“Since the 1960’s, anti-Americanism has flourished on college campuses, in Hollywood and among the chattering class. Anti-Americanism is the conviction that our history is one long chronicle of crimes against humanity—slavery, segregation, dispossession of the Indians, exploitation of labor and suppression of dissent. It is blind to America’s greatness—to our unparalleled contributions to the advancement of human liberty, the development of representative government and the march of progress…………All of this is a far cry from legitimate disagreement over policy.”—Don Feder
To those of us who are serious about cultural renewal, the front lines are our leading institutions of higher education, which are the breeding grounds and laboratories of anti-American and cultural relativist nonsense. In addressing the problem, however, often the most difficult thing to do is develop an awareness among opinion leaders from the private sector. Most of these leaders are highly visible corporate types with their own public relations concerns who do not want conflict and would rather be sycophants to the university administrators and trustees and their sphere of influence. To them, peace and harmony come with appeasement.
Recently, it was gratifying to witness the response of President Larry Faulkner of The University of Texas in rebuttal to UT Professor Robert Jensen’s anti-war on terrorism editorial after the September 11 attack. Unfortunately, this type of response is an exception on our campuses. However, thankfully, there are some very capable people at work to reverse the long trend of irresponsibility. David Horowitz’s FrontPageMagazine.com and his Think Twice campaign are busy exposing the anti-American rot in many of our universities. Recently, I read a great piece in FrontPage by Robert Locke in which he outlines the very systematic means by which the left in American academia works it indoctrinating mischief and suggests some steps that can be taken to restore balance and true diversity to our college classrooms. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni has just released the revised and expanded version of its report, “Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing America and What Can Be Done About It”. In its words, there is “a striking divide between our intellectual elites and the mainstream American public”. The report makes clear that our colleges and universities are failing in the task of equipping our civilization’s ability to defend its core beliefs because they have abandoned these beliefs as a required staple of the curriculum. And don’t think it isn’t happening or can’t happen at your alma mater. The ACTA is busy marshalling support from trustees, donors, and opinion leaders to reverse this condition. These efforts are worthy of our encouragement and involvement.
