How our Marxist faculties got that way (corrected)

Nailed it Ed! People may think some of your superlatives are hyperbole, but you almost can't overstate the case. These people are a bunch of loons - as evidenced by Ayers and Dorn working on a university payroll after their participation in the Weathermen and open admiration of Manson's revolution.

Sad thing is, when they die out, their ideas will live on in the next generation and the one after that. Being a conservative means you never get a break from the un-ending left wing assault on all things normal.

Great article - Thanks.

Very interesting article, though I somewhat disagree Having attended a large "liberal" state school in the northeast, I saw my fair share of socialist/marxist ideology in the classroom and in the common spaces. But by no means was this the only ideology present. Their was a healthy conservative streak in the history department, as well as the government department. And while I will agree that liberal thought is more prevalent, I disagree that it always goes as far as marxist. What I think is important, though, is that while in one class we debated (though the teacher never pushed) moral relativism and in another seriously studied marxist ideas, well more than half of my professors taught me how to think and logically address the questions I had regarding the world around me. So when I went to a class that happened to be taught by someone self-identified as a "marxist", or another taught by a self-identified "liberal hating republican", I was able to use critical thinking skills to evaluate their teachings on merit, as opposed to submitting myself to the hysteria they so often pushed. I don't portend that my experience at that university is representative of the entire country, nor do I think your explanation is representative of the entire country. It is true in many cases, as it is also false in many as well. Instead of being concerned about the politics of the professors, I am more concerned about whether the students are taught how to think and find answers to their questions. Not given the answers, but the tools to find them.

My mother claimed the marxist revolution in academia started much earlier. She majored in vocal music education and got her BA from the University of Oklahoma in 1939. She claimed in the 1950s and 1960s that "All my college professors were communists." She was given to occasional exaggeration, so I concluded "all" was exaggerating the situation some.

Canada is suffering from something very similar due to the number of "draft resisters" who were granted first asylum and then obtained citizenship. A surprising number reached high positions in Canadian universities. Of course there was already plenty of "Canadian Content" when it came to Leftists, but the imports found friendly, fertile ground. The current government, seeming to have learned its lesson, has not extended the same welcome to this generation of whiners.

I had some of these loser professors in college. They are nasty pathetic people for the most part. Unable to do anything meaningful in life, the lurk around in some imagined halls of glory having ascended to the golden throne.
I used to engage these guys and in one case, was removed from class. Most are mean little people who spout opinion and narrow views but become extremely angry when challenged. They think we are stupid but only because we disagree with them. They mistake education for intelligence. All one need to do is stand up to these pompous minions and stand firm and they cannot handle it. They will them mock you in class, shout you down, become almost violently angry and other students will join the stoning, eager to follow the crowd. Hold your ground, don't back off. Never back off. Principled thought and reasoning win every time. Never lose your temper. To lose your temper is to lose the argument.
They know not how to handle dissent.
I have two rules I follow in life and they have served me very well.
1) Never ever follow the crowd.
2) Don't be afraid to not conform. I have lost 2 jobs because I was not a "team" player. As such, I am self employed and it has worked by far to my advantage.
The left requires conformity, followers, sheep. Conservatism is about individualism, freedom and independence.
Are you sheep or lion?

Jason I believe you are a fair minded person. But, you are mistaken about what goes on in our educational system in this country. There is an attempted indoctrination. You mentioned the term critical thinking, but you should remember, the parameters of the given argument were provided to you. These parameters were created in some cases, by many people with an agenda. After all guiding young intelligent minds must be done in a very subtle way. I heard this term critical thinking or thought when I listened to a girl heading off to college once, she intended her course of study to be "Womens Studies" and she mentioned the necessity of critical thinking. I thought what a waste. I rightly or wrongly believe programs like Womens studies and the term critical thinking are mutually exclusive. I believe going to college should include obtaining real knowledge. Can critical thought really be taught? People do it if they choose to, but it can't be taught.

Our current crop of students may be deficient in history, geography, and economics but that is not the real problem. We have lost the ability to define freedom for a generation of children that are being taught from FDR's four freedoms...only in reverse! They are being indoctrinated into believing that unless there is 'Freedom from Want' silly things like Freedom of Speech or Religion don't mean anything. Want? When does it ever leave? The conservatives have lost the ability to imagine policies that build on freedom and McCain's willingness to restrict freedom of speech to strengthen incumbent's power or failure to even mention the Steyn case in Canada shows that they are winning. We MUST present new ideas and policies that enhance freedom. Get off the grid!

