Academics and the Obama Administration:
The Washington Post has a front-page article indicating that several Yale Law faculty members are among the many academics who think a job in the Obama Administration might be worth seeking:
Yale law professor Dan Kahan said several of his colleagues are for the first time considering leaving their perches for Washington.
"You know how Obama always said, 'This is our moment; this is our time?' " Kahan said. "Well, academics and smart people think, 'Hey, when he says this is our time, he's talking about us.' "
Or am I confusing it with some other place?
I'm not sure grades matter at Yale Law School anyway.
I would argue that the most significant part of the WaPo article wasn't the Kahan quote you reprised, but the following:The next four years could be very interesting, good or bad...
Relative to academia, political Washington is the real world. Still, you have a fair point: I have changed the post title.
Yet more evidence that progressives think like some primitive tribe. Wouldn't you think that after all the ink that has been spilled accusing progressives of exactly this attitude, they would try and be a little more circumspect about it? Whenever I think that I'm being too hard on them, something like this pops up.
Best and brightest.
Vietnam = Afghanistan
James Jones = Maxwell Taylor
Bob Gates = Allen Dulles
Venezuala = Cuba
Almost eerie.
HRC = Robert McNamara?
...and for the record I'm not exactly dying to see what ends up on the other side of the equal sign from "Bay of Pigs."
Having an administration full of people who come from the country's "elite" institutions is not itself a problem. The question is: what did these people do once they graduated from these elite institutions of learning?
Every administration needs a healthy dose of "pure" academics (i.e., people who never left the ivory tower) because smart people who sit around thinking about problems often enough manage to come up with some novel solutions. The problem with handing the keys over to these folks is that they rarely have the skill set required to: (1) actually get their solutions implemented and (2) manage them well once they are implemented.
That's where people with more practical experiences come in handy. And it's also why the heads of government agencies and Cabinet posts should always be filled with people who have previously managed large organizations. Much of the work of a government leadership post is dedicated to getting the job done, not to finding the answer to the problem. Coming from an elite institution does not disqualify someone from such a post so long as they've actually been in the trenches in the very recent past.
Reading the progressive blogs, I see quite a few people who thought this once but have figured out otherwise.
So now we need quotas of high school dropouts and people with degrees from obscure correspondence schools?
fwiw, when i think academics in govt. i am reminded of william f buckley's comment about rather being ruled by people chosen from the boston phone book, then by a group of academics... or something
Then again, before joining the Kennedy Administration Robert McNamara ran Ford, not a desk in an ivory tower. And look how badly he messed up (as even he has admitted in hindsight).
Having been a bemused observer of executive agency behavior for quite a few years, if given a binary either/or choice I'd rather have the practical fellow in the Deputy Secretary slot. Let the head honcho think big thoughts, not start dictating the caliber and powder type for the G.I.s' new assault rifle. In the public sector the ExO often has a lot more to do with keeping the organization from running off the rails than the person whose picture gets put next to the President's in the agency reception lobby.
Anti-intellectualism is still alive and well in America, I see...
Not really. From just my humble experience, what academics think of "those of you with different political views" really has less to do with your views in and of themselves (were they well-reasoned and supported with evidence, we could at least argue over them with you, and we *love* to argue!), more to do with your utter contempt for education generally, for the methods of reasoned inquiry and knowledge-making at the core of academe that seems implicit in your blanket critique of academics and your frequent hero-worship of those who possess or endorse anti-intellectual voices. After a long enough time line, it becomes virtually impossible for us to look out at our opposition and really separate anti-intellectualism from conservativism*; the two basically seem intertwined.
*Yes, I know it's supposedly a libertarian blog and all, but since I read basically the same thing coming from libs on this blog as I do from conservatives elsewhere, and as libs routinely get in bed politically with conservatives, the libs' professed interest in preserving personal freedom loses any meaning and it becomes clear you're basically conservatives for all practical purposes. At least, that's what we academics think of you.... ;-)
IndependentAcademic then writes:That seems overly harsh to academics. While some are so small-minded and self-congratulatory as to think this, many are actually pretty self-aware and recognize how weak such a position would be.
I see liberal academic bromides are still alive and well among my colleagues.
we *love* to argue!
Just so long as no one has the audacity to question left-liberal orthodoxy.
In your view are, say, advanced degrees historically correlated with effective leadership?
I can think of effective leaders who were poor academics (Churchill is one obvious example). Are there any great leaders of history who started as professors?
Andrew Shepard.
Well, Angela Merkel, Woodrow Wilson and James Garfield come to mind. I don't know if it counts, but John Adams's first job was teaching elementary school.
zippy,
Relative to academia, political Washington is the real world. Still, you have a fair point: I have changed the post title.
This epitomizes DC's approach to things. The difference between the real world and political DC is far, far greater than the difference between political DC and academia. Anyone who lives here for too long gets a myopic view of what the real world is like. Orin, although a genius, probably suffers from this.
