Postings on the Office Door

by Liberty and Power

King Bananian muses on the weighty question of what professors (including himself) put on their office doors. When I was a graduate student, one of the small perks of a professor that I envied was that of putting provocative clippings, etc. on my office door. Once I got my first job, I became more cautious. I resisted, in part, not only because I was untenured but also because I sensed that the practice was a bit unseemly.

In more recent years, however, I have pretty thrown off all previous restraints. After all, aren't universities supposed to be about free and open discussion? Moreover, some colleagues did not hesitate to put up political material that appeared to be based on nothing more than anti-free market urban legends. Currently, on my door and in the surrounding area, I have the articles on the racist roots of gun control, showing the growth of the federal government, quotes from Albert Jay Nock and, my favorite, a cartoon from an old issue of Liberty showing a frustrated pharaoh looking at a bearded prophet holding a staff. The caption reads"How come you never talk about what's right with Egypt?"

My colleagues' doors abound in Bush bashing, blasts at Republican racism, laments about tax cuts for"the rich," and calls for gun control. Since they are also antiwar (or, at least, anti-Bush's war), I rarely put up anything on the Iraq issue. Hence, I suppose they regard me as the departmental reactionary....or worse.

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Aeon J. Skoble - 6/9/2004

David, my experience is pretty similar to yours - when I was a grad student, and during the years when I was a (gypsy) visiting prof, my office door was always sure to have some clipping or cartoon that advertised my unorthodox views. But when I got a tenure-track job, I only posted announcements and very generic stuff. Since having been awarded tenure though, the more pointed stuff has returned. And like your situation, it's the case here that every other prof's door in this building is pasted over with lefty propaganda and market-bashing. So, I'm glad to finally offer some office-door alternatives.

Keith Halderman - 6/8/2004

My all time favorite cartoon is from a strip called In the Bleachers which appears on the sports page of The Washington Times by Moore. It is as consistently funny as The Farside used to be.

The one in question is set in a large stadium with a cow and a cowboy sitting opposite each at a card table in the middle of the field.

The cow is saying yahtzee.

The caption underneath reads "First Annual PETA Rodeo.

Steven Horwitz - 6/8/2004

My favorite one ever, and one which I'm sure drew some raised eyebrows from colleagues, was during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. It was by Mike Ritter and showed Clinton being led away in handcuffs by two cops from a house with a mailbox labeled "feminism." At the door was a woman and child, with her having a black eye and broken arm (the sling says: "lies, perjury, obstruction, harassment"). And she's screaming at the cops:

"No, no! He didn't mean it! He's been under a lot of pressure! He always apologizes! It won't happen again! I don't want to press charges! This is none of your business! ... I need him...."

Whether Clinton's sexual behavior and the his attempts to cover it up were impeachable is another story, but the near-silence of the feminist left in the face of a man who was, by their own standards, pretty much a pig is a sin of omission that I cannot forgive.