Now you’d think that a gathering of philosophers and
intellectuals setting out to discuss a political subject like this
might have taken some trouble to round up a diversity of views. Or at
least more than one view. But apart from one or two outbursts by a
somewhat shamefaced Professor Elshtain, they are all alike as peas in a
pod when it comes to the questions before the conference, including the
questions of the war and the Bush administration.
You ever notice how anytime academics reach a conclusion on something conservatives poo poo it and cry bias?
That gives the whole exercise a strange feel, like that
of a debate in which one side has unaccountably failed to show up—or
not been invited at all. Come to think of it, this is not so strange,
is it? We are already thoroughly familiar with such shrill homogeneity
of opinion from other intellectual gatherings sponsored by the journals
of the Left. The result is also familiar. Genuine debate having been
cut off, the event swiftly degenerates into hysterical and hyperbolical
assertion, each speaker seeking to top the last in displaying the
virulence of his own case of what Charles Krauthammer calls Bush
Derangement Syndrome.
Yes, it's the academics that are the deranged ones. Why won't those professors just get in line and follow along?
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