Posted on 02/20/2015 4:35:21 AM PST by SJackson
That Wisconsin Governor and GOP presidential hopeful Scott Walker never graduated from college renders him ineligible for the office of the presidency. Or so says such critics as Howard Dean when they suggest that Walker is insufficiently educated for the position.
I have multiple degrees, including a doctorate degree. For the last 16 years, I have taught philosophy at an array of universities and colleges—four-year and two-year, research-oriented and teaching-oriented, public and private, big and small—from Texas to New Jersey.
And I can assure you, the mere possession of a college degree most definitely does not certify that its holder is “educated.”
Though there are always exceptions, the painful truth of the matter is that the contemporary academic world has long since decided against supplying students with an education into the traditions of Western civilization. Instead, it has made up its mind to provide them with training in an ideology, namely, the prevailing leftist ideology better known as “Political Correctness” (PC).
Between “training” and an “education” there is a world of difference.
Those who are trained in an ideology will master all of the stock phrases, clichés, and conventionalities of that ideology; but they will master nothing else. For example, you can bet the bank that it will be axiomatic to many—most—college students that such things as “racism,” “sexism,” “homophobia,” “imperialism,” “colonialism,” and “classism” are unmitigated evils. For this reason, it’s just as much a sure bet that these same students couldn’t so much as begin to formulate an argument for any of these beliefs—or for any others, for that matter.
Training in an ideology is training in propositions that are treated as either self-evident or as following from self-evident propositions. The ideology is dogma.
However, because an ideology is an abstraction of reality—a Readers’ Digest version of it, so to speak—it is, at best, a distortion or caricature of the real world.
And the ideology that reigns on today’s campus is a distortion—a gross distortion—of “the real world” of Western civilization.
Unlike their counterparts from yesteryear, the image of Western civilization that’s promoted in many liberal arts and humanities departments throughout the country has all of the depth of a puddle. The West has been reduced to an uninterrupted exercise of villainy begetting villainy, its unprecedented theological, philosophical, and literary achievements summarily dismissed as the function of “white male privilege.” The evils for which human beings the planet over have been guilty from since time out of mind are presented as being unique to the West—when in fact it is typically the case that the West is unique only insofar as it alone among the peoples of the world has gone to great lengths to stamp out these evils.
Yet while the PC ideology that’s being forced upon contemporary students is at once false and socially destructive, the point here is that, content notwithstanding, college students should not be trained in any ideology. To replace education with training in an ideology is to insure that students’ minds languish in a poverty of imagination, a state of affairs that at once results from and contributes to their alienation from their own civilization.
In short, training in an ideology denies students precisely those resources that they need in order to think.
But it also denies them the ability to genuinely, reasonably, feel.
When the great 20th century philosopher Hannah Arendt witnessed the trials of Nazi war criminals in Israel, she noted a curious phenomenon, what she called “the banality of evil:” Most of the defendants, though responsible for wicked deeds, weren’t themselves particularly wicked themselves. However, they distinguished themselves by “a curious, but quite authentic inability to think.” That is, they had their “clichés, stock phrases,” and “conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct,” but the defendants were either wholly incapable of or unwilling to think beyond their script.
What’s true of the Nazis is no less true of anyone else—or at least of those who have nothing more than training in an ideology.
As I write this, and as his Democratic opponents pounce on Scott Walker for his lack of a college “education,” Marie Harf, the deputy spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, has just said that a “lack of opportunity for jobs” is among “the root causes” that account for the rise of such “extremist” groups as the now notorious “Islamic State.” In reply to the fury of incredulous responses that her remarks invited, Harf commented that hers “might be too nuanced of an argument [.]”
This, though, is exactly the problem: her argument is not nuanced. It’s all too simple. It’s formulaic. Actually, Harf hasn’t made an argument at all. She wouldn’t think to make one, and may not even know how to do so.
And this is because, for all of her college degrees, Harf, like her boss, Barack Obama, (evidently) sorely lacks an education.
She does, however, like millions of American college students, have training in an ideology.
“Evil white Rethuglicans are gonna bring back Jim Crow!”
“Evil white Rethuglicans are gonna take away your right to choose!”
“Evil white Rethuglicans are gonna bring back the draft!”
“Evil white Rethuglicans are gonna melt the ice caps and cut down the rain forests!”
When my kids were small, I would make up nonsensical lyrics to the “If I only had a brain” song from the Wizard of Oz.
My kids, in their 30s, can still sing them.
