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Universities obsess over being politically correct
The Exponent Online ^ | March 2006 | Liz Alpiger

Posted on 03/02/2006 10:48:43 AM PST by mlc9852

"The Unbearable Whiteness of Barbie: Race and Popular Culture in the United States" is a class offered at Occidental College in California. The course studies ways in "which scientific racism has been put to use in the making of Barbie [and] to an interpretation of the film �The Matrix' as a Marxist critique of capitalism."

The same college also offers "Stupidity," a class which studies comparisons between the American president and "Beavis and Butthead."

At Alfred University, students can enroll in "Nip, Tuck, Perm, Pierce, and Tattoo: Adventures with Embodied Culture." Those in this class will study "teeth whitening, tanning, shaving, and hair dyeing" in addition to watching Arnold Schwarzenegger's bodybuilding movie, "Pumping Iron."

Amherst College offers the course "Taking Marx Seriously: Should Marx be given another chance?" To that I say, "No." Marxism really shouldn't be given another chance. It's brought poverty and despair to every government that's ever tried it; what makes people think it would be any different today?

(Excerpt) Read more at purdueexponent.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: academicbias; colleges; communism; highered; highereducation; leftismoncampus; occidentalcollege; pc; universities
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To: mlc9852
Here are just a few examples....
21 posted on 03/02/2006 11:37:08 AM PST by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum.)
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To: Joe 6-pack

Those are monasteries. I thought you meant regular people.


22 posted on 03/02/2006 11:38:26 AM PST by mlc9852
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To: mlc9852

That's my point....*communism* only succeeds where all persons involved are willing to live a life where they surrender all pretenses of materialism and private property. Property=Freedom, a concept that is at odds with a command economy. There are a limited number of lay communities that llive according to ascetic principles, but they are somewhat less common.


23 posted on 03/02/2006 11:41:48 AM PST by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum.)
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To: Joe 6-pack
Interesting.

It might work on a small scale and with buy-in (indoctrination) from everyone. The leadership has to be strong and immune to temptation.

The big problem and failure of Communism: we are human.

Just couple additional comments:

1. you can probably find a person or two who believe that Fascism was good for Germany and yes, successful. And you might be able to rationalize this.

2. By sheer body count, deaths under Communist rule have Fascism under Hitler/Mussolini beat by almost two to one (due to WWII, concentration camps, ally deaths...).

Ironically, today few people treat Communism as they do Fascism and the Nazis. Nazis are scorned (as they should be), but Communism is to be given a pass.

"Communism should be given another chance", they say.
24 posted on 03/02/2006 11:43:09 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: dhs12345

Actually, much of the Nazi idea of actually eliminating ethnic Jews flows directly from Karl Marx--which only makes your point more obvious.


25 posted on 03/02/2006 11:47:45 AM PST by Ohioan
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To: Joe 6-pack

And then we'll all die waiting in line for crucial surgery. Thanks, Mrs. Clintoon. I'll bet she won't be waiting in line. After, she is the smartest woman in the world, isn't she? Why should SHE wait? It was her idea.


26 posted on 03/02/2006 11:51:23 AM PST by RexBeach ("There is no substitute for victory." -Douglas MacArthur)
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To: mlc9852
Secondary education is merely secondary liberal indoctrination. After 12 years in your typical public school, having been taught by card-carrying NEA union teachers, college is no more than the wax on the car after having been through the car wash.

I am a business professor myself, and no longer amazed at the number of business profs who are actually AGAINST free enterprise. The students do surprise me, though. After 15 years or so of public education, most of them see it for what it is. At least we didn't subject them to 15 years of reciting the Koran.

27 posted on 03/02/2006 11:54:32 AM PST by massadvj
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To: mlc9852
The author hasn't much of a future in the liberal arts, IMHO, but I do respect her for speaking the truth.

Insofar as giving Marxism "a chance," it is a perfect illustration of Marx's enduring attraction for university faculty. Marxism is an all-encompassing theory of not only how the world does work but how it should. Theoreticians who have put the considerable effort required to comprehend its many obscurities do not appreciate that its obvious failures in application speak to structural difficulties - they simply deny or twist the evidence.

