In Defense of the Ivy League
Yes, I read “The Daily Beast” site. The name is refreshing and the reporting (yes, reporting is still a profession) is above average. Reporting, professional investigative reporting, is needed now more than ever in our world. This article by Peter Beinart caught my eye for a couple of reasons. First, it highlights the ongoing “anti-intellectual” crusade that continues to wash over our country. I understand the anger that supports the perception that smart people in the government and in the financial sector are the cause behind our problems. I would agree that some, most likely, gamed the system to benefit themselves, or a small group, in our capitalists caste system, and that they have successfully gotten so many of us in debt or distracted that few can afford to take to the streets in protest. Well played. But that should not keep us from seeking out the smartest among us for service in offices where either by natural character or because of the office itself people act as honorable agents for the good of us all.
Second, it offers another thinking perspective for mainline Christianity while it is shifting its consumer attitudes toward those educated for ministry and ordained leadership in the Church as well as how persons are educated for ministry. I continue to think that an educated laity is the best “reformation” movement in the life of Christendom. Here is a paragraph from Bienart’s article. Click the title to read more.
In Defense of the Ivy League
by Peter Bienart | The Daily Beast | May 14, 2010“There’s about to be a backlash against the Ivy League lock on the court,” explained David Brooks, this week. In fact, it has already begun. From left to right, just about the only thing that liberals and conservatives have agreed upon since Elena Kagan’s nomination is that there are too many pointy-heads on the Supreme Court. “I think it would be good to have a nominee that stood up against powerful interests like the elite law schools, which are a powerful interest in the U.S. and have done a lot of damage,” explained William Kristol recently.
I’d like to propose a backlash against the backlash. (And yes, shoot me, I attended an Ivy League college myself.) When critics bemoan the fact that if Kagan gets confirmed, every Supreme Court justice will be tainted by the Ivy League, what they generally mean is that the Supremes won’t have anything in common with average Americans. But in one sense, they’re not supposed to.