Conservative columnist Piers Akerman probably thinks he doesn’t have much in common with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but he does. Intense and seething hatred of liberal secular academics.
“Today students should protest and shout at the president asking why some liberal and secular professors are still present in the universities,” he told a gathering of young scientists. “Our educational system has been under the influence of the secular system for 150 years. Colonialism is seeking the spread of its own secular system.” While acknowledging it was difficult to change this system, he said: “Such a change has begun.”
In like manner, LSA’s have been one of the American right’s favourite targets for years, and Akerman from the Daily Telegraph likes to take a few snipes now and again. He doesn’t even seem to pause for breath when making this rather tangential and pointless jibe.
Over the past three days “our” ABC, the al-Jazeera of the South Pacific, has given a platform to every civil rights lawyer and academic willing to protest against the Government’s control orders on self-confessed wannabe terrorist Jihad Jack Thomas.
He’s probably decided that if it’s only the fifth-worst item in a paragraph full of distortion and hyperbole, no one will have the energy to protest.
Why do conservative authoritarians hate liberal secular academics so? Is it our tough-minded and uncompromising intellect? (Yeah, it’s probably that.) Did they have a rough time at school, picked on by the smarter kids? No, can’t be that. I never picked on bigger dumber kids, preferring to let them eat their paste in peace. Perhaps it’s as simple as this: authoritarians can’t stand it when someone refuses to kowtow to their line of crap. People whose opinions are grounded in facts don’t need to seek converts for affirmation. People grounded in falsehood and faith do.
I feel bad for Iranian university students. Having attended BYU, I’m well aware of what happens when religionists crack down on academia. Believers in imaginary friends need to take lessons from universities, not dictate what should be taught there. At least Akerman’s not a president; just a crank who uses my profession like a swear word.
P.S. Check this link for the Hackerman getting the takedown. It’s a beaut. Don’t you wish there were something like MediaWatch in the USA? Or journalistic oversight?
6 September 2006 at 3:17 pm
I got to know about real fear from academic friends I lived with while in Chile. Many of thier friends had gone missing and those who remained were saving every penny to leave the country as soon as possible.