LuminousVoid

Michael Berube, Professor at Penn State, provides in a long blog post the text of a recent speech he gave. The speech is entitled “Recent Attacks on Academic Freedom: What’s Going On?”

He covers the definition and meaning of academic freedom, and how and why it is under attack. He connects it to attacks on the liberal/left side of the political spectrum, and addresses some difficult points about how these attacks are gaining traction — how these attacks are based on an at first compelling justification but in the end fall flat. The dangers of where these attacks are taking us are also highlighted. An excerpt:

There is no mystery why some of our critics loathe liberal campuses: it is not simply that conservatives control all three branches of government and are striking out at the few areas of American cultural life they do not dominate. That much is true, but it fails to capture the truly radical nature of these attacks on academe: for these are attacks not simply on the substance of liberalism (in the form of specific fiscal or social policies stemming from the Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society) but on procedural liberalism itself, on the idea that no one political faction should control every facet of a society.

So here is the last semester of law school. I’m glad. I can’t wait to get back into the real world of having a job. One of the little things that bugs me is the runaround at law school. Every hour or so I have to pack up my stuff, and move somewhere else — whether it’s in class or out of class. I miss having an office. I also sometimes need about a 5-15 minute nap after lunch. I got that when I had an office.

Oddly enough, last Fall was the semester I got the best grades in. And it was the one I did the least work during. I can’t think why. At first I thought it was maybe becauseI was competing with other students who had already gotten jobs — they didn’t care. But that wouldn’t make much sense: I was competing with 2Ls and 3Ls, just like last year. Maybe I did ‘trim the fat’ and just do the focused bit of work that was needed? There was a big crunch at the end and with a bit more time my grades could have improved even more.

Maybe I took classes I find easy and interesting? Copyright was an interesting topic, but poorly taught. Consumer protection was a neat topic and well taught — though sometimes the heavy statutes made class dry. Antitrust was kind of a joke: a potentially very intellectual and rewarding subject horribly taught. And legislation was fascinating, though at times bewildering. Maybe my classes didn’t need to have work during the semester, and only needing outlining and exam prep, I focused on that? Not quite. I did read for some of my more interesting classes. Who knows.

Sunday’s Washington Post had a very nice introduction to the issue of “Network Neutrality.” Wikipedia defines “network neutrality” as:

Network neutrality is a principle of internet regulation with particular relevance to the regulation of broadband internet access. It suggests that (1) to maximize human welfare, information networks ought be as neutral as possible between various uses or applications, and (2) if necessary, government ought to intervene to promote or preserve the neutrality of the network.

The basic idea is that whether I go to google.com or msn.com for my searching, the data that I send to the search engine, and the data that it sends back to me is treated the same no matter which search engine I use. Without network neutrality, an ISP between me and my search engine could speed up or slow down my traffic depending on the deals that they have struck with google or msn. I fear they might even go so far as to block traffic. How would you feel if you went to check on your hotmail email and then was told “in order to provide you with better service, verizon has partnered with gmail email service?”

The internet was designed to be decentralized — with decisions about content being made at the edges of the network: by you the reader deciding what you want to read, and by someone who hosts a website deciding what to put online. Now this is being threatened. The fight will come over the next year or so as Congress starts on rewritting the telecommunications act. Internet users should start preparing for this fight. The small consumer organizations are going to need all the help they can get. Thankfully they’ll have content providers on their side too.

Last nite on a bit of a whim I went to see “Monkeyboy,” an original comedy about a giant foul mouthed bird that drives everyone near it to a jelly-like state of nervous breakdown. I can’t remember the last time I went to the theater, but I was overjoyed at this show. It was sillyness after sillyness, delivered with energy and intensity and sharp accuracy. That cockatoo is still in my head, snapping its head left and right, paws up, waiting to pounce on the next weak will to come within its Foxnews-watching gaze.

I’m going to start staying on the lookout for this sort of stuff. It was so fun. The show runs until the end of January. Try to catch it.

In the Metrobus today was a printout hung up behind the driver. An 8.5 X 11 piece of paper taped up — as if by the driver:

The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.

Psalm 37:14.

I wonder if its a ‘quote of the day’ sort of thing by the driver? I can certainly read a lot of the contemporary political situation into that quote. Do other riders? Does the poster of the quote?