Reason.tv: Lee Doren - Author of "Please Enroll Responsibly" and How the World Works

Lee Doren is a former think tanker who now runs the YouTube channel How the World Works. He's also taken to digital self-publishing; his first ebook, Please Enroll Responsibly: Avoiding Indoctrination at College, was released in August.

Doren has described the book as a "helmet for higher education," and says he was inspired to write it by emails from parents and students asking him how to deal with an overtly progressive college faculty.

Doren also describes the creation of How the World Works, which he started in 2008. Since then, his series of two-minute videos about his political and economic beliefs has garnered 36,000 subscribers and invitations to speak to a variety of web and broadcast news outlets.

Interview by Reason's Nick Gillespie Shot and edited by Joshua Swain.

About 4.14 minutes long.

Go to Reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel for automatic notifications when new material goes live.

Comments

[Agriculture = Four Horsemen]

That's how the world works.

[That's Nothing]

Fiona Ma is all the rave.

[#OccupyReason]

Reality has a liberal bias.

[Spencer]

I know I'm feeding the troll, but could you explain this and what you think it means?

I'm confused by it, as it seems like nonsense.

[#Occupy Reason]

We are the 99%.

As soon as the land of any country has all become PRIVATE PROPERTY, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce.

~Adam Smith
Wealth of Nations

[Spencer]

Ok, that doesn't at all explain anything about your first statement.

Also, keep reading, " He must then pay for the licence to gather them; and must give up to the landlord a portion of what his labour either collects or produces." Sounds a lot like the government is the landlord, no?

[Agriculture = Four Horsemen]

We must understand, then, that collapse is the end of civilization?and not necessarily the end of humanity. Those who depend on civilization for their survival will perish along with it; those who are able to make themselves independent of civilization will enjoy the foragers' bounty, and as much an assurance of survival as this world ever provides.

If survival is so easy, why are we facing such a catastrophic die-off? That sad fact is a testimony to the power of acculturation. The ultimate cause of death will be lack of food. Violence or disease may constitute proximate causes, but these will be ultimately the result of the contracting flow of energy through society. Lack of food will give rise to food riots; riots will give way to mobs and gangs and ultimately, the grisly cannibalism that seems to mark the final moments of every collapsing civilization. Before that, nation-states will wage war for the resources they need, invading oil-rich countries and maneuvering against each other for those fields. Of course, lack of nutrition inhibits the immune response, and the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," historically, have always ridden together: war disrupts the growing and harvest seasons, leading to famine, which in turn leads to pestilence, and all of them to death.

Thesis #28: Humanity will almost certainly survive.
http://rewild.info/anthropik/thirty/

Also see:

Agricultural Apocalypse: Eating Our Way to Oblivion
http://www.brooklynrail.org/20.....-our-way-t

[Kiss Civilization Goodbye]

[rac]

Back in the early 80's, when I finished college after my stint in the Army, I found you had to engage your professor in dialogue to understand whether he/she was a doctrinaire left-winger, or just a leftie. There were no other types in the Poli-Sci/Econ faculty. With the former, you adopted their views and wrote things you didn't believe in and got As. With the latter, you wrote things you could write somewhat honestly, as long as you could support it with rational argument. And hoped you got at least B+.

[Metazoan]

I had a bunch of quite lefty profs in college, though I was never marked down on essays arguing for global free trade or other free market goodies....

[Spencer]

I would argue with a government prof who tried to TEACH that progressive tax systems were natural and better. He did not present this as opinion. I told him that I thought he was taking advantage of his position in front of several thousand 18/19 year olds every year. He didn't even know he was doing it!

[Spencer's Prof]

If the left doesn't exploit their authority over the 18/19 year olds, the right will!

[PantsFan]

Amnesty International wants the federal government to arrest former U.S. president George W. Bush when he visits British Columbia next week.

The human-rights group said both Canadian and international law require Ottawa to detain Mr. Bush and investigate him for war crimes and torture.

"It is incumbent upon Canadian officials to investigate, arrest and prosecute former president Bush for torture when he arrives in Canada a week tomorrow," said Alex Neve, Amnesty Canada's secretary-general.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....le2198617/

[George]

All the sick shit I made Laura and the girls do, and Amnesty wants my head for the torture and war crimes?

