I’ve written about the late Larry Summers several times before. I accurately predicted Summers’ demise as Harvard President a year ago.
I just want to add two observations to my earlier comments. First, anti-Semitism is a recent disease of the Left. This disease is particularly virulent against Jewish Lefties at Harvard. This was one problem for Summers.
Let me deconstruct that last sentence, please. Harvard has always been proud of its upper-class snootiness. The British upper-class, the model for Harvard, is anti-Semitic to the core. Snooty Harvard “does allow Jews, but only because we want the smartest people.” Jews are expected to know their place and shut-up. (That is a quote from a real Harvard Alum, who I won’t name.) Moreover, a Jew who was publicly a conservative would be considered OK at Harvard because “such Jews clearly know their place and aren’t rude.” (More from my anonymous friend.) As a Lefty Jew, Summers attacked the anti-Semites on the faculty who wanted to divest from Israel. Wrong thing to do to make friends with anybody at Harvard. A Lefty Jew is just all wrong and being outspoken on Jewish issues is even worse.
Second, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, when Summers got into trouble....
Second, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, when Summers got into
trouble for his question about the availability of women in math, he
called his political ally from Clinton days, David Gergen and was told
to eat crow in front of the feminist harridans. That was absurd. Sure Clinton had to apologize because he violated
national moral codes. Summers needed a stiff spine for confronting
Cornell West and the feminists. Summers was right, he didn’t violate
any moral codes and yet he showed himself to be a coward when he backed
down. A Jewish coward is pure shark bait. Think Woody Allen.
The whole Harvard-Summers problem arises because of tenure. Summers got tenure when he was 28. He is married to a tenured professor. The main consequences of tenure for him were that he never learned any fundamental political-social skills and he was able to get administrative jobs despite his rough edged difficult aggressive Jewish personality. In addition, because he had tenure he had no idea how impossible it would be to change the minds or behavior of a tenured faculty, which had to be done to fix Harvard.
Tenure got its revenge on Summers and Harvard.
Aside: over twenty years of working with Japanese corporations I often saw the Japanese end up selecting partners, law firms and managers based on their Harvard degree. Much of the time these choices were bad, often very bad. The problem: in Japan the number one University, Todai, graduates the top minds and only graduates people of the highest moral caliber. Not so for Harvard. Good morals are irrelevant to Harvard and are often an albatross for the Harvard graduate.
The Japanese had no way of knowing that, since no one ever discusses it publicly.