Even though I had a Zionist-Afrikaner settler professor in Israel write on his blog and on David Hororwitz’s far right reactionary site that I am semi-literate because I do not have a college degree—only people with degrees in political science are capable, according to this professor, of forming intelligent political opinions, that is to say he considers about 99.99% of the population incapable of making political decisions, in other words this guy is a snobbish elitist with nothing but contempt for ordinary people—I would suggest most people interested in politics completely avoid the university and instead begin reading as many books on political history and theory as possible. In short order, the universities will become reactionary right-wing indoctrination centers. Consider:
“Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out ‘leftist totalitarianism’ by ‘dictator professors’ in the classrooms of Florida’s universities,” reports Alligator Online. “The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, passed 8-to-2 despite strenuous objections from the only two Democrats on the committee.”
“I am working right now to get legislatures and university boards to ratify the Academic Bill of Rights, and already I can report that Colorado, Georgia and Missouri lawmakers are on the verge of doing just that,” writes former commie transmuted into far right field Strausscon David Horowitz. “I know this is ambitious, but ask yourself: what options do we have? Do we just give up on our colleges and accept that the radical, anti-American left is in charge of teaching our nation’s future leaders? No. We cannot do that. ”
It really pisses off these guys that colleges have faculty that are not right-wing zealots like them who think Muslims should be third-class citizens (every Muslim a Palestinian) and who also have professors and educators who teach that there are a few problems with the foreign policy of the United States and relate this to their students. Telling the truth about American history will soon become illegal in Florida and the Fox News world view will be the only one permitted on college campuses—or anywhere else, for that matter.
It should be noted here that Dennis Baxley was brainwashed by Horowitz. “Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, filed House Bill 837 after he attended a meeting last year in St. Louis where well-known conservative activist David Horowitz railed against liberal biases on campus toward professors and students. The bill borrows heavily from a template used in similar bills filed nationwide with the help of Horowitz’s group, Students for Academic Freedom,” according to this newspaper item.
It should be noted here that Horowitz’s attack on academic freedom is precisely what the far right in this country want. Horowitz’s Center for the Study of Popular Culture is suffused with millions of dollars from the Scaife Foundations and other far right reactionaries. For instance, the John M. Olin Foundation gave Horowitz $150,000 in 2003 (see this funding chart). Olin made its money on chemical and munitions and also supports the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy Research, and the Hoover Institute of War, Revolution and Peace, all either far right and neocon think tanks. The The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation has rained hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years on Horowitz and his organization.
“Bradley supports the organizations and individuals that promote the deregulation of business, the rollback of virtually all social welfare programs, and the privatization of government services,” writes Media Transparency. “As a result, the list of Bradley grant recipients reads like a Who’s Who of the U.S.Right. Bradley money supports such major right-wing groups as the Heritage Foundation, source of policy papers on budget cuts, supply-side economics and the Star Wars military plan for the Reagan administration; the Madison Center for Educational Affairs, which provides funding for right-wing research and a network of conservative student newspapers; and the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, literary home for such racist authors as Charles Murray (The Bell Curve) and Dinesh D’Souza (The End of Racism), former conservative officeholders Jeane Kirkpatrick, Jack Kemp and William Bennett, and arch-conservative jurists Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia.” You may remember Charles Murray, the author who wrote a book arguing that poverty is the result, not of social conditions or policies, but of the inferior genetic traits of a sub-class of human beings. It is precisely this sub-class of human beings who are fighting the Strausscon wars in the Middle East, the sort of wars (or rather invasions and unprovoked attacks) that make people like John M. Olin stinking rich. If Bush and Crew get their way the slightly less than sub-class of human beings—the middle class—will be soon be fighting these brush wars of empire, so profitable for the Olins and Scaifes of the world.
Horowitz is simply a front man for what the far reactionary right wants to do in this country—eliminate all opposition or at least excessively marginalize it, beginning with the colleges and universities. Ward Churchill is the poster boy for this effort, specifically chosen because of his radicalism and also because he is viewed as a 60s throwback and the far right hates with a passion anything smacking of 60s radicalism or even liberalism.
It can be argued that Richard Mellon Scaife is in large part responsible for the aggressive and hateful attitude of many of the media reactionaries so popular these days. “In his hilarious 2003 book Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them), Al Franken argues that the abusive tone of rightwing zealots like Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter can be traced back to Scaife, and in particular to one episode in 1981 when Scaife verbally assaulted a reporter,” notes Right Web. “When the reporter, Karen Rothmeyer of the Columbia Journalism Review, asked Scaife about his funding of conservative groups, he replied, ‘You fucking communist cunt, get out of here.’ Franken writes that Scaife ‘went on to tell her that she was ugly and that her teeth were “terrible.” Of Ms. Rothmeyer’s mother, who was not present, he said, “She’s ugly, too.” Sensing that it was time to wrap up the interview, Ms. Rothmeyer thanked Scaife for his time. He bade her farewell with a cheery “Don’t look behind you.”
Such ugliness and hatred drives the far right—for instance, calling Ward Churchill and a “cigar store Indian” or just about anything that comes out of Ann Coulter’s mouth or word processor. Consider the far right’s unremitting attack on Clinton—and Clinton was not even a liberal, he was right of center and a CIA op who snitched on the antiwar movement. Only extreme right fanaticism bordering on fascism will suffice for these Machiavellian sociopaths. Center of righters who entertain a handful of liberal social ideals are up for attack the same way the Ward Churchills are.
It is time to give the middle finger to the university. If you want to receive a balanced and objective education—and yes the stains of American history and the carnage of U.S, foreign policy are part of that balanced and objective education—then there is no reason to attend a vastly overpriced university. Most of us are better off self-directing our own educations. As for the degree required to get a decent job… you might want to ask the guy in India who works for one quarter or less than you do about how far his U.S. university education got him (I guess working a help desk for a credit card company in Bangalore for a couple bucks an hour is better than starving to death).
The far right—okay, let’s call them what they are, authoritarians, even fascists—will not rest until they own all opinion in this country and hound those of us with contrary opinions from the commons… or out of the country entirely and maybe even into re-education camps. As history notes—the history Horowitz does not want you to learn in college—authoritarianism and fascism ultimately lead to repression (ask the Argentineans) and even death squads.
No comments:
Post a Comment