[This Dave]

Just curious...when's the last time Amnesty International called for the arrest of Fidel Castro?

[galthran]

Avoiding indoctrination is easy - just get a degree that's useful and not bullshit-based (science, math, medicine, etc). I don't remember discussing politics once during my chemistry degrees!

[Realist]

This^^^

[?]

I had a bunch of quite lefty profs in college, though I was never marked down on essays arguing for global free trade or other free market goodies....

Free-trade rhetoric isn't a strong signal of resistance to leftism. The Atlantic and The Economist are full of it, and they're trusty establishment left-holes. And...look around you.

Here's my story (abridged).

One time, in a paper about Kafka's parables, I quoted a pertinent psychological observation from Ayn Rand. Now, I fucking hate Ayn Rand. But it was a good and right quote that I happened to have read recently, so I used it.

That paper being handed back to me in gruff silence was the end of my star pupil status?and of my getting "Welcome to Harvard graduate school!" grades on anything in my field of study.

Ladder up. Done. No "Professor ?, PhD, Chairman of the Dept of Asshole Studies." Out.

On one suspicion of witchcraft.

[Tony]

Nobody has figured it all out by freshman year in college. If you're conservative, you should welcome progressive professors who will challenge your worldview. That's kind of what college is about.

Worldviews don't need protection. They'll stand on their own if they're strong enough.

[Bean Counter]

So, you would say "If you're an infantry man, you should welcome enemy mortar fire as a test of your foxhole building ability"? The problem isn't that conservative students don't want their world view challenged, they would just like to be free to express their ideas and explore other explanations than the orthodox left without fear of being flunked out or tarred and feathered in class. You know, academic freedom? The stuff the left screamed for in the 60's when I was in college and many professors were conservative, but turned against once they got control.

[Tony]

I'm saying maybe conservatives should get better ideas if they want to be more represented in academia. Instead of constantly asserting the need for affirmative action.

[Bean Counter]

"Better ideas" - like the brilliance we see coming out of the OWS?

[Spencer]

No need for affirmative action, just equal treament and a rational argument from the otherside without ad hominems and straw men.

[Tony]

I'm not even sure what the argument is. What's with the assumption that professors are constantly indoctrinating kids with political speech? My lit teachers taught lit, my philosophy teachers taught philosophy. Even my political science professors never once got overtly political, that I can recall.

See I think the problem is with (what's called) conservatism. Even concrete historical and scientific facts are challenged as biased because they don't fit a certain worldview. I do find it fascinating--the right has appropriated the grievances and language of the left (they need affirmative action for themselves because of institutional bias), but in support of ideology, which they don't want challenged. I mean, what are we talking about here? Climate change deniers should be given a platform in science departments?

[Tony]

One professor touched me on the pee pee once.....he got a good student review at the end of the semester.

[Spencer]

Tony,

when and where did you go to college?

Also, if your proffessors shared your world view, you wouldn't really notice the bias would you?

Have you not seen the case studies (or questioned the stats) showing that the majority of profs are lefties- and the ones who aren't and are found out are punished/ostracized?

[Tony]

Not saying where but I went to a good private college for undergraduate and graduated in 2005.

I imagine it is a challenge for doctrinaire conservatives to sit through class after class of a liberal prof lecturing on contemporary politics. But I just don't think that happens, and I don't know of any evidence for it. I accept that most professors (at least in liberal arts) are liberals, but that's kind of the way it is with academia. And I know of no study that shows professors being punished for political views or there being political allegiance tests in hiring practices. I'd be happy to look at any you link to.

My question is why someone would be a doctrinaire conservative just out of high school. Or why someone thinks college is about having one's high school worldview confirmed. I was a liberal by the time I got to college, but my assumptions were challenged and my beliefs altered over and over again, about far more than politics, which was really only the subject of conversation outside of the classroom.

[Brandon]

You just ignored the responses and repeated the same thing you said before.

[Guest]

Frick, Frack, WTF!

Jerry Seinfeld style:

Ever notice on cable television we went from frick to frack when it comes to fuck?

Why?

Frick was a much better word to use for fuck than frack because frick rhymes with d!ck and pr!ck of which both are used for fucking.

And don't even get me started about those American Autumn Occupy Wall St. protestors.

I don't think there's any c'mon sense left in the world so goodbye. I'm on my way to protest fracking shale because its fricking the environment.

