Larry and the Intractables
Harvard President Larry Summer's March 15 indictment by his faculty on for insinuating that women somehow lacked the intelligence to become serious scientific professionals, was only the latest in a series of confusing situations in which a person of high place is put down for reasons that don't line up with the facts, and where the punishment doesn't seem to fit the crime.
The man was speaking his mind in a place renowned for it's alleged openness to opinions of various stripes, even with volatile issues such as this one. Still, everyone knows that Harvard is in fact a set of competing forces calculated to bring down unpopular opinions, especially if they are right of the academic crowd. But deny the president free speech? How can this be? Especially as psychologists expert in the study of human development have clearly stated, since the flap began back in January, that the research about intellectual differences in the two sexes is ongoing, and that definitive statements concerning it cannot yet be made .
The answer is that Mr. Summers' way with the faculty over the course of his tenure reportedly has been imperious, controlling, and condescending. Such behavior makes people very mad very quickly, and creates in them an instantaneous, and very strong, desire for revenge. One faculty member noted that it was this, over and above the issue of women's innate intellectual differences, that has got the Harvard president into trouble. So it's not the "what" of a person's behavior, it's the "how." Are the issues tangled? Are people confused about what they're actually talking about? You bet!
The same thing happened with Martha Stewart. Sure she broke the insider trading law. However, there was wide latitude as to sentencing. She was sent to jail in West Virginia for a crime, all right, but it wasn't basically for insider trading. Nor was it just to “send a message” to other potential insider traders. It was at root for being an imperious bitch, a cold-hearted, nasty, condescending harridan who preaches taste as if it could paper over all sorts of personal nastiness. Nobody likes a hypocritical, imperial mom, except those who grew up with one, and have become addicted. They're the folks who form the core membership of cults, in their various overt and covert, legal and illegal incarnations.
Perhaps the come-uppance of both of these public figures will serve them as agents of personal character change. This happens with some people, who may even unconsciously seek it, while fighting tooth and nail to avoid such a confrontation with reality. But don't hold your breath. Mr. Summers and Ms. Stewart are so entrenched that I doubt they're reachable. Most often such people simply pretend to change, as real change is painful. But you never know. Hope springs eternal!