I just watched the 5 am replay of Your World with Neil Cavuto. Ben Stein was on to talk about his new book. Now, Stein's Comedy Central game show was hilarious. He's a classic cult figure with the spot in Ferris Beuller's Day Off and those eye drop commercials. He's also an unabashed Republican.

In his book, he decries so-called "liberal negativism" in America, and talks about how he considers it a threat to the United States. The Cavuto interview was absurd and I do believe I've lost any respect for Stein. And it wasn't even the moronic Neil Cavuto doing the interview!

Stein's main points: Hollywood celebrities and Academia are so far left because of their dissociation with the real world. I might agree with that view on the celebrities, but their value was never in analyzing political situations, but as mouthpieces for specific political issues. However, Stein's assertion that those in academia are "angry" at the "real world" because of their inability to survive therein is absolutely ridiculous.

I have theories about the liberal bias in our universities. To acquire a PhD requires an intense devotion to the study of a particular field. (In fact, often a specific research problem within a subfield of a subfield... and so on!) Therefore, those with PhDs are (1) passionate about their subject and (2) highly knowledgeable in that subject. Therefore, their lack of "real world" (in Stein's eyes, that means financial) success is thus more likely a result of their devotion to the intensive study of their field, not their incompetence. Likewise, their liberal stance is, in all likelihood, at least in the social sciences, just result of a deep understanding of social factors, something reactionary conservatives tend to lack.

I specifically attack Stein's claims about academia because I'm pretty well bound to academia: I'm passionate about pursuing knowledge in many different fields. I'm a geek, as many of you know! At the same time, I'm not a bad coder if I do say so myself, so I have little doubt I could be successful in the IT world if I chose to go that route. (At least if guys like Stein didn't shift all the IT jobs overseas...) But I think his wider point of "liberal negativism" is also questionable.

Historically, the freedom to criticize ones government was a foundation of this country. Boston Tea Party, anyone? So-called "liberal negativists" love this country, and are exercising their right to criticize our government, as well as corporations and media outlets (and corporate media outlets).

Stein equates criticism of our country with hatred of our country. This idea, not the criticism itself, is the destructive meme that threatens the very foundation of this country. Yes, if liberals were actively undermining national security or ranting against our soldiers like they did in the Vietnam era, that would be destructive. But Stein and conservatives like him that denounce people who suggest that Bush, et al., are not, in fact, infallible in their foreign and domestic policy, these are the people that threaten our country, because they are attacking one of the freedoms that make our country so great: the ability to criticize it.