Just because you're paranoid...

A number of people, including one Republican ex-Congressman James Rogan, have resigned from the advisory board of an alumni group of the University of California, Los Angeles, due to revelations that the group were effectively offering bribes to students to gain evidence to expose lecturers advancing "liberal" viewpoints in their teachings. Amazing: the spirit of McCarthy lives on.

This has been echoed by Noam Chomsky in a recent interview in the autumn 2005 issue of Thought and Action. Of course, one does not normally expect from that author a balanced, even-handed account of anything, his myriad other important talents notwithstanding; however, the stream of stories and anecdotes, like the one above, do combine to lend real credence to the claims that he and many others make.

I, like, perhaps, many others in Europe, still find these claims difficult to fully comprehend, so outlandish are they; it is only really those directly involved in the US university system that can really pass judgment on the current situation there. To what extent, then, do these worrying allegations represent a real and widespread practice?

All comments welcome; although we should, perhaps, re-enable anonymous posting on the blog. Just in case...