Posted on 03/28/2019 8:35:27 PM PDT by AnalogReigns
New Zealand catches me between two arms, as it were; one in the past and the other in the present.
The past is a memory. It’s the memory of a man who was an awkward bearded Kiwi law don. He used to invite a number of us who were law students to his rooms in the late evening to argue over ideas. We drank and argued. He helped me to learn to think; more importantly, he taught me never to be afraid of ideas I found alien or alarming.
Later, during the quarter century I taught at university, with a nod to him over my shoulder, I ran an open seminar called ‘Sceptics Anonymous.’ It followed the same principle; anything was up for discussion. We turned ideas upside down and inside out. Sometimes we changed our minds. Just ten years ago, most people thought that was in part what university was for. But in the last few years, things have changed with breath–taking speed.
This last week the Canadian psychology professor Jordan Peterson had the offer of a Fellowship that Cambridge University had made him withdrawn. He found out from twitter. A spokeswoman said “Cambridge is an inclusive environment. There is no place for anyone who cannot uphold our inclusive principles.”
‘Inclusive’ is of course a coded word that has now come to be indelibly associated with the Cultural-Marxist project. It is a word designed to include some values and some people, and emphatically exclude others. Even the word does not tell the truth about itself. And it’s obvious, when you know a little history that Marxism, cultural or economic, doesn’t allow people to voice other ideas. It’s not just Cambridge. Oxford University are trying to harass and shame Nigel Biggar, who teaches that there are two sides to everything, including the legacy of colonialism (education, health, roads, democracy, rule of law etc.)
To many of us it is still mind-bogglingly strange that the whole of our Higher Education system could fall into the hands of people who will only allow certain ideas, outlaw others, and are determined to stop people thinking and discovering for themselves.
And that is exactly what propelled Jordan Peterson to fame. He refused to be told what words he must and must not use. People have since come flocking to listen to him and be inspired.
The Left tried to miscategorise him as ‘alt-right’, hard right, fascist, anything to close him down and shut him up. But they failed. He describes himself as Left in some matters and Right in others; like many of us.
Back to New Zealand and the present. The murderous massacre at Christchurch has been hard to deal with at many levels. Of all events this one required making a distinction between the innocent victims and the association of ideas.
The Media lamented profoundly with the victims; rightly. But so deep did its sympathies run, that it told only one side of a wider story. 49 people were killed by a callous white secular Australian murderer in the Christchurch Mosque. But in the same week, 140 Nigerian Christians were butchered by their Muslim neighbours; and the media were silent. Sometimes what you don’t say is as powerful a way of distorting the truth as telling a lie.
The way we respond to ideas has morphed. They work differently now. We experience them more like a virus spreading a plague than they do building blocks one can take and reshape and build concepts and patterns out of.
Someone discovered a photo of Jordan Peterson taken by a company that makes money through having fans pose next to a celeb.
This fan was wearing a T shirt which said that he was against “paedophilia, rape, wife beating, homophobia, misogyny, violence against women and children.” Not so bad you might think. Who is not against them? But they were a subtitle to “I am a proud Islamophobe.”
It wouldn’t be hard to find people whose experience matched the T shirt. The Yazidis for example. But instead of acting like an idea to be rebutted, or modified or qualified or endorsed, it acted like an infection instead; and because Peterson stood next to it he was infected by association.
Peter Tatchell, whom I have admired for a long time, wrote in the Times recently how he had experienced the slur of Islamophobia when he had protested against an Islamic group called Hizb ut-Tahrir, who endorsed the killing of LGBT people and Muslims who leave their faith. He wants to be able to criticise ideas and not to be thought to be condemning people.
Tatchell’s right. We have to be able to talk about ideas without being accused of hating people. Listening to Peterson, he has been careful to say that Islam lies beyond his area of expertise and he is unwilling to say anything much about it.
If the old universities have given way to doctrinaire censorship and mob rule by the Left, perhaps the only hope is for someone or some group to found a new university, and brand it a ‘university of free speech.’ It might become popular. It might catch on. It would appeal to people who wanted to chose freedom and hope rather than control and fear. There may still be some left.
"‘Inclusive’ is of course a coded word that has now come to be indelibly associated with the Cultural-Marxist project. It is a word designed to include some values and some people, and emphatically exclude others. Even the word does not tell the truth about itself. And it’s obvious, when you know a little history that Marxism, cultural or economic, doesn’t allow people to voice other ideas."
“Cambridge is an inclusive environment. There is no place for anyone who cannot uphold our inclusive principles.”
The Stupid is strong with this one.
Or the ability to listen to one’s own words is weak.
Then to add insult to insanity, these same people call their system 'inclusive'...
Then to add insult to insanity, these same people call their system 'inclusive'...
in the same week, 140 Nigerian Christians were butchered by their Muslim neighbours"
We are inclusive. That’s why we forbid dissent. Because we are inclusive.