I spent forty years in the academic trenches as a professor and agree with Professor Glick's analysis. I want to add a little to what he wrote. Also contributing greatly to the destruction of the character of the American university has been the ever-growing intrusion of the federal government into academia. There is the influence of federal grant money, of course, but there is also the vast impact of setting up affirmative action and similar programs to enforce PC and its related phenomena. The people who administer this crap are often paid more than most of the actual teachers.

By the way, although I tried hard to lower my standards in keeping with the trend, I had difficulty keeping up with the competition. By the time I retired I was considered a real menace by some of the enhanced self esteem types flooding the classrooms.

John S. Evans

James McMurry is right: it goes back further than the Vietnam War. I can remember Harvard disparaged in the late '50s as "the little red schoolhouse on the Charles."

And I expect the left-wing intellectuals of the '30s found a congenial home in academia. That's perhaps one reason why the late-'60s radicals ended up there: it was a welcoming place. /Mr Lynn

Jim: When leftists, a few years ago, used the term
"critical thinking" it was not what you and I mean. The term to them meant attacking tradition, America, capitalism and whatever else that was good.

40.

1. The downpour of rain during the flood (Genesis 7:17)

2. The raven dispatched (Genesis 8:6)

3. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus fasted 40 days.

4. The Children of Israel had rest 40 years, or spent 40 years in captivity. (Numbers 14:34; Judges 3:11; 13:1)

5. Jonah's message to Nineveh of destruction in 40 days (Jonah 3:4)

6. A generation is considered 40 years. Some generations didn't receive promises because of sin.

Forty is a "time of testing"

1968 - 2008

Well, Mr. Geer, that is quite fascinating. I am over 40, and I fear we are on the threshold of a really big event, the kind that happens once in only 40 years and then some.

What a pleasant little fairy tale you've spun for yourself. Of course, the Palestinians never had a land of their own, did they? There was no Zionist movement, no mass immigration into Palestine in the first half of the 20th century, the Israeli's just magically reappeared there by the will of God. And of course the deal offered to the Palestinians in 1947 by the UN was entirely fair. Nevermind that the Israeli's owned only 5% of the land, and made up only a third of the population, it was their right to be given the majority of the territory. How dare the Palestinian leaders have boycotted the rubber stamp for this. And of course there were no Israeli attacks on Palestinian villages. No forced clearances. No house demolitions. A quarter of a million Palestinians weren't forcibly evicted from their homes. And even if they were, what right have they to feel pissed about it now? After all the Israeli's have done for them since. Shame on them. Of course, it's only religious extremism that makes people want to blow themselves up. Living in a state sized prison camp has no effect at all.
And of course anyone who disagrees with you is a Marxist pinko.
And Ann Coulter is not a stark raving loon.
And America has never done anything wrong, or contradictory to the teachings of it's major religions. And it has never propped up facist dictators to protect it's own business interests.
America's oil companies have never attempted to suppress the switch to alternative fuels, by sponsoring groups to undermine the science behind global warming. There aren't records of these transactions on the internet for everyone with an enquiring mind to see.
No, it's all those damned Marxist leftist pinko academics, with their notions about equality and peace and truth (where could they have picked up such nonsense?) Phew, thanks for that, the world all makes sense again. Now I'm off to shoot some immigrants. Aslan bless.

Michael G,

I agree with you that 40 is a time of testing, but we haven't passed the test. We have been found wanting. By we I mean both C's (conservatives and Christians).

Great article, Professor. Perhaps high school graduates should be steered toward technical schools instead of the failing Liberal Arts universities. Until the college situation is corrected, kids will do better to learn the humanities on their own.

Thought reform at America's colleges and universities is very real. While I agree with Jason that as long students are allowed to critically evaluate what they are being taught and feel free expressing their opinions and beliefs then having a left-leaning professor is not a serious issue. Unfortunately, universities have gone beyond presenting a particular ideology to the point where they are forcing their students to accept it. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has done a great deal of work concerning thought reform on campus. If you are interested, check out this article written by FIRE's co-founder Alan Charles Kors on thought reform, http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/5020.html, or check out one of the most recent cases FIRE is dealing with regarding thought reform at the University of Delaware, http://www.thefire.org/index.php/case/752.html.

Oh Nick, you demonstrate why it is so tedious dealing with witless Marxist pukes, as if there is another kind. Actually, you are quite correct in all your assertions except for the absolutes. It is not that America has never done anything wrong, just none of the fantasies concocted from whole cloth by our Marxist and just plain old evil moronic citizens. Like yourself. Your sarcastic descriptions of Zionist history are succinct and accurate. Good job. "Equality peace and truth"? Oh man. Such ignorance could only be intentional or clinical. Orwell, meet Nick. He's a bit slow on the uptake. Oh, yeah.

