As an academic-in-training, I take a particular interest in the worldwide conservative movement against the culture of the Enlightenment.  Since academics as a profession is essentially a parasitic existence, and since it does require a certain amount of aloofness from the rest of society in order to be pursued in as objective a fashion as possible, it is among the professions most vulnerable to outright thuggery.  

Those are not my words, they are from a shocked-and-awed Peter King (R-NY):