The Poor Victims of Propaganda
If there is one subject which riles emotions it is education.It is related to child-rearing just enough to have this special power. At an interesting debate last night this tension was on display because at its core education cannot be separated from politics and in these times politics is being turned (purposefully) into a dirty word.
The contestants represented two organizations which claim concern over academic freedom and each had differing views on mechanisms and institutions which should be responsible for ensuring such. On the right (though attempting to disavow the relevancy of ideology, Lynn Cheney, Irving Kristol and Martin Peretz sat on their board) was the group who wants trustees, taxpayers and administrators to have a dominant role in standards and curiculum and on the other was the group who feels that role, to date reserved strictly for faculty, should remain there. Everyone has heard the accusations that the education system has a left-liberal bias. Like the "message" in a political campaign, say it often enough and it is adopted into the dominant narrative, and with Dershowitz and the right-wing purveyors of this strategy, it is pursued with messianic zeal. Even though capitalist- conservative ideology dominates the discourse in all but a few small enclaves in a couple of coastal cities, the right is not satisfied. The government , courts, boardrooms,media culture and churches are not sufficient territory,no, they also feel entitled to colonize academia, the last bastion of any remaining semblance of free thinking.
So the trustees and the tax payers would set limits and establish boundaries for acceptable teaching, knowledgeable and informed as they generally are . Expect to learn a lot about the "free" market, God, US exceptionalism and it's manifest destiny. Nulear families, Columbus discovered America and intelligent design. Oh, and the al Qaida-Sadaam connection.
posted by troutsky @ 8:31 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Bang on! They are trying to sneak in all possible walks of life and disrupt it.
In a country like India, education is a business, there are hi-fi educational institutions where only the rich can afford to study. These institutions are basically under the control of somme lumpen or goon who put in money to make the building. Atleast in west there is some kind of debate going on about all these, but imagine the condition of India where there are no debates or discussions but some who fill their pockets with the exorbitant fees earned from these institutions. The goverment chain of schools have utterly failed as all the middle class started pushing their kids in to the neighbour hood private schools. Higher education is also the same.
All these schools are under a curriculum provided by the goverment, but they are outdated, neither do the provate schools initiate anything but it is more of a prestige issue for the Indian Middle class to put their kids in Private schools situated in hill stations and what not.
Though my words might digress a bit from the original content,these are some of the grave issues which are concerned with education.
I go to a community/technical college and there is no discussion about anything other than capitalism. You would think that they would at least acknowledge other economic systems, but they don't.
Horowitz is really hated and feared in academia. I doubt if the right can make inroads.
The big "think tanks' have a hand in all this as well, the American Enterprise Institute , the Heritage Foundation etc.
We are organizing some ways to discuss alternative economics through the Free School .
Thanks for stopping by Clash though your message is a bit depressing. So much to do,eh?
In my 36 years in the business, and it is that, I found one thing. They got the money but we got the heart and one heart will cover a lot of cash. Just have to keep it pumping.
Guys,
Troutsky's going to get mad at me for this one, but Communism's massive failure proved the superiority of the market system. I know, Leninism wasn't really Communism (or something) and thus Communism could still work, but you have to realize that only the True Believers still cling to the full tenants of Marx's teachings.
Acceptance of the market does not a right-winger make. Aside from the teaching of capitalism, the schools are left-leaning. Nor is this surprising. All the good capitalists spurn academia to go make money in business, leaving idealist liberals to teach the next generation of kids.
