1.The academy is the center of the universe.
As Copernicus and Galileo roll in their graves, proponents of this theory espouse the idea that there is no meaningful life outside the university. A career outside academia is inherently unimportant when compared with the least-prestigious academic post. The economist J.M. Keynes referred to practically minded people as the slaves of defunct theorists, and it is remarkable the extent to which many Yalies bow unquestioningly before this view.

2.The more useless one's knowledge, the more abstract, and therefore, more enlightened it is.
Many Yalies think that the practical application of knowledge somehow taints it. Any predilection for the practical--such as studying languages for purposes of communication, rather than to read literature in the original--is disdained.

3. The area one chooses to specialize in is irrelevant to one's future plans.
Undergraduates have this repeatedly inculcated in them during their first two years; they spend the next two learning that it is a fallacy. The selection of specific courses and majors rarely restricts a person to a narrow range of opportunities after college, but these decisions to open some doors and close others.

4. Only a handful of careers are respectable: professor, lawyer, doctor, politician, or investment banker.
True Yalies do not soil their hands with lesser work.

5. Extremes of wealth are hip; middle-class people and values are to be disparaged.
To be rich is to have had clever ancestors, while to be poor is to have been oppressed. Sometimes, the same people will assert that they are both, depending on the tenor of the conversation.

6. Facts are unimportant.
Many Yalies have a tendency to create theories with little basis in fact, to have those theories interact with other theories, and to proceed to such a point that inconvenient facts are discarded in favor of beautiful models.

7. Narrowness of learning is a virtue.
Given a choice, people study what is of greatest interest to them. They then feel obligated to justify their decision (and, perhaps, their budget) by disdaining all other areas of human thought. All academics, anywhere, must specialize, but this is carried to an extreme at Yale.

8. The humanities are the true test of brilliance; science largely consists of rote learning.
This view is most widely espoused those who are innumerate and/or scientifically illiterate, and who wish to persuade themselves that such ignorance constitutes no handicap. They will be disabused of this belief in the near future, as growing scientific influences on our lives and the increased flow of information (including quantitative information) makes a command of scientific thought processes an invaluable asset.

9.The solution to the world's problems is political; the way to influence the world is to become a politician or a lawyer.
Big government is a panacea (even though it causes economic hardship in Europe and failed miserably in the Soviet Union).

10. Yalies must assist and patronize non-Yalies.
Yalies' sense of noblesse oblige begins with a condescending attitude toward New Haven and culminates in a condescending attitude toward everyone.

11. Yalies are destined to rule the world.
Yalies do, of course, occupy many prominent positions. Unfortunately, most Yale alumni who seek careers in politics do not acquire meaningful experience outside of government. This makes them especially dangerous in a free-market democracy, because they overestimate the role which government (i.e., they themselves) should play in such a system. These professional toadies spend an inordinate amount of their time engaged in idle chatter, viewing government as something between a political-science seminar, a meeting of the Yale Political Union, and a fraternity party.

Plato's Republic states that those who seek office should not be permitted to hold it. This thought should be particularly disturbing to Yalies, who are surrounded by proto-politicians at every turn. Too many of us believe that being at Yale entitles us to wield power over others. America is besieged by young people who think themselves destined to achieve high office. The ambition of such individuals is scarcely tempered by knowledge, much less by wisdom.

I hope that this column contributes to private dialogues regarding the veracity of these tenets. More importantly, I hope that it leads to widespread recognition of the right to disagree with them openly without being labelled as lacking intellectual integrity.