I'm thinking of a Venn Diagram which illustrates the comparatively small intersection of the two sets A:"academics" and B:"smart people". I'm very concerned that most of the successful seekers for jobs in an Obama Administration will come from the set "A but not B".
Please stop speaking on my behalf.
"I'm very concerned that most of the successful seekers for jobs in an Obama Administration will come from the set "A but not B"."
Well don't you worry your little head. Intelligence they'll have. Wisdom? Only time will tell.
Agreed that some diversity might have been beneficial.
I am a Ph.D. student myself, and I can appreciate how the enviornment I live and work in is somewhat cloistered and removed from the daily experience of other types of workers. That said, though, I always wonder what exactly people mean when they say "real world". It seems to be a moving target.
In this thread we have learned that the "real world" is not DC, and is not academe. Fair enough. Can some kind real worlder out there let me know if the following positions/environments make the grade and are "real"?
1. investment banker on Wall St.
2. worker in Toyota plant in Mississippi
3. social worker in San Francisco
4. millionaire corn farmer in Iowa
5. UAW worker in GM plant in Michigan
6. CEO of small Seattle company whose income derives soley from gov't grants and contracts
7. building inspector in Branson, Mo.
Thanks!
Well, darn. guess that lets me out. Must be that iodized salt thing again.
I think I'm just slightly amazed at the arrogance of this person's statement.
Or, to get this around to a topic that's been discussed on the VC quite a bit recently, the "academic" types are perfectly willing to go off on the Mormons for supporting Prop 8 in California, but have ben much quieter about the anti-gay bigotry of black churches.
And yet, the "academics" treat it as axiomatic that they're tolerant and sensitive, and if you disagree with them, you're a horrible bigot.
Set aside the question of whether academics really are more intelligent/wise/judicious/reasonable than non-academics. The point remains that being intelligent/wise/judicious/reasonable is a positive trait. Other things being equal, it's better to be like that than the opposite.
So being "biased" in favor of the intelligent/wise/judicious/reasonable is not bigotry. After all, there's nothing better about being straight instead of gay, or American instead of Mexican. But it really is better to be intelligent/wise/judicious/reasonable instead of the opposite.
So if you have a legitimate beef with the arrogance of academics, it's not on the score of bigotry. It's that they're wrong about being more intelligent/wise/judicious/reasonable than non-academics.
All good people, but great? Of the same stature as Churchill, FDR, Lincoln, Washington, Marlborough, Ghandi?
I grant there is a statistical problem - few academics rise to positions of great power, so few have the chance to find out if they are great or not. And being bright certainly isn't contraindicated, e.g. Eisenhower's performance in WWII.
Personality is shaped by profession, or alternatively certain personalities are attracted to certain professions. Ask a pilot, police officer, or surgeon for a decision and you will get one immediately - perhaps right, perhaps wrong, but immediate, because they are in careers where a decision delayed is guaranteed to be wrong.
So the question is whether people shaped by or attracted to academia are better or worse than average as political leaders, or more generally, is there some profession or other credentials that are positively correlated with great leadership. I don't know the answer to that.
I have long opined that a degree in history was the best possible preparation for the presidency, but our current one is a pretty strong counterexample to that thesis.
And that is why I threw that solicitation from Boalt in the trash today."
You will miss Professor Yoo. He and Monica Goodling demonstrate that it is not the prestige or rank of the institution that matters; all ranks are capable of producing or tolerating the same sort of amorality.
Re Smokey:
After 8 years of George W. Bush, preceded by 4 years of his father, you are looking for a self-made salt of the earth kind of guy? Like McCain or Romney, I suppose, who made it on their own? Or Chambliss; Mr. Golf, over the real veterans? Are you kidding us again? The R's love the "soft white country club underbelly".
David MacCulloch describes the media reaction as generally positive (see pages 320-21 of the hardcover edition). I couldn't find any reference to the reaction of "intellectuals" or "historians", and I suspect you don't have any source for a representative sample.
As I am using it, the "real world" here refers to "the real world that high level appointees to government office who are not academics will have experienced." In other words, law firm partners, state politicans, party chairs, and the like. You might say that none of these people have experience with the "real" world, as you define "real." But those worlds are a lot more "real" in the sense of connected to the realities of daily life and human limitations than are jobs in the ivory tower. That's not a point about "dc's approach to things," but really a point about how isolated from reality many academics really are.
it's not "how they live" (iow, their surroundings, pay, job security, etc.).
it's what they do.
academics aren't responsible for real world results, only detached theory.
this is how, for example, academics could embrace efficient market theory. real traders (who actually make their money from the market - iow, have have more than theory, instead have to have actuality... stuff that works in the real world). or how they could embrace absurdly anti-scientific theories about gender, etc. etc.
the point is that academics are responsible for theory. most people in the real world are responsible for RESULTS.
an engineer for example is responsible for a building. it has to actually work - iow, not fall over, be structurally stable, etc.
there are people who DO and who are responsible for what they DO, and there are academics who generally just opine, with no real world consequences when they are wrong.
that is why buckley et al (myself included) treat academics with healthy skepticism.
romney did not make it on his own. however, he's clearly a successful DOER. he has proved that he can run a business, and run large projects with efficiency and results. that record is undeniable.
i would rather have, ceteris paribus, a guy like romney who i know is a capable manager, do'er, achiever, etc. in the real world, than a guy whose claim to fame was "getting published" a lot and receiving praise from his fellow travelers.
