He is right on the money, in all senses of that phrase
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Dieter <robert.dieter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: pa64@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <pa64@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tue, Nov 3, 2020 4:52 pm
Subject: [pa64] Re: Woke Universities Lead America to a Primitive State - WSJ
#yiv5343901659 P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}In this election season it’s
almost impossible to find pro-Trump bumper stickers or signs anywhere in my
town. The reason is not lack of support but fear of vandalism, or worse: People
nationwide have been physically assaulted and even threatened with loss of
their livelihoods for no other reason than that they plan to vote as one half
of the country does, and political goals are now commonly pursued by violent
means. With this our civilization seems to be regressing to a more primitive
stage of its development—a time when disputes were settled by force instead of
rules, and before the First Amendment guaranteed the right to speak freely on
the social and political issues of the day. That’s bad enough in itself, but
worse yet is that this social regression began on college campuses, of all
places, before spreading to the national culture. On one-party campuses,
radical-left faculty have established a political orthodoxy that student mobs
enforce, and the political culture of the nation is poisoned as those students
take home with them their professors’ habit of seeing opinions that differ from
theirs as an evil not to be tolerated.The left-wing political orthodoxy is also
taking the place of traditional civics. Recent graduates know much less about
U.S. government than older Americans do. In 2018 the Woodrow Wilson National
Fellowship Foundation gave a sample of Americans a test based on the exam for
U.S. citizenship. Only 19% of people under 45 passed, while 74% of those over
65 did, meaning even elderly people who learned the material more than 40 years
ago can summon it from memory better than recent grads. Similar studies have
found a regression in knowledge of U.S. history. Today’s universities are
presiding over a nationwide reversion to civic illiteracy. That’s a disaster
for the country, but it suits campus radicals. A well-informed citizenry would
hardly wish to be governed by people whose ideological kin have reduced so many
countries to economic and political deserts.America’s universities were once
the leading edge of an advanced culture, reinforcing and expanding the
country’s best features. They steered differences of opinion away from rancor
and toward well-regulated, informed debate. They welcomed eccentric opinions,
expanded the boundaries of thought and learning in every sphere, prepared
students for citizenship by rooting them in their society’s government and
history, and trained students for nonpartisan service in the specialized
professions an advanced society neNone of that persists today. Far from being
the leading edge of an advanced culture, the universities drag America back
toward a more primitive state. They have contempt for the restraints and rules
that define society, such as political neutrality in nonpolitical institutions.
For radicals, politics takes precedence over everything, and every field within
social science and the humanities eventually degrades into a mere channel to
spread progressive orthodoxies.In an advanced society, journalists have the
vital job of keeping the citizenry well-informed so that the government can be
held to account. Only in less-developed cultures is the press commonly under
firm political control. But since America’s university journalism programs are
now overwhelmingly left-activist, we now effectively have the politicized press
of an undeveloped nation. The same holds for schoolteachers, at present also
trained by campus radicals, which is making public school systems increasingly
ideological. Socialist dictatorships and banana republics hold their
universities under strict political control; it’s astonishing that the U.S.
seems to be joining that club.Race relations in America are devolving under the
same progressive leadership. Campuses are in a constant state of hysteria about
“systemic” racism, with small armies of diversity administrators always eager
to jump at the slightest infraction, real or imagined. Why does invisible
campus racism need such zealous policing? If radical leftists can persuade
enough people that America is rotten at its core with racial prejudice, they’ll
gain traction for their program of radical social transformation. Power-hungry
radicals whip up racial tensions where none exist because their authority
depends on social division.In the past, universities were indispensable in
maintaining American culture, but now they undermine and sicken it. The public
should learn to see through the patina of prestige that still covers elite
schools, and should assess realistically the damage these schools are doing
today. That damage goes beyond a failure to develop graduates who think
independently. Universities now attack the most basic principles of American
society, and do so with lavish taxpayer support. We should decide how best to
cut them off.Mr. Ellis is a professor emeritus of German literature at the
University of California, Santa Cruz and author of “The Breakdown of Higher
Education: How It happened, the Damage It Does, and What Can Be Done.”
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Sent: Tuesday, November 3, 2020 3:06 PM
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Subject: [pa64] Re: Woke Universities Lead America to a Primitive State - WSJ
not a subscriber and can't access
-----Original Message-----
From: Tory Peterson <torypeterson33@xxxxxxxxx>
To: pa64@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <pa64@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tue, Nov 3, 2020 3:42 pm
Subject: [pa64] Woke Universities Lead America to a Primitive State - WSJ
#yiv5343901659 #yiv5343901659 --#yiv5343901659x_yiv2021504175
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{color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv5343901659 Woke Universities Lead
America to a Primitive State - WSJ Higher education now stands for mob rule,
civic ignorance and contempt for truth and free inquiry.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/woke-universities-lead-america-to-a-primitive-state-11604359918?mod=hp_opin_pos_2Sent
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