We have previously discussed the rising anti-intellectualism in the GOP race from the rejection of basic science principles to the demonification of academics and higher education. Rick Santorum this week ramped up on the attacks on colleges and universities with a speech that seemed to call for voters to avoid supporting — or even attempting — college. Santorum appears to be proudly embracing the pledge of Will Rogers that “America is becoming so educated that ignorance will be a novelty. I will belong to the select few.”
Santorum explained to an enraptured audience in Naples, Florida how “the left” long ago took over universities to indoctrinate young people for the purpose of “holding and maintaining power.” It was all part of the plan of the liberal overlords, he suggested, and “we’ve lost our higher education, that was the first to go a long time ago.” Now, Obama is pushing college which Santorum portrays as a type of entry drug to liberalism:
“It’s no wonder President Obama wants every kid to go to college,” said the former Pennsylvania senator. “The indoctrination that occurs in American universities is one of the keys to the left holding and maintaining power in America. And it is indoctrination. If it was the other way around, the ACLU would be out there making sure that there wasn’t one penny of government dollars going to colleges and universities, right? . . . If they taught Judeo-Christian principles in those colleges and universities, they would be stripped of every dollar. If they teach radical secular ideology, they get all the government support that they can possibly give them. Because you know 62 percent of children who enter college with a faith conviction leave without it.”
Santorum, therefore, called on true Republicans to stop giving money to colleges:
“I’ll bet you there are people in this room who give money to colleges and universities who are undermining the very principles of our country every single day by indoctrinating kids with left-wing ideology. And you continue to give to these colleges and universities. Let me have a suggestion: Stop it.”
It was a truly Palinesque moment of attacking those who would challenge GOP positions with facts or history. Now the race to the bottom is complete with a call to just say no to education and to embrace doctrine as truth. Of course, this is not a new idea. Mao Zedong launched a Cultural Revolution based on the same notions:
Although the bourgeoisie has been overthrown, it is still trying to use the old ideas, culture, customs, and habits of the exploiting classes to corrupt the masses, capture their minds, and endeavour to stage a comeback. The proletariat must do just the opposite: It must meet head-on every challenge of the bourgeoisie in the ideological field and use the new ideas, culture, customs, and habits of the proletariat to change the mental outlook of the whole of society. At present, our objective is to struggle against and crush those persons in authority . . . and repudiate the reactionary bourgeois academic “authorities” and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes and to transform education, literature and art, and all other parts of the superstructure . . .”
Now this is not meant to accuse Santorum of plagiarism: you would only learn about the Cultural Revolution in those colleges that he wants us all to avoid. I can deal with the re-education camps, but I am a bit afraid of what Santorum will select as his Little Red [State] Book. If it is Sarah Palin’s America by Heart : Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, I will be the first to turn in my colleagues hiding in the attic.
Source: CBS
It is not the time of culture, as we knew it, because culture is inclusive, knowledge requires a lot of foundation to build upon> Willful ignorance, induced by the falsehood of easy profit, is the problem and all the wrong idols youth look up to…for questions, not for answers. In ignorance we are not protected by our democracy, and Rick knows it! If you look for change, trace your steps back and troubleshoot: radical changes, especially ideological in nature will bring unexpected, and unlikable changes.
Wonderful post, thank You!
eniobob,
Great song choice!
Has he ever explained why milk-toast Bob Casey cleaned his clock in 06?
Hey Rick,here you go.
Ann T Williams
i hope your daughter does too, but rick santorum would never give her credit for her work.
lottakatz:
Dr. Michio Kaku is only partially correct. There are plenty of smart people in this country but they do not go into engineering because the pay is not commensurate with the time and effort it takes to become an engineer. When starting salaries go up people will go into engineering. Engineering has become a commodity in this country. A friend of mine who is a retired engineer said billing rates in the 60’s for an engineer were around $60/hour today it is somewhere between $75 and $125 for an engineer. It is hard to make money because a good many of those immigrants stay and start businesses of their own. The competition has brought the price way down which is good for the client but not so good for enticing young engineers into the profession. Smart people will go where the money is for the most part, they want to be adequately compensated for their work.
Ego.
If I ever build a building for my alma mater, I kind of like the ring of “Anonymous Donor Hall” or “That Guy Gallery”, maybe “Who’s That? Auditorium”.
Santorum Trashes Public Colleges, Then Stumps at One
—By Adam Weinstein| Thu Jan. 26, 2012
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/01/santorum-florida-state-university
Excerpt:
Between a morning prayer breakfast with state Republican leaders in Tallahassee and tonight’s primary debate in Jacksonville, dark-horse presidential candidate Rick Santorum stopped at a half-full auditorium at Florida State University to deliver his anti-Obama message to young conservatives. But at this hard-hit public college in a capital racked with budget woes, Santorum sidestepped the biggest issues facing the school’s students.
A small grouping of sign-carrying protesters gathered outside the student union, while even more students circulated unawares through the nearby campus Chili’s, as Santorum told the crowd of aboout 200 that the “foundational premise of America” is “the belief in God.”
After a brief exposition on the differences between France, with its guillotines, and the United States, with its freedom and vest-pocket-sized copies of the Constitution (one of which he brandished), Santorum knocked Newt Gingrich’s latest space-colonization plan and said the former House speaker “wants to spend money like Obama.” He added: “The idea that anybody’s going out and talking about grand new very expensive schemes to spend more money at a time when we do not have our fiscal house in order, in my opinion, is plain crass politics.”
Advertise on MotherJones.com
Speaking at one of the state’s premier public universities—rocked by fiscal shortfalls and a Republican-dominated state government that’s gutted the humanities—Santorum’s message on education was notably different than just one day prior. “It’s no wonder President Obama wants every kid to go to college,” he said at a Baptist church downstate in Naples on Wednesday. “The indoctrination that occurs in American universities is one of the keys to the left holding and maintaining power in America. And it is indoctrination.” He added:
I’ll bet you there are people in this room who give money to colleges and universities who are undermining the very principles of our country every single day by indoctrinating kids with left-wing ideology. And you continue to give to these colleges and universities. Let me have a suggestion: Stop it.
There was none of that talk Thursday at Florida State. Perhaps Santorum hadn’t heard about about the tradition of conservative giving at FSU, where the cash-strapped trustees have endowed two professorships with Koch brothers money, built a career center with cash from corporate raider Al “Chainsaw” Dunlap, and named at least two buildings after DeVoe Moore, a legendary local tea party millionaire and antique American car collector.
My child went to one of those really liberal colleges. Yeah, she’s quite a liberal. That school taught her to make a difference. She’s now an oncologist/researcher and perhaps will cure the cancer of someone close to Santorum.
Blouise and Elaine,
If foreign students are displacing qualified American students, It sounds like a “free trade” type program! Sad.
Elaine M.,
That is very true and I have been told the same thing by several University administrators including ones from good state schools.
Certain limited student number advanced programs, such as physical therapy, are closed to American students who, even though they have the academic standing to gain admittance, need scholarship or other financial aid and the equally bright foreign students do not.
Mike S.,
Did you mean Kent State instead of Ohio State? If not, what happened in Ohio State?
Raff,
I meant Kent State which unfortunately is in Ohio & simultaneously thinking of the CS&N line “Four dead in Ohio”. The old circuitry sometimes gets crossed.
Mike S.,
“Blouise,
He wrote that 55 years ago and it still describes today.”
=======================================
Lordy, lordy it does indeed. I was rereading my copy last week and so much of the the truth in it is true today. In fact, I have a better appreciation and understanding today than when I first read the book twenty years ago.
“Then to repeat a phrase from a R&B song ‘Now we got it,what are we going to do with it ?'” (eniobob)
lol … that was great
Lottakatz,
There are lots of smart kids in this country and lots of good school systems too. One of the things not touched on in the Michio Kaku video is that some capable American students don’t get accepted to prestigious universities like MIT because they have less money than many of the wealthy foreign students who don’t need scholarships and who don’t need tuition assitance. That’s what one scientist/professor told my husband.
“Blouise, That is provided Obama wins this time.
I think after all the blood letting and the establishment Republican contortions on the nominee he will win.
Then to repeat a phrase from a R&B song”Now we got it,what are we going to do with it ?”
Blouise, That is provided Obama wins this time. Yes, I agree about Mike’s analysis.
SwM,
I have to admit that I hadn’t thought that far ahead but what a marvelous idea.
By the way … did you read Mike Appleton’s analysis of Newt’s motives on today’s Gingrich thread? Insightful.
Blouise, Elizabeth Warren was born into a working class family in Oklahoma. She now teaches at Harvard. It is hard to get a position there if you did not attend the ivy league which she did not. She is very bright, and she works hard. I hope Warren runs in 2016 after having served a few years in the Senate.