Wealthy pimp Rand to college students through eager universities
Posted by Charles II on April 12, 2008
There is hardly any act more intrinsically corrupt than a college professor accepting cash to teach the writings of someone. And yet that seems to have happened, as universities have lined up to pimp right-wing novelist Ayn Rand to unsuspecting college kids. Matthew Keenan, Bloomberg:
The charitable arm of BB&T Corp., a banking company, pledged $1 million to the University of North Carolina Charlotte in 2005 and obtained an agreement that Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged” would become required reading for students. Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, say they also took grants and agreed to teach Rand….
“A corporation crosses a line and a university is complicit in crossing the line if it accepts money” and accedes to a request to assign specific books, said Jonathan Knight, director of the program on academic freedom, tenure and governance for the American Association of University Professors, in Washington. “It’s unique in my experience.” Knight has worked in the field for 31 years….
After BB&T mandated that some schools teach “Atlas Shrugged,” grant seekers became aware of Allison’s interest and now tailor their applications by stating up front their interest in Rand, Denham said.
Scholars scoff at the Rand bounty, saying her ideas are too shallow to build courses around her.
Presumbaly BB&T got a tax writeoff to corrupt our young.
Stormcrow said
This is what happens when you starve the higher education sector of public monies for more than 50 goddamned years. The people working in that sector get increasingly desperate year by year, and the desperation increases the higher up the food chain you get.
Absent public funds, the whole system runs off of tuition and charity. Tuition alone isn’t enough. And every single bit of “charity” from private sources inevitably has strings attached.
Ever wonder why university middle management was always so much more spineless and gutless than anybody else within your field of vision? That’s why.
20 years ago, to my certain knowledge, you could essentially purchase distinguished chairs at certain universities by bringing in enough grant monies. Yeah, we’re talking about fixed threshold amounts.
And we have all had ringside seats to watch the inevitable corruption of every university that has gone the “athletics as a profit center” route for a lot longer than that.
I recall what this was like quite well, because I was a grad student at the University of Arizona when we became a PAC 10 football school. That was just lovely.
What we’re seeing today is the absolutely inevitable consequence of the public policy held as some sort of sacred truth in this country for the last half century and more.
And if you think this is as far as the corruption is going to go, well, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Hold your nose, the ride gets really smelly from here on.
Charles II said
I’m afraid you’re right, Stormcrow, though I would have said that the sixties gave a brief respite to the corruption, as job security was pretty good.
But the selling of chairs? Yes, that’s true.
And as to whether it gets worse….
Sigh.
Phoenix Woman said
The thing is that the acceleration of this, since the 1960s provided a brief respite, is deliberate. It was part of former Nixon associate William Simon’s plan to orchestrate a conservative takeover of the entities in charge of determining objective reality: Not just our media, but our universities and research facilities as well. The Randian corruption’s been going on for some time.
The good news is that there’s been pushback, as more and more people are seeing that the yellow stuff from the sky isn’t rain.
Stormcrow said
That’s all well and good, except that the next generation of American intellectuals is going to have to be educated overseas.
And once out of here, I am extremely doubtful they’ll ever return. If I were in my late 20s or 30s instead of my late 50s, I’d probably be writing this from Canada.
That is, assuming that Canada is far enough away. When the bottom falls out here, it’s going to get ugly in ways nobody in this continent past Native Americans has seen for the last couple of hundred years or more.
The bloody chaos could spill across minor little things like national borders unreinforced by significant natural geographic barriers rather easily.
Charles II said
I hope you’re wrong, Stormcrow.
I fear you’re not.
Phoenix Woman said
Actually, the Randians are making a fundamental mistake: Their target audience is already too old. Lifelong Randians are generally made by high school, when Rand can peel off a few of the bright-but-selfish kids who feel put upon by their peers; by the time they reach college, they’ve usually seen enough of how life really works (and developed enough social skills) to find Rand laughable. And even the kids exposed to Rand in high school usually grow out of Rand fairly quickly; I know of a couple ex-Randroids who worshipped her in high school and laughed at her in college.
The big problem with righties openly adopting Rand is her unrelenting atheism; William F. Buckley, in a column written upon her death, commented how the first words she said to him were “You are much too intelligent to believe in God.” This, of course, is anathema to the conservatives, who cannot afford to jettison the Fundies. I’d say that if you wanted to see this subsidy stopped, let the local megachurches know about it.
Stormcrow said
Yeah, then they’ll start handing money to colleges in return for their replacement of science with Creationist bullshit.
Charles II said
I believe that this is the image that should accompany that last point, Stormcrow.
Phoenix Woman said
Nah. Businesses are like Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood: They won’t let the Fundies near things that could impair their access to hardheaded engineers and soil scientists, to name two fields of study.
Phoenix Woman said
Oh, and this will cheer up the two of you:
http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2008/04/12/put-down-the-razor-blades/
liberal said
I think the most important thing here is to get people on the left to understand one of the two the most devastating critiques of so-called libertarianism. (See “Are you a Real Libertarian, or a ROYAL Libertarian?” (see in particular the section “Ayn Rand comes sooo close!”) and “A Geolibertarian FAQ”.
(The other critique is directed at that strain of libertarianism which thinks we don’t need government at all. It should be clear what that critique is.)
CMike said
Plans, mice, men.
Stormcrow said
That is a thing of beauty, CMike.
Thank you.
I’m going to paste this up at a more few places where people will look at it.
Phoenix Woman said
What Stormie Said, CMike. :-)