Nick- I see you have swallowed the Marxist line hook-line-and-sinker. As a Physicist, I can tell you there is no Science in global warming "science". Science does not advance by "consensus"; and that is all the global warming activists have on their side;consensus of like minded,politically motivated non scientists. As for the Israel-Palestinian conflict-Where were you when all the Arab states attacked the new Israelies as they got off the boats in the new Israel? They had to fight the moment they arrived if they wished to survive. Your piece of screed merely confirms the truth of the article in question.

Nick. Congratulations. You proved at least one of professor Glick's points. Lefties will always descend to name calling. They are unable to compete in the area of ideas. Colter a loon? Prove it.

There was an article written last week speaking to how a grossly flawed candidate like Obama would have been rejected by his own party up to 20 years ago but is lauded by the same today. The premise was that the left has gone from being just liberal to being radically left and in many cases demonstrate Marxist tendencies. The assessment was that this was due mostly to the fact that many in politics and the electorate have learned those lessons in our secondary schools and universities.

Your explanation is spot on and by filling in the gaps, makes it more understandable how this guy got as far as he has.

I like the perspective you provide on this issue. I endure leftist, marxist nonsense from self-proclaimed "intellectual superiors" constantly. I have been puzzled as to how these highly educated people can be so strongly anti-Catholic, anti-West, so loudly opinionated and narrow-minded.

It IS a communist plot ...except the communists were home-grown.

Thank you for your wisdom, Ed, and thanks, AT, for your ongoing, off-campus, radical conservative Teach In. You guys are the Internet 'Plato's Academy' of 2008. Bottom line...we are smarter than they, and far more capable of competently managing our beloved nation. As a curious bookworm, I self educated (re-habbed) myself back into my dad's unfashionable Reagan conservatism. The Epiphany was spiritually liberating. A joyous reunion. America is the best natural 'Utopia' the world is ever going to see . The 'Utopia' of dialectic socialism is pure academic cartoon fiction and a theoretical fantasy, ergo... patently un-achievable. I once tried running an old POS Renault on 'theories' and its now a derelict, weed choked, un-restorable rust bucket, filled with bugs, snakes, and pungent, fermenting, organic debris.
Marxism is, essentially, a classic Victorian pseudo-science, akin to Frankenstein's re-animation of the dead with captured lightning. Yes! They actually believed that garbage! Marx took Darwin's mundane observation of finch beak adaptation, and extrapolated it into his deranged, socio-economic, class struggle astrology. An elite, evolved intelligentsia can force the dialectic of history, and usher in a restored Brave New World where the common rabble are relegated back to their servile barnyard, where nature intended them, as opposed to the dangerous, unnatural, topsy-turvy, politically incorrect American perversion. In an improvisation on Uncle Bill Buckley, I'd rather be governed by NASCAR's 'Junior Nation' than the clueless, delusional, no-talent Beltway clowns behind the cockpit door, navigating us into their bankrupt, one dimensional, mediocre, hippie/socialist oblivion.
In their symbolic, touchy-feely, hallucinatory universe, if you disagree with their profound, learned brilliance...you are summarily dismissed as an anti-intellectual, knuckle dragging, neanderthal. Please, don't follow your bliss and viciously punk slap these twinkies (a chargeable offense), just calmly walk away, go home, and post a cathartic rant on AT. ( Delete the raw, impassioned first draft expletives!)

Remember United 93! PLEASE! They were us! Todd Beamer's last known words at 9:32AM... 9/11/01... 10,000 ft. over Shanksville, Pa. "Are you guys ready? Let's roll!"

Nick is the shining example of exactly what Professor Glick has so eloquently described. Growing up there are always the "odd" kids. They mostly seem a little off, don't seem to show the social skills needed to mix in, don't have the drive to compete and lastly have a large angry side to them. As time goes on they gravitate to the others who are odd and increasingly show and act out their anger. Like the proverbial fork in the road, when it comes to productively making your way in society most head to the right but those few oddies like Nick choose left. Now their anger really intensifies because they have been "left" behind again. In order not to feel completely left out, instead of turning around they choose the path of least resistance and join up with other angry leftbehinders. Gradually they begin to feel empowered and start shouting out their anger by blaming all the "others" for their problems. Their motto is "if I'm miserable and ill-equipped to change I'll make myself FEEL better by blaming". And so on it goes, more Nick's who lead miserable lives and want everyone else to know it.
By the way Nick, learn the difference between their and there, then use it properly in your drivel.
Have a nice angry life bro'.

