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Dirty…dirty…dirty…May Hall Dickinson State UniversityI was eighteen years old the first time I met the person that I would allow to make me feel sick inside every time I spoke to him. I met Russel two days after I had graduated from high school. Those two days prior to meeting him were a whirlwind of constant activity. I didn’t even have time to think I basically was on autopilot stepping into the world. I was not a naive eighteen-year-old, I had been around the block and then some when I met Russel.I graduated from high school on a Sunday. There was a traditional celebration of cake and snacks with a small reception, that my wonderful foster parents had set-up for me. I was a wreck of emotions. I was leaving the security of the family I always prayed for the very next day. I had a childhood friend and her father who came a six-hour drive to see me graduate. Also, my mother’s parents came ten hours to see me graduate after a lot of bad blood of them throwing me out when I was pregnant because I was a “failure just like my mother.” I literally was vomiting before we walked into the graduation ceremony because I was so emotionally twisted. I was doing something neither parent, grandparents, great-grandparents or great-great-grandparents had done, maybe even more generations back, I was graduating high school.That evening after the party I said good-bye to everyone. My classmates went to parties at each other's houses. They celebrated our hard work in reaching this milestone; I went home. When I got home I finished loading my little car that I bought a week prior. I had only got my driver’s license on Friday before graduation and was still working out the kinks of operating a clutch…like on hills. My bedroom was empty, I had to sleep in the guest room, it felt odd. All night I tossed and turned but five in the morning came early. My foster parents and I were on the road to my new life without them. I drove my car and they drove their car, about halfway I was so tired my foster mama drove for a couple of hours for me. It was a six-hour drive to Dickinson State University. They helped me unload into the dorm room I would live in during summer session of 1995. Then they took me to dinner. Then I was all alone.Most teens can’t wait for independence and to be on their own. I just wanted the safety nest of my foster parents back. I only got to really have true parents for a year and a half. There was no time to be emotional the next day classes started and I had to figure this new life out fast. Tuesday morning the first class I had I met Russel. I liked him okay, he didn’t really say much to me but eye-balled me from across the room. Over the next few weeks, we began exchanging pleasantries at the beginning of class. One morning I came in chugging a quart of milk for breakfast, there was no cafeteria during summer session, and Russel says to me, “Milk does the body good.” It was the line from a dairy commercial during the ‘90s. I brushed it off as a lame joke even though when he said it my guts twisted in a knot.The summer session is over. I move into my own apartment, I have a job, all the benchmarks that I am handling being an adult just fine. I survive the fall term which was a straight-out disaster due have a poor advisor and me not understanding anything about college. Spring term I am on academic probation and here is Russel in my life again. The first thing he says to me is, “It looks like you found the freshman fifteen.” I agree and find my seat. After class, I am to report to financial aid to find out my work-study job for the semester. When I get to the financial aid office for my assignment there isn’t a position for me on campus. Russel had come into the office a few moments after me overheard this and spoke up, “I was just coming in because I need a secretary six to ten hours a week for the History Department.” He claps me on the shoulder, “Looks like you have a job this term.” He handed the slip to the clerk in the office and she made my schedule for work-study. Dr. Russel V—— couldn’t be bad, he just helped me out of a tight situation.I worked for him all spring term filing, sorting and running errands on campus. He always had coffee on in his office I was welcome to any time. He told off-colored jokes sometimes then other times he spoke brilliantly over his subject matter. I enjoyed his class it was dynamic and intense. He took me to lunch over at the Knights of Columbus a couple of times. He had kids a little older than me and he was single. I figured he was lonely. I was hungry…starving college student. That semester I was mostly living off of canned peas with mayo and pasta. I was glad for a meal with the possibility of meat. The comments Dr. Russel—- made were still creepy, yet they weren’t downright vulgar either.Summer of 1996 my girls’ father and I get married, we are expecting in February. My husband is twenty years my senior and maybe that is what made Dr. Russel—- think that it was okay to start talking to me the way he did. He would stand outside our office building and smoke while talking to my husband. My husband and I worked downstairs in the newspaper office his office was on the third floor. We would see each other daily. When I was with my husband he was the professor that I adored with his clever wit and stories. When it was me he would make comments about my “breasts getting larger” or asking me if I was “keeping my husband satisfied” along with assorted other distasteful things. I never said anything to anyone because I felt like it was only words, even if it made me uncomfortable.Dr. Russel—— continued talking to me like this for the next couple of years. I even worked as a personal housekeeper once a week for a semester before I found an excuse why I couldn’t work for him any longer. It was difficult to turn down that job because we moved in the same social circles and people knew I was looking for work. It was the spring semester of 1999, my senior year, when my husband and several other people from the English department went on a trip to St. Louis for a conference. I get a call. It is about seven at night because I just put the two babies to bed and am planning a quiet night of studying.It is Dr. Russel, “What are you doing with the boss out of town?”“I just got the girls down for the night and I thought I try to rack out some school work. What are you up to this evening?”“I was thinking about some dinner. Might go get me a pizza and a beer.”