Texas town sees Red as Marxist professor gets tenure

Washington Times ^ | 3/27/02 | Hugh Aynesworth

[kattracks]

TEXAS CITY, Texas

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

   "I have a fundamental disagreement with capitalism," Mr. Smith said in answer to a question about his Marxist beliefs. "I think that capitalism is a system based on exploitation and oppression and domination and racism and war — and lots of other things."

This from a person who benefits from the system he damns.

[ClancyJ]

"I think that capitalism is a system based on exploitation and oppression and domination and racism and war — and lots of other things."

As if Marxism isn't oppressive, dominating, racist and war causing. Apparently these that believe in Marxism and socialism must think they will be in the elite few that have the benefits and obtain the wealth and give the orders.

I can't imagine anyone working for a system that does not allow them freedom of speech, freedom to work and keep what they earn, freedom to determine their own goals rather than the elite providing their goals.

If he is so oppressed why doesn't he leave and go to one of the countries that is closer to his way of thinking? Why does he chose to stay in a country he hates? He forgets, he has the freedom to leave. Could it be because he hopes to sway the minds of the young so that his Marxism cohorts can take over this rich country? Does he think he would be the dictator of that new country or merely one of the peons at the beck and call of the whims of that dictator?

[ClancyJ]

"As I told several who wanted this man fired, today was the perfect example of why college professors need tenure: to protect them from such an uprising in the community," Mr. Hayes said.

Exactly - a Marxism regime at work. Apparently his fellow cohorts are already in attendance at that college.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

I think that the phrase "America: love it or leave it!" may have applicability here.

[misterman]

These sorts of attitudes are exactly the reason why this guy needs tenure: to protect him from idiots that want every professor to think the way that they do. If you are afraid that people with his type of views are "corrupting" the minds of our youth, then I have news for you: if you are a 21 year old sitting in this guy's class and you don't have the mental capabilities to make up your own mind then you deserve to be brainwashed. And I would gladly swindle every stupid ass person out of their hard-earned dollars. I was eating guys like this for breakfast when I was 17, and I can tell you from personal experience that we NEED people like this teaching school. We also need them to have tenure because their ideas are not popular. If the protesters had their way, all universities would be jammed full of radical right-wing idiots like Mike Savage ready to poison and brainwash the minds of our youth. Give kids more credit.

And as far as going to this guys class every day to "harass" him, why don't you try something a little less leftist, like engage in debate. Believe it or not, people with off-center political views are fully capable of (a) presenting both sides of an issue, and (b) divorcing their personal beliefs from whatever class they are teaching. Whoever gets booted from college for disrupting class either deserves it or is lying. How can someone get kicked out of college for actions in one class anyway? I give the guy credit for admitting that he is a Marxist when so many quasi-Marxists hide in the shadows behind democratic ideals. Why is it that when someone like this guy admits to his unpopular ideology so many people want to jam him up? He is being honest and forthright about his position, and the fact that so many people want him ejected from the university proves that tenure is needed. What if the tables were turned and this was a die hard Republican that had worked for a think tank? All of the people on here would be talking about freeping the university to get the guy tenure.

[CasearianDaoist]

"What if the tables were turned and this was a die hard Republican that had worked for a think tank? All of the people on here would be talking about freeping the university to get the guy tenure."

I think that this is exactly the point. Mr Smith is in fact a mainstream voice in academia. If he were anything else but a Marxist idealogue he would be in for a struggle to reach tenure. I believe that you are out of touch with what is going on our campuses. As one who spent some time in the USSR during the height of the cold war, I would say that there is even more conformity to the hard left line than in elite Soviet institutions in that period. Those academics were merely trying to survive. Few would seriously try to proselytize the Marxtist line with such zeal, nor were in their hearts true believers.

Remember that the intellectual classes have over the course of the last two centuries often caved in to most totalitarian scheme and power grabs. They have either been willful collaborators with, or "useful idiots" manipulated by, some very dangerous movements. We have a very real problem in academia today, a problem that may yet cost us our Republic. Young people today not only hear just one side - they are not taught the basic intellectual skills needed to decide for themselves. They are not taught the skills of rhetoric, rather they are taught to mouth a rhetoric. This is done willfully by a professoriate that has contempt for our values, culture, history, culture and civilization. If you think that you are upholding some American value in not challenging the current state of affairs in higher education, if you think that you are serving America by protecting these people under some mantle of free speech or academic freedom, then I have news for you: these people are laughing at you and indeed have planned on this response. It is straight out of playbook of Lenin and Stalin. They are not honest actors on the stage of intellectual inquiry. They are the shock troops, bagmen and agent provocateurs of a very real totalitarian threat to our way of life. They have every intention of destroying this country and this civilization, and are acting upon that intention with a deeply malignent and hateful vigor. They are not in it for tenure. They hope to be the new commissariate.

