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Get real. They are not just learning about Marxism so they can appreciate the benefits of Capitalism. The professors are self identified Socialists. The students will be actively applying what they learn in the Community as they are hooked up with groups like Occupy. Read the article.
Progressive/Socialist Professors all over the country are busy instructing our youth on how to abolish Capitalism through whatever means are necessary. Here is another example:
We are dealing with people who don't really understand what your thread is all about but we must continue to try since getting through to just one of them makes it all worthwhile.
Thanks for putting this one up as it helps a lot in pegging those who really can use help, and there are a number of them.
I just finished reading this whole thread and am convinced that I know a bit more about what will happen with something like this course from personal experience. I will relate why I feel this way and you people who are so in favor of something like this class can come back telling me that I was talking to rather stupid people, 19 - 20 year olds who knew nothing about Communism back in 1952. You would think that at that time in the history of the US people would have been better informed.
OK. As a college sophomore minoring in history and very interested in politics and my field I attempted to make a speech in Speech class that was supposed to be a heckling speech. I knew that those kids had to know as much about Russian Communism as I did so was sure heckling would come at me. Guess what? Not one word was directed at what I said in trying the students to become good Communists.
As I talked I could see from the eyes of those people that they were being taken in so when I finished I was panic stricken that in 1952 at the very beginning of he Cold War I had convinced those kids that they should join in. About the only thing I could think of was to start posting disclaimers about so much I had said. The first thing I talked with them about was the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and I asked them if they knew how long that entity had been in power in the Soviet Union. They didn't seem to mind a dictatorship as long as it only planned to be there until all could learn to live under Communist thought. I think that many younger people today would go along with that line of thought.
I struggled with those kids, very hard and don't think I managed to deprogram many if any of them. At that time I had read quite a bit about how the Communists of the 20s and 30s had worked with college students and knew that there doesn't tend to be more easily impressed people in the world than those of college age. I tried some of those methods on high school students and didn't have nearly as much effect as I did on those kids.
I won't waste time talking about kids getting away from their parents and wanting to be thinking their own way. It is too obvious.
I also read the part of that syllabus that wanted kids to take part in the Occupy movement and other activist groups. It scares the hell out of me knowing what I know about kids of college age and how easy they are to pull along. I agree with everybody here who has said that we must provide some knowledge about so many things but I do know a little more about this subject than most here do.
And this is how it works. Thanks for the great post of your valuable, personal experience. Hope it isn't wasted on deaf ears.
Get real. They are not just learning about Marxism so they can appreciate the benefits of Capitalism. The professors are self identified Socialists. The students will be actively applying what they learn in the Community as they are hooked up with groups like Occupy. Read the article.
Progressive/Socialist Professors all over the country are busy instructing our youth on how to abolish Capitalism through whatever means are necessary. Here is another example:
I never said that the classes had the intended purpose of teaching the benefits of Capitalism. My experience in studying the subject has taught me the benefits of doing so are. Trust me, I 've attended a few semesters at nonacademic institutions and I can tell you that the vast majority of the people there were actual Marxists with the exception of myself.
I just finished reading this whole thread and am convinced that I know a bit more about what will happen with something like this course from personal experience. I will relate why I feel this way and you people who are so in favor of something like this class can come back telling me that I was talking to rather stupid people, 19 - 20 year olds who knew nothing about Communism back in 1952. You would think that at that time in the history of the US people would have been better informed.
Where did I say anything about being for or against? You simply support my position that Marx is rarely accurately discussed, certainly by so called right wingers, but equally so by the left. He is almost as misunderstood as Adam Smith.
Read my formula liberal = consevative = fool
I am a virulent opponent of both ossified, and fossilized positions where one side runs their air conditioner all year while the other keeps on the heater for all four seasons.
Quote:
OK. As a college sophomore minoring in history and very interested in politics and my field I attempted to make a speech in Speech class that was supposed to be a heckling speech. I knew that those kids had to know as much about Russian Communism as I did so was sure heckling would come at me. Guess what? Not one word was directed at what I said in trying the students to become good Communists.
As I talked I could see from the eyes of those people that they were being taken in so when I finished I was panic stricken that in 1952 at the very beginning of he Cold War I had convinced those kids that they should join in. About the only thing I could think of was to start posting disclaimers about so much I had said. The first thing I talked with them about was the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and I asked them if they knew how long that entity had been in power in the Soviet Union. They didn't seem to mind a dictatorship as long as it only planned to be there until all could learn to live under Communist thought. I think that many younger people today would go along with that line of thought.
I struggled with those kids, very hard and don't think I managed to deprogram many if any of them. At that time I had read quite a bit about how the Communists of the 20s and 30s had worked with college students and knew that there doesn't tend to be more easily impressed people in the world than those of college age. I tried some of those methods on high school students and didn't have nearly as much effect as I did on those kids.
I won't waste time talking about kids getting away from their parents and wanting to be thinking their own way. It is too obvious.
I also read the part of that syllabus that wanted kids to take part in the Occupy movement and other activist groups. It scares the hell out of me knowing what I know about kids of college age and how easy they are to pull along. I agree with everybody here who has said that we must provide some knowledge about so many things but I do know a little more about this subject than most here do.
I think its fundamentally flawed in viewing Marxism outside the context of the 19th century and its brutal factory conditions. Its easy to poke fun at it here in the West in the 21st century that has in fact implemented many elements that would fall under Marxism like free public education and abolition of child labor. The enemy of what he saw of Capitalism was far more virulent.
Here is what passed for humane and was bitterly contested by many a factory owner.
The Soviets of course always considered themselves Marxists, but I am sure he would have recognized the Soviet party as the privileged class using an ideology as cover, which is of course one of Marxisms flaws in that there may exist a flaccid equilibrium. There will never be equality.
That is besides its theoretical flaw in the labor theory of value which while applicable to laws of scarcity and moral grounds goes far too bananas on the concept.
And as of now far too many people are content with the mercantilist and feudalistic line of thought, only they don't know it. Landed gentry and the hell Lious the 16ths France bad but Crown and Pritzker "real estate investors" good? East Indies monopoly bad but ADM and Cargill subsidy good? Keeping them from toxic forms of socialism is by no means the only threat.
That's nothing compared to Arizona State's "Stalinism: And how to pick up chicks" course. Just make sure the girl at the keg stand isn't a Trotskyite, however...
"Portland State University is offering a number of controversial courses this semester, the likes of which include “Revolutionary Marxism: Theory and Practice,“ and ”Art Within Activism”..."
"The course’s instructors, Grant Booth and Wael Elasady, are both admitted socialists. They define the course’s goals as:
1. Students will learn the fundamentals of Marxist theory
2. Students will apply a Marxist analysis to current events
3. Students will apply Marxist theory to local political and community organizing
Moreover, students will seemingly be required to forge a “community connection” with a local community/political organization from a specified list. Some of the “approved” organizations include: Occupy PSU, Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights, Occupy Portland, Portland Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions Coalition (BDS), Jobs with Justice, and the May Day Coalition."
'Hey Dad, give me another $4000, I want to take a course that will teach me to be a good Marxist'.
It's about understanding what Marxism is, not about becoming a Marxist.
People take courses that teach Shakespeare. It's about understanding what Shakespeare wrote, the language form, the context, the historical backdrop, not about becoming Shakespeare.
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