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Publishers Weekly
In his provocative newest, Gelernter (Judaism: A Way of Being), a professor of computer science at Yale, argues that the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s gave rise to Imperial Academia and to a liberal "Airhead Army" that has staged a "coup" on American education. Gelernter uses "American Jews" and a discussion of "mainstream culture" to help trace how the ousting of "the WASP elite" led to the "Great Reform" of America's colleges, swinging them inexorably toward the political Left. He proffers the term PORGIs ("post-religious, globalist intellectuals") to describe those who have taken the place of WASPs, and explains that these "intellectuals" are responsible for the fall of conservative influence on academia, and by extension on America's politics. For Gelernter, President Obama (a leading "PORGI Airhead: smart, educated, ignorant") is emblematic of this descent. Though the book's aim is to "take education away" from these "liberal airheads," the author too often relies on simplistic metaphors and propagandist catchphrases. While Gelernter's historical account of American educational reform is intriguing, his unapologetic partisanship will estrange anyone uncomfortable with the term "Obamacrats."(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Overview
If a man is articulate and intelligent, charming and successful and supremely self-confident why would you ever suspect that he’s also ignorant?--that he doesn’t know what he’s doing? How would you ever guess?
In President Obama’s case, you piece knowledge together out of the odd comment, strange choice of words, peculiar turn of phrase, puzzling decision. But the problem goes much deeper than Obama and will last much longer. The president is the first of a new breed, with a ...