Posted on 08/02/2012 6:47:42 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot
Subtitle: Why many North American intellectuals seem unable to think for themselves
(snip) Working for four years at this prairie college, I had many opportunities to see political correctness in action: in our so-called “equity” hiring practices, in changes to our course offerings to highlight racial and sexual diversity, and in the unfailing faux-reverence with which all aspects of Aboriginal literature and culture were treated, even down to a discussion about whether, in a job advertisement, we should refer to Canada by its indigenous name of Turtle Island.
But this was not a matter of political correctness alone: it was collective thinking in its most blatant form. There were striking parallels to what Czeslaw Milosz in The Captive Mind analyzes as the intellectual’s not-unwilling accommodations to Party orthodoxy. Milosz was interested not only in the compulsions of totalitarianism but in the significant emotional and psychological attractions of the Communist system: the reassurances and rewards of ceding responsibility for judgment, and the manifold reasons why an intellectual could find himself at home in conformity. Can it be that, even free of threat or compulsion, many intellectuals will choose to surrender their independence of thought? C.S. Lewis wrote about the seductive pleasures of belonging in “The Inner Ring,” brilliantly highlighting the desire planted deep in the heart of every human being to be approved, acknowledged as “one of us” by people we admire. To get into that charmed circle, Lewis warned, many of us will assent to nearly anything.
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(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
How do we wrestle back the place, where ideas and debates should have been free flowing, from leftists domination? Can we get it back?
How long did the leftists take over campuses? Do we have to spend as much time/effort?
Is the effort worthwhile?
“How long did the leftists take over campuses? Do we have to spend as much time/effort?”
I went to Kent State University in Ohio during the ‘70’s.
Nowhere on earth could have been more mindlessly and rabidly Liberal than that place.
Those guys wrote the book on ‘I hate America’!
Getting out of there was a happy day for me. The whole experience was ugly and it made me a lifelong Conservative.
“Is the effort worthwhile?”
What else are you planning to do for the next 50-100 years?
It’s not as though there is some other country you can move to....
Back in the 1970's, I lived in Europe. At that time, Europeans were thrilled with America and all things American.
They were particularly delighted with the celebrated freedom of speech, freedom of expression, free exchange of ideas, and challenge to orthodoxy on U.S. college and university campuses.
"The more the students challenge the professor and his opinions, the more delighted he is!" was oft-repeated. To rise to "The American Challenge" was considered the European Challenge.
Forty years later--U.S. campuses are indoctrination centers. Freedom of speech is outlawed. Freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas are ruthlessly squelched. Challenge to orthodoxy is met with brutal reprisal.
The demand for conformity has spread beyone the campuses. Groupthink dogma has overwhelmed the newsmedia and the political system. Any challenge to this suffocating groupthink, dogma, and orthodoxy is anathema.
The newsmedia has become a propaganda machine, fiercely guarding any challenge to groupthink.
Europeans, in general, dislike and many actually hate the U.S.A. and all things American.
Rather than a brilliant light to illuminate truth in all the dark places of the world, the forty years since the 1970s have produced a suffocating darkness of conformity, illiberalism, and contempt for truth.
Back in the 1970's, I lived in Europe. At that time, Europeans were thrilled with America and all things American.
They were particularly delighted with the celebrated freedom of speech, freedom of expression, free exchange of ideas, and challenge to orthodoxy on U.S. college and university campuses.
"The more the students challenge the professor and his opinions, the more delighted he is!" was oft-repeated. To rise to "The American Challenge" was considered the European Challenge.
Forty years later--U.S. campuses are indoctrination centers. Freedom of speech is outlawed. Freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas are ruthlessly squelched. Challenge to orthodoxy is met with brutal reprisal.
The demand for conformity has spread beyone the campuses. Groupthink dogma has overwhelmed the newsmedia and the political system. Any challenge to this suffocating groupthink, dogma, and orthodoxy is anathema.
The newsmedia has become a propaganda machine, fiercely guarding any challenge to groupthink.
Europeans, in general, dislike and many actually hate the U.S.A. and all things American.
Rather than a brilliant light to illuminate truth in all the dark places of the world, the forty years since the 1970s have produced a suffocating darkness of conformity, illiberalism, and contempt for truth.
The thing is, in the 1970s, those seeking positions of power were the ones the Europeans generally agreed with. Then, the Euros wanted the voices of dissent and leftism in the US. Now, the leftists are in charge in the US and the Euros want the calls for change silenced since it is opposed to their way of thinking. In other words, the Euros only cheered America when they felt their ideas were the way America should move to.
...and I don’t remember Europeans being pro-America in the 1970s! I lived in London briefly during that period and they hated our guts.
Also, during the '70s, the Soviet Union was a threat to Europe, and the Europeans courted the Americans for their defense. When the United States was victorious over the Soviets and the Cold War came to an end, the Europeans not only had no reason to like the Americans, since the Russians were no longer a threat, but they had good reason to dislike the Americans inasmuch as Euroepans were blinded by envy, resentment, and other manifestations of evil.
The greatest evil plaguing both Europe and America today is mendacity, and it is the basic evil responsible for the decadence that, if not stopped and reversed, is going to destroy Europe, America, and Western Civilization.
Leftists will welcome this destruction--because they are basically stupid. That which will replace it will please only the malicious. The benevolent stupid are in for a very unpleasant surprise.
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