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By Hans Zeiger “Marxism is dying
globally,” writes columnist and recent UCLA graduate Ben Shapiro. “But
it’s alive and kicking at America’s universities.” Shapiro’s list of
communist courses, texts, and activities in American higher education spans a
chapter in his new book Brainwashed: How America’s Universities
Indoctrinate America’s Youth.
Students can minor in
Marxist Studies at University of California Riverside. A class in “Marxist
Literary Theory” is offered at Rutgers University. There is “Black
Marxism” at University of California Santa Barbara, and “Taking Marx
Seriously” at Amherst College. “Engaging Cuba: Uncommon Approaches to the
Common Good” is a course at the Evergreen State College that glorifies
Castro’s Cuba for its successes in education, health care, and agricultural
production. These courses are more than partial to communist theory – they are
actually like Red propaganda sessions. Capitalism – along with its
accompanying institutions – is roundly portrayed as the source of all greed,
inequality, and evil in general. It would seem that
the university communists have difficulty reconciling their belief that
capitalism is evil with their other contention that there is no good or evil at
all. A 2002 Zogby poll of 401 college seniors for the National Association of
Scholars revealed that classroom relativism is overwhelming. Seventy-three
percent of seniors said that the most frequent ethical position of their
professors was: “what is right and wrong depends on differences in individual
values and cultural diversity.” Only a quarter of a college seniors replied
that in their classrooms, “there are clear and uniform standards of right and
wrong by which everyone should be judged.” At first glance, it
may seem that the majority of college students are mindlessly following the lead
of their professors. “Acceptance is the easiest road, and the road most often
taken,” writes Shapiro. “If the professor says that the sky is green, the
sky must be green.” Voting patterns suggest that college students become
increasingly liberal as they move through their years of higher education. And
one study between 2000 and 2003 showed that while 52 percent of students
reported having attended church on a regular basis prior to college, only 29
percent were still going to church in their junior year. As William F. Buckley
wrote in Up From Liberalism, “There is a correlation between the length
of time one spends studying at the feet of liberals and the extent to which one
comes to share their views.” Give the gift of music with iTunes gift certificates Yet there are signs
that today’s students are not following everything their professors believe. According to a 2003
study by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California
at Los Angeles, most college and university students consider themselves
spiritual, but find that their campuses do little to encourage their
spirituality. Researchers surveyed 3,680 students at 46 institutions to discover
that 73 percent of American college students find religion and spirituality to
have helped in the development of their identity. But 62 percent report that
their professors never encourage discussion of religion or spirituality. The
report found that “students have deeply felt values and interests in
spirituality and religion, but their academic work and campus programs seem to
be divorced from it.” Still, the percentage
of students who consider spiritual matters to be “very important” or
“essential” in their lives rose from 51 percent in 2000 to 58 percent in
2003. In addition, those who consider a full personal worldview to be “very
important” or “essential” rose from 43 percent to 52 percent, and those
who believe that it is “very important” or “essential” to demonstrate
compassion by helping the less fortunate climbed a remarkable fourteen points
from 60 percent to 74 percent. Despite the efforts of the professors to
sterilize their campuses of spiritual concerns, discussions, and practices, the
growth in importance that students attach to their spiritual lives is
significant. Perhaps the most
instructive gulf between professors and students is over the issue of abortion.
According to the Center for the Study of Popular Culture and Luntz Research
Associates, about one percent of college professors support a legal ban on
abortion. A 99 percent pro-abortion professoriate is a powerful majority. But every year since
1990, with the exception of one, the support of college freshmen for abortion
has fallen. In 1990, 64.9 percent of freshmen supported a right to abortion. By
1999, that number had fallen to 52.7 percent. According to a 2000 Gallup poll,
40 percent of 18 to 29-year olds – a higher percentage than any age group
surveyed – believed that abortion should be restricted to a greater extent
than it is now. And in 2004, 60 percent of 18 to 29-year olds said they
supported a complete ban on abortion or minimal exceptions, according to a Zogby
poll. Best NEWS Magazines. LOWEST PRICES Online! MAGAZINES.com. A growing sense of
spirituality and a burgeoning identity with the pro-life cause are two
outstanding features of today’s students whose attitudes in those areas
represent a widening chasm with their professors. In most other matters, the
relativism that has been taught to – and apparently accepted – by today’s
American youth rests on the most infirm footing possible. Though young people
claim to be relativists in large majorities, their faith in nothingness is weak,
intellectually indefensible, and most importantly, counteracted by a lust for
reality. On this I will write more in the future. Hans Zeiger is president of the Scout Honor Coalition, a Seattle Sentinel columnist, and a student at Hillsdale College. www.hanszeiger.com
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