Marxism is, in my opinion, an interesting and illuminating descriptive model of economics, sociology, and historiography. It is a failure as a predictive model and was so during Marx's lifetime. Because it was a failure as a predictive model it was a disaster as a normative model, and the results of its applications prove it.

Academicians are by the nature of their work more interested in descriptive models than in the other two. The "another chance" they want to give it is the literal definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

28 posted on 03/02/2006 11:57:00 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: FreePaul

Gone are the days when a university would rather see empty seats than seat unqualified candidates.

Now qualification is only having PC status.


29 posted on 03/02/2006 11:57:46 AM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE!)
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To: mlc9852

Who cares? The "universities" gave up educating people in the [pick a decade after you graduated]s in favor of training skilled employees and an unemployable corps of indoctrinated layabouts.


30 posted on 03/02/2006 11:59:57 AM PST by D.P.Roberts
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To: mlc9852
[ The Matrix' as a Marxist critique of capitalism." ]

Double speak.. the Movie Matrix is a metaphor for socialist government control.. Socialism is slavery by government not capitialism.. And socialism is a symptom of utopian democracy.. but democracy is the social disease.. that causes socialism..
______________________________
Democracy is the road to socialism. Karl Marx

Democracy is indispensable to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism. V.I. Lenin

The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.- Karl Marx

31 posted on 03/02/2006 12:01:57 PM PST by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole..)
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To: mlc9852


Yeah, we need to get rid of negative stereotypes (except for the ones that speak of the "White Privilege" and the ones that tell us all minorities are victims....)


32 posted on 03/02/2006 12:06:49 PM PST by Tzimisce (How Would Mohammed Vote? Hillary for President!)
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To: mlc9852

"Universities obsess over being politically correct"

Oh stop it. ALL of our society's institutions are HOPELESSLY PC.

ALL OF THEM.

Please.


33 posted on 03/02/2006 12:08:15 PM PST by TalBlack (I WON'T suffer the journalizing or editorializing of people who are afraid of the enemies of freedom)
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To: mlc9852
the roots of political correctness
34 posted on 03/02/2006 12:10:56 PM PST by freepatriot32 (Holding you head high & voting Libertarian is better then holding your nose and voting republican)
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To: TalBlack

I think there are quite a few churches who aren't PC.


35 posted on 03/02/2006 12:11:43 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: FreePaul
A bunch of medical schools were bragging about how they were increasing thier minority enrollment by going out recruiting. No mention of trying to get the best, just the minorities.

As someone currently in the med. school application process I can tell you just how true and how frustrating this is. The URM factor as we call it (under-represented minority) is huge.
36 posted on 03/02/2006 12:17:56 PM PST by newguy357
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To: CROSSHIGHWAYMAN
Today's college freshman is more apt to think Astronomy is a course in the Gay Studies program.

*GREAT*! Thanks for the Zatarain's up the nose. :P
37 posted on 03/02/2006 12:28:48 PM PST by Jhohanna (Born Free)
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To: massadvj
Secondary education is merely secondary liberal indoctrination...

When I got out of the Army in the very late 60's, all I wanted to do was become an Engineer and make some money. I went to a Prep School and had all of the Liberal Arts that I could stomach, it was very left.

I had to suffer the same old sh#t in the required liberal arts portion, but I knew all of the answers and survived, these people have no clue about the real world.

38 posted on 03/02/2006 12:30:41 PM PST by Little Bill (A 37%'r, a Red Spot on a Blue State, rats are evil.)
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To: mlc9852

"I think there are quite a few churches who aren't PC."

I'll give you that--there must be some.


39 posted on 03/02/2006 12:43:21 PM PST by TalBlack (I WON'T suffer the journalizing or editorializing of people who are afraid of the enemies of freedom)
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To: mlc9852

That's a joke right? WTF kind of degree needs classes like these???


40 posted on 03/02/2006 12:45:05 PM PST by Centurion2000 (Islam's true face: http://makeashorterlink.com/?J169127BC)
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