Thursday, May 22, 2014

The American University: a Marxist Cesspool of Intellectual Repression

There is a part of America that is solidly under Marxist control, where the populace is brainwashed, freedom of inquiry shut off, and competing ideas eradicated. That part of America is the American University.  In Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes, David Horowitz writes:
Graduation ceremonies on America's college campuses have become occasions to reflect on the near total domination of the left over the institutions of higher learning, a politicization of academic life unprecedented in the history of our democracy.
This deplorable situation did not happen by accident. It is the result of a McCarthyism operating inside these academic institutions, fueled by the atmosphere of "political correctness" that has enveloped the academy since the ascension of the tenured left. The hegemony of this left has resulted in politicized hiring practices, systematic exclusion of dissenting voices, and an atmosphere of political intimidation to a degree seen only in countries ruled by communist or fascist or theocratic dictatorships.
College administrators regularly invite far left extremists to speak at graduation ceremonies, but conservatives are generally excluded.   Faculties are almost entirely comprised of Democrats, Marxists and other species of leftists.  The University of Colorado, for example, had a ratio of 30 to 1 in favor of Democrat professors over Republican ones.  There was not a single Republican or conservative in the English, psychology, journalism, philosophy, women's studies, ethnic studies, and lesbian and gay studies departments.  One college professor was eventually outed as a Republican, and was told by a department colleague "we would never have hired you if we'd known you were a Republican."

The university is an intellectual bubble where diversity of thought and opinion is heavily repressed through social pressure, politicized hiring, and the need for students to "go along" to get good grades.  In summary, the left has turned the University into a cesspool of Marxist, totalitarian brainwashing through the following means:
1.  Hiring only leftist, Marxist and Democrat faculty, though a heavily politicized hiring process;
2.  Inviting only leftists, liberals or radicals to be guest speakers or commencement speakers;
3.  Exerting strong social pressure on students and faculty to conform to, and support, the leftist agenda.

David Horowitz concludes:
The politicization of the university and the debasement of scholarship are a national tragedy of incalculable dimensions. If the situation is to be remedied, it can only be by a restoration of the integrity of these institutions parallel in magnitude and scope.
Source:  Horowitz, David (1999-09-01). Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes (Kindle Locations 1807-1808). Spence Publishing Company. Kindle Edition.


No comments: