Embedded and Elitist Left: The Long March through Schools of Journalism

VDH ^ | August 1, 2004 | Bruce Thornton

[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-

[blackie]

Hang 'em High!

[Old Professer]

The reformist impulse lies, to some extent, in all of us, I suppose, however, among those who seek the least path of resistance it is necessary to minimize the effort while maximizing the effect; the only way to do this is to band together like-minded individuals and instill in them a group ethos whereby through simple methods of impedance such as lying in the path of development and true progress they might elicit sympathy and increase their numbers.

Where better to do this than labor unions, campuses, public-service agencies and the editorial pages?

Conservatism is not hide-bound tradition but a strong respect for that which can be shown to work and an economy of public resources, government cannot do what an inspired individual can, namely reshape the face of the future with a single invention or shine the light on truth by exposing the layers of accumulated husks from failed social experiment.

As long as there remains an imbalance of consumers versus producers we will have socialism as a shining beacon to the slothful.

[Helms]

Embedded and Elitist Left: The Long March through Schools of Journalism [ and the Kennedy School of Government ]

[Helms]

These fomentors do not come cheap and that is why many college and university fees have sky rocketed. Tuens out that they too like a lavish lifestyle.