“That sounds nice. I am eating the stand-by quick dinner: peanut butter and jelly.”We exchanged a few more pleasantries and I hung-up the phone.Every night before I would do school work I would do damage control. Damage control consisted of picking up all the messes from the day and putting things where they belong. I could clean the whole house and have the diaper bag packed for the next day in less than forty-five minutes on a bad day. Damage control was done I just put my books on the coffee table when someone was knocking at the door. My first thought was: did I leave clothes in the washer upstair, they were coin-operated. I look through the peephole and there is Dr. Russel——- I answer the door. He has a pizza and a six-pack of beer. It is a blustery spring evening so I invite him inside.“What are you doing here?” I ask while looking at the pizza and beer.“I didn’t want to eat alone and you sounded like you could use dinner and a beer.”He sits down in the living room and I go in the kitchen to grab a couple of plates. When the next thing I know this man has arms around me from behind while pressing up against me. I turn and disentangle myself. The man is like velcro I can smell his sour breath in my face. I want to gag.I take a deep breathe and tell him a quick lie, “You can stay if you want to eat and are quiet. KC, Jen, Travis, and Heather are coming over shortly to study and I don’t want the babies woke-up.” I look over at the clock on the kitchen wall. “It is a quarter after eight. KC got off work at seven-thirty. They should be here any minute. Do you think we should order another pizza and get more beer?” I am trying to act casual, like him behaving like this is an everyday occurrence.Just then one of the babies begin to fuss. “The plates are in the cupboard. I need to take care of the baby before she wakes the other one.” I walk down the hall thinking what can I use as a weapon out of the baby's room. I am changing her diaper when I hear the front door open and close. I carry the baby out to the living room, he is gone. I quickly bolt the door. He left the pizza and beer on my kitchen table. I put the baby back to bed and thanked her for her impeccable timing.I was scared to say anything ever about anything because I didn’t want to overreact and after the situation at my apartment I was embarrassed that I was ever in that situation, also he had control over some final grades I needed for graduation. In retrospect of the four years that I allowed myself to be mistreated verbally by this professor, I think part of it has to do with my past history of sexual abuse not being addressed. I didn’t think I was worthy of being treated with the respect other women were treated with because I had been raised to believe that I was a “worthless whore” by my biological parents. I thought I deserved to be treated sexually inappropriate so I said nothing. I didn’t want to say anything and be labeled a “trouble-making slut.”This is the first time I have told this story. I now realize that young girl didn’t deserve that ancient professor to speak or treat her that way. That young girl should have stood up for herself.Two years after graduating from college, a girl did stand-up to him and he lost his job.

Thanks for the A2A JonTackling a question as broad and varied as bias in US higher education is worthy of a few books. It’s complicated. Nietzsche said, “every act of writing is an act of impudence.” The devil is in the details and there are a lot of details. Hopefully, outlining some of the details is not simply an exercise in impudence. Behind the question is the implication, how is society being shaped and molded. The works of Danish professor David Gress shape my thoughts significantly. Other details were added later to flesh out the frame he provided. Does that make this answer doubly impudent? Impudent or not, I hope it is good food for discussion.The question is asking about bias to the left. That casts the question in a political light—a left/right paradigm. I am not generally comfortable with the simplicity of this model. It hides a lot of nuance. The US political landscape is not confined to left/right positions or policies despite how much discussion tends revolve around that model. The US political environment is vastly more complicated. The framework of the two-party system pushes discussion and debate into that model left/right, red/blue, democrat/republican. Political biases are not limited to a simple left/right framework, two-party system or not. Framing political bias in that construct hides the nature of a lot of bias and political motivation.Before jumping into the answer directly, I want to jump down a bit of a rabbit hole.Rabbit Hole Prt IAlice's Adventures in Wonderland - WikipediaPolitics is generally thought of as something to do with: the application of state power, relations between countries, or the competition for governing power between vying groups. Those concepts are conveniently specialized. These definitions have been around for a long time. They also lack a certain refined subtly.Politics, as understood by the Greeks was rooted in the polis and the citizens carrying out social action necessary to civic life and governance to the polis. Down through the ages the idea of politics carries the idea of civic action whether governmental or through political parties[i]. Aristotle understood a deeper concept though. He noted people were political or social animals[ii]. The implication is that politics is not simply a matter of state governance. It is human social governance. All people, but the most committed hermit and cognitively disabled, are social, which makes them political.All people, or groups of people, have limited resources and limited ability to distribute resources. And all groups have some means of determining social priority. Therefore, there is always competition for those resources, even in the most altruistic society right down to the most basic human unit of organization, the family. One person or group will always seek at the expense of someone else's perceived priority. The resolution of that competition, whether coercive or consensual, is political in the sense that there is an appeal to some standard in context of a hierarchy of need/want negotiated socially.Politics is not just about state power or seeking state power. Every group with a social component will have politics of a sort. Politics is, on a basic level, about priority of need and desire to influence distribution or resources to meet that need. It could also be said, politics is the application of social power in context of resource allocation. Maybe it is a brother and sister vying for a hug from Mom or Dad. The brother and sister contend for influence. Mom or Dad respond.I don’t want to reduce all relationship to cynical, transactional, political maneuvers. Besides, politics are not inherently bad or good. They are necessary. Contextual application makes politics good or bad. This does not necessitate moral relativism. Removing politics ultimately means removing decisions and refusing to work with differing perspectives. There must be a means of establishing priority of effort for a social organization. That makes politics inherently human and essential. It also makes them fundamentally, present.Political reality is not much different than the existence of bias. Ideologies aside, bias is inescapable if for no other reason than, we are finite beings with limited capacity to store information, recall information, and perceive information. Bias is inevitable in any creature that is not omniscient. The inability to see things from all perspectives is inherently human, just like politics. To that end, there is no such thing as an unbiased human. We all see from a certain perspective. Even if we had the means to measure all aspects of the universe (a task we are far from being capable by any measure), we do not have the means of processing the data from such measurements.Why belabor this point? Because any human system, be it a series of efforts or an organization, is going to have the same attributes as its human creators. Any system will be political and biased. The college system is inherently political and biased. Sometimes, the case is made that universities and academia are dedicated to learning and intellectual rigor and therefore void of bias. That's simply not possible.Just the frame work and process of gaining a liberal education is biased. It comes with pretense based on perceived needs and desired outcomes. Those needs and outcomes are weighted over other needs and potential outcomes. A liberal arts education is distinctly different than vocational training for a reason. The details of those reasons matter less that the fact of the difference itself. For the most part, US students going into science and engineering do not escape survey classes: Survey of Western Civilization or Survey of World Geography, Writing 101, 102, and 103, or Introduction to Literature, etc. There are exceptions, especially at private and vocational schools. Broad exposure to several disciplines is the general approach of colleges in the US though. I’m not arguing the merit, one way or the other, behind the presuppositions to the approach. It is simply that the approach is specifically structured and therefore, inherently biased, which is also to say, prejudicial. On a basic level that is good. Without prejudice few decisions would get made.How do the biases and political characteristics inherent in the college system influence system outcomes? Is the US college system biased to the left as the OP asked? If so why?Rabbit Hole Prt II: Honour vs Honor. Neighbor vs Neighbour. Color vs ColourNoah Webster - WikipediaAcademic bias is often deliberate, based on desired outcomes. This is not new.In 1828, Noah Webster published, An American Dictionary of the English Language. It was the largest dictionary in the English-speaking world at the time. It included 12,000 words never before recorded. It was a master work of sorts that was poorly received at the time of publication. However, it came to be appreciated as a unique contributor to American identity. Poets like Emily Dickinson read it and reread it to gain inspiration from the way Webster poetically defined words. So, what?! Of course, poets like dictionaries! They like words.The so what is, the shadow that Webster’s dictionary cast. Webster wrote his dictionary for the express purpose to change and influence society. The lexicographer wanted to color his world differently than his neighbors and honor legacy of the US revolution and his understanding of Christianity. He wanted to change how Americans spoke and wrote to mark them with an American identity distinct from Great Britain and the World. He wanted to change religious perspectives; as a mid-life convert to Calvinism, Webster put specifically biblical references in his dictionary. The dictionary was part of Webster’s effort to reform the education system and society.Webster died relatively poor because of his efforts to finance the publication of his dictionary’s first and second editions. Although, after his death, the fruits of his labor were rich indeed. The influence of An American Dictionary of the English Language is hard to overstate. Because of the way it approached language it changed thought and ideas. It was not unnoticed either. Webster had many detractors. His former Federalist friends thought Webster debased the language by being common and overly poetic with his definitions. Republicans thought he was crazy, wanting nothing to do with him. In the end, Webster won.[iii]An American Dictionary of the English Language is a biased work. At least Webster was conscious of his bias. In its time, it shaped how Americans spoke and wrote. It does today. Every time a budding artist decides to color in the lines, every time a writer chooses to write a letter to a neighbor, we honor Webster, even if we don’t know it. And every time someone trained in the Queen’s English blushes with frustrated colour as they plow (or is that plough) through an American text, wondering why Americans can’t honour English properly enough to spell a language they didn’t even invent—what is the defense (or defence) for the impudence; maybe they should re-draft (or re-draught) their writing, thank Webster. And also, thank whatever influence kept soop (soup) and masheen (machine) from catching on.In a way Webster did invent English though, or reinvent it. That is the point really. Webster helped invent an American way of speaking (not just spelling) and through it an American identity with his dictionary. Dictionaries today are no different. Most dictionaries have a section in the front that lays out the standards used to add or drop words, alter definitions, etc. Not all text books are that clear. Nevertheless, text books by nature are biased. They are edited. Limited in size and complexity. They come from a perspective.The example of Webster shows that from very early on “dry” reference books were deliberately used to shape both the educational system and society in the US. Webster was not the first to do this. He wasn’t the last.Education, and the texts used, are intended to shape thought. That is not unbiased in any way. It is prejudicial by design. At the very least, by inclusion, texts establish, this is important; by exclusion, they establish that is not important. And, that is even before any discussion of, accuracy or factuality.I Don’t See No Big BrotherBig Brother is Watching YouThe reality of politics and bias in text books and educational policy does not an educational dictator make.The US