“Unfortunately, the idea that a small, enlightened elite should guide the ignorant people to what is good for them, even at the cost of misleading them, has become more prevalent in America.”—Luigi Zingales, a professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the University of Chicago.
Current Wisdom
An Allegory For Loss
“Why is it that the language of allegory, once generally understood by our culture as a whole, has been banished from our nation’s sacred sites so completely that one needs to spot naïve roadside memorials to find unambiguous statements of grief and love?”— Michael J. Lewis, the Faison-Pierson-Stoddard Professor of Art at Williams
Lawn-Mowing Myth
“There is a myth that low-skilled immigration is good for the economy and yet in areas where there are no low-skilled workers, their laws get mowed and the dishes in their restaurants get cleaned.”—Barry Chiswick, George Washington University economist at the Cato Institute on April 26, 2012
Inverse Value
“The value of an industry is inversely proportional to the number of awards it gives itself”— humorist and blogger David Burge
Five Star Failures
If our students are burdened with oppressive loans, why do so many university rec centers look like five-star spas?—Victor Davis Hansen
What OWS Means to me
If parents abdicate all responsibility to liberal professors, there’s a good chance the graduate will come home spouting liberal claptrap and looking forward to his or her next Occupy Wall Street rally.—Henry Olsen of the American Enterprise Institute.
Bias, what bias?
“In every documentary, the lessons are always what we want it to be.”—CNN’s Soledad O’Brien in an interview published in the May 2012 issue of the American School Board Journal
Mediocrity for Dollars
The dramatic increase in college president salaries has not produced better leaders.—John K. Wilson of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
On Way to Funeral
“Is Western Civilization on the road to its own funeral because of the birth dearth?”—Veteran journalist Wes Vernon in a column for the Fitzgerald-Griffen Foundation
Academic Honesty about waste
Everyone who is honest about academe knows that colleges and universities tend to be wasteful and plagued by expensive redundancies.— Andrew Delbanco, professor of humanities and director of American studies at Columbia University.