I'm confused... Didn't the free market, the one you all revere, make it this way? I'm sure you all would agree that everyone should have the right to believe what they want, as long as it doesn't infringe upon anyone else's rights. How does having a Marxist viewpoint infringe upon anyone else's rights? Doesn't the consumer, in this case, students, have the right to choose to attend any university they want? If they choose to attend univeristies with Marxist leaning faculties, isn't that their problem? I guess I'm just confused why all you free market types are in an uproar over the result of a system you claim to have faith in. If you actually have faith in the system, and it hasn't changed in 80 years, as some posters have claimed, then that must mean the market is choosing it? Am I missing something? The only argument I can see rebutting my claims is that it's not a free market, because of tenure. Then again, the administrations of the schools agreed to tenure, with full knowledge of what that implies, so I guess the free market was working there too... Any thoughts?

(I'm not a Marxist, in fact, even though I spent seven years in a large state school in the northwest getting two degrees, one in Journalism and one in Philosophy, two admittedly left-leaning professions, I've never even met an actual Marxist.)

Great article!

I agree that Marxism took hold in American Universities - especially the Ivy League schools, far earlier than the 1960's. After WWI, professor's from many American universities visited the Soviet Union, and became enamored with the Marx/Lenin model as the path forward for modern societies.
Upon their return, they began espousing these views in the classroom. M. Stanton Evans mentions this in his recent book on Joe McCarthy "Blacklisted By History", and how many of the communist sympathizing graduates of this period infiltrated the U.S Government through the State Department and the OSS during WWII.
It's been going on for a long time, though I would argue that it has proliferated in the period mentioned by the author.

Whenever I hear the term "marxist" used disparagingly I think "wow, who is this Karl Marx? he must have been a great man to have inspired so many for so long."

What I find sad about these obvious Marxist Leaning Socialist blogging this obvious factual History of Academia and Marxism is : There is no mention of the Greatest Economic and Political Failure ever since time began .
More People were Murdered , Staved to Death , Imprisoned during Marxism in Russia and China than America lost in all our Wars including the Revolutionary , Civil , WW I-2 . Korea , Nam and 6 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. . Marxism was built on A False Economy , LIES , FEAR , THUGS ..... and it fell on a FALSE economy , Lies , Fear and Thugs .
These Leftist Academic's and Oboma addicted Socialist prove history , economics', reality , common sense and reality are MATTER-LESS !

What I find sad about these obvious Marxist Leaning Socialist blogging this obvious factual History of Academia and Marxism is : There is no mention of the Greatest Economic and Political Failure ever since time began .
More People were Murdered , Staved to Death , Imprisoned during Marxism in Russia and China than America lost in all our Wars including the Revolutionary , Civil , WW I-2 . Korea , Nam and 6 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. . Marxism was built on A False Economy , LIES , FEAR , THUGS ..... and it fell on a FALSE economy , Lies , Fear and Thugs .
These Leftist Academic's and Oboma addicted Socialist prove history , economics', reality , common sense and reality are MATTER-LESS !

Simply put, being a Marxist is being anti-Capitalist. With that as a basis, it works out that most if not every Marxist is an America hater.

If I'm wrong, prove it by naming one person who spouts Marxist/Collectivist/Communist foolishness who is a patriot and who loves the U.S.

Nick,
the problem is NOT that America has never done anything wrong.

It's that people like you don't believe that America has ever done anything right.

The fact that America created a working democratic free society, the freest on earth, entirely from scratch; the fact that America liberated over a billion people from both Nazism and Communism; the fact that America invented 95% of the world's modern technologies, from telephones to the Internet; all that, leftists like you dismiss scornfully as irrelevant to America's allegedly true, allegedly evil, nature.

Sean Hannity once asked far-leftist Janeane Garofalo if she could name even two things that the United States had done in its entire history that she approved of. She couldn't.

Can you?

Global warming is the new Marxism - dogma masquerading as science, to use Mr. Pipes' description. We are embarking on the establishment of a totalitarian state in the name of global warming.

Dickinson, you mean enslaved so many for so long.

Nick, you are not "really" for equality and I can prove it.

Do gun owners have the same rights as other people?

Do the unborn have the same rights as other people?

Do conservatives have the same rights as other people?

If you said no to any of these questions, then you are a liar, fraud, phony, and a fake.

:tolerance: my a## !!! Libs believe only in tolerating what ever agrees with their pin-headed tiny perspective.

All I can say is, if OBamessiah wins, start practicing your "Seig heils" cause that is where America will be headed.