educational system is not monolithic. College, can mean higher education in general. In that sense, training institutes, vocational schools, nursing schools, community colleges, two-year schools and four-year schools could be included in the term “college”. Moreover, states fund state colleges as they see fit. Private colleges and universities can establish their own agenda with their own priorities. In the enumerated powers assigned to the federal government in the US Constitution, education was not a power assigned to the federal government. The states were left the power to execute education policies. Many colleges have endowments that let them operate independently. The landscape is not uniform.However, a certain uniformity based on student enrollment does bring commonality to student experience. Most college students in the US attend public liberal arts colleges/universities. Of those attending four-year colleges there is a distinct split between public and private institutions. In 2015, 14,570,000 students attended public colleges compared to 5,410,000 students enrolled in private colleges[iv]. Despite the education landscape offering many options a sizable proportion of students self-select a narrow band within the numerous options to choose from. With most students attending some version of a four-year program at liberal arts schools, this puts them in a common system based on established presuppositions.University funding creates another layer of commonality. More precisely, how college is funded through things like student loans and research grants creates an environment that shapes how the members of the college system think and act. Interestingly, the federal government, which has no Constitutional mandate for managing education spends more than $75 billion dollars a year on higher education. In 2015, federal spending exceeded state spending. There is a difference in focus, state spending more typically goes to the public institutions and federal money goes to students attending public, private, and for-profit colleges, as well as research grants at these institutions. Community colleges receive more state funding proportionally, which means four-year universities receive more federal dollars proportionally[v].Pell grants are one piece of the equation allowing an artificial environment to develop in the university system. It is a guarantee of income removed from a student’s ability to pay and the actual merit of the course. Students sign up for classes they would not pay for if it was their money alone paying for it. Universities are dependent on an artificial centrally controlled system to survive as they exist now. Tuition cost increases bear this out. College costs have risen faster than inflation[vi].Professors and administrators are funded by money that students generally do not provide for on their own. Most students are not paying for college out of pocket—they receive loans, grants, scholarships. The loans are backed by federal government. Funding resources are distributed by priority of the institution and grant providers, which contributes to adoption of values and perspective that harmonize with the priorities of grant givers. This is not a recipe for free thinking or free markets.Big Stories and Big HistoryModern academia cannot be fully understood without understanding two things, grand narratives and World War I. Grand narratives are meta-stories meant to convey foundational truths often through historic narrative or appeal to linear heritage. The historic narrative need not create a meta-story from false events. They do articulate values and project expected outcomes based on the emphasized historic events. What is included in the narrative supports social values and what is minimized or omitted de-emphasizes other values. Grand narratives are not unique to any political group. They are normal to most groups. It is how the social values are articulated. When grand narratives of one group reference the existence of an opposing narrative, one side is idealized, and the other is viewed in practical, real terms with focus on the scars and worts. It is an apples to oranges comparison. Before discussing the ideal vs real of grand narratives, what the grand narratives are must be defined.The US government supported the creation of an American grand narrative.“When America entered the war in 1917, the U.S. government asked educators at elite colleges to prepare for a mass influx of returning servicemen, and to prepare “War and Peace courses” to teach them what they had been fighting for and why. The returning doughboys were to be sent to college, there to learn the basics of Western civilization. Such teaching would perform two functions increasingly seen as essential in a modern society, and especially in America, the most modern and progressive of all societies. It was supposed to turn illiterate boys from the slums and backwoods of America into competent citizens, by means of Plato, John Locke, and Thomas Jefferson. The power of the great idea and the great book was to be deployed to counteract the barbarization of war and to turn former soldiers into prospective philosopher-kings.” Prof David Gress, From Plato to NATO pg. 30–31Perhaps, having the US government solicit educational courses designed to create a common culture is not the act of Big Brother. It is a bit Big Brotheresque; it is definitely, Social Engineering Uncle Sam. This was particularly true since the intended framework of the Founding Fathers was to leave the business of educating to the states. The federal government stepping into encourage colleges to create a comprehensive narrative ran counter to the roles laid out at the Nation’s founding.Depending on the political leaning at the time, one historic aspect of the narrative might be emphasized over others details within the grand narrative. The US government wasn’t the only state agency to propose grand narratives. In Europe, the United Kingdom and France had little problem focusing on Rome as the inspiration for many aspects of Western law and culture. In the US, despite obvious correlation, Rome was not a comfortable fit in the grand narrative as it created ties to “empire” that did not sit well with the public or the US foundation story, which centers on the rugged, colonial, individuals throwing off monarchy and empire to found the first modern republic. The US grand narrative placed (and still places) emphasis on Athenian Greece and pure democracy despite clear differences between true democracy and indirect representative republicanism. The degree to which this has taken hold can be seen by the number of people who think popular vote should have won the last election. We are a democracy—one man, one vote. Only, this was not how the US system was set up. Nor was it ever set up that way.In broad brush strokes the liberal grand narrative (liberal in this case does not imply leftist) showed the West to be a blend of democracy, capitalism, science, human rights, religious pluralism, and the belief that human reason could solve any problem. High water marks in the narrative are understood to show stages of progressive improvement: Greece, Roman, Christianity especially the merging of Christianity and classical thinking, the Renaissance, voyages of discovery and conquest (generally emphasis on discovery), Germanic freedom (individual freedom), and the advent of unparalleled prosperity with the spread of representative democratic government. The various countries and ethnicities of the West might place differing emphasis on one attribute over another, but the idea of the West, in this narrative, was that it was defined by a shared understanding of the past and values coming out of this narrative construct. Individual nations remain. Individuals remain.Professor David Gress goes on to point out that Columbia College in New York took the request seriously. Columbia wasn’t the only school to teach the American grand narrative. It was the most effective and influential in the US however. Once Columbia created its course, that model was emulated across most US liberal arts colleges and universities, private and public. A common reference was created that manifest a shared frame of understanding. A common educational environment was created built on that particular American liberal grand narrative, which was a strong influence throughout academic disciplines, like history and literature.Another grand narrative competed with the liberal grand narrative. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels created a meta-story that proved powerful—historical materialism. According to Marx, history progressively moves through six stages, primitive communism, slave society, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and Communism—the last stage being a utopian inevitability. In this narrative oppressed socio-economic classes (have nots) inevitably replace oppressive socio-economic classes (haves). Exploitation and need disappear; government, states, laws, and social class fade into obsolescence[vii].What happened to these narratives? World War I happened. The two narratives shattered or morphed into new variations.A 1919 book for veterans, from the US War Department (World War I - Wikipedia)If the Western liberal grand narrative was correct, so the criticism went, then the “War to End All War” should never have happened. If Christian values were true, the destruction of Europe should not have happened. If prosperity and capitalism were so successful, being good at ensuring peace and wealth, then the horror created by the “weapons of capitalism” would never have been built. Society’s values are all lies and there is no true meaning. Welcome post-modernism to the stage (Truthfully, postmodernism started developing as a concept before WWI. But it took root as a consequence of the War).Postmodernism presented a visceral reaction to WWI and the liberal grand narrative that supposedly led to it. If the liberal grand narrative argued for reason, postmodernism rejected it. If the liberal grand narrative argued for Christianity, postmodernism rejected it. If the liberal grand narrative argued for objective reality, postmodernism rejected it. In short, postmodernist rejected the liberal grand narrative wholesale including objective reason, human nature, social progress, moral universalism, absolute truth, and objective reality. Postmodernism includes skeptical critical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, history, linguistics, economics, architecture, fiction, feminist theory, and literary criticism.[viii]Marxism’s grand narrative suffered too. According to Marx and Engels, people were bound by socio-economic values more than anything. If this had been the case, the working people who were made to suffer at the hands of bourgeoisie capitalist oppressors should have united and refused to fight. World War I should not have been possible because the working class was being made to work against their own interest. What became apparent was that people were more loyal to their nation and ethnic identity than socio-economic class. Mussolini saw this and changed from Marxist activist seeking utopia to nationalist activist seeking utopia. Welcome fascism to the stage[ix].Fascist were less comprehensive in their disdain for Marxism and the Marxist grand narrative than the postmodernists were of the liberal grand narrative. During the initial days of fascism, people frequently moved back and forth from Marxist groups to fascist groups. Fascism was more a tactical reconsideration than a wholesale rejection of the ideas and goals of Marxism. That is not to say that Marxists and fascists did not become entrenched in their hatred of each other over time. It is to say, that fascism grew out of a modification of Marxism based on a perceived failure of Marxism to produce the desired outcome or describe the ties that bind people together. Fascists were more than willing to use tactics and methods being used by Marxists[x] [xi] [xii].There are still people fighting for the liberal narrative. Traditionalists will argue the merit of the liberal grand narrative simply because in their view, “traditional Western values” created the most prosperous civilization in human history. Christians will argue for the narrative both as a way to preserve their own identity, and the idea the West that they see as inherently Judeo-Christian. (Western Christians often do not see that their own narrative is not dependent on the Western grand narrative but that is a digression for another time). Capitalist will argue that the liberal narrative gives space to capitalism where as other narratives do not. But, proponents of the liberal grand narrative are much less bold in articulating it and are generally defensive of its perceived failings compared to pre-WWI periods. The war and following criticisms have left proponents of the liberal grand narrative on their heels in many regards.The conflict between those who sought to hold to classical or grand narrative values can be seen in art and literature. Authors like TS Eliot tried to find solice by clinging to a version of the grand narrative. JRR Tolkien who saw WWI, and later WWII, not as failures of the underlying the grand narrative, but a failure to live by the values of the grand narrative, created a mythology built on shoring up the values of the grand narrative, while conceding, like the saga of Númenor that the struggle to preserve the best of humanity was likely a long defeat but still necessary. In many circles (postmodernists in particular) this was seen as anachronistic, outdated, and failed.The Downfall of Númenor (Númenor)On the flip side, postmodernism grew in influence after WWI.