Andrew Shepard
</blockquote>
To the extent that they're not the same person, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah Bartlet">Jed Bartlet</a>, too.
I'm not so sure. In most of the "working world" Tenure is a very strange concept.
I'm making huge generalizations again, but I don't think many people are really that familiar with the career track of an academic. The only part of they see is that they hear a professor is "tenured" and learn that they can't be fired. To the large class of people who work in corporate and industrial sectors were layoffs are a very real possibility, tenure only contributes to the notion that Academics aren't part of "the real world."
"But MacGillis is cherry-picking (to mix my fruit metaphors). Judge Gonzalez graduated from Harvard Law School. And MacGillis chooses to ignore the following examples: Don Rumsfeld (Princeton); Steven Hadley (Cornell, Yale Law School); Elaine Chao (Harvard MBA); John Ashcroft (Yale, University of Chicago Law School); Spencer Abraham (Harvard Law School); Scooter Libby (Yale, Columbia Law School); David Addington (Georgetown; Duke Law School); Mitch Daniels (Princeton); Josh Bolten (Princeton, Stanford Law School); Henry Paulson (Dartmouth, Harvard MBA); Ben Bernanke (Harvard, MIT Ph.d); Cam Findlay (Northwestern University, Oxford, Harvard Law School); Alex Azar (Dartmouth, Yale Law School); Andy Card (Harvard Kennedy School of Government); Paul Wolfowitz (Cornell, University of Chicago, plus Yale faculty); Douglas Feith (Harvard, Georgetown Law School); Jim Haynes (Harvard Law School)."
And remember, George W. Bush is an intellectual giant himself (Yale, Harvard MBA).
I agree. Too good, except for Garfield. But the seusequent sentence about John Adams teaching elementary school should have alerted you that this was an attempt at irony.
What is an intellectual? How do we identify one?
You seem to have said nothing while writing a lot. ;-)
So if you have a legitimate beef with the arrogance of academics, it's not on the score of bigotry.
I have to disagree with you here. In my experience it's usually the academia types, and other "chattering class" metropolitan types who go on the most about multiculturalism, and how we have to celebrate "diversity". But "multiculturalism" never seems to include American culture. Why do you think I mentioned the "bitter cling" comments? Obama was commenting on a certain American sub-culture, just as many of the anti-immigrant types talk about the problems they have with the immigrant cultures. And yet, one of this is consistently put up as bigotry, and the other isn't. (At least, not by the people in the media.)
So being "biased" in favor of the intelligent/wise/judicious/reasonable is not bigotry.
Academics, I would argue, don't hold any greater amounts of those last three qualities than the average American. (And when it comes to the first, they may know a lot about their own specialties, but not necessarily so much about areas outside of that.) And yet, they (and again, the rest of the "chattering class" types) consistently treat it as axiomatic that they do.
Apparently Yoda is posting under the name "David Warner."
Okay, I exaggerate a bit on that. But not much.
I forgot. Which ivory tower did McNamara descend from to become Def. Sec.?
"Apparently Yoda is posting under the name 'David Warner.'"
Been blown has my cover been...
exactly. the benefits that should matter when talking about how other people judge a person's merits are... what the person has DONE. an "elite institution" should be desireable because it (theoretically) teaches better, and thus imparts more knowledge, is more rigorous, blah blah.
for the attendee, the added benefit of making it easier to get a foot in the door when STARTING OUT IN A CAREER would be part of it, as well as "social networking".
but valuing the locale of the diploma as a thing in and of itself, when you have ample work history to look at is essentially elevating a piece of paper, something that represents theoretical superiority over evidence of actual achievement.
that's what should matter.
show me a brilliant businessman like steve jobs. i could not care less where he went to college, or if he even did.
when he took over Pixar, i jumped on their stock. i did not research where he went to frigging college. who cares?
From wikipedia:
"...graduated in 1937 from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts in economics with minors in mathematics and philosophy, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his sophomore year, ... He then earned a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1939.
...
In August 1940 he returned to Harvard to teach in the Business School and became the highest paid and youngest Assistant Professor at the time."
Of course, following that he was an analyst in the USAAF and later Ford CEO.
That's right. After a couple of years teaching at Harvard, he spent the next 13 in the Army and at Ford, from where he was plucked for Sec. of Def. In other words, he wasn't the example your quote implied of a stereotypical ivory tower academic who's never worked a job in the real world. Quite the opposite, he was the model Republicans tout for government executive jobs, the CEO of a successful giant industrial corporation.
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