Good Idea? 60 Minutes Show - CBS News

[Tom McCurdy]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/11/60minutes/rooney/main616858.shtml

I was watching this yesterday on 60 mintues and thought... wow that seems like finally a smart thing to do. I had thought of something very similar to it at one time, just never elaborated it to the point of the speaker in the show. I was wondering if you thought this was a good idea...

I was debating if this was the right section... I went for General Philosophy since I figured it was philosophy of the government... feel free to move it.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

They wouldn’t be picked by Congress or elected by the rest of us.
They’d be chosen by the people who know them best - other college professors.

I'm defenitely in favour except this part seems a bit tricky
Allthough I agree that college professors should decide, we would need some way to stop them from favouring friends.

Members of the Smart Board wouldn’t be Republican, and they wouldn’t be Democrat. They’d be too smart to be either.

lovely

 

[Tom McCurdy]

It seems like it should have been done a long time ago...
you don't need a fasade for everything, sometimes you need a brain.

 

[Andromeda321]

Members of the Smart Board wouldn’t be Republican, and they wouldn’t be Democrat. They’d be too smart to be either.

I'm trying to figure out exactly what this statement means and I really have yet to figure it out. I mean any person who's going to give advice is going to have an opinion somewhere down the line and all told those opinions would favor one party over the other. And seriously now, what is meant here by "too smart to be either"? That if a professor is a member of one party or another (and many ones I know are) then that professor is stupid? Or that there's no way a professor would reach the conclusion through intelligence to be a member of a party?
Another important issue that has to be raised here as long as we're talking about professors is they tend to be liberal. I can understand why: a humanities professor at Yale does not live in the same environment as a Nebraska farmer. So who would rather have more expertise regarding something going on in that farmer's community? The farmer of course: that's why he is the person who elects the government who best represents his needs. (The same goes for the Yale professor of course.)
So knowing the way the professors would likely vote and noticing which news organization posted the said article I can't help but wonder how this is going to help the government out short of eating up more taxpayer dollars to have these professors sit around giving advice. Because respected professors already have their voices heard on the national and international level thanks to their expertise (for example Condolezza Rice was a political science professor at Stanford) and they are already listened to (who's always interviewed in the paper or on TV when something happens? a professor most likely or some other expert). I don't see how having a bunch of them sitting around giving advice will do anything short of keeping them out of the academic loop and depriving students the chance to learn from them.
Sorry for the political overtones in the general philosophy forum and all but from where I stand that's how I see it.

 

[etc]

andro, i believe your quotation means to say that phDs are above partisan politics. it's probably meant to be cheeky. ;)

 

[honestrosewater]

Yeah, I think this was a joke.
The government already consults "experts" constantly, and if anyone wants to share their opinion with the gov, they are free to do so and can even have their opinion put in the record to which they can later point and say, "I told you so."
For anyone who's interested in how the US government actually works, start by visiting firstgov.gov (it's a pain to navigate, but is loaded with information- see the contact page if you have something to say), http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html , and How Our Laws Are Made. Watching http://www.cspan.org/ is also great; If you watch the Senate or House floor proceedings, pay attention when there is a message delivered from the other house- they have to bow- it's hilarious. You can also watch some committee hearings and see the experts testify for yourself. C-SPAN also occasionally broadcasts the British Parliament's proceedings which are much more amusing.