Some weeks ago, I commented on the long-term decline and fall of Harvard College into a non-scholarly, ideological outpost for progressivism. One knows that the Barbarians are at the Gate when first year undergraduates walk out of a class taught by a leading New Keynesian economist, claiming that it is anti-Keynesian in its thrust. One understands the depths of anti-scholarship plumbed by the Harvard undergraduate admissions office when it brings onto campus know-nothing students who do not even realize that they know nothing about the world-renowned faculty member that they choose to disrespect.
Do not send your daughters to Harvard College, Mrs. Worthington! They will join a better class of peers at the local community college.
The professor of economics disrespected by his students in this manner was Greg Mankiw, one of the world’s leading macroeconomists. Greg Mankiw is not a free-market economist, and I have some reservations about his adherence to New Keynesian principles. But Greg Mankiw is one of the world’s finest macroeconomists and, even at this stage in my career, I should be privileged to sit at his feet in a classroom and share his thoughts and ideas.
I cannot express satisfactorily in words the utter contempt that I feel for those Harvard undergraduates who walked out on the teachings of a maestro. It makes me shudder to contemplate the low-grade protoplasm that Harvard College is now inviting to share its cloisters.
On December 4, 2011, Greg Mankiw responded officially to the Harvard College walk-out in a New York Times column. The link is as follows:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/business/know-what-youre-protesting-economic-view.html?r=1
This a dignified response by a a very classy scholar. Would it not have been heart-warming if the Harvard College admissions officers had appended a word or two in support of this gifted professor, who has been abused by the trash that they have deliberately brought to the Harvard campus?
Tags: Greg Mankiw walk-out, Harvard College, know-nothings on the Harvard campus, New York Times, pro-Occupy ideologues
December 11, 2011 at 6:23 am |
I am very impressed by Dr. Mankiw’s calm and measured response in the NYTimes. I can only imagine how hurtful this ridiculous prank on the part of the students must have been.
These kids are so lucky to be able to be in this scholar’s classroom. And that is what they do with their good fortune? They should be ashamed of themselves.
I have to ask, too, if you are so terrified of hearing an opinion that differs from yours that you need to remove yourself physically from the classroom, then how strong is that opinion?
December 6, 2012 at 7:59 pm |
I share your dismay at the confusion of these neophyte students, however how did a NK scholar sign on to Romney’s five points which strikes me as freshwater economics?