lose nothing by ending tenure but will reap major gains. We conclude this reluctantly. But tenure takes a huge toll at every academic level. Professors who possess it have no reason to improve their teaching, take on introductory courses, or, in fact, accept any tasks not to their liking. Meanwhile, junior faculty members pay a brutal price by succumbing to intellectual caution. If we could achieve only one reform, that would be it.

Ending tenure sounds horrible: academic freedom! But is our professorate using its academic freedom? Where are the persecuted, protected only by tenure? They don't exist. Real threats don't get tenure, and instead we are left with a hugely distorting and counterproductive institution. Hearing that tenure is a problem then going to school is like walking out of Plato's cave. You can't not see how bad it is, and getting rid of it will help reduce college costs and improve the quality of education, in addition to creating a more humane academic environment.

As importantly, making this part of the Occupy agenda will signal a shift in the loyalties of the Left, a shift away from "academic snobbery" both real and imagined and towards the Populist desire for equality and opportunity.

We shouldn't underestimate how much good this can do for the movement.

Other links: google preview of Higher Education?, the book at Amazon, another article at the Atlantic, a publication I'm not really a fan of...

America's reaction and Occupy's response

The Occupy movement is a test the American people have failed.

Everyone knows the country is sick: high unemployment, massive corruption, political paralysis. Complain and there have always been some who respond, "Well, stop whining and do something about it!"

Fair enough. So the Occupy movement began. It has done everything possible--too much--to be open, nonpartisan, participatory, free. A movement by the American people, for the American people. This meant costs: the agenda was implicit rather than explicit. And in an inclusive and leaderless organization, based on consensus, trying to decide anything meant paralysis.

The Occupy movement paid those costs so to include all Americans. But the American people, instead of appreciating this opportunity to have their voices heard and choosing to participate, retreated into sloth or even mockery.

As the leaderless and feckless Occupations wore on the hungry and cold street people flocked in. The people who are always protesting were there, and best at managing in the chaos, but couldn't do anything new so there was no progress. Then the camps had to go.

Now the public mocks the Occupiers. Some complains are reasonable but most are nasty attacks on the character of people they've never met. Pure bigotry. So we ask, why?

We the American people are broken. Maybe people are always like this and we need to understand to reach them. But we Americans are so powerless in our minds that we hate these Occupiers who are telling us our minds lie. We have a bad case of cognitive dissonance. We know we can, but we can't let ourselves believe it.

There are many harsh words for people who fall into this trap. It is a pit full of profound corruption and surrender to things that are poisoning our country. But the imperative is to snap out of it.

The longer the occupy movement keeps going the harder is denial to keep up. All the tactical and political boilerplate apply, but the most important thing the movement can do is keep going. There will be a great wailing and gnashing of teeth. Harsh words. Pepper spray. Moments of brilliance and missteps.

If the movement keeps going, people will stop complaining about it and admit again for the first time that changes need to happen. The next thing to do is focus.