How do we raise up the crop when it is in the field? It has gone beyond intellectual challenge - the deck is stack to high against a reasonable exchange: The very notions of the individual, the objective world, empiricism and rational thought itself have be swept away by a tide of quasi-religious fervor presicely aimed at manipulating unformed minds. The answer lies in the pocketbook. Worldy, partiotic citzens and, most especially, alumni must hold academic institutions' feet to the fire. The normalization and "de-politicalization" of academia shall take a generation. It must be forced upon them by the citizenry at large. We need to begin this project as soon as we possibly can.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Well, the overt stuff is easily dealt with, but what about the subtle stuff?  After all these many years after college, I am still finding that I have to reevaluate what I was taught in college.  Quite often, I find that facts and figures I was given in college are nothing but fiction.  These are small things, but are there nonetheless.  Colleges should be bastions of truth.

[CasearianDaoist]

I am curious, what is your age?

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Let's just say that I am a boomer.

[CasearianDaoist]

That is interesting. I was expecting someone much younger. Until lately, few boomers ever question their education - if they moved on politically they put it off to "youth." What is really scary if not just bad facts and figures, but the philosophical outlook taught in those years. Though we were forced to read the canon of our civilization (the "great books" in our Weswtern Civ. classes) our generation has but a superficial grasp of them and most likely will never revisit them. Chomsky and his ilk aside, Most senior academics these days are firstwave boomers. Not only do they not undersand what was being taught to us way back when, they do not even teach it at all. If they make reference to that corpus at all it is as a cautionary tale accompnied by the usual snide asides. Our young have been cheated out of the rich legacy of our civilization, its long battle with darkness and its hard won truths. This is truly criminal.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

There are more boomers out there questioning current academic philosophy than you might believe.  As an example, the teaching profession is not generally held in high regard by boomer parents because of the general lack of quality of those choosing this profession.  It may be a perception thing, but if so, the NEA and their ilk are extremely unperceptive, because the parents are far more practical than the current crop of ivory tower types when it comes to addressing the question of why Johnny can't read.

[texlok]

Only in Texas would you have a president of a college named "Butch" ;-)

[CasearianDaoist]

I tend to beleive you...that is why I said "until lately." And I suppose that you are correct as well in observing that this is driven by boomers' concern for there childrens future (and no doubt the unreal price of college these days.) The fact is that the political atmosphere on campus drove out of the profession most everyone of high quality. When I was in graduate school most professors told me to get out of academia and to go into the business world. They saw no future for free thinking people, particulary white men. I did and am glad of it now. That was in the '70s. Can you imagine what it is like now?

[CasearianDaoist]

sorry: "their children" not "there children"

[BikerNYC]

They are after the minds of our young and they expect you to pay for it.

They do that at every college. In fact, that's the whole point, paying someone to turn your mind into something it was not.

[CasearianDaoist]

A Marxist view if I ever heard one. No, at the undergradutate level schools exist to teach intellectual skills, impart the basic knowledge of some sort specialized field of knowledge, expose the young to the legacy of their civilization and show the meaning of the present by elucidating the past. A bachlor diploma should be nothing more that a certification that these goals have been achieved. The end result: a productive citizen who can engage any be engaged by his civilization on its higher levels, be they economic, social, cultural or philosophical. It is not to turn out indoctrinated clockworks. The key. I beleive, I a Western notion of the individual.

[CasearianDaoist]

sorry "The key, I believe, is a" is what i meant to type.

[ClancyJ]

He is being honest and forthright about his position, and the fact that so many people want him ejected from the university proves that tenure is needed.

Guess you are an example of one of their successes. Don't we have the right to determine what is put into the minds of the young we have spent years raising? No? We are to turn them over to anti-American opinions so that they can become valuable citizens working for conservative ideals or is this the last best effort to promote the overthrow of our democracy? Please explain why I would have to save for years to provide this experience.

The main arguments of all efforts to promote anti-American trash are "they are not worth anything if they are not able handle opposing views", "exposure to differing opinions is what education is about", yak..yak..yak.

How absolutely dumb do they think we are to fall for that nonsense. We are not paying to turn out left wing radicals and if it comes to bypassing college - so be it.

[okie01]

"Of course they would see nothing wrong with his ideas - they too hate our government and are teaching liberal, socialistic, Marxist ideals."

Marxists have nothing against our government. Government is their friend; they wish to control it. Instead, these socialists hate America...American ideals...and Americans themselves.

[BikerNYC]

Who said anything about turning out indoctrinated clockworks?

However, a Marxist would quickly agree with your assessment of education as "expos[ing] the young to the legacy of their civilization and show[ing] the meaning of the present by elucidating the past."

The whole point of education is to get people to think a certain way so they are, as you say, "productive citizens." If that idea doesn't involve a pre-conceived notion of how a productive citizen should think and act, I don't know what does. That you indicate a "Western notion of the individual" is a prerequisite for such an education establishes that you are pressing one ideology over another in an effort to produce people you think are "productive."