Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] [POLITICS] Iranian leader Ahmadinejad calls for secular, liberal professors to leave universities

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Tue, 5 Sep 2006, Jonathan King wrote:

> On 9/5/06, Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> > For a moment I thought he was talking about American Universities!  It
> > would have empied out MU.
>
> What he is actually asking for in the big picture is an end to any 
> meaningful opposition to the current regime. As usual, the best place to 
> start is in the universities. As such, this purge (if they actually 
> perform it) is in a long tradition of attacking academia that saw its 
> more notable proponents in Hitler and Stalin in the 20th century. 
> Secular or not, liberal or not, real academics believe in intellectural 
> freedom and open discourse, which is the last thing any would-be 
> dictator wants.


So true.  One good reason to start at the universities is that university 
professors will oppose a totalitarian dictator and they will encourage 
their students to follow suit.

In Poland a decade ago, I know that professors were paid far less than cab 
drivers and their use of photocopy machines was very closely monitored to 
prevent them from producing leaflets.

Things are not going well in Iran right now!

Mike

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