Will the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger to the governorship of California lead to an exodus of philosophy professors from the state?
(Scratches head, eschews obvious joke that this might be just what California needs.)
Why?
I mean, I realize that not everyone might be enamored of Arnold’s policies (eschew obvious joke about whether anyone knows what they are, Arnold included), but even if he were the crappiest governor since … well, the preceding office-holder, or George W. Bush, or whomever, is that a particularly realistic reason to leave California (eschew obvious joke about “philosophy professors” and “realistic” being in the same sentence)?
I mean, if this is some sort of principled protest about whatever — doesn’t that create an ethical or moral obligation to stick around, to be a dissenting voice, to “teach our children well”?
Or is it just that, as someone notes in the post, a UC prof simply doesn’t make enough to live decently in California? In which case, assuming they can find a post somewhere (since, after all, we all know that openings in philosophy professorships are going begging at most major universiteis), it sounds like the issue is more motivated by money and lifestyle, which is hardly the fault of the governor-elect.
(Scratches head some more.)
And it’s not like governors are Philospher Kings over their states — terms and state legislatures being two obvious restraints. So even if Arnold is the devil incarnate, it’s unlikely he’s going to have the sort of effect on the state that Hitler did (note: Hitler analogy used in the original post).
Obviously I didn’t take enough philosophy in college to understand this.