The Philosophical Force Driving the Fight to Rewrite History

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | February 21, 2020 | Sumantra Maitra

[karpov]

Two recent stories that dominated academic Twitter were the cancellation of the Western Art History course at Yale and the incorporation of the 1619 Project in the school curricula in Buffalo, New York and Washington DC. Though political centrists on Twitter were outraged, no one noted that those two incidents are thematically similar. Without understanding the connection, fighting back against indoctrination throughout the education system will be impossible.

Consider the situation at Yale. Yale’s administration ended a decades-old course on the Western canon because it is arguably too big a field to cover. The course, “Introduction to Art History: Renaissance to the Present,” was once taught by authorities like Vincent Scully but has caused “unease” among some students and faculty because it is an “idealized Western ‘canon’—a product of an overwhelmingly white, straight, European and male cadre of artists.”

Putting European art “on a pedestal” is “problematic,” as every genre and tradition are “equally deserving of study,” according to Tim Barringer, chair of Yale’s art history department. He elaborated: “The class will also consider art in relation to questions of gender, class and race” and discuss its involvement with Western capitalism. Art’s “relationship with climate change” will also be a “key theme.” Incidentally, the course was extremely popular among students, a significant number of whom were disappointed and dissatisfied with this sudden change.

In DC and Buffalo, the situation is similar, but in reverse. As the NPR report notes, the heavily criticized and flawed 1619 Project, a revisionist history about the American founding, will be a mandated part of the curriculum for 7th through 12th graders, teaching students that the American founding was predicated on slavery, not emancipation from monarchic rule. But that isn’t all.

[PIF]

He elaborated: “The class will also consider art in relation to questions of gender, class and race” and discuss its involvement with Western capitalism. Art’s “relationship with climate change” will also be a “key theme.” Incidentally, the course was extremely popular among students, a significant number of whom were disappointed and dissatisfied with this sudden change.

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because now the standard is so low, students see an easy high grade for little relative study and effort. in other words, the class has become the art equivalent of under water basket weaving

[SoCal Pubbie]

The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.

[a fool in paradise]

>>Art’s “relationship with climate change”

When the ice age ended people moved out of caves

[Migraine]

Reframing history is fundamental to indoctrination.

This kid is absolutely correct. Until I read his article, I had been unfamiliar with this Adorno guy (1950) and his testing for "authoritarian tendencies". This is how the inherently non-scientific strains of psychology and sociology can pretend to be scientific while making up utterly subjective tests that enable the practitioners to paint conservatism into racist and fascistic corners.

The wholesale buy-in by academia has brought us to the present hardcore ideological divide. Thanks a lot.

[Savage Beast]

Considering what the article says about the Chairman of Yale’s Art History Department, it’s probably a good thing that the course was cancelled.

[kalee]

For later

[Zionist Conspirator]

And all theoretically based on Marxism, arguably the most western philosophy of all. It wasn’t “indigenous pipples” who came up with dialectical materialism.

[mjp]

Putting European art “on a pedestal” is “problematic,” as every genre and tradition are “equally deserving of study

cultural equivalency is a myth/hoax to spread egalitarianism

[hanamizu]

“...once taught by authorities like Vincent Scully”

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An art authority and the voice of the Dodgers!!

[cowpoke]

Thanks for this.

[FLT-bird]

First it was to rewrite American history to demonize the South, Southerners and decentralized power. The 60s Leftists who engaged in the long march through the institutions starting in the late 60s really got going with this PC Revisionism by the 80s (See Howard Zinn, James McPherson, etc) and by the mid 90s it was almost impossible to hear any other version of history in Academia.

Now they’re moving on to demonize the Founding Fathers and indeed all of Western Civilization. We Southerners told y’all all along they were never going to stop at demonizing the South.....

[Boogieman]

I think you misread that, the OLD course that celebrated the Western canon was what was popular with the students, not this new “woke” humanities curriculum.