[Intelligent Design]

conservative students don't want their world view challenged, they would just like to be free to express their ideas

LOL

Stupid ideas gonna be stupid.

[cynical]

True. Hell, most 18 years should spend a year or four in an area run by the Scientologists, try to see things from their perspective. Can't see that going wrong.

You may find that statement unfair, but I don't think so. Cults work by isolating people from old social networks; preying on the vulnerable or young and inexperienced; exposing their victims to strong, rigid beliefs in an atmosphere of constant social pressure; and holding very real consequences over their heads.

While academia doesn't deliberately set out to do that, it ends up about the same -- young, impressionable barely-adults, most of whom are away from home (and their family and most of their old friends) for the first time. Orthodox left-wing faculty. And the fact that going through life without a degree is much harder for most people; they can literally wreck you if they decide they don't like you. Even a very rational person would decide to say what they want to hear; a weak-willed person would come to believe it.

None of that is a test of worldview, it's a test of psychology.

[Federal Dog]

"While academia doesn't deliberately set out to do that,"

My twenty-two years of university teaching experience says you are dead wrong.

[Bean Counter]

And, yes, I know I'm feeding the troll.

[Realist]

What's wrong with science classes? The help to teach how to think straight.

[Realist]

Should read. They help...

[Marshall Gill]

What is it with the dropped "y" in "they"? I regularly mean to type "they" and end up only typing "the" and don't notice until the preview (if then)

[Realist]

Mark of a genius.

[T-shirt]

I think that because academics in the liberal arts tend to have a view that I would define as classic equal rights liberalism -the idea that we are equal under the eyes of the government- I believe that many confuse this anti-capitalism because they for example call attention to the violent state repression of say Mexican-American Union workers. They aren't criticizing capitalists per se just saying that the government was protecting the economic security of certain individuals and that's obviously a bad thing. Their research in sociology, history and economics also certainly problematizes the notion that people on welfare are lazy and not victims of market forces beyond their control. They realize that no one institution is infallible and that perhaps their is room for improvement in our social structures. White conservatives I would argue instead seem to take an ahistorical approach to life. That there was a time when things were good or we have reached a culmination of where society no longer needs to change. We live in a complex and ever shifting world. Libertarians will be a footnote in the political history of the United States 200 years from now like the abolitionists of the 1800's. I mean capitalism may no longer exist hell this country may not exist. The whole world system may be different so this whole ontological commitment to the free market libertarians obsess over as the only valid economic institution by which a persons character may be judged is almost pointless. Like it or not every single Libertarian on this forum is incredibly dependent on the federal government.

[Axe]

"Like it or not, every Libertarian in this forum is incredibly dependent on the federal government."

Thank you for that sentiment, Mr. Rousseau. Thank you for perpetuating the liberal myth that centralized government is necessary for feeding the hungry and clothing the poor. Perhaps in 200 years, Americans will be watched and protected by the benevolent Big Brother, having realized that free thought and free exercise were mankind's greatest fallacies: but for now, do
note that independent people like myself will die before such a world is created.

[T-shirt]

I think that because academics in the liberal arts tend to have a view that I would define as classic equal rights liberalism -the idea that we are equal under the eyes of the government- I believe that many confuse this anti-capitalism because they for example call attention to the violent state repression of say Mexican-American Union workers. They aren't criticizing capitalists per se just saying that the government was protecting the economic security of certain individuals and that's obviously a bad thing. Their research in sociology, history and economics also certainly problematizes the notion that people on welfare are lazy and not victims of market forces beyond their control. They realize that no one institution is infallible and that perhaps their is room for improvement in our social structures. White conservatives I would argue instead seem to take an ahistorical approach to life. That there was a time when things were good or we have reached a culmination of where society no longer needs to change. We live in a complex and ever shifting world. Libertarians will be a footnote in the political history of the United States 200 years from now like the abolitionists of the 1800's. I mean capitalism may no longer exist hell this country may not exist. The whole world system may be different so this whole ontological commitment to the free market libertarians obsess over as the only valid economic institution by which a persons character may be judged is almost pointless. Like it or not every single Libertarian on this forum is incredibly dependent on the federal government.

[KMA]

Dear God, we had to see that crap twice...

[babygirl]

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[babygirl]

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