June 21, 2005

God and Man at Yale

I have just finished Bill Buckley's God and Man at Yale. A fantastic read for young conservatives. It's funny how similar are the tone and style of his and my book. Don't interpret this as my comparing the quality of the books, but I sense that what he felt in 1951, I felt in 2004. I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in the problems of professors who teach collectivism and socialism. (Pretty much 9 out of 10 in the social sciences.)

8 comments:

ChairoNoMe9390k said...

What is this book about?

Brendan Steinhauser said...

My book? Or Buckley's book?

You can Google both to find reviews.

ChairoNoMe9390k said...

I read a few Amazon reviews of Buckley's book. So what's the crux of Buckley's argument? That we should teach "Judeo-Christian" values in a secular school?

Judeo-Christian is a misnomer, both Jews and Christians have said so.

It's ironic that the Baptists were the ones fighting for seperation of church and state in the founding of our nation and yet now the Baptists are doing the exact opposite. Do people not remember that the more government gets involved in religion, the more it's corrupted?

Brendan Steinhauser said...

Are you being serious? Buckley is not Baptist. He is Catholic.

His argument is that Yale, being a PRIVATE school, should live up to the standards of its charter. This includes teaching the importance of religious values in the curriculum. Yale is not "the government", so you argument in relation to the government is inapplicable.

ChairoNoMe9390k said...

So how does that apply to professors that "teach collectivism and socialism", especially those at secular universities (CSUSB being one)?

Brendan Steinhauser said...

CSUSB is "secular"? How so? It is a state-funded school, but does it naturally follow that the school is therefore secular?

Should an economics professor be allowed to teach a failed economic system? Should a biologist teach Intelligent Design in a Biology class? These are questions we need to consider. I, for one, believe that ID has no place in Biology, just as Socialism has no place in American Economics classes.

What do you think?

ChairoNoMe9390k said...

Well, like I said before, socalism is very much a part of our capitalist economic system. Tuition at the majority of colleges and universities is subsidized by the government. This is a socialist idea, and definitely a socialist idea you have benefited from.

Let's say socialism is as you say, a failed economic system. Not only should socialism be taught in an economics class, but so should feudalism! Teaching these different systems can only deepen the understanding of current economic systems, such as capitalism.

Capitalism, if not properly practiced with a heavy dose of socialist ideas, essentially becomes a form of feudalism. Without things like free education and subsidized housing, poor people have no means to elevate themselves in the economic system. The more and more corporations are allowed to continually merge and practice monopolistic business practices, the more free enterprise suffers. In this extreme form of capitalism, poor people might as well be serfs working for a lord (a corporation).

Francisco Gonzalez said...

If we want to go "feudal", I suggest the last blogger needs to go pick up a copy of F.A. Hayek's, The Road to Serfdom. If you can't afford it, I'll mail you a free copy.