The demise of liberalism

[hue]

http://bloggingblue.com/2014/01/the-demise-of-liberalism/

(Based on ‘Death of the Liberal Class‘ by Chris Hedges)

There have traditionally been six pillars of the liberal movement in America.

Universities and colleges

Churches

The Democratic Party

The press

Popular culture

Labor

It is easy to make the case that all six have been entirely taken over by big money. They have had their teeth pulled, been marginalized, or have been completely taken over by the 1%.

===> The institutions of higher learning used to be hotbeds of liberal thought. I was in college during the height of the Vietnam War, and the school was steeped in anti-war, racial equality and women’s rights action. Now, universities and colleges are increasingly modeled along corporate lines. Unlike the days when a college education could be had at low cost, even no cost in some cases (GI Bill), it now comes with an unhealthy side dish of student debt that isn’t even dischargeable via bankruptcy.

In an article called How the American University Was Killed, In Five Easy Steps, ”this is how you break the evil, wicked, leftist academic class in America.”

(a) First, you defund public higher education.

(b) Second, you deprofessionalize and impoverish the professors (and continue to create a surplus of underemployed and unemployed Ph.D.s).

(c) You move in a managerial/administrative class who take over governance of the university.

(d) You move in corporate culture and corporate money.

(e) Destroy the students:

1. Dumb down the curriculum.

2. Make a higher education insanely costly, so that the only students who can

graduate debt free are those who were wealthy to begin with.

===> These days in the political arena the only religious voices being heard are those of the fundamentalist Christians. They are climate change denying mouthpieces for the fossil fuel industry. They hijack the political debate through the use of anti-abortion and anti-LGBT rights stances. Religious broadcasters have turned worship into big business. It is a rare day when you hear from leftist theologians who advocate for compassion

[kairos12]

1. The acquisition of knowledge is sacrificed at the altar of higher income.

There is no discussion of ethics, either as an everyday cause or a general guide to life. Socrates would say the Sophists have won out and, consequently, we find ourselves entangled in a one percent society. Predictable.

Kant's great three questions of: What can we know?, What ought we to do?, What can we hope for?, are now delivered to an uneducated audience filled with Madoffs, Palins and other hucksters. Idiotic Reality TV only reflects our society and its lack of education.

Ranting this morning. thanks

[W.J. McCabe]

2. We continue to move to the right...

There is NO mainstream party that represents the left in this country and everything is all theater. The Affordable Healthcare Act is a gift to corporations and was initially a conservative idea. This conflict between the right and left over that issue especially just seems so contrived to me it is ridiculous. And it puts the left in the absurd position of defending something that isn't even loyal to left wing ideology (but is undeniably loyal to right wing ideology) and actually many of its ideals because the ACA is seen as something as opposed to nothing (which we are told is the only other alternative). It is all one big game, one pathetic theater stage where a performance is being put on for us. And meanwhile we continue to lurch to the right.

[YoungDemCA]

3. +1

And welcome to DU.

[swilton]

4. This is a great piece

I don't think though that you can characterize the destruction of liberalism linearly....Multiple factors are working and have been working against intellectualism for decades if not generations....Just for example Richard Hofstadter had a great argument Anti-Intellectualism in American Life that it is a part of American culture...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hofstadter

Another hammer driving the nails into the coffin was movement instigated by Supreme Court Justice Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. Before Nixon appointed him as Supreme Court Justice in 1972, he authored a very revelatory memorandum known as the Powell Memorandum that argued that argued that academia should be more free-enterprise/capitalist oriented and also argued for the creation of think tanks, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell_Memorandum#Supreme_Court_tenure

It seems more than just coincidental that the Powell Memorandum was a reaction to ethical questions raised on the Vietnam War and the academic movements to question not only the Vietnam War but also why capitalism was so destructive to the environment. It also seems more than coincidental that around the late 1960's the discipline of political science took a turn to become less concerned with ethics and values and more concerned with behaviorism and statistically based problem solving.

[question everything]

5. And you belitle and scorn academic reserach

sadly, by both parties in D.C.

"Golden Fleece" award for basic research with no immediate benefits. This is why it is basic research!

You haul a Nobel Laurette in front of your committee to investigate... how he runs his lab.

And, yes, you cut funds for bio medical research, except for..."Star Wars."

And, as we've moved to a "service based" economy, there really is doubt about the economic benefits of higher education. The high cost eliminate the concept of learning for the sake of learning.

Universities themselves have fatten their administrative rank so not much is left to pay the ones who actually teach and conduct research.