« Post Election Selection Trauma: Yes, These People Have Mental Problems | Main | Pharmaceutical Industry Braces for Attack »
December 26, 2004
Storming Castle Moonbat: Revolt Against Academia
Any fan of vintage horror flicks is familiar with the climactic scene where the villagers, sick of having their blood drunk by decadent elitists, take up their torches and pitchforks and storm the castle. At this point the jig is up; no matter how the Count hisses and spits and flashes his fangs, it won't be long before he gets the stake through the heart he so richly deserves.
An obvious corollary of Castle Dracula is the Ivory Tower of Academia, where isolation from reality allows the moonbat denizens to subsist among the cobwebs of a decomposing past. Creatures spawned in this unholy tower venture forth to cause havoc under cover of sanctimonious rhetoric.
On college campuses, the villagers are taking up their pitchforks. They are lighting their torches. A few have already begun to lay siege to the Tower.
This just in from the Transylvania Tribune (aka The Boston Globe, via boston.com):
Conservative Students Battle Academia: Criticize Liberals Over Curriculum
Not surprisingly, considering the source, the article begins by trying to spin the students as religious zealots.
At the University of North Carolina, three incoming freshmen sue over a reading assignment they say offends their Christian beliefs.
Never mind that one of the students is Jewish, not Christian, because the religious beliefs of the students are beside the point; they were only asking not to have Islam rammed down their throats for the sake of political correctness.
This seems to be the Left's last line of defense; you know they're up against the wall when they point a trembling finger at their enemies and hiss, "Christian!" -- as in their explanation of President Bush's reelection. It's as if they don't understand that, like sunlight and garlic, crosses don't carry such dreadful connotations for the rest of us.
The article laments that the peasants, I mean students, are "trying to dictate what they do not want to be taught," which of course is "deeply troubling" and "puts a chill in the air."
But despite himself, the Associated Press author makes some good points:
Traditionally, clashes over academic freedom have pitted politicians or administrators against instructors who wanted to express their opinions and teach as they saw fit. But increasingly, it is students who are invoking academic freedom, claiming biased professors are violating their right to a classroom free from indoctrination.
Arrogant upstarts!
In many ways, the trend echoes past campus conflicts -- but turns them around. Once, it was liberal campus activists who cited the importance of ''diversity" in pressing their agendas for curriculum change. Now, conservatives have adopted much of the same language in calling for a greater openness to their viewpoints.
Similarly, academic freedom guidelines have traditionally been cited to protect left-leaning students from punishment for disagreeing with teachers... Now, the same guidelines are being invoked by conservative students who support the war in Iraq.
What's the expression? Hoisted on their own petard?
Conservatives say they are discouraged from expressing their views in class, and are even blackballed from graduate school slots and jobs.
"Conservatives," in the context of academia, could loosely be defined as any non-Muslims to the right of Chairman Mao.
The need to imbibe left-wing and usually anti-American propaganda extends to classes where the subject matter has nothing to do with current events or politics. Any sort of objection can be hazardous to a student's GPA.
But as a famous moonbat once screeched, "the times they are a-changing"...
As referred to above, the University of North Carolina responded to 9/11 in typical moonbat fashion by forcing incoming students to read a book that whitewashes Islam and even to listen to suras in Arabic. Students struck back with the Left's favorite weapon, the lawsuit.
At Columbia, The David Project has taken faculty to task for using the classroom as a platform for anti-Israeli propaganda.
Students for Academic Freedom has been promoting an "Academic Bill of Rights" authored by David Horowitz that proposes putting an end to (anti-)religious and ideological persecution on college campuses. This group has also launched a campaign in Indiana to raise public awareness of the “Peace Studies” program at Ball State, "which promotes anti-American views and pro-terrorist sympathies."
It can't be pleasant, that sinking feeling in the gut as you look out from your tower to see the line of torches snaking its way toward the castle walls... knowing that you live in the past, and time will not stand still for you, much less reverse itself and return to the days when you were relevant... knowing that the people you look down on no longer take you seriously... knowing that the stake with your name on it has already been sharpened....
I could almost feel sorry for them. Almost.
Posted by Van Helsing at December 26, 2004 3:32 PM