To :Dickinson
Karl Marx was the one attributed with the creation of the socialist doctrine that led to Communist Socialism in the body of Czarist Russia;that became known as the USSR. Liberal intellectuals have whitwashed Communism to cover up the fact that it was the most inhumane,murderous regiem ever created on the planet. If you don't believe it just read Alexander Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago" , which chronicles the Soviet system's treatment of its citizens( and non-citizens). Some historians credit the Soviets with the murder of 20 million people, but it was probably far in excess of that number. My advice for you is to acquaint yourself with the facts of the 20th Century,rather than the propaganda.

Sorry for the double entry- My computer was so slow I thought I had not entered it.BTW- I agree with most of you that the leftists,communists,and "progressives" as they now call themselves(since everyone now "knows" that communism is dead-right?)have been in Academia for many years,but I think the real push to completely dominate the education system came in the very late 50's into the early sixties. I was in high school when Sputnik was launched by the USSR, the US was caught completely off-guard. Upon cries of the US not having enough scientists and engineers, the government set up several Math and Science programs to boost the enrollment of students in these fields. The next thing that happened was that the Liberal Arts establishment( read Journalism, history,and other "social" fields of study) raised the hue and cry that their fields were being discriminated against. With very little effort they were able to gut the Math/Science programs and get their programs funded it their place. This result was so unexpected, and so easy to achieve, that the progressives, and social "science" proponents set about taking over the entire education system from K thru 12 and Universities as well,which they did with ease. I lived through this sad turn of events ,and thought at the time that it would not be good for the country.

Ian if you really look at the higher education system and see a free market, you need to have your perspective vision checked. There is no resemblance.

Dickinson, I am sure you realize that "Marxist" is now just a catch-all term. As we know, Karl Marx postulated some naive, utopian ideas that appealed to people who were willing to sacrifice freedom for security. In the end, in every large-scale application, they lost their freedom and achieved mediocrity.

I have quit thinking in terms such as Marxist, and even Liberal. Marxism is dead; there are few societies who even pay lip-service to the concept. Classic liberalism was long-since distorted to the point of being meaningless. To me the operative term most of the time is STATIST. Same idea as the original Marxists. Big government advocates who want more and more control of individual decisions, paired with the people who are willing to give the STATE power over their lives--in hopes of (fill in the blank).

Mr. Glick hit the nail on the head. Is this what the 60's were about? I thought we fought for equality and freedom of thought? It's disturbing to think that students no longer question their professors. What happened to debate? Egomaniacs are responsible for teaching this generation of college students to feel "entitled" to everything and now we'll have a president in BHO who feels the same way. (G-d forbid.)

Whittaker Chambers states in his autobiographical book "Witness" that there was a calculated move by Communist agents in the 20s and 30s to infiltrate three key areas of the United States: education, media, and non-elected government positions. Once in place, an agent used his influence to bring in more agents and exclude any opposition.

Whittaker knew this because he was one of them; he conveyed government secrets from Alger Hiss, FDR's right hand man, to the Soviets.

Eventually Whittaker concluded Communism was evil, extracted himself from it, and then found himself in court as a witness against his old friend, Alger Hiss.

"Witness" was published in 1952 and was a best-seller, but to my knowledge the infiltrators were never ferreted out, which would explain the leftward drift of universities and media.

I started to college after Vietnam service (70-74). I went to a midwestern liberal arts college. Trust me, there were ultra-liberal and even Marxist professors out the ying-yang! My Freshman advisor told me NOT to admit that I was a veteran lest I fail certain core courses taught by known anti-veteran/Marxist leaning profs. I did in fact fail a course my freshman year as a result of disagreeing with a Marxist teacher who had accused all Vietnam vets of being "war criminals, rapists and baby killers." Kinda like Congressman John Murtha (a great(?) American) and the Haditha Marines. Murtha said, "They're all killers and murderers." Other professors were openly anti-Israel and very anti-Semitic even in those days. They blamed the "Jews" both American and Israeli, for the ills of the Near East. I will concede that liberalism and anti-Americanism is rapant on the college campus today, but it's not a new thing at all. Still, my guess is that like MSM news personnel, 99% of "Academia" vote Democrat.

While I concur that Marxism/Socialism is present in today's University environment, I submit John Dewey brought that failed philosophy to Public Education well before 1968. All one needs do is look at what is being taught as early as Kindergarten to see the trend.

Winston Churchill once compared Marxism to a Cult of Envy. Most tenured professors I know make well over $100,000 salaries but yet we find Marxism still prevalent in college. Guess the Marxist profs don't mind becoming members of the bourgeoisie.

Well said, Ranger Joe.

There's a relatively easy way to turn the tide back toward sanity.

Challenge the premises.

Like Kennedy and all the illegal alien advocates who said that this or that thing wouldn't happen, tell them to personally pick up the tab for it as a guarantee, in case it does happen.

