The burden of bad ideas : how modern intellectuals misshape our society

Critics have attacked the foolishness of some of today's elite thought from many angles, but few have examined the real-world consequences of those ideas. In The Burden of Bad Ideas, Heather Mac Donald reports on their disastrous effects throughout our society. At a Brooklyn high school, students perfect their graffiti skills for academic credit. An Ivy League law professor urges blacks to steal from their employers. Washington bureaucrats regard theft by drug addicts as evidence of disability, thereby justifying benefits. Public health officials argue that racism and sexism cause women to get AIDS. America's premier monument to knowledge, the Smithsonian Institution, portrays science as white man's religion. Such absurdities, Heather Mac Donald argues, grow out of a powerful set of ideas that have governed our public policy for decades, the product of university faculties and a professional elite who are convinced that America is a deeply unjust society. And while these beliefs have damaged the nation as a whole, she observes, they have hit the poor especially hard. Her reports trace the transformation of influential opinion-makers (such as the NY Times) and large philanthropic foundations from confident advocates of individual responsibility, opportunity, and learning into apologists for the welfare state. In a series of closely reported stories from the streets of New York to the seats of intellectual power, The Burden of Bad Ideas reveals an upside-down world and how it got that way. In Closely Reported Stories From The Streets Of New York To The Seats Of Intellectual Power, Ms. Mac Donald Shows How Bad Ideas Get Started And Then Acquire A Life Of Their Own. Her Reports Trace The Transformation Of Influential Opinion-makers (such As The New York Times) And Large Philanthropic Foundations From Confident Advocates Of Individual Responsibility, Opportunity, And Learning Into Apologists For The Welfare State. The Prevailing Orthodoxy Of Ideas, She Finds, Has Affected Our Law Schools, Our Schools Of Education, Our Museums, Even Our Schools Of Public Health - With Ruinous Consequences For The Teaching Of Our Children.--jacket. The Billions Of Dollars That Made Things Worse -- Behind The Hundred Neediest Cases -- Public Health Quackery -- Law School Humbug -- Why Johnny's Teacher Can't Teach -- An F For Hip-hop 101 -- Revisionist Lust: The Smithsonian Today -- Homeless Advocates In Outer Space -- Compassion Gone Mad -- Welfare's Next Vietnam -- Foster Care's Underworld -- Diallo Truth, Diallo Falsehood. Heather Mac Donald. Includes Index. "In closely reported stories from the streets of New York to the seats of intellectual power, Ms. Mac Donald shows how bad ideas get started and then acquire a life of their own. Her reports trace the transformation of influential opinion-makers (such as the New York Times) and large philanthropic foundations from confident advocates of individual responsibility, opportunity, and learning into apologists for the welfare state. The prevailing orthodoxy of ideas, she finds, has affected our law schools, our schools of education, our museums, even our schools of public health - with ruinous consequences for the teaching of our children."--BOOK JACKET. One of the best of our urban journalists considers the upside-down world of public policy and the entrenchment of foolish ideas in closely reported stories from the streets of New York to the seats of intellectual power. Insightful and articulate...entertaining and provocative. ―Richard Lamm, Wall Street Journal. Spirited, stimulating, eloquent essays...vivid and devastating....The Burden of Bad Ideas is social, cultural, and political criticism of the first order. ―Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Critics have attacked the foolishness of some of today's elite thought from many angles, but few have examined the real-world consequences of those ideas. In this book, Heather Mac Donald reports on their disastorous effects throughout our society.