“During and after World War I, flowery Victorian language was blown apart and replaced by more sinewy and R-rated prose styles. In visual art, Surrealists and Expressionists devised wobbly, chopped-up perspectives and nightmarish visions of fractured human bodies and splintered societies slouching toward moral chaos.” Art Forever Changed by World War I By Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times July 21, 2012The Funeral by postmodern painter, George Grosz, 1918 (The Funeral (Grosz) - Wikipedia)Writers that took up this new form of expression, stripped of moral certitude, are exemplified in Hemingway, Virginia Woolf and John Dos Passos to name a few[xiii].Similarly, there are many people who still argue for Marxism. WWI clearly did not end support for Marxist goals and thinking. The idea of a collective utopia without borders remains a strong draw in the same way lotteries remain a draw for people who think making money is simply luck. The draw was strong enough that John Lennon wrote a song contemplating the Marxist utopia; Lennon said his song was "virtually the Communist Manifesto, even though I am not particularly a communist and I do not belong to any movement.... But because it is sugarcoated, it is accepted." from Rolling Stone article, 'Imagine': The Anthem of 2001 by David Fricke, December 27, 2001. Aside from the catchy tune, the fact that the Imagine’s imagery remains a strong draw is a testament to the Marxist narrative, not to mention advocates who suggest it hasn’t had a fair chance yet.Ongoing support for Marxism did not keep other generally sympathetic thinkers from attempting to address areas of critical concern within the Marxist schools of thought.Critical Theory and critical theory“The Institute [Institute for Social Research i.e. Frankfurt School] was founded in 1923… with the aim of developing Marxist studies in Germany. After 1933, the Nazis forced its closure, and the Institute was moved to the United States where it found hospitality at Columbia University in New York City[xiv].”The Frankfurt School developed Critical Theory, which grew out of interwar German philosophers and thinkers loosely tied to the Institute for Social Research at the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. Its members were interested in correcting the failings of capitalism and Marxism, specifically in light of the rise of fascism in the form of National Socialism (Nazis) in Germany. They drew directly from philosophers like, Kant, Max Weber, Freud, and Hegelian and Marxist thinking with the intent to improve Marxism. Orthodox and classical Marxists would come to reject aspects of the Frankfurt School of thought, which came to be associated with neo-Marxism and the development of practical models of social change designed to marry philosophy with social sciences.Note: when associated with the Frankfurt School, Critical Theory is capitalized. When associated with other groups or schools of thought, it is left lower case e.g. critical theory. Gender studies, feminism, social justice, racial studies, and post-colonial studies, are examples of fields of study strongly influenced by critical theory (lower case). There should be no aspect of a person’s identity (sexual orientation, gender, family structure, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic class) that cannot be challenged or altered to benefit oppressed groups. This differs from classical or orthodox Marxism which defined the struggle between haves and have nots, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Critical theory is not so narrowly defined, hence the label cultural Marxism.Critical Theory has been influenced by György Lukács and Antonio Gramsci. Gramci died a prisoner of the fascists and has become one of the most lionized Marxist thinkers for a variety of left groups. The principal contributors beginning with the inception of the school were: Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, Friedrich Pollock, Leo Lowenthal, Eric Fromm and more recently, Jürgen Habermas and the generation of new accolites who followed. The Frankfurt School was a loose group of thinkers who were critical of each other at times. They shared a common objective regardless of internal criticism.“With Habermas, the Frankfurt School turned global, influencing methodological approaches in other European academic contexts and disciplines. It was during this phase that Richard Bernstein, a philosopher and contemporary of Habermas, embraced the research agenda of Critical Theory and significantly helped its development in American universities starting from the New School for Social Research in New York[xv].”From the point of arrival in the US the members of the Frankfurt School have worked through the university system to spread their ideas first through the fields of sociology and psychology. It was a focus of sustained effort within the Frankfurt School to merge Freud with Marx, psychology with economics.Horkheimer's famous definition of Critical Theory seeks “human emancipation” in circumstances of domination and oppression. These circumstances of domination and oppression are defined along the lines of typical Marxist binary approach. For others seeking to apply the methods of critical theory, Horkheimer provided guidance. “Horkheimer's definition that a critical theory is adequate only if it meets three criteria: it must be explanatory, practical, and normative, all at the same time. That is, it must explain what is wrong with current social reality, identify the actors to change it, and provide both clear norms for criticism and achievable practical goals for social transformation[xvi].”Herbert Marcuse, is the author of Reason and Revolution, Eros and Civilization and One Dimensional Man. Marcuse was known as the leader of the New Left both in the US and in Europe[xvii] [xviii].Herbert MarcuseHerbert Marcuse - WikipediaThe New Left, in contrast with traditional Marxists, sought more practical ways of gaining influence and reforming society. It shared that in common with the Frankfurt School, but was much more broadly aligned. It shied away from ridged class conflict based on economic identity and favored a more flexible approach. Marcuse’s ideas were key in the late 50s and 60s counter-culture movements[xix]. In keeping with its broader associations, the New Left was not limited to members or associates of the Frankfurt School. Paul-Michel Foucault, an anarchist; Louis Pierre Althusser, dogmatic French Marxist; Slavoj Žižek, a nihilist and iconoclastic Marxist; Ronald Myles Dworkin, US Constitutional scholar; and Richard M. Rorty, US philosopher; all called themselves members of the New Left. It shows the varied makeup of the New Left. In the past, where leftists, Marxist and New Left alike, might have proposed change through revolution or force, the New Left of today increasingly seeks to achieve its brand of social justice and liberation to cultural and institutional change[xx].Interestingly, to me at least, Marcuse raises several powerful observations regarding the power of advertising and the creation of a consumer society. His solutions though run counter to family structures. His defense of the down trodden willingly comes at the expense of the frame work that would ultimate ensure their survival and future legacy.