Free your Mind

One of the most fascinating realities of human nature is our blind faith in individualism and human autonomy. The truth is we tend to make very few decisions based on facts, knowledge, and critical thinking. I was talking about this with a student/friend who has been slowly awakened the reality that he lives in a Left wing establishment in spite of all the anti-establishment talk and posturing from that same establishment. This has been slow for him because young Americans especially have a hard time "seeing" or realizing the reality they live in and continue to think exactly what our cultural establishment "tells" them to think.

In this regard, they are no different from their elders, because this is human nature. This is why people on the Left who vote democrat continue to insist in spite of the mountain of evidence against them that the republicans are more corrupt than the democrats. Why multiculturalism is good even though it is destroying Black America and now Hispanic America. In order to break out of this, they need to have an "ah ha!" moment that forces them to see something as it really is and forces them to understand their own humanity a little better.

I have discovered that a great way to get students and people turning this direction is to have them think about racism or slavery in American history. In my lectures on ontology and critical thinking I ask students to think about how many people were racists before the Civil Rights Movement. We talk about how a majority of people simply believed or ignored the truth of segregation and racism even though it was right in front of them every day of their lives. Rather than move on to the typical and predictable discussion 12 years of Establishment Left Wing Education has prepared them for, I then force them to confront their own humanity: "Given this reality, looking around the room of 20-30 people in it, our friends, fellow students, professor, is it not reasonable to conclude that if we were to time warp all of us back to the 50s that a majority of us would in fact be racists?" I then ask them if there is any way they can deny this. It ignites a great discussion and a lot of productive thinking. I ask them if there is any way any of them can guarantee that they would not have simply believed what their culture taught them to believe? No one ever raises their hand because the doubt is too clear, too obvious.

This is a great lecture, because it forces them to relate themselves to their "racists ancestors" in a way that is totally unpredicted and way too uncomfortable. It forces them to see just how easily deceived they can be by the cultural establishment. They realize that one of the great sorrows of human evil is that very often it is not intentional, it's just that we don't like seeing it, so we reinterpret it and create straw men to attack instead. It's Bush's fault, or it's a reaction to years of colonial imperialism. Some clever students even begin relating it to their immediate culture. "Are you saying that we have most of our values and beliefs installed in our minds in such way that we never know about it" Very disturbing and very enlightening. I have asked many of my students what this means for the world around them. Are they being fair when they interpret radical Muslims as neo-marxists who will suddenly not hate us when we give them their lands back and recognize their humanity? If it's understandable that the Palestinians hate and kill Israelis because Israel took their land would it be understandable if Native Americans suddenly started a terrorist campaign right here and now? (I have Native blood). How about if I decided to kill them? What if the Jews started blowing up targets all across Europe in response to thousands of years of anti-semitism? And here is the kicker- this was our last lecture last semester- what if the Iraq War turns Iraq into a stable democracy and and in turn destablizes Islamic radicalism and Arab despotism? One of my students who is a hard leftist, but has been thinking very honestly and openly, laughed. He said it would be traumatic, because Bush would end up being a great leader and visionary. He said what seems amazing is that it seems very possible...

There are a million directions such enlightening moments can take. I would advise letting the person take it where they need to take it. Because if real critical thinking has happened they are suddenly open to "seeing" reality for the first time. This can be painful and deeply disturbing as many of my students have told me. Doubt sets in on all sides. And that is good. Because the Left Wing Establishment has made it impossible for an open mind not to see their hypocrisy and corruption. Moreoever, the last thing we want to do is make the same failures my left wing colleagues have made and inadvertently indoctrinate our students and friends. If we are right, and people learn to think honestly, then as their minds are pried open they should begin to turn Right. If not, well, then they can help us correct our thinking. Free minds- that's what I aim for. it may seem contradictory given my opening argument, but I am not arguing for Utopia, just a little awareness. Those moments do happen. The Civil Rights Movement proves it.

Gay Horse Poetry?

Academia has been down the rabbit hole for a really long time. In their feverish hysteria to be transgressive and avante garde they continue to sink further and further into abject stupidity. We are currently in a stage of infinite regress ever seeking some new low. And no matter how many Churchills, Bellesiles, Duke scandals, et al we have we only pretend that there is no iceberg below the water. Like Christian Scientists or hyper pentecostals we refuse to let reality intrude.

Gay horse poetry you may ask? The phrase comes from a friend (the same guy who wrote the story) and an English class he was in. The class was writing short fiction and a girl wrote a vivid description of currying her horse. He and another guy saw a great opportunity for a new genre, hence the sobriquet "gay horse poetry." They were mocking their professor and posited the question what if horses were gay and felt repressed and marginalized? Maybe they too need an outlet, a voice, a stage, an audience to sympathize? The phrase embodies both the tendency on the left to hyperventilate if any minority group is under represented, and their less than rational knee jerk response to blame failure on racism and bigotry. Since then the phrase has become a sort of catch all for anything insanely stupid the Left wing Establishment throws out there. "Sounds like gay horse poetry to me."

