One of the weekly quotes in the Something Different section of this site was:

 

   A shocking recent study has discovered that only 13% of Stanford professors are Republicans. The authors compare this to the 51% of 2004 voters who selected a Republican for President and argue this is “evidence of discrimination” and that “academic Republicans are being eradicated by academic Democrats”.

Scary as this is, my preliminary research has discovered some even more shocking facts. I have found that only 1% of Stanford professors believe in telepathy (defined as “communication between minds without using the traditional five senses”), compared with 36% of the general population. And less than half a percent believe “people on this earth are sometimes possessed by the devil”, compared with 49% of those outside the ivory tower. And while 25% of Americans believe in astrology (“the position of the stars and planets can affect people’s lives”), I could only find one Stanford professor who would agree. (All numbers are from mainstream polls, as reported by Sokal.)

   This dreadful lack of intellectual diversity is a serious threat to our nation’s youth, who are quietly being propagandized by anti-astrology radicals instead of educated with different points of view. Were I to discover that there were no blacks on the Stanford faculty, the Politically Correct community would be all up in arms. But they have no problem squeezing out prospective faculty members whose views they disagree with.

--Aaron Swartz, Intellectual Diversity at Stanford

 

The following is an exchange between me and a reader who reacted to it.

 

 

From: DF

To: Editor

Date: 23 Mar 2005

 

How many professors are advocating the relational database theory? Do we either have to assume that advocating the relational database theory is equivalent to believing in demon possession, or should we assume that Aaron Swartz's logic is wrong?

 

 

From: Fabian Pascal

To: DF

 

It should be obvious that Swartz's in not a theory, but a tongue-in-cheek dismissal of a so-called theory from the right. He just demonstrates their logical flaw [by using a similar argument that exposes the absurdity].

 

The theory you're talking about is logic and math. Should professors advocate this as a basis for database inferencing? You be the judge, but the fact is they do not. What does this say about them?

 

 

Ed. Note: In fact, they advocate “theories” not much different then telepathy and demon possession.

 

 

Posted 5/13/2005