- Charles C.W. Cooke on "Occupy"

Why do I imagine the girl he mentions is Korean? I'm sure it's just bigotry on my part:

This was not, as I initially assumed, a means of arguing that the educated are effectively disenfranchised, but instead the overture to an asinine debate about whether the very act of one man imparting knowledge to another is sufficiently hierarchical to be undesirable. One man even described the “traditional” means of conveying information to another as “intellectual violence.” His audience lapped it up; the consensus being that education would work better if we just shared our experiences with one another and valued each contribution equally. A woman who claimed to be a “radical teacher” added that each person should be free to absorb the facts that best fit his “narrative” without outside interference. This approach, it need not be affirmed, is the path not only to the establishment of 2 + 2 = 5 as a “truth” that stands on equal footing to 2 + 2 = 4, but to the labeling of anyone who has the temerity to disagree as a bigot.

To her immense credit, one girl — a student in her early twenties — kept pushing back at this idea. “I want to go to college to learn things,” she said. “I want to be taught by people who know more than me. That’s the point!” But she was alone, at least among the vocal. “Who are you to decide who knows more than someone else? Who are you to decide what is right and wrong?” came the replies. Well, she answered, “I’m a physics major. My teacher does know more than me.” At this there was a moment of welcome silence — and then she blanched at all the attention her apostasy was inviting and asked the mediator to change the topic, which he did.

I hope Charles got her name, she can probably earn valuable resume experience as John Derbyshire's research assistant. Apostasy to liberal dogma being his primary means of income generation these days.

Please remember that these kids not only get huge subsidies already, but are gathered together today to complain that the subsidies they're getting at the moment are insufficient and that we should be forced to give them even more. And the media tells you this is the 99%.

If ever there were an argument for pulling all education subsidies, these people are it. Learn all the post deconstructionist nonsense that you like but don't command me to pay for it.