Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

[applegrove]

Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

By NEIL GROSS at the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/opinion/why-are-the-highly-educated-so-liberal.html?_r=0

"SNIP.............


Today, with an ideological gap widening along educational lines in the United States, Dr. Gouldner’s arguments are worth revisiting. Now that so many people go to college, Americans with bachelor’s degrees no longer constitute an educational elite. But the most highly educated Americans — those who have attended graduate or professional school — are starting to come together as a political bloc.

Last month, the Pew Research Center released a study showing that nearly a third of those who went to graduate or professional school have “down the line” liberal views on social, economic and environmental matters, whereas this is true for just one in 10 Americans generally. An additional quarter of postgrads have mostly liberal views. These numbers reflect drastic change: While professionals have been in the Democratic column for a while, in 1994 only 7 percent of postgrads held consistently liberal political opinions.

Dr. Gouldner’s “new class” wasn’t exactly the contemporary intelligentsia, with its Washington policy analysts, New York editors and Bay Area biotech researchers. But it was close. Dr. Gouldner observed changes in the American occupational structure that he thought were altering the balance of power among social classes. As he saw it, beginning in the early 20th century, increasing complexity in science, technology, economic affairs and government meant that the “old” moneyed class no longer had the expertise to directly manage the work process or steer the ship of state.


Members of the old class turned to scientists, engineers, managers, human relations specialists, economists and other professionals for help. As these experts multiplied, they realized the extent of their collective power. They demanded fitting levels of pay and status and insisted on professional autonomy. A “new class” was born, neither owner nor worker.




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[applegrove]

1. No wonder the GOP is destroying education, trying to control it

or making it too expensive.

[tabasco]

8. Exactly right.

Propaganda works better on ignorant, gullible people.

Higher education teaches critical thinking skills.

[jamese777]

2. Well, a lotta folks

Got their higher education at a LIBERAL Arts college or university.
Its hard to find conservative arts schools. 😄

[BillZBubb]

3. But this only covers post-grad education.

I'm not sure that undergrads skew as liberal is those with advanced degrees. So, there is more to it than universities being liberal havens.

I would hate to see what was taught in a conservative arts school.

[Moliere]

4. Because truth has a liberal bias?

[BillZBubb]

5. Moreso than a bachelor's degree, an advanced degree requires

considerable skill in being able to research complex subject matter and make sense of the information. To me that's the key reason people with advanced degrees skew liberal.

[AngryAmish]

9. I got an advanced degree. I either spent it getting drunk or playing golf.

We all tell ourselves pleasant lies.

[BillZBubb]

11. Wow, you are an exception then.

I worked my tail off as did the people I knew. Perhaps it was the major.

Did you have to do a thesis? Have an oral defense? I can't believe that was easy in any way.

[AngryAmish]

14. Law. Read. Show up. Study for exam. Easy stuff.

Summer studying for the bar was the lowest handicap of my life.

[2cannan]

10. And a questioning nature and need to see the facts. nt

[malaise]

6. Knowledge facilitates progress

and ReTHUGs hate facts.

[AngryAmish]

7. Naw, it is the Puritan/Quaker ideals writ large.

Harvard was founded by Puritans. Someone never read Albion's Seed.

[Albertoo]

12. the 2007-8 great recession has pushed many further left

and some further right (Tea Party, Trump-Cruz supporters,..)

Academia is more likely to foster the first type of evolution.

[On the Road]

13. Educated People are More Accustomed to Thinking in Terms of Abstractions

Liberal ideas work better on an abstract level. (Communism works even better.)

Blue-collar workers and small businessmen are more likely to support policies that make sense at the level of their experience.