Here's a refreshing profile of a seemingly likable university gadfly, one whose positions have drawn the spotlight of the national media and the contempt of his peers. Professor Adams is an unapologetic conservative, but kudos to him for not letting a zeal for his ideas cloud his respect for the functions and openness of the university. Too many conservatives and libertarians - frustrated by years of quietly enduring the radical anti-Western tilt of their professors - strike out on witch hunts of their own, eager to find 'liberal professors' and hold them up as pariahs, as if ones political leanings are relevant to the degree of ones scholarship. In that respect, conservatives make the same mistake as the misguided faculty members who attempt to squash dissent within their classrooms. Adams rightly rebukes such efforts:
Surprisingly, at least to those who think all conservatives have a bugaboo about liberal bias on campus, Adams doesn't care about political leanings. "People say, 'We need to fight against bias,' " he says. "Well, everybody's biased. I don't want to protect [students] against discomfort. Bias is just an annoyance. It's the fly in your barbecue sauce, not the bear in your tent."
That's why Adams sometimes declines to strap on his armor and gallop off to other campuses to do battle. He gets requests for help on a daily basis, "but a lot of them are stupid," he says.
Your professor's a liberal? So what? As Adams likes to say, the Constitution doesn't protect you from other people's disturbing opinions.
Still, it's too bad that Adam's influence extends only as far as a small NC state school (UNC-Wilmington). Think-tanks and research organizations have come calling, which is good, because he'll likely never again find work at a university.
Comments