Academic Freedom?

Academia is fairly conservative. Theoretical frameworks (paradigms) are very slow to change. The fact that most academics are (in terms of their personal politics) to the left of what Kevin Phillips has described as the theocratic elite who have taken control of the Republican Party does not contradict this basic underlying conservatism in academia. In fact, the Republican Party itself was far to the left of this theocratic elite not that long ago. In contemporary terms, Richard Nixon would be labelled a far left liberal or something of the sort. However, the theocratic and neoconservative elite have decided to try to take control over academia by attacking an alleged "liberal bias." This is a much better tactic, I must admit, than book burning, but has the same basic purpose. (One should note that in 1930s Germany, the only social arena within which there was even a modicum of opposition to the Nazi regime had been academia, which the Nazis then attacked as a haven for leftists and subsequently quieted). Nevertheless, the argument of the theo-con elite can also be used to promote more anti-establishment left views in academia. For example, the economics profession is the bastion of conservatism in academia, grounded in a theoretical framework that has served the purpose of both promoting the destruction of the social contract forged during the Great Depression, that includes social security and unemployment compensation, arguing that the market is utopian (and, by extension, corporations are the light of civilization), and providing the intellectual excuse for colonialism, imperialism, and exploitation (by omitting these processes from their theoretical framework and substituting a framework within which it is impossible to even ask questions about these processes). Those who would want to normalize Marxian theory, left institutionalism, or even anarchist economic theory could make the same arguments as the theo-cons that economics is suppressing free speech by teaching a singular paradigm in its intro and intermediate courses, as well as many other course offerings, and excluding these alternative paradigms. It would be ironic if the theo-cons opened the door to the demise of the monologue of neoclassical economic theory, which is one of the underpinnings of their own rise to power.