Since I work in academia I find myself in a lot of gay horse poetry moments. We talk ad nauseum about diversity and multiculturalism, but everything on campus always ends up coming from a western leftist perspective. Years ago someone noticed that black students weren't getting high enough grades to get into elite universities. So... let's lower the standards and call it affirmative action. The result? Black college students weren't able to perform and compete in those elite unversities and had a high drop out rate. Let's create disciplines called ethnic studies! The result? No one is hiring black graduates, because no one knows what an ethnic studies major does. But it must be institutionalized racism again. Couldn't be the fact that we never went back and asked black high schoolers to learn reading, writing, and arithmatic... Of course black students are worse off than before, but that's not our fault! Gay Horse Poetry policy in action. The word "committee" has become an institutionalized Gay Horse Poetry moment in and of itself. One of my favorites Gay Horse Poetry events is "conflict resolution training." In Mexico we call that cock fighting, but then academia is not quite diverse enough for that aspect of Mexican culture. Bad little brown brother.

True Story of the Multicult

One of the best illustrations of the the level of abject stupidity that exists in our culture comes from my first semester as a grad student. My best friend decided to write an article for the school newspaper about a fictitious trip he took over Spring Break to South America to do humanitarian work with a primitive tribe. Except for some minor details the following is absolutely true.

He wrote a fairly typical description of humanitarian relief work that happened through the first few days of the trip: water purification type stuff followed by evenings filled with amazing cultural experiences that somehow always ended up placing western culture and America in a bad light. The real kicker, though, came when he described an ancient tribal ritual they were allowed to watch toward the end of the trip. He described a small glen or meadow with a fallen tree trunk placed at the far end of the clearing under a tall cliff. The trunk had obviously been there for years and was stained with a deep dark brownish tint that did not look like the wood's natural color. He was soon to find out why... But first a youth of the village was tied completely nude, face up to the tree. To his surprise, and the total consternation of the rest of his group, the women of the village proceeded to have "rape like" sex with the youth over and over again. My friend vividly described his gut level reactions and all the confusion he experienced watching this event, but he was able to overcome his first instinctive judgementalism and accept the "Other" (a loaded term on the Left. From Edward Said). In the article he wrote that he now sees that this is because he had been privy to such an inclusive and tolerant education.

But the real shock of the event came when another group of young women brought their newborn babies to the tree trunk and proceeded, one at a time, to beat their children to death on the very same tree trunk. My friend vividly described the disparate reactions between him and his fellow westerners. Because of his education he was able to see the deep cultural significance of the ritual, obviously some sort of fertility ritual indicating the circular nature of life. But friends and fellow westerners were appalled and horrified by the barbarous nature of these "savages."

Well- you get the picture. Some of the details may be off. This was at least 8 years ago, but the essential facts about a "rape" and "murder" being understood as something significant due to his multicultural education are absolutely true. When I first read it I told him there was no way the newspaper would publish it- they would see through it.

Guess again. They published it and loved it. As did a number of professors. My friend was stopped in hallways time and again and congratulated on his sensitivity. What was more amazing was that when he told the truth a few weeks later, not one of those open minded members of the multicult examined their beliefs for one iota. They were mad at him and that was it! Not even a small ray of doubt disturbed their comfortable righteousness.

Brave new world that has such people in it.

Diversity Anyone?

I was talking to an evangelical Christian colleague the other day (there are a few in hiding in academia). The conversation turned towards politics, and my approach to her was, "I assume you are somewhere on the left side of the political spectrum." Now why would I say something like that? We all know that evangelicals are robots who do whatever James Dobson tells them, right?

Not exactly. First, last time I checked evangelicals are far more politically diverse than say, academics. Second, academia is so predictable and boring that I never believe a professor or colleague believes anything other than standard left wing orthodoxy. No matter how conservative or classical liberal they may sound it is always best to assume an academic is a leftist democrat. The most conservative (voted for W in 2000) prof I ever personally knew was a Marxist. No kidding. A Marxist evangelical to be exact.

Guess what? My colleague voted for Obama. Big surprise. Beyond the complete lack of diversity here, we are talking about a serious problem. Like Al Gore's famous hockey stick graph the level of intellectual and political diversity has declined at roughly the same rate that our diversity in our broader culture has increased. The person on the street could be a Buddhist, environmental conservative cross stitcher. But the academic... well, you know everything about them before they open their mouth. This makes for a very boring Academy.

On a more serious level, it is the elephant in the room. It is the reason unqualified idiots like Ward Churchill become Department Chairs at major universities. The reason impossibly flawed and just plain wrong books like Bellesile's Arming America win major academic rewards. The reason dozens of profs at Duke can condemn the lacrosse team before the police have investigated. In short, it is destroying true intellectualism and scholarship.