Dear Bearbrass, you say:

"Oh relax, Passy - nothing the Young Libs do is extremely dangerous..."

Sometimes I have the same thought, looking at these poor deluded Young Libreals and wondering how anyone could take them seriously. they are just so manichean and fervent and dogmatic. But people do take them seriously and will in the future when some of them are in positoons of power.

One of my comrades teaches politics from a marxist perpective at an Australian University. The local student paper published an article that said he marxed people who did not agree with him down. This was a slur on his professional approach, and his integrity, and was I think part of the campaign against diversity of thought which the Young Liberals are leading on campuses across Australia. I doubt that this is an isolated example.

The paper ran an apology. Interestingly it is I believe run by right wing labor students. Tweedledee and tweedledum.

The Young Liberals are a breeding ground for the next generation of Liberal politicians. The training in reaction they receive in their cloistered halls of thought is dangerous for our future.

One final point. Universities are sausage factories for capital. But capital needs to continually innovate and change, so it needs critical thinkers. So there is a balancing act there - capital wants universities to churn out intelligent, critical, questioning sausages.

The problem is not that Universities are infected with left wing idealogues; it is that they are structured and peopled with academics who see their role as being to turn out students who do not question the status quo, ie unthinking sausages.

Find my following research hard to get through to a now dumbed-down OLO:

Geneva and Hague Conventions now just a laughing stock

Caused by an elitist militaristic US now sidestepping the United Nations.

Formerly war-racked nations of Europe, now seem eager to keep mostly away from such problems, especially regarding the US.

Such earlier weaknesses said to have allowed little Israel to join the big powers, and now in possession of over 200 hundred nuclear rockets ready to go.

According to top historians the case of letting Israel begin an illegal nuclear programme so close to its being allowed to return to its original homeland after over two thousand years, has virtually left academic global historians dismayed to the point it is sometimes difficult to get an audience with them.

IT was Henry Kissinger who made a statement, now in US Government archives warning Richard Nixon that keeping quiet about Israel’s venture into atomic warfare, could greatly upset the future balance of power in the Middle East – Thus an Islamic resentment which surely helped to bring on 9/11.

Thus we now have the problem of Israel’s No 1 target, Iran, once former Persia, and now a greater nation of 70 million, in danger of an attack from tiny Israel, with the full weight of the GW Bush driven US Constitutional Prerogative behind her.

It is well to remember that the above has not got global backing nor the backing of the American people, similar to the plan of putting the plentiful remnants of Saddam’s quarter million Iraqi Sunni national guard later turned insurgents against American occupation - and now on the US military payroll as the major focus of the Great Iraqi Awakening.

For more info’ try the Washington Post.

Academia is quite likely the single-most cause of todays social problems. A long way behind in second place is religious fanaticism. The danger with Academia is the fact that it is utterly devoid of common sense & any sense of reality. In fact, any sense at all.

Good point individual, I reckon they should stop reading all those books, stop doing research, and stop trying to inspire students to think critically and simply use "common sense". It was good enough for Pauline!

It seems to me that, although the author of this article argues against the Young Libs' campaign, most of what she says actually agrees with what they are saying.

Online Opinion recently published an article by the campaign director of the Young Liberal campaign, Nigel Freitas (see "More teaching, less preaching", 13/5/07).

Many of the things the two authors are saying seem to match.

For example, Dr Gelbart says:

"Free speech doesn’t mean that the most forceful get to drown others out. But that’s different from foreclosing the opportunity for disagreement. If the possibility of disagreement over contestable questions were foreclosed, that would be a concern."

Nigel Freitas says "a common complaint we have received concerns the mandatory readings chosen by lecturers that may all argue for a particular point of view. For example, several readings on whether Australia needs a Bill of Rights all argued overwhelmingly in the affirmative, presenting students with an unbalanced perspective. In completing essays or exams, students are then required to only reference the materials the lecturer has specified, presenting little opportunity for dissent."

In other words, what Dr Gelbart agrees would "be a concern" is exactly what the Young Liberals are raising.

The problem here seems to be that the source for Dr Gelbart's article is an article that appeared in the Australian on 12 March. But looking at the Young Libs' campaign website www.makeeducationfair.org.au it seems to me that there are a lot of examples that are exactly the sort of thing that Dr Gelbart says would be unacceptable

Ah Rainier,
you've been conspicuous by your absence, been walkabout have you ?
Anyhow, you write of people learning & researching etc. etc. What's that got to do with your average useless academics ? The people who do all these noble things are those who have gone past basic BA & are actually respected & valued members of the community. When I say Academic (and many would agree) I'm referring to those who don't go on studying to become useful but those who keep on being a burden to society & produce nothing beside nonsensical things like PC & sexism. I'm fully aware of learned people doing good things. Sadly, they're outnumbered by learned people whose only sense is nonsense.
Have you really ever seriously tried to find out who makes everyday things work ? Not too many Accies to find among the effort-making revenue producing of any country.