As long as these professors stay in their protected little offices they can spout off any number of stupidities but if they're held accountable, they'll soon change the "tone" of what they say. We pay their salaries one way or another, through taxes or tuition or both.

If someone says our enemies are just misunderstood, tell the to "put their money where their mouth is".

It is now a bastion of situational ethics and moral relativity and teaches that there are no evil people, only misunderstood and oppressed people.

Yeah? Well, if they really believe that, why don't they go clarify the situation for them? Maybe our enemies will be sated enough with their blood they'll leave the rest of us alone for awhile.

Like the environmentalists who claim the world is overpopulated. Well, if they really believe that, they all have my permission to commit suicide and thereby reduce the population to an acceptable level. You really think they're going to do that?

It's our fault as much as it is the stupid radicals. We let them get away with it for so long it has become the status quo.

I too am a Viet Nam veteran and I attended college on the G.I. Bill. I finished at a well-known Northeast institution and was told not to bring up the fact that I was a Vet in front of my professors.

To highlight the point here, I had an Economics professor who was little interested in American Economics and only used our system to compare and praise Soviet economics. Too strange to be true.

Unfortunately, I needed to keep quiet in many of my courses to get by and to maintain my marks. Thus, there is no open dialogue with Marxists.

Looks like Jeugenen has arrived back from the neighborhood cross-burning or was it just a "prayer" meeting at Trinity?

Did you get a chance to say high to Barry or Michele?

Jeugenen, methinks I spot a Jew on the grassy knoll. Hurry, go get him. Whew! That'll keep him busy for an hour or two! He intimates that the annihilation of Israel is "justified". Hey, does Pat Buchanon know that one of his fair haired, goose stepping aids is blogging on AT?

Jeugenen, your ignorance is exceeded only by your gall.

Are you a product of the educational system under discussion--or are you European? Somehow I tend to believe the latter.

Nick - the idiot.

Everyone should watch the video "HOW MODERN LIBERALS THINK." It really explains the mindset of these people. It's very good and make sure you watch the Q&A at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c

Enjoy!

Poor Jason, post #2. He didn't even learn the differnce between their and there at his liberal NE state school.

Before I attended my large mid-west public university (current NCAA champs I might add), I considered myself very liberal and voted a Democrat ticket. My particular university's distribution required a considerable amount of Great Works authors. In those courses, I first read St Augustine and Martin Luther. Soon thereafter, I became a Lutheran, a conservative and a Republican much to the shock and horror of my professors. The moral of the story is that the institution of the University w/ a Great Works curriculum can overcome whatever liberal propaganda the liberals choose to throw at students. Those old professors who instituted my University's Great Works class understood how to give the institution some backbone so it'll stand up for the Truth even in the dark times.

Read the Port Huron Statement of 1962 by Tom Hayden and his band of radicals. They spelled out their blueprint for social change and declared academia as their citadel for this change. To quote from their manifesto, "A new left must transform modern complexity into issues that can be understood and felt close-up by every human being. It must give form to the feelings of helplessness and indifference, so that people may see the political, social and economic sources of their private troubles and organize to change society...the university is a relevant place for all of these activities."

But I disagree, Mr. Glick, when you say that "most of them went to work in the real world." I contend that the brightest of them went on to obtain law degrees to join law firms specializing in environmental and civil rights issues. To quote again from the Port Huron Statement, "A new left must start controversy across the land." From these activist law students come our present day activist judges and constitutionally flawed court decisions.

The second-tier students, the ones I say bought the books but didn't read them, took the English, journalism, and communication classes. They are the ones who today indoctrinate rather than inform the public through what we call the main-stream media. Their role is to hide from the public the true agenda, and flaws, of the left while distorting and minimizing the positons of the conservatives. Public opinion of the Iraq War and their acceptance of Obama's "empty suit" are testimony to how effective they have become.

This article has clearly described how the radicals of the Sixties completely dominate our educational system from elementary schools to the highest levels of academia. This is a triangular assault upon our Western civilization that is the culmination of a struggle for social changes dreamed of fifty years ago in the Port Huron Statement of 1962. This is what Barack Obama means when he says he is the candidate of change.

i'm a grad student wrapping up a humanities phd at a northeastern ivy league university, and I agree pretty much entirely with this analysis. The amount of marxist ideology among faculty, and the amount of it aimed at the undergrads "training" their knee jerk responses, at my university, is shocking. It has only served to render academe increasingly irrelevant to these historic times.

Ed -- excellent article.

The one experience that I have had that convinced me you are right is I went back to my Alma Matta for a reunion. There was nothing about the college that resembled what I had remembered except the buildings. Talking to the professors was like an adventure into a world of make believe -- They had created their very own insular culture, cut off from the real world, never disturbed by outside influences -- scary. The levers of control at the institution were clearly Marxism oriented, so if you wanted to get a head, it was clear what you had to do.

