Posted on 02/21/2014 5:47:33 AM PST by Kaslin
Cancel the philosophy courses, people. Oh, and we're going to be shuttering the political science, religion and pre-law departments too. We'll keep some of the English and history folks on for a while longer, but they should probably keep their resumes handy.
Because, you see, they are of no use anymore. We have the answers to the big questions, so why keep pretending there's anything left to discuss?
At least that's where Erin Ching, a student at Swarthmore College, seems to be coming down. Her school invited a famous left-wing Princeton professor, Cornel West, and a famous right-wing Princeton professor, Robert George, to have a debate. The two men are friends, and by all accounts they had an utterly civil exchange of ideas. But that only made the whole thing even more outrageous.
"What really bothered me is, the whole idea is that at a liberal arts college, we need to be hearing a diversity of opinion," Ching told the Daily Gazette, the school's newspaper. "I don't think we should be tolerating [George's] conservative views because that dominant culture embeds these deep inequalities in our society."
Swarthmore must be so proud.
Over at Harvard, another young lady has similar views. Harvard Crimson editorial writer Sandra Y.L. Korn recently called for getting rid of academic freedom in favor of something called "academic justice."
"If our university community opposes racism, sexism and heterosexism, why should we put up with research that counters our goals simply in the name of 'academic freedom'?" Korn asks.
Helpfully, she answers her own question: "When an academic community observes research promoting or justifying oppression, it should ensure that this research does not continue."
One could easily dismiss these students as part of that long and glorious American tradition of smart young people saying stupid things. As Oscar Wilde remarked, "In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience."
But we all know that this nonsense didn't spring ex nihilo from their imaginations. As Allan Bloom showed a quarter century ago in "The Closing of the American Mind," these ideas are taught.
Indeed, we are now up to our knees in this Orwellian bilge. Diversity means conformity.
Let me invoke personal privilege by citing a slightly dated example. When the Los Angeles Times picked me up as a columnist in 2005, Barbra Streisand publicly canceled her subscription in protest (I'm proud to say). You see, Streisand's friend, iconic left-wing columnist Robert Scheer, had been let go. And I was one of the new columnists brought on board. This was an outrage.
"The greater Southern California community is one that not only proudly embraces its diversity, but demands it," Streisand wrote to the Times in a syntactically impaired rant that read a bit like one of those letters I occasionally get from prison inmates who've memorized words from a thesaurus without fully understanding what they mean. "Your publisher's decision to fire Robert Scheer is a great disservice to the spirit of our community. ... So although the number of contributors to your op-ed pages may have increased, in firing Robert Sheer [sic] and putting Jonah Goldberg in his place, the gamut of voices has undeniably been diluted. ..."
Nearly a decade later, I still don't know what it means to dilute a gamut of voices. But I do know what she meant by "diversity." It means: "people who agree with me." It's lazy and insipid shorthand for "left wing." After all, by the normal metrics of identity politics -- race, religion, gender -- Scheer and I are largely interchangeable. Where we differ is ideology. And ideological diversity is the only kind of diversity the left finds offensive.
Which brings us back to the sages of Swarthmore and Harvard. They at least understand that ideological diversity is actually, like, you know, a thing. They just think it's a bad thing.
More pernicious, however, is that they believe the question of justice is a settled matter. We know what justice is, so why let serious people debate it anymore? The millennia-old dialogue between Aristotle, Plato, St. Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Rawls, Rorty, Hayek et al.? Shut it down, people. Or at least if the conversation heads in a direction where the Korns, Chings and Streisands smell "oppression" -- as defined solely by the left -- then it must not be "put up with." Diversity demands that diversity of opinion not be tolerated anymore.
And we wonder why no one bats an eye when the IRS targets groups opposing the ruling class and the FCC wants to regulate the news.
Diversity = not White people
academic community = communists
She's too blind to realize that racist totalitarian leftism is now the dominant culture that embeds deep inequalities and state slavery in our society.
In what modern sense is America a politically conservative society?
Totalitarian rule feels close.
I remember back when students were a little suspicious of government,,, these new ones are little tools. Reminds me of Hitler youth, or 9 year old Khmer Rouge.
the mistake is their arrogant assumption that conservative views are wrong. What garbage.
“Totalitarian rule feels close.”
Sad but true..... Too bad the ruler everyone does not recognize is God!!!
The hatred of liberals against this country based on being taught history by other liberals will ensure no future success for this country.
Ching told the Daily Gazette
Ching is a racist.
What is right of center becomes far right of center as the center moves further to the left.... “As the World Turns... or as The Pendulums Swings.”
George Bush Sr was slightly right of center. Clinton was more to the left of center, W Bush was more to the right of center, and Obummer is far left of center. If the pendulum swing pattern continues, the next leader will be far, far right..... Be careful as either extreme can be dangerous as extremes seem to always justify the means by their ends or goals....
Before everyone jumps on me as a lib, allow me to say that Ted Cruz is pretty close to my center... Fiscal responsibility is necessary as the path without it leads to anarchy.
Of course we must always remember that when the ship begins to sink, everyone suddenly finds religion and the need to learn to swim!
Are our time horizons now so short that 2005 information is “dated”? The disease of liberalism, for which too many credit the fight against slavery/civil rights to, won’t be cured outside of two generations.
It was conservative Christians that fought against slavery and for civil rights.
It is getting harder and harder not to cry when contemplating the future of our country.
...the mistake is their arrogant assumption that conservative views are wrong.
%%%%%%
This message is embedded in every assignment and lesson that children are given from kindergarten to university. How can they not ‘believe’ that it is fact.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. RR.
Our generation may be the last one.
Somewhere along the way colleges abandoned the concept of freedom of speech in favor of political correctness. On college campuses the American ideal of “I may disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it” (Voltaire), is now “if you say something I disagree with I hate you and want to destroy you”. College has become an incubator of political intolerance and anti-Americanism.
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