Politically correct.

I don't know how I feel about the recent remarks made by Harvard president Lawrence Summers. He opines that women may be underrepresented in the sciences not only because of gender bias, but also because of innate biological differences, and also mentioned that married women are far less likely to want to work 80 hours per week than married men. It's caused quite a firestorm, but it's hard for me to be upset when someone expresses a thought. And he didn't label it any more than that, according to the transcript.

There's not enough dialogue in society today, and the reaction Summers is receiving is precisely what shortchanges the free exchange of ideas. I read an article in which a recent Harvard grad, Ross Douthat, discusses his overall disappointment at how little he was challenged in those hallowed halls. His book, Privilege, looks like a great read. It reminded me, too, of something I read in The Paradox of Choice, in which the author laments the fact that rampant consumerism has rendered impossible any kind of common discourse in this country. Even at a university as fine as Harvard, where one would expect students to have some common ground to discuss issues of politics, science and civilization, there is no such common ground because the curriculum is free-form and student-driven. There's a fine line between the necessity of expanding the curriculum to embrace diversity and multiculturalism, and between watering it down so that there is no "common" to any common curriculum.