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Steering Left. Jim Henley explains why academia lists Left -- it imagines itself the vanguard of a society managed like a ship --with academics as captains and its own trainees as the elite officer corp. Quotable:

Under communism, the ruling class has to do even the scut work of planning - running the factories, deciding where every box of pencils gets shipped and so on. In American managerialism .. the Vanguard only has to do the cool jobs. The boring stuff .. is outsourced to Republicans, Chamber of Commerce types who .. must, when the government speaks, obey.

And this:

.. departments of political science and public administration will be happiest with a world view that maximizes the amount of politics and bureaucracy. Conservatism figures we already know how society should be run. Conservatives don't need managers, they need police. Libertarians figure society can largely run itself. Libertarians need all kinds of things, but not a lot of politicians or civil servants. [The academic Left's two main] rivals lose by default .. [hat tip InstaPundit]

And on the same topic, don't miss this.