The teaching of Marxism have flowed from colleges down to our public education system, where feelings are far more important than knowledge. Some of my recent experiences were with a lot of 20 somethings on a project. What little world knowledge they had was downright scary.

How else can you explain "pay more in taxes and government will pretend to control the weather" hoax being a big hit with some. They have neither the education, nor the ability to reason the most basic of scientific principles.

Marxism failed because it failed, eventually even the bayonet couldn't make it work. I notice that those who want to revive it always talk revolution, class envy, and get even-ism, never talk about substantive issues. Comrade Obama speaks this revolutionary tongue quite well.

Oh yeah, I refused to give them any money, as a state run college they don't need it, gave to Reagan's Heritage instead.

You've NAILED it, Ed! You have NAILED IT PERFECTLY.

I wish I had written that piece!

Great article...now what do we do about it?

Good news though. I spent Spring break with 9 college kids at the beach house. They were all conservatives and saw right through the Marxists's insanity. They had instincts of a bs detector, but no real education of history, economics or political science.

I have an anecdotal experience that I would like to share. I have recently been accepted to med school and one of the requirements I had to fulfill was to get a letter of recommendation from 2 members of the premedical committee board at my undergrad university. During my 2 separate interviews with these people, I spent 5 minutes answering questions about myself and 55 minutes being lectured on the benefits of socialized healthcare and many other democratic talking points. I knew I had to agree with these loons to get a positive letter of rec, so I bit my tongue and agreed - which was frustrating. When asked what my favorite book was I chose to be honest & said the bible and my interviewer almost fell off of his chair....took a deep breath.... and then said, what's your 2nd favorite book?

It's a shame how educators are leveraging their perceived "intelligence" & "power" to influence young people's ideologies.

SF Doc...Bless you kind Sir! You are my very first AT comment applause. My amazing step-daughter is a proud graduate of USNA Annapolis, and on graduation day, all the newly minted Ensigns are obliged by ancient tradition to give their first saluter a silver dollar. Consider this my cyber silver dollar.
I am a real NJ Ranger (retired) and had a lot of stick whittling, down time at work. I read my flabby, inert butt off, and kept a daily journal. I morphed from Marxist- SDS- hippie earth child, in 1973, to an adult, well informed Reagan conservative over my 35 years in the State Park Service. ( A Rock & Blues fan forever.) When I'm asked where I got my degree, I tell people I'm an 'auto-didact'... they look at me with compassion and suggest medical intervention.
AT always meant the 'Appalachin Trail' to me (my favorite foot patrol venue). Now it means this amazing, enlightened, free speech web site! A genuine American intellectual bulwark/ network in these dangerous times. I can synthesize all the trivial mental lint I've gathered over the years, and knit it into a cerebral red, white, and blue XXXL turtle neck sweater and get posted! Hey! It's official! I'm a bona fide 'American Thinker'. I've got a clinical diagnosis from a big city doctor! Ironically, my cardiologist is a conservatve history buff. So are my podiatrist and dermatologist. (Hmmm...go figure.) Intelligent, pithy coversation abounds in my office visits (when they can spare their precious time.) If you're not a real physician, hey, that's cool... have you stayed in a
'Holiday Inn Express' recently? Saludos Amigos! Keep 'em flyin'! There's a shootin' war goin' on!

Edward Bernard Glick,

This is an excellent piece. One of the best I've read on American Thinker (and I've read quite a few great ones here).
I appreciate your insight, your accurate assessment of the marxists in our universities, and your plain speech.

Kudos! Bravo!
AWR Hawkins

I found replacing Marxism with the word Fabian brought forth more info on where and what is causing our troubles here in the UK.
Blair and his government Fabians apparently Bush surrounded by them also.
Worth reasearching applies to islam also...under George Bernard Shaw.
These tools would be fully utilized to begin the destruction of America.

The secret goal of the Fabian Society was to create a godless, classless, socialistic society that was dedicated to the ultimate victory of Socialism which really meant Communism. In 1891, they became affiliated with the Second Socialist International (established in 1889), and helped establish a Democratic Socialist state in Great Britain.