Actually, thanks to the Hollywood Lefties, we can dismiss any current college degree as "bought" in some way, shape or form. ;-)
We would like to include you in our big tent of diversity where all people are welcome and we love each other unconditionally.
But we hate your guts so get out of here and go die somewhere you Nazi climate-denying pig!
All Animals Are Equal. But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others.
ISLAM IS NOT JUST ANOTHER RELIGION IT IS A FORM OF GOVERNMENT THAT SHOULD BE REFERED TO AS MOSLEMISM
It is interesting the way socialists approach theological concepts for when it comes to Islam they are not the only ones who refuse to approach the issue. That even includes leading Christian clergy including Pope Francis.
Followers of Mohammed not only claim, but truly believe that God has authorized them to kill those who refuse to submit to their version of Gods will.
That is a basic tenet of that religion. A claim which goes unchallanged which makes it a theocratic creed advocating a form of government that is to replace the existing one.
While it is understandable for atheists which most socialists are, not to approach that claim on a theological basis. But believing by bombing and killing those who believe in it will end its practice,which will not. Islam as construed with its portrayal of a mercyless evil deity approving using deception and deceit is an abomination which must be discredited and condemed.
And that can only be done by attacking its assertions and tenets. Certainly not by ignoring and deying they do not exist. .
It is bewildering why many Christian clergy concerned about quote, political correctness, unquote, refuse to address what an insult to God islam is and worse yet are unable to condem then convince and convert its advocates and adhearants they are followers of an evil creed .
The Koran which was not given to Mohammed by God but by some angel .Demanding enforcement of sharia law which draws heavily from the Torah.It is a pseudo religious concoction using monotheistic selected texts, taken and misconstrued from the old (bible) and new testaments.
Both of which cite the Almighty has granted free will to accept or obey his laws and God is the final judge not man: Sodom and Gormora ,and Let he who is without sin cast the stone, are outstanding examples from both books. One deals with sin and Gods decision toward a group the other to an individual, neither is left to man.
Yet followers of Mohammed under the severest of penalties are forbidden to read either which would refute that assertion in a creed which institutionalizes disgusting arab tribal views,mores, observances,and customs. Claiming adhearants are authorized by our Creator to demand submission to it or suffer an ignominious death administered by followers of Islam simply because they answer the call to prayer 5 times a day.
http://www.theusmat.com/islamandfreewill.htm
It should not be strange at all. The USSR inserted moles into key areas of society starting after WWII in order to influence and spread their propaganda in the sectors they judged the most influential. Like any logarithmic function, a lot of damage occurred and spread before the effects became noticeable. If we compare the spread of leftism to a bacterial growth curve, we have passed the inflection point from the lag phase into the growth phase. At this point, the poisonous ideas are growing linearly and being internalized by a large segment of the population. We will eventually reach the stationary phase at which poisoning more minds will have little effect, since the society will have reached its maximum state of dysfunction.
Hillary was supposed to push us to that inflection point after Obama did all he could to force it; Trump is our antibiotic. We can only hope our antibiotic is effective, and not just a setback to the malignancy that threatens us.
There was a time where rigorous debate and critical thinking is what you went to college for. My 2x daughters are on track to go. I have some work ahead of me scouting out where that still exists.
Hillsdale and Grove City if they can make it in.
otherwise, a small community commuter college, have her take classes and live at home.
Help her choose the non garbage courses, read sylubuses.
Remebmer all the humanity 101 courses are indoctrination courses. College writing, intro to philosophy...
And we are not taking it back... why??
through incisive PR to donors about the lack of free speech and diversity of thought
Through pushing legislation to tax endowments and have that money go to pay off student loans
Through PR about the ignorance and limited abilities of the graduates of targeted universities.
It's an extremely effective way to remove an unwanted influence.
Is it stupid for a university who has gone over to the dark side to remove all vestiges of the "truth/light" from its campus so as to keep its students in the "dark"?
The enemy is many things, but stupid, it is not.
Try the word "evil" as a substitute for "stupid."
There's a thought going 'round that perhaps the old universities haven't so much "given way to mob rule by the Left" as they are in fact the source of said "mob rule" (i.e., one of the primary places from which Leftist thought is emanating).
As an aside, it is interesting to note that we don't yet know who it is that controls the armies of the Left. We have no Hitler or Mussolini or Hirohito yet ID'd as supreme commander of this new (old?) enemy.
And that presents a major problem. How can you cut off the head of the snake when you can't find it?
How can you destroy an enemy when it has hidden its command and control structure and its leadership?
Yes, and War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, and Ignorance Is Strength... Why're running to a totalitarian hellhole. Why is that happening?
Yes, and War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, and Ignorance Is Strength... We're running to a totalitarian hellhole. Why is that happening?
You've taken the first step - recognizing there is a collective organized enemy and that it's hidden.
It reminds me of Jung's statement (and Jordan Peterson quoting Jung as well) that "people don't have ideas...ideas have people."
Perhaps this idea of Leftism/communism is an idea possessed of spiritual evil and it is that spiritual evil which provides the leadership and command and control.
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