Reply to Theodore Kemper

Submitted by Peter J. Herz (Taiwan), Apr 13, 2005 at 05:47

I can't speak for the Agency or FBI, but when I was at State (1989-95), I sensed that it tended to be more left than right--at least in its lowest and highest reaches. Middle management, however, had its share of conservatives, but mostly of the variety that goes under the rubric liberal-who's-been-mugged [often by international reality].

Also, remember, that the classical diplomatic personality is the 17th century Dutch Hugo Grotius. He makes an academic name by writing a treatise on the freedom of the seas; and, when hired to represent the States-General at the Court of St. James, he argues forcefully for the United Provinces' right to exclude English shipping from the general vicinity of the Spice Islands. This is to say that diplomats do and say what their political masters tell them to do and say.

My advice to any conservative undergrads or grads here is that if you're really sure you have an extreme and UNFAIR prof (you can get good grades and recos out of some whom you disagree with), tape any comments he makes that are derogatory towards traditionalist believers (except for those Islamofascists willing to hold a knife to a throat, of course) or conservatives, get together witnesses, and call him to the carpet on "hate speech". Best of all, go immediately to court, and don't bother with the campus grievance process.

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