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re: Quite right
Robert — (archived)

I knew that those last few paragraphs about liberal politics crossing over into conservative psychology were confusing. To try and put a finer point on it: any ideology that succeeds and takes power over a society quickly becomes psychologically conservative, regardless of whether its ideology might be labelled conventionally conservative or liberal. The mindset required to effect change is very different from the mindset required to hold on to power once it's gained. The purges soon after the Communists took power in Russia are a vivid example--the old guard of the Revolution were a liability to the new rulers of Russia.

I wonder if cause-and-effect on college campuses is quite what you think it is. The young'uns tend to be both idealistic and dogmatic, and the idealism makes them tend to gravitate to the higher-sounding rhetoric of the liberal side (with a significant number, a few of whom we know around here, becoming dogmatically conservative). For most people, their college years tend to be their most liberal, and they become more conservative after leaving school. But I'd observe that career academics never leave college. They graduate, but stay in place, where they interact with, and are looked-up to, by idealistic and dogmatic students. It may well be just a synergistic, self-reinforcing phenomenon, rather than a top-down conspiracy to indoctrinate students.

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