The Fabian Strategy
The aims of the Fabian Society were developed by Webb from what Englishman John Ruskin (1819-1900) taught at Oxford University. Ruskin, a teacher at the Working Men's College (founded in 1854 by Christian-Socialist philosopher J. F. D. Maurice), a professor of Fine Arts at Oxford, an artist and writer, based his views on those of Socialist Robert Owen. He advocated a utopian society, and espoused theories developed from the teachings of Plato (428-347 BC), who had studied under Socrates, and became the greatest philosopher in history. Plato established an academy which operated for 800 years, producing many great men, including Aristotle. In his work, The Republic, he outlined his ideal society, which was an aristocratic society ruled by the elite. It included the elimination of marriage and the family, and introduced selective breeding by the government which would destroy all inferior offspring. In Plato's utopia, sexual equality dictated that women would fight alongside the men in times of war.

The Fabians were working towards a new world by indoctrinating young scholars who would eventually rise to power in various policy-making positions throughout the world by infiltrating educational institutions, government agencies, and political parties. Their strategy was called the "doctrine of inevitability of gradualism," which meant that their goals would be gradually achieved. So gradual, that nobody would notice, or "without breach of continuity or abrupt change of the entire social issue." The secret was evolution, not revolution, or what Webb called "permeation." Shaw (whose mistress, Florence Farr, was a witch in the Order of the Golden Dawn), revealed that their goal was to be achieved by "stealth, intrigue, subversion, and the deception of never calling Socialism by its right name." In fact, that's how they got their name. The name originated from the Roman Consul, General Quintus Fabius Maximus, the Cunctator ('Delayer'), who through patient, cautious, delaying and elusive tactics during the early phases of the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) enabled the Roman army to regroup and defeat Hannibal's stronger Carthaginian army.

http://www.modernhistoryproject.org/mhp/ArticleDisplay.php?Article=FinalWarn05-1
Shaw 1936 i'd like to see islamic rule in England nay Europe.
Mayor Bloomberg NYC is a Fabian.

yorkielass...AMAZING link to the deep MHP site...I am going to shut down now and go talk to the squirrels. Devastating truths. Overwhelming stuff. As a recovering hedonistic, socialistic, day trippin' hippie flower child, (who opened up his heart and let the sunshine in)(whilst skinny dippin' at Woodstock '69.) I feel like a dirty, guilty, duped SOB right now. Save for the fact I can put on vintage 'Greatful Dead' vinyl, and schizophrenically channel my old euthanized other self (the drugs ya think?), and re-think all that delusional garbage I credulously embraced in my youth as 'cosmic truths'. I guess I'm a bi-cultural hybrid of sorts...a la John Candy's Mog in 'Spaceballs'...half dog/half human...my own best friend. I know now, after 40 years, what 'Age of Aquarius' REALLY meant. Evil, subversive idiocy. Sacre Merde! (That's cussin' in French)(It shows I got class.)
Allow me at this time, to humbly thank the pseudonymed, volunteer faculty at AT for all the mind altering, consciousness raising (and dangerous) concrete, historical FACTS. Heretofore unbeknownst to me. The Internet is truly the 'Eighth Wonder of the Modern World'. AT is a no-limit information Autobahn. I am getting so well informed in my retirement, I have to increase my hat size. Bravo to all you real educators at the Global AT Tuition Free Academy. I'm going to take a recess now, and sneak a short Macanudo mild on the student quadrangle... under the ancient Scholar's Oak. In the unofficial motto of the NJ State Park Service... "Illegitimi non carborundum." Peace out, my beloved anonymous readers!!

Nick,
Since you're so clearly unhappy here I suggest you move to some place more in keeping with your superior moral outlook-

"Political Correctness", A week before Hollween last year, my seven year olds elementry school sent a letter to the parents of the stundents stating that costume wearing would not be permitted at the public schools. They gave this as an example to why: "If the kids were to wear witch costumes, it may offend real whitchs." This put me in a strange predicament. I want to find out who it was that came up with this and have a discusion in its regards but concluded after reading the notice again that such a conversation could not be possible or if it could it would be futile.
Whith all of this "political correctness" what a grest world we are living in!

As a PhD student in Anthropology for the past seven years, I can pretty much say that I have been sitting in the belly of the beast. Anthropology bequeathed the liberal arts and humanities with cultural (and hence moral) relativism, post-modernism and multiculturalism. Most of the professors are cut from the same piece of cloth that Glick describes - aging boomers who were anti-war activist in the 60s (or at least that is what ever last one of them claims). Often they decry the "apathy" of this "shiftless" generation of students and try to spur them to march in the streets. A week after 9/11 they even arranged a teach-in for the general public to explain why all of this was America's fault.

Yet, you'd think that with so many leftists in Academia that the University would be a slice of heaven. Quite. I can report that departments are dens of intrigue and power politics where nothing is sacred and people advance themselves by "any means necessary". This includes false accusations against other professor's students and funding decisions based not on intellectual rigor, but rather to those who have been ideologically vetted.

Stalin would be so proud!