He was an ass, so are the sociologist who believe that they can implement socialism through popular culture. They believe the masses are stupid.... only the liberals.
Posted on 07/31/2004 7:00:56 PM PDT by quidnunc
If you want a good example of the "long march through the institutions" undertaken by sixties leftists after they left school, look no further than the career of Orville Schell, dean of Berkeley's School of Journalism.
Since the political program of the left was unlikely to prevail through democratic means — given the innate good sense of most Americans, who can smell a totalitarian rat a mile away — those like Schell endorsing various socialist nostrums could realize their utopian schemes only "by insinuation and infiltration rather than confrontation," as Roger Kimball has put it. Thus they settled in the universities and the media, "working against the established institutions while working in them," in the words of sixties leftist guru Herbert Marcuse.
But there is another dimension of the institutionalization of the left, one also illustrated by Schell — what Tom Wolfe famously called "radical chic," the use of leftist ideology as a fashion marker to signify one's elitist superiority to the bovine middle class befuddled by a false consciousness that keeps them from seeing the horrible oppression and injustice of America. This combination of elitist privilege and ideology has been a pretty good deal for lucky leftists like Schell, for their insidious undermining of democracy's institutions works just slowly enough to allow them to continue to enjoy the prestigious and profitable benefits of those same institutions that their "progressive" ideas are corrupting.
The circumstances of Schell's hiring at Berkeley illustrate just how entrenched the left has become in American universities. Before going to Berkeley as dean, Schell had written for various publications, produced some television documentaries, run an organic farm, and published several well-received books on China, having given up on finishing his PhD. In other words, a pretty good career, but not one that would usually qualify you for being dean of one of the country's most prestigious journalism schools. But if Schell lacked one of the requirements for the position, a completed PhD, he did have impeccable leftist credentials. That was qualification enough for Berkeley profs like Troy Duster, another ex-sixties-radical who was instrumental in Schell's hiring.
We see in this episode one of the effects of the entrenchment of the left in the universities — the establishment of a "good-ole-leftist-boy" network that spreads around institutional goodies to its cronies. (I wonder where the female and minority faculty of Berkeley were when another privileged, prep-schooled white guy was given a job over the no doubt many better-qualified journalists "of color.") Schell himself recently helped out another ex-sixties radical, Robert Scheer, by hiring him this spring to teach a course at Berkeley on "Covering the Iraq War." Given that Scheer and Schell, both Nation contributors, have been outspoken and shrill opponents of the war in Iraq, it's hard to see how the whole notion of journalistic fairness and objectivity, let alone academic critical thinking on an issue, could cut any ice during Scheer's lectures.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at victorhanson.com ...
Or take it a step farther...homeschool. Hubby and I were listening to our kids make fun of Kerry and Edwards in the backseat of our truck tonight and I looked over at him and said "Ah, it's so nice to brainwash your children!" LOL!!
Thank you for the ping!
worth repeating.
The american university system is in need of a major purge of commies. Perhaps that is why the inteligencia fear the patriot act.
It won't be long until "journalist" will be something akin to buggy whip maker.
You don't need a journalism degree to be a journalist any more than you need a "pre-law" degree to go to law school.
America almost won, and then Clinton came around.
This is why they want this election to be the ANTI-1980.
Bush is Ronald Reagan in their eyes and Kerry is a new and improved jimmy carter.
Democrats are trying to undo the victory of the cold war.
The "Media" has always been controversial in America, even before we were a country. Our Founding Fathers invented freedom of the press, and newspapers historically made no pretense of nonpartisanship.
The Federalists had their papers and so did the Jeffersonians and there was an ideological balance of power among the information providers that kept them relatively honest. This balance of power broke down in 1860, and Lincoln had such terrible press that he had to suspend the First Amendment and shut down Democrat Copperhead newspapers.
"Yellow" journalism from William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer drove us into a "war of choice" with Spain. Then came the muckrakers and the newspaper publishers began to flex their muscles, shining the light of bad publicity on their enemies and spinning away the sins of their friends. Deciding what the voters will be bombarded with and what they will never see in print was an enormous power, which in the two World Wars and Korea they exercised responsibly.
The Soviets and the Nazis made a science of propaganda and American business made a science of advertising and the big players in the American media, now including radio and television, studied those sciences to improve their capability to steer public opinion and manufacture consent, increasing their power.
I believe Joe McCarthy was right. Soviet agents recruited American journalists. Naive college boys are more easily impressed than crusty old police beat reporters. Working class reporters with high school educations began to be replaced. Newspaper reporters became journalists.
The Vietnam War was a victory for Communist agitprop, a victory they could not have achieved without the willing assistance of the American media. Many of these Fifth Columnists are still members of the Fourth Estate.
It is our great good fortune to live at a time when the "Media" is no longer just the NYT, WAPO and LAT, parroted by ABCNBCCBSCNNPMSNBC. Free Republic is part of the "Media" now. Bloggers are part of the "media." Anybody with a cell phone camera can be a member of the "Media" if they want to be. The old Media is dying. Let us redouble our efforts to put it out of its misery.
Prayerfully, we will put this goebbelistic left pandering, swimming in the swill leftists media on the whole truth course one day. Very Best FReegards, D2
Bookmarking both threads.
D2
:-)
You have nailed this"
"This is why they want this election to be the ANTI-1980.
"Bush is Ronald Reagan in their eyes and Kerry is a new and improved jimmy carter.
"Democrats are trying to undo the victory of the cold war."
*or: "Aiding the enemy, by intent or ignorance."
Vigilance, faith - expose the enemy lies, reach out to the blind, encourage allies (thank you for continuing to fight!), bump!
He was an ass, so are the sociologist who believe that they can implement socialism through popular culture. They believe the masses are stupid.... only the liberals.
FGS
Thanks, for this informative post. First that I have heard of "Gramsci". He was simply doing a good job of implements "Fabian Socialism" as the means to implement the Socialist concepts of governement.
If you have not heard of "Fabian Socialsim", try doing a Google on that phrase. It has been around a while.
Live and Learn......
You're not serious, are you? Tell me you're not serious.
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