I've had a recurrent worry today as I read a piece by Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post and an article by Kendall Thomas in Looking Back at Law's Century: to what extent will it be possible to avoid politics at Columbia?
OK, I'm relatively certain that most of our courses will have politically-neutral content (or maybe this is more a hope than a conviction), but as someone perhaps more ideologically-suited to the University of Chicago than our own University, I worry a bit the extent to which I'll be able to keep my head down, learn the practical knowledge, and keep the political out of it.
This is speaking as a Republican who spent much of the last decade in Europe as a fairly outgunned conservative and not wanting to spend a lot of time tilting at windmills. Is anyone else concerned about this?
Posted by Anthony at June 18, 2003 10:30 PMAnthony,
My experience in Washington suggested it to be a city that shuts down after 5 P.M., how exactly is it that people there are too busy for the theater? Aside from that, I think you will find that New York City is not a place that revolves around politics as much as Washington D.C. The reason that Washington is viewed as a "provincial town" is precisely its monotonous focus on partisan politics.
I stumbled across your site today on a slow day at work. To you and the other 1Ls to be -- welcome! You will not be able to avoid politics at Columbia, nor should you. The law is basically about politics and policy analysis; at its best it imposes shared policies to limit divisive choices, at its worst it's another layer of division. You'll find political overtones running throughout, not just in ConLaw and CrimLaw but in Torts, Contracts and elsewhere. And that's as it should be. People are mostly pretty civil about it. Based on your Web site I expect you will be a positive presence, interested in exchanging ideas rather than spouting dogma. I suspect I don't share your politic beliefs, but I would want you to speak out about them in class.
Posted by: Rising 3L at June 19, 2003 03:22 PMI grew up in Washington, and now I live in New York. While Applebaum is exactly right about the differences in political dialogue in the two cities, her argument is premised on the notion that the world turns on the quibbling differences between the Democratic and Republican political parties, instead of turning on the labor and ingenuity of private citizens. New York is a city that works for a living -- Washington is a city that stands on a streetcorner and talks to itself. While the left-leaning political dialogue in New York suits my own tendencies, I find that my respect for industry and pragmatism gives me more in common with New York conservatives than with Washington liberals.
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