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The Gentle, Obscure, Rocking of the Left

5/9/2016

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Headlines from the last few months have highlighted the chaos and disarray of right-wing America. Conservatives, or (supposedly synonymously) Republicans are described as rattled, in-revolt, shaken, rocked, disoriented, etc. over Trump's successful campaign. And, even if "they" deserve a Trump candidacy, liberals, moderates, libertarians and anybody else who cares should be concerned about this mangling of one tradition of American democracy. But that's not why I'm writing. I want to highlight something else: the gentle, obscure, rocking of the left. It's not as noisy, colorful or belligerent (okay, over at FOX it is in fact noisy, colorful and belligerent), but while conservatives are currently writing some piercing introspective and high-profile pieces, a little something is also going on leftward.

Here's the thing. As an educator who has worked at two Christian institutions, I can tell you that many educators at relatively conservative schools do an excellent job of challenging our own presuppositions; those ideas that are taken-for-granted-and-never-adequately-questioned by conservative communities. These ideas might relate to gender, politics, theology, sexuality, economics, race and ethnicity, but they are interrogated, and when conservative students want to state their opinions with a belligerent dose of ignorant arrogance, they are asked to think deeply, see the other side of things, etc. Granted, conservative ideas may be given strong social and argumentative support in the end, but they aren't allowed to go unchallenged. I've been less-sure that this happens on the left. A rash of articles, including this one in the NYTimes, indicates that conservatives are nearly as barred from state-funded higher-education as atheists would be from private-Christian higher-education. 

Now, recently I have seen a few articles indicating that somewhere on the left is some introspection about its own exclusions and presuppositions, the kind of reflexive scholarship that pomo sociologist Pierre Bourdieu would have considered essential.

Here's a sampling (a lot of this is from the world of social science):
At the center of it is Jonathan Haidt's research, now well represented at his Heterodox Academy site. There's a lot of content there, but you might also want to watch his Ted Talk below.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/the-lefts-own-war-on-science/ 
​

http://theweek.com/articles/441474/how-academias-liberal-bias-killing-social-science​

And of course there is the recent scrutiny of free-speech limits in higher-ed and the coddling of students so they don't have to face disagreeable disagreements. This is now a contested narrative (of course, and why not?), but I don't find the contestations very logical or as data-driven as Haidt piece below and for anecdotal power, check out the Vox piece.
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/3/8706323/college-professor-afraid
including another "Haidt piece"
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/
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What makes us who we are? A fruitful class exercise.

11/20/2010

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What makes us who we are? This is one of the most fruitful questions I ask students in many of my classes. 
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This isn't St. Sebastian. It's each of us.
I draw a stick-figure on the blackboard. Inevitably, one student will say "our personality," to which I respond, "So where does our personality come from? What are the most basic building blocks of our humanity?" Then the answers start flowing.
"Genetics" "Physiology" "Biology" "Brain chemistry"
Me: Good. How many of those things do we choose?
Students: None.
Me: Right.  What else influences us?
Students: Family. Schools. Neighborhood. Church. Culture. Geography.
Me: Good. How many of THOSE things do we choose?
Students: None.
Me: Good.  We could also talk about nutritional habits, which are significantly cultural but we have a bit more "choice," our friendships, some of which seem to "just happen" while others seem more selective... 
 Other things come up.  We discuss advertising and other media which no one wants to personally admit being influenced by but everyone thinks other people are influenced.  I often ask how many of them seriously considered NOT going to college.  It is usually very few.  We talk about different kinds of experiences (positive and traumatic), teachers and youth ministers that they did not choose but who had significant influence.
At this point many of them are reeling and ready to become full blown socio-biological Calvinists.
Then I ask some version of this question:
"Do you think people decide to be (fill in the blank - racists, murderers, thieves, child-abusers)?"
Some students at this point might say: "Well no one MAKES them do it!" to which I reply, "So why do some people make those "decisions" and others don't?" 
At this point, the exercise has a number of directions we can take it.  The most basic is this:
"We all showed up in this classroom together having made very few (if any) real autonomous choices for ourselves.  At best, we chose from a very particular and narrow range of options, given that the most determinative aspects of our decision making capacity AND the menu of options were NOT under our control.  We are who we are, so let's try to be honest about our perspectives in here and give each other grace.  Let's allow each other to try out new ideas and perspectives without labeling or feeling like we have to embrace a whole new identity.  We are not fully formed, so we can challenge each other to think differently.  You each are now an unchosen influence on the others." 
I'll demonstrate some other directions to take this exercise in future posts.

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    Matt Hunter, Ph.D

    Multidisciplinary religious scholar and practitioner

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