Dissident Opinion is Evil...or Good? Maybe?
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni is a Washington-based organization run by the likes of Lynne Cheney (the vice-prez's wife) and Joe Lieberman. According to their own website, the ACTA is a "tax-exempt, nonprofit, educational organization committed to academic freedom, excellence and accountability at America's colleges and universities." Sounds good, hey?
In October 2001, the ACTA published a report entitled Defending Civilization: How Our Universities are Failing America and What Can Be Done About It, written by the president of the ACTA. The report accused over 40 American academics of anti-American behaviour. And holy hell, are some of these people anti-American! Like the Dean of Princeton saying “There is a terrible and understandable desire to find and punish whoever was responsible for this. But as we think about it, it’s very important for Americans to think about our own history, what we did in World War II to Japanese citizens by interning them.” Or the speaker at Harvard who said, “[We should] build bridges and relationships, not simply bombs and walls.” Or the sign that reads "Hate breeds hate." All these are quotes taken from the report on what constitutes anti-American behaviour. This report is quite the crock of shit, but is symbolic of what's going on in the States right now.
This is also hilarious: on the website's list of publications the report Defending Civilization is there, along with a report entitled Intellectual Diversity, in which the ACTA "outlines steps universities can take to encourage a mix of ideas on campus and to respond to the growing public concern about the lack of intellectual diversity." Does anyone else see the irony? Also, of the 14 reports listed, 8 have PDF links that can be read immediately. Defending Civilization is not one of them. Instead, you must request a copy by email. I think they're keeping tabs on the people who are reading it. Fortunately, I googled the sucker and found the actual report. Plus, take a look at the report How Many Ward Churchills? which "concludes that throughout Americam higher education, professors are using their classrooms to push political agendas in the name of teaching students to think critically."
Read Paul Street's zinging criticism of Defending Civilization, including comments about the actual problems with American universities.
In October 2001, the ACTA published a report entitled Defending Civilization: How Our Universities are Failing America and What Can Be Done About It, written by the president of the ACTA. The report accused over 40 American academics of anti-American behaviour. And holy hell, are some of these people anti-American! Like the Dean of Princeton saying “There is a terrible and understandable desire to find and punish whoever was responsible for this. But as we think about it, it’s very important for Americans to think about our own history, what we did in World War II to Japanese citizens by interning them.” Or the speaker at Harvard who said, “[We should] build bridges and relationships, not simply bombs and walls.” Or the sign that reads "Hate breeds hate." All these are quotes taken from the report on what constitutes anti-American behaviour. This report is quite the crock of shit, but is symbolic of what's going on in the States right now.
This is also hilarious: on the website's list of publications the report Defending Civilization is there, along with a report entitled Intellectual Diversity, in which the ACTA "outlines steps universities can take to encourage a mix of ideas on campus and to respond to the growing public concern about the lack of intellectual diversity." Does anyone else see the irony? Also, of the 14 reports listed, 8 have PDF links that can be read immediately. Defending Civilization is not one of them. Instead, you must request a copy by email. I think they're keeping tabs on the people who are reading it. Fortunately, I googled the sucker and found the actual report. Plus, take a look at the report How Many Ward Churchills? which "concludes that throughout Americam higher education, professors are using their classrooms to push political agendas in the name of teaching students to think critically."
Read Paul Street's zinging criticism of Defending Civilization, including comments about the actual problems with American universities.
posted by Kris at 3:21 PM
1 Comments:
Remember when they hired FBI agents to infiltrate stanford in the 70's? Oh, wait, it was this year too....
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