College as re-education camp
Please go here to learn about a chilling experiment in indoctrination recently embarked upon by faculty at the University of Delaware. Be sure to watch the You Tube videos, and if you want to see the details of the reading matter that was part of this program, take a look at this.
It’s just another example of the Orwellian transformation of our college campuses. A group that calls itself FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, has been fighting the good fight against this sort of thing, and got involved in the Delaware episode. But it should come as no surprise that although the PC mind-control program is no longer in operation there, those who designed and implemented it are still employed by the university.
Neo,
I’m glad you came across FIRE. I’ve been supporting their work for over 3 years now. I guess I assumed you already knew about them.
Delaware is chilling, but somewhat old news. Check out today the new tenure/promotion requirements being put into place at Virginia Tech. Faculty will have to demonstrate diversity activity not only by attending workshops, but also including “diversity” in their classes, and basically adhering to the school’s diversity ideology.
Or how about the recent case at Central CT. State Univ. where a students were assigned to give a talk on any current controversial subject. One student did a talk on concealed carry on campus and the instructor called the police on him afterwards since she claimed that because he chose that topic he must be ‘dangerous’.
Perusing the FIRE website and its archives gives a great insight into what living on today’s college campuses is like. Myself, I can’t wait to retire.
FIRE deserves way more support. I have contributed for 3 years. A fundamental problem is that private colleges and universities are not subject to the same constitutional challenges as the public ones. I stopped contributing to my college, Haverford, in the early 1990s, because of the overwhelming indoctrination and groupthink (“building consensus”) all students are subjected to.
The Middle East Forum is another group most deserving of support: http://www.meforum.org. (sorry the link wouldn’t set).
I’ve been giving to FIRE, too. I’m not in college, I don’t have kids in college, I don’t deal with colleges in my normal day-to-day existence. In other words, I have no direct personal stake. But things are looking so scary on some campuses, and FIRE seems to be so effective, that I’ve decided they are a worthy recipient of some of my limited charity dollars.
THE REASON why I do not give to my alma mater is because our universities have been pretty much taken over by the cultural Marxists and I refuse to shove money into that machine. Plus, mine has a few professors I wish David Horowitz had featured in his book about these radicals.
Therefore, my refusal to give is pretty much the only way I have to push back against the academic Leftists. They are free to say whatever neural flatulence they have to spew, just not on my dime.
This whole thing is chilling. My brother has been sending me some points from Pius XI Divini Redemptoris which addresses atheism and the rise of communism – written in 1937.
The whole thing is worth reading and here is a link
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19031937_divini-redemptoris_en.html
But point 15 is quite pertinent to what was going on at Delaware and continues in many colleges and universities around the country do it is below
15. How is it possible that such a system, long since rejected scientifically and now proved erroneous by experience, how is it, We ask, that such a system could spread so rapidly in all parts of the world? The explanation lies in the fact that too few have been able to grasp the nature of Communism. The majority instead succumb to its deception, skillfully concealed by the most extravagant promises. By pretending to desire only the betterment of the condition of the working classes, by urging the removal of the very real abuses chargeable to the liberalistic economic order, and by demanding a more equitable distribution of this world’s goods (objectives entirely and undoubtedly legitimate), the Communist takes advantage of the present world-wide economic crisis to draw into the sphere of his influence even those sections of the populace which on principle reject all forms of materialism and terrorism. And as every error contains its element of truth, the partial truths to which We have referred are astutely presented according to the needs of time and place, to conceal, when convenient, the repulsive crudity and inhumanity of Communistic principles and tactics. Thus the Communist ideal wins over many of the better minded members of the community. These in turn become the apostles of the movement among the younger intelligentsia who are still too immature to recognize the intrinsic errors of the system. The preachers of Communism are also proficient in exploiting racial antagonisms and political divisions and oppositions. They take advantage of the lack of orientation characteristic of modern agnostic science in order to burrow into the universities, where they bolster up the principles of their doctrine with pseudo-scientific arguments.
Pope Pius XI, “Divini Redemptoris,” 1937
there isnt anything for me to say since the evidence is not ambiguous. the real question is, what will happen to all the people who through this effort will be the target when the choices being made now cause the rage that comes later?
Meanwhile, from the Corner:
Paranoid Style with a Ph.D. [John J. Miller]
From UC-Berkeley, the school that told us about the “psychological factors” underpinning conservatism (i.e., “fear and aggression,” “dogmatism,” etc.), comes a brand-new effort to expand the horizons of human knowledge:
Now, with backing from an anonymous donor, the University of California, Berkeley … is creating a Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements. According to experts in the field it is the first of its kind in higher education.
Very chilling. And informative. I would never have dreamed this could exist. One thing I did not see mentioned, was the added impact of the program emanating from accepted “authority,” i.e. the university administration. I presume the very fact that the program was “forced” or required, might well have repelled some students with strong and secure identities, as well as already well-formed critical thinking abilities.
I can imagine the short term harm of regulating “groupthink” and negate independent thought and opinion formation. I’m not well-versed in psychology at all, but cannot imagine the damage to young students’ psyches, when they are taught that their parents — from whom most draw their primary identity — are wrong, racist, materialistic, oppressive members of a society which must be abolished in the name of right, fairness, equity, etc.
I am virtually out of touch with college and university environments because I have been out of school for decades, and do not have children, but this is a major issue! I would never have known what to do if I had encountered information that this ever existed. Thanks for the tip off and, for informing about FIRE. I would love to see FIRE get considerably more exposure.
These people give liberals/progressives/whatever-you-want-to-call-them a bad name. The document you linked to is not only fascistic, it’s horribly written. The authors should have been fired for that alone. I abhor this kind of crap no matter what its origins.
Its very disappointing to see this sort of brainwashing coming from my Alma Mater. In the beginning of the first youtube clip you’ll see the name of Sharp Hall, the dorm I lived in as a sophomore.
Kamper,
The document is the product of all those ethnic, women’s and other studies departments that seem to attract the bottom of the academic barrel.
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I’m a student at the University of Chicago. My freshman orientation consisted of safety training and preliminary talks about the value of a liberal education. We also had a talk concerning identity and race.
I was expecting to shudder in disgust at naked identity politics being displayed. Instead the message was very straightforward: “There are many different types of people at our University. We’ve got blacks and whites, liberals and conservatives, muslims and christians, Americans and foreigners, and any mix in between. Play nice because you don’t know who’s around.”
This is all that you need to say. Any more than this is terribly illiberal (in the classic sense, in the “proper” sense) and shows a commitment to a radical agenda. Luckily, these people usually are shown the door, as in the case at UDelaware.