The two actors and the show's producer agreed to the switch. Here's an early photo of Ebsen as the Tin Man:
Unfortunately, 10 days after shooting began, Ebsen suffered a reaction to the aluminum powder used on the Tin Man makeup; he'd breathed it in, and it got into his lungs. That's how Jack Haley got the part.
I disagree. She needs to go back to ‘da Bing, take her clothes off, resume her pole dancing career, and make some extra money working in the VIP Room, also without her clothes.
He’s actually pretty clear on those topics. The media has muddled his view on purpose. He’s NOT for open borders at all and not for amnesty for illegals.
The way the media is going after Walker and the way they go after Cruz is pitiful, but expected. Al Sharpton, Holder et al can do no wrong, but decent guys like these get pummeled. Like the no college degree. Well, I rest my case with that doofus Sharf with Jobs for Muzzies will stop the terrorism. She’s got masters degrees I think. AAAAAACH.
The left poured literally MILLIONS of dollars here in WI to defeat Walker. Everyone loves the ACT 10 changes, except for the teachers union and far lefties. FYI-that John Doe (disgusting and practically illegal) 3+year investigation was run by a leftie DA in Milwaukee and shazam...... his WIFE is a Union Leader, Teacher pushing her husband DA into this. What a sham, illegally forcing all “targets of investigation” to be silenced from talking about it. Finally it is mostly over and the DA couldn’t prove ONE thing against Walker. Everything the left has thrown at him, he stays calm, goes forward and STICKS to his guns. My 2 cents.
“Now that is many times a better resume than obama’s.”
True enough but still it is damning with faint praise, it is like saying Cruz is taller than a grasshopper.
Living in Minnesota and having relatives in Madison and Milwaukee, I can attest that what you are saying is totally true. The Twin Cities’ news media covered all the Walker vs. the unions, etc. events in Wisconsin. Walker was severely tested, ad trashed by the left. He always prevailed in the end. That is because he plowed on and accomplished his goals and Wisconsin is the better for it.
I am eagerly looking forward to the next two years to see what Scott Walker accomplishes on the national scene. One of my close relatives is his Scheduling director.
For my 2 cents worth - I like both Walker and Cruz. Jindal is OK too, but we are not hearing much about him.
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs did not finish college.
The fact that Walker beat the liberals without a college degree while they all had degrees must really sting. Someone without a college education outsmarted them!
That is proof a college degree does not mean you are smart, it just means you sat in classrooms for 4 or more years regurgitating stuff written in a book, most of which is unnecessary to learn, stuff that can be found on the internet free, no tuition required. Art History? You can find all that on the internet. Women’s Psychology Studies? Go to a beach and see real women, not those in textbooks, and watch how they act. You can learn a lot.
Much of college is like trying to read a book to learn how to ride a bicycle. Just get on the bike and pedal and you got it. You do not need to read about sprocket theory and how it might be the handlebars represent male oppression of females and minorities.
College cannot teach those things that require innate talent such as charisma, will, and the determination to succeed. You can take business classes all you want but without an enterprenurial “spark” your business won’t be that great. Same with art classes. Some people, no matter how many art classes they take, just won’t be any good. College can develop talents in some cases but cannot put that talent there.
Walker has political talent, above and beyond a master’s degree in practical applicability of it. He has my vote if he runs for president.
And this is because, for all of her college degrees, Harf, like her boss, Barack Obama, (evidently) sorely lacks an education.
She does, however, like millions of American college students, have training in an ideology.
Did you know Josef Mengele was a college educated DOCTOR? Do you know why that makes absolutely no difference?
So was Che Guevara.
One of the finest legal minds of his generation, who won numerous significant Supreme Court decisions, is just barely above Barack Obama?
An outstanding analysis of the modern, young progressive.
no that is praise, not faint praise
Well, yldstrk actually said it was many times a better resume which I will assume means the same as if someone says he is “a hundred times better”, not just barely above. I was actually trying to joke a little when I said it was damning with faint praise, my point being that Obama is such a zero that there is no multiple that would NOT sound like faint praise.
As someone who actually is only “barely above” Obama in terms of intellect, morality and ability I might name Joe Biden or Al Sharpton, maybe Nancy Pelosi.
oh sorry, I get it
Not to say the primary isn’t important....but I think it’s entirely a race now between Jeb Bush and Scott Walker. I don’t think Cruz will enter the race...he’ll wait out the eight years and probably serve as Texas governor for four of them before hitting the national stage.
And I would say this...in Iowa....Walker will likely take the win.
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