April 01, 2005

LAWRENCE SUMMERS: THE NEVER ENDING APOLOGY

        Horsefeathers attended a talk last night by Harvard Pres. Lawrence Summers to New York area alumni. The evening was almost rescued by the superb canapes and drinks in the hour preceding the talk. Unfortunately the cocktail hour ended and President Summers began speaking. Rather than presenting a robust critique of the intellectual thugs who are out to destroy him, he assumed the defensive position he has lately taken. There was endless blather about the new initiatives of Harvard and its responsibility to address all the unfairnesses of life. The most obvious injustice, naturally, is the existence of differences between the sexes. In the question period, Summers listened to the remarks of a deeply conncerned alumnus, deploring the failure of Harvard to achieve gender equality as measured by numbers of women in the sciences and math. Would Summers, he inquired, want his 14 yr. old twin daughters, to go to such a school? Instead of swatting aside the ridiculous P.C. cant, he replied as if women at Harvard were in the condition of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban. He promised 'results' when replying to the demand for equality in the sciences and math. Would he specify a numerical goal? No, but he did promise to report back on a yearly basis so everyone would know how much 'progress' had been made.
        Finally, as the question period was drawing to a close, two women succinctly dispelled the cloud of unknowing that was enveloping the room. One, a mathematician, averred that she would not want to work in a Math Dept. that had achieved numerical gender equality as per Summers, since it would have to achieve that goal by lowering standards. The second, eloquently pointed out that for all Summers's genuflections at the shrine of diversity, there was almost no intellectual diversity on campuses like Harvard's, where radical leftists dominate the faculty, and conservatives are both outnumbered and unwelcome. Somehow Horsefeathers doubts we'll be hearing loud calls from those quarters for affirmative action for conservatives.

        In his latest defense (see the article here) of Summers, Alan Dershowitz writes:
"...If Summers now begins to “temper words,” as he told the Faculty of Arts and Sciences he would do, Harvard will become a less interesting place.
        Many of the same people who correctly insist on greater “diversity” based on gender, race and ethnicity seek homogeneity of viewpoints. They want more colleagues who share their ideologically fixed positions. The last thing they want is diversity of viewpoint, especially on issues of gender, race and politics..."

        Regrettably, it looks like Harvard will indeed become a less interesting place. Certainly Larry Summers is becoming a less interesting, less courageous and bold President.