Academic Iron Curtain

"You are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind."
--Morpheus (The Matrix)

Thomas Sowell compares the lack of idea diversity on college campuses today to the Iron Curtain era. During the Cold War, communists sought to restrict the flow of outside ideas to their citizens, lest the natives might discover better ways to live.

Sowell suggests that the modern academy seeks to restrict the flow of ideas as well thru practices such as hiring faculty whose ideologies align with the political left.

During the Cold War, the Iron Curtain was circumvented by outside sources such as Voice of America that broadcast to the people of the Soviet bloc so that they were not completely isolated. By helping people see that better opportunities were available to them, these outside providers of information helped bring down the Berlin Wall.

While acknowledging the array of electronic resources that could serve to bring down the Academic Iron Curtain for college students, Sowell seems to think that it will take an organized effort, a modern day Voice of America, to point learners toward those resources.

Not sure the effort has to be that organized, Dr Sowell. All it really takes is a few inquiring minds coupled with today's social networking technology.

Seems to me that everything we need is right in front of us.