Dog Bites Man, But We Link It Anyway

Lake Superior State University told a professor to remove from his office door the political cartoons and other materials that the university deemed offensive. The materials were politically conservative. Now with the help of a conservative legal defense organization, the professor is litigating against the university.

We inform gentle readers not because there's anything surprising about a politically conservative professor being held to a different standard than his liberal colleagues who numerically predominate. We bring up the affair simply to underline the point that institutions of higher education often become so insulated that they can't realize when they're acting like the most common negative stereotypes of insulated institutions of higher education.

Individuals do the same, of course.

Burns put it well in the immortal "To a Louse," aptly set in a church:

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!

Or we could state it as a prayer: O God, please help me not to act like the stereotype of people like me. I pray in the name of Jesus who destroyed stereotypes by bringing your victory by his death on the cross, amen!