“The small and powerless minorities which struggle against the false consciousness and its beneficiaries must be helped: their continued existence is more important than the preservation of abused rights and liberties which grant constitutional powers to those who oppress these minorities. It should be evident by now that the exercise of civil rights by those who don’t have them presupposes the withdrawal of civil rights from those who prevent their exercise, and that liberation of the Damned of the Earth presupposes suppression not only of their old but also of their new masters.” Herbert Marcuse, 1965, Repressive Tolerance pg. 12Freedom for some means suppression for others. It is just an exchange. Equality means the elimination not of the injustice, a correction, but the withdrawal of rights.Equally important to the existence of Critical Theory in the college setting, is the influence of critical theory applied to our schools of education. Numerous works coming from thinkers influenced by critical theory have been written. One example is, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, or in the original Portuguese: Pedagogia do Oprimido, by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. It was translated into English in 1970. Since then it became a significant text book used to teach new teachers going into high school and elementary schools. It uses a neo-Marxist / critical theory framework since named critical pedagogy built around the model of colonizer and colonized or oppressor and oppressed[xxi] [xxii]Besides the writing of Paulo Freire, there are other neo-Marxist thinkers works shaping the development of teachers in the US and abroad. Jonathan Kozol, Henry Giroux[xxiii], and Joel Spring[xxiv] among others. Their ideas began entering US schools in force in the 1980s. Kozol’s works provide evocative examples of substandard schooling and are widely praised. Structurally, his analysis is in line with critical theory. This does not mean to say he is not raising substantive issues. His method of analysis and solutions are derivative of neo-Marxist thought. After several decades many of the concepts of critical theory are taken for granted within society and more importantly, within elementary and high school education.The fact of class conflict is not contested. People struggle with each other and between groups, whether horizontally between civilizations or at the level of individuals—peer to peer, as well as up and down social and economic structures. The problem comes when every tension is defined by a binary struggle. Context and nuance are stripped from the analysis. More to the point, individual autonomy and agency is stripped from the people involved. People become byproducts of their group. People become trapped by their group identity, frozen, objectified even as the stated goal is to free people from oppression, people are locked into a narrow framework rather than being set free. An oppressor can only oppress. An oppressed cannot be oppressive. This is a caricature of humanity. Every slight becomes racist, sexist, bigoted, oppressive. Simone de Beauvoir once stated (maybe apocryphally), “Sometimes, a tree is just a tree.” in response to Freud seeing phallic symbolism in every aspect of thought, especially in women longing to be men. Similar things could be said of the binary framework of historic materialism and its many offshoots. Not every act is confined to oppressor and oppressed. Sometimes people act within their own agency.To put the influence of left thinking on college campuses into context, KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov stated, only 15% of the Soviet efforts were dedicated to spying. 85% was dedicated to subversion.“It’s a great brainwashing process, which goes very slow[ly] and is divided [into] four basic stages. The first one [is] demoralization; it takes from 15-20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years which [is required] to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy, exposed to the ideology of the enemy. In other words, Marxist-Leninist ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of American students, without being challenged, or counter-balanced by the basic values of Americanism (American patriotism).The result? The result you can see. Most of the people who graduated in the sixties (drop-outs or half-baked intellectuals) are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, [and the] educational system. You are stuck with them. You cannot get rid of them. They are contaminated; they are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern. You cannot change their mind[s], even if you expose them to authentic information, even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still cannot change the basic perception and the logic of behavior. In other words, these people… the process of demoralization is complete and irreversible. To [rid] society of these people, you need another twenty or fifteen years to educate a new generation of patriotically-minded and common sense people, who would be acting in favor and in the interests of United States society.