You are dead wrong on this one. Present-day academia is a product of Gramscian incursion, and (as wiser pointed out) not remotely right, except for the lack of mention of communism. And that is compensated for by the emphasis on "social justice" and "diversity" and other such disingenuous nonsense. There is a good reason that communism is not openly taught as a viable alternative to the present market system, and that is its massive failure in practice and destructive nature in all ways; it kills. And in the absurd world of academia (I can not understand how you could refer to it as a bastion of free thinking), well, orthodoxy rules in this cesspool. Low IQ, narrow minded, ignorant jackasses with their gray ponytails and mindless politics are the leading advocates of nonsensical crap, like social justice and diversity (NOT what they sound like) that they force feed to the kids. Despicable weirdos like Ward Churchhill are rewarded for publishing nonsense or lies (often plagerized), while reason is sacrificed on the alter of quasi-marxist bull, covered over by ideas from Hegel, Nietzsche, Derrida, Foucault and other elitist, narcissitic, nihlist loosers. Academia is a bizzare form of Big Brother and all things commonsensical are "Emmanuel Goldstein" to the ignorant goofs that fill the faculty meetings and search committees with their screeching voices and petty points of view. Why don't you want the "taxpayers" (also known as parents) to have any imput?; would that dilute the ideological idiocy that the "faculty" can foist on the kids? Most of the vacuous droids that haunt the halls of the world class institution where I work don't even understand the duplicity of the notion of equality, much less all that follows from it. Their self esteem is steeped in reflexive feel-good politics and silly titles and honors (very primative, very childish), rather than a profound state of knowledge, or even a desire for one. They are not qualified to decide on what an education should be based, except in the narrow fields in which they exist, like ring (or biology) wraiths in black robes, gliding through the land in perfect harmony with nothing except nihlism.
Since mention was given to Ward Churchill, I thought I'd just let people see what it was he had to say.
Hey, is that you Brad? I sense a bit of personal animosity(towards colleagues and institution) but I know you are not alone in your disdain.You and your fellow conservatives must feel backed up, cornered at times, but believe me, as intellectually impoverished as i think your ideology is, I think you have every right to express and defend it in what is IDEALLY (and yes, practically) the last bastion. Are you angry that you are not given ample space to express your views or that they have proven to be hollow? A hard reality to face and so defensive posturing about "ponytails" ensues.
No one suggests that communism be taught as a "viable economic system", just explained as a system and so the students can draw their own conclusions about it's relative merits. Same with capitalism.(which is internalized hegemonically with every breath you take)
Taxpayers have "input" in terms of the marketplace (the business of education) but if you are seriously suggesting they have a presence on curriculum advisory committees you have not thought it through.
You are right Wiser about True Believers and the "full tenets" of Marxism.Modern socialists are engaged in a search for a modern synthesis.As to the "superiority" of capitalism, no one argues about it's wealth creation but the effects are still being measured, eh?
[N]o one argues about it's wealth creation but the effects are still being measured, eh?
Absolutely. Couldn't have said it better myself.
Are you angry that you are not given ample space to express your views or that they have proven to be hollow? A hard reality to face and so defensive posturing about "ponytails" ensues.
Do you have a ponytail Troustsky? ;)
Pretending that the question was directed at me, my qualm with college is that our institutions of higher learning are anything but. I actually like most liberals, the civil ones anyway, and I love talking to them about all their ideas concerning the world.
But college has become little more than a quasi retirement community for the middle aged (though we engineers still have to work hard). Professors should care more about the truth and their subject matter, but many are content to proselytize instead.
It's really too bad. College was such a grand concept.
Wiser said:
"Professors should care more about the truth and their subject matter, but many are content to proselytize instead."
Were you a professor, what would you "proselytize" about? Would you "proselytize" that "Communism's massive failure proved the superiority of the market system"? Your words, not mine.
Or would you be willing to discuss capitalism's observable failure as well? Would you accept the opinions of students that disagree with you about the "superiority of the market system"?
I wouldn't argue for a academic setting were you wouldn't be encouraged to put forth the arguments that you see as the most valid critique, reasoning, etc. You should want for the same academic freedom for all, or you just don't believe in it.
I would love to take a class from you and challenge your assumptions. I would, of course, expect objective treatment in your evaluation of my work and my subsequent grade. Especially if you had to assess my ability to support my arguments, not our fundamental disagreements.
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