Anyone in this benighted age who tries to tell me colleges and universities do not have a very decided Leftist bent is someone I will probably tell to go and whistle Yankee Doodle. I have worked at two of these “institutions of learning” over the years and have seen firsthand the direction they travel in and try to push their students in. And this is not just in the Left-leaning northeast but all over the country, even here in the South, although far too many Southern folk seem to have a problem grasping that fact.
The college that grand-daddy went to ain’t the same school you are paying scads of money to so junior can be “educated” or rather, in our day, indoctrinated.
One college I worked at had an identified Communist as a guest speaker for an extended period in the winter one year. Although it was several years ago, I never forgot it. Someone called the school, pointed out the Communist’s affiliation, to which the college president told him “We want out students exposed to all different viewpoints.” Somehow I rather doubt he would have wanted his students exposed to the viewpoints of the John Birch Society, which his students would have been much better off with than those of this Communist. This was a perfect illustration of the Leftist tilt of most colleges, and with all the political correctness (cultural Marxism) being promoted today it’s even worse.
And so it was that I recently came across an article by Peyton Dillberg. I’ve never read any of Mr. Dillberg’s material before to the best of my knowledge, but when it comes to the college scene, he is right on target.
Dillberg noted: “With more than 40,000 card carrying members, DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) is a growing leftist force in not only our political system, but in our systems of higher education. So why is the left, especially in our universities, embracing an ideology that has resulted in the deaths over a hundred million people? Here are three reasons why socialism is making a comeback on college campuses.” I am not going to go through all three in detail, except to give readers some idea of what is going on at college.
Reason 1–socialism is “intellectually” appealing. Dillberg observes: “So how do they create such intellectual appeal? It’s actually quite complex, as the indoctrination occurs throughout a student’s career. Professors, most of whom are already well-versed in leftist ideology, begin by setting up parameters for their students. Within these parameters lies an acceptable range of ideas–a relatively easy feat, as students tend to be rather malleable with regard to their own ideology.” The professor, once he has done this, can frame his lectures “along leftist talking points.” In other words, he (or she) gives the students a range of ideas, mostly leftist, beyond which they should not go. They are taught not to think outside the Leftist box, hence they, if they follow the professor’s lead, never think outside the range of idea the leftist professor has pictured as legitimate. The student may be exposed to a range of leftist ideas but he or she will never experience anything beyond that.
I ran across students like this back in the 1970s. They had been so shaped by Leftist dogma that they were incapable of ever thinking beyond that and if you threw some concept at them that was beyond their limited range of Leftist thought, they simply rejected it out of hand. No need to try to engage them in rational discussion about it. They couldn’t grasp that. If it disagreed with what the professors taught, then it was wrong–period! You couldnl’t even say “end of discussion” because the discussion never began! The Leftist “educators” taught them what to think, not how to think!
Reason 2–there is a crisis of meaning. Part of that has been the decline of religion–Christianity in the West–and there are people in some of our churches that have willingly contributed to that decline. When you run across pastors in mainline denominations that have been members of over 100 Communist front groups you can’t exactly look to them as erstwhile promoters of Christ-centered Christian faith. Back in the 1950s there was a Methodist bishop who was so involved with Communism that they called him the “Red Dean of Religion in America.” Most people want there to be some meaning to their lives, and if churches get to the point where they fail to provide that, then people, especially young people, look elsewhere. Dillberg has said that: “Socialism can be intoxicating to those starving for meaning. Its promise of both physical and metaphysical reward from the efforts of the collective can entice those not careful enough to realize the morbid realities it creates.”
Reason 3–they have never experienced socialism in living color. I have talked to people who lived under socialism, and believe me, it ain’t what it’s cracked up to be. Dillberg notes the “more than 100 million people…(who) have been killed by the very ideas that are pushed by socialists every day.” Socialists and Communists will then rant that real socialism and/or Communism has never been tried. Hogwash! They don’t dare admit that their system has killed millions because if they did, then who’d want it–especially college students!
I’ve written before about the lady from Ukraine that I knew who was a child when World War 2 ended. She and her family were in a German labor camp. When her father found out that he and his family were going to be sent back to the Soviet Union he actually planned to find a way to kill his family and himself so none of them would be forced back into that socialist paradise. By God’s grace he found an alternative and they made it to America. Had he not he would have killed himself and his whole family rather than let any of them go back to the nightmare that was socialism in the Soviet Union – the Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics!
Dillberg ends his commentary, in part, with this observation. “The far left is a much greater threat to our nation than any neo-Nazi group will ever be, and our universities are the gateways to the left.”
October 26, 2018
~ The Author ~
Al Benson Jr. is the editor and publisher of “The Copperhead Chronicle“, a quarterly newsletter that presents history from a pro-Southern and Christian perspective. He has written for several publications over the years. His articles have appeared in “The National Educator,” “The Free Magnolia,” and the “Southern Patriot.” I addition to that he was the editor of, and wrote for, “The Christian Educator” for several years. In addition to The Copperhead Chronicles, Al also maintains Revised History.
He is currently a member of the Confederate Society of America and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and has, in the past, been a member of the John Birch Society. He is the co-author, along with Walter D. Kennedy, of the book “Lincoln’s Marxists” and he has written for several Internet sites as well as authoring a series of booklets, with tests, dealing with the War of Northern Aggression, for home school students.
He and his wife now live in northern Louisiana.
Mr. Benson is a highly respected scholar and writer and has graciously allowed Metropolis Café to publish his works. We are proud to have his involvement with this project.