[xxv] [xxvi]”“Many of the students the Frankfurt School taught became teachers and professors, who taught another batch of teachers and professors, and they’re now indoctrinating our youth. Some others became ensconced in the media or in government positions. This is what Italian Communist theoretician Antonio Gramsci called “the long march through the institutions.” Only a fraction identifies with Communism, but they still practice the party line even if few are aware of where their views originated.” How the Cultural Marxist of the Frankfurt School Subverted American Education, Beau Albrecht, July 22, 2016Within US colleges today, there are various schools of thought. The ideas supporting the grand narrative have diminished significantly from the period immediately following WWI. Postmodernism has grown significantly. Classical or Orthodox Marxism maintains a significant place in college thought. Soviet Marxism has largely disappeared as newly invigorated classical Marxist reassert themselves. New Left thinking and Critical Theory, and critical theory, have grown; they are not unified organizationally as much as be shared conviction that traditional model must be reformed along neo-Marxist thought. While postmodernists would do away with much of the West, New Left and critical theory proponents increasingly seek to repurpose the institutions of the West and redefine society top down—or rather bottom up. With, the influence of critical theory in US schools of education, the paradigm of neo-Marxism is increasingly taken for granted within all levels of US education.Critical theory and postmodernism have influenced many areas of academic study. The strength of influence is the liberal arts fields and others like, sociology, psychology, anthropology, and linguistics. Although there is a strong presence of critical theory and Marxism in economic fields, there are strong counter arguments in these fields as well. The hard sciences like chemistry and physics can be influenced by left leaning agendas—what research is funded for what reason, by what grant providing organization. However, unlike sociology, which can force a Marxist structure on the research or analysis fairly easily, the laws of physics don’t really care about oppressor and oppressed ideas. Either Schrödinger’s cat in the box is alive or dead, or both. Whatever the answer, it will not be based on class envy or oppression of the cat by the universe. The universe doesn’t care.Not all the colleges in the US are left leaning. There are many colleges and centers of higher education that are not left leaning. Hillsdale College in Michigan is an example of a conservative college. There are many vocational schools that are basically apolitical. Yet, when the college environment is considered at the primary schools receiving students in the US, I would say the college educational system is profoundly left leaning. The flavor of left thinking varies. The Overton Window has shifted to the point that left positions often feel centrist now. Compared to the position of the founding fathers the US has radically shifted its understanding of rights and the role of government. We can debate the merits of such a change. It is willfully myopic to deny the change. More to the point, it is the stated objective of many leftists groups like the Frankfurt School to reform society through the schools, through the courts, through the institutions of government. They are doing so.The implication is simple. The left in whatever flavor it is manifest seeks the restructuring of society, or the demolition of modern society. Traditionalists seek to preserve the broad brush strokes as much as possible. Identity politics will increase in various areas of society. To a significant degree, this has already happened. The family has already been significantly redefined from what was accepted 20 years ago, or 40 years ago. Many social norms have changed. Public discourse is more polarized and it will not return to civil norms of a few decades ago because both sides of the social conflict are not compatible given radically different visions of human nature and the role of family, government , and cultural norms and tradition.Reversing the trend, as Yuri Bezmenov said, will take a generation of focused effort. Without the focused effort, it is not clear how far social change will progress before there is a strong push back. The US and the West are going through a foundational shift that will continue to unfold over the next ten to twenty years._______<iframe width="560" height="315" src="What is Cultural Marxism?" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe><iframe width="560" height="315" src="Yuri Bezmenov: Deception Was My Job (Complete)" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>[i] Origin and meaning of politics by Online Etymology Dictionary[ii] Origin and meaning of political by Online Etymology Dictionary[iii] Noah Webster – Wikipedia Noah Webster - Wikipedia[iv] Number of college students in the U.S. 1965-2026 U.S. college enrollment statistics 1965-2026 | Statista[v] Impact of Pell Surge by Kelly Woodhouse, June 12 2015, Study: U.S. higher education receives more from federal than state governments[vi] Increasing Student Loans and Rising Tuition: The Latest Research[vii] Marx's theory of history - Wikipedia[viii] Postmodernism - Wikipedia[ix] Benito Mussolini - Wikipedia[x] Benito Mussolini - Wikipedia[xi] Fool, Frauds, and Firebrands, Thinkers of the New Left, Roger Scrutton, Bloomsbury.[xii] Fool, Frauds, and Firebrands, Thinkers of the New Left, Roger Scrutton, Bloomsbury.[xiii] Art forever changed by World War I By Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times July 21, 2012, Art forever changed by World War I[xiv] Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://www.iep.utm.edu/frankfur/[xv] Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy[xvi] Critical Theory (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)[xvii] Herbert Marcuse - Wikipedia[xviii] New Left - Wikipedia[xix] Herbert Marcuse - Wikipedia[xx] Fool, Frauds, and Firebrands, Thinkers of the New Left, Roger Scrutton, Bloomsbury.[xxi] Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Wikipedia[xxii] Skewed Perspective What we know about teacher preparation at elite education schools By David Steiner Winter 2005 / VOL. 5, NO. 1 EducationNext, Skewed Perspective - Education Next[xxiii]Henry Giroux: The Necessity of Critical Pedagogy in Dark Times Wednesday, February 06, 2013By Jose Maria Barroso Tristan, Global Education Magazine Henry Giroux: The Necessity of Critical Pedagogy in Dark Times[xxiv] Critical Art Pedagogy: Foundations for Postmodern Art Education by Richard Cary pg. 39[xxv] How The Cultural Marxist of the Frankfurt School Subverted American Education, Beau Albrecht, July 22, 2016 http://www.returnofkings.com/90815/how-the-cultural-marxists-of-the-frankfurt-school-subverted-educationDepartment of Education: Federal Role in EducationThe leaky bucket: Why conservatives need to learn the art of story. By David M. Phelps July 20, 2010 The leaky bucket: Why conservatives need to learn the art of story[xxvi] Soviet Defector Yuri Bezmenov Accurately Predicted How America Would Decline, Roosh Valizadeh, June 9 2016, Soviet Defector Yuri Bezmenov Accurately Predicted How America Would Declinehttps://www.noahwebsterhouse.org/discover/noah-webster-history.htm*edited for typos/grammar/formating