Chris Hedges: The Origin of America’s Intellectual Vacuum

[marmar]

from truthdig:



The Origin of America’s Intellectual Vacuum

Posted on Nov 15, 2010
By Chris Hedges


The blacklisted mathematics instructor Chandler Davis, after serving six months in the Danbury federal penitentiary for refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), warned the universities that ousted him and thousands of other professors that the purges would decimate the country’s intellectual life.

“You must welcome dissent; you must welcome serious, systematic, proselytizing dissent—not only the playful, the fitful, or the eclectic; you must value it enough, not merely to refrain from expelling it yourselves, but to refuse to have it torn from you by outsiders,” he wrote in his 1959 essay “...From an Exile.” “You must welcome dissent not in a whisper when alone, but publicly so potential dissenters can hear you. What potential dissenters see now is that you accept an academic world from which we are excluded for our thoughts. This is a manifest signpost over all your arches, telling them: Think at your peril. You must not let it stand. You must (defying outside power; gritting your teeth as we grit ours) take us back.”

But they did not take Davis back. Davis, whom I met a few days ago in Toronto, could not find a job after his prison sentence and left for Canada. He has spent his career teaching mathematics at the University of Toronto. He was one of the lucky ones. Most of the professors ousted from universities never taught again. Radical and left-wing ideas were effectively stamped out. The purges, most carried out internally and away from public view, announced to everyone inside the universities that dissent was not protected. The confrontation of ideas was killed.

“Political discourse has been impoverished since then,” Davis said. “In the 1930s it was understood by anyone who thought about it that sales taxes were regressive. They collected more proportionately from the poor than from the rich. Regressive taxation was bad for the economy. If only the rich had money, that decreased economic activity. The poor had to spend what they had and the rich could sit on it. Justice demands that we take more from the rich so as to reduce inequality. This philosophy was not refuted in the 1950s and it was not the target of the purge of the 1950s. But this idea, along with most ideas concerning economic justice and people’s control over the economy, was cleansed from the debate. Certain ideas have since become unthinkable, which is in the interest of corporations such as Goldman Sachs. The power to exclude certain ideas serves the power of corporations. It is unfortunate that there is no political party in the United States to run against Goldman Sachs. I am in favor of elections, but there is no way I can vote against Goldman Sachs.” ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_origin_of_americas_intellectual_vacuum_20101115/

[handmade34]

1. rec

well worth the read and extremely troubling; not surprising

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[redirish28]

3. Amazing how soon History will repeat itself.

[Mika]

6. Not repeat. Taking another loop as we wash down the drain.

:(

[babylonsister]

4. Rec'd with sadness. nt

[ixion]

5. That is one shining example, but it started well before that

and is arguably endemic to the human condition. That is to say, human stupidity is nothing new.

[pattmarty]

21. I think it's greed more than the stupidity, but that has to be the second reason.

[Demeter]

7. YES! YES! YES! That's Exactly When and Why It Started

Engineers used to get a pass, because engineers are usually (although not all) politically indifferent. But after the Space Program shut down, engineers were a dime a dozen, too. And the path to Sarah Palin and outsourcing was complete...

[Jim__]

8. America's intellectual vacuum ...

... that says a lot.

[Jackpine Radical]

9. Thanks.

"Davis argues that not only did socialism and communism become outlaw terms, but once these were tagged as heresies, the right wing tried to make liberal, secular and pluralist outlaw terms as well. The result is an impoverishment of ideas and analysis at a moment when we desperately need radical voices to make sense of the corporate destruction of the global economy and the ecosystem."


What a reminder of how well-established the thought-control mechanisms are in America. The Dies Committee (aka HUAC) and its antecedents go back to the First World War.

Why is it that those who supposedly believe in competition of products in the marketplace refuse to permit competition among ideas in the intellectual equivalent of the marketplace?

A nation that shuts out awareness of a large segment of reality, or that refuses to entertain the full range of available theories and possibilities, has condemned itself to extinction in the long run. Eventually, like a blind dinosaur, we will walk off a cliff that we had refused to acknowledge. Sadly, this time we may take the rest of the world with us.

[TygrBright]

25. Well, in the first place, they DON'T "believe in competition of products in the marketplace."

They never have. If they actually UNDERSTOOD Adam Smith, their hair would stand on end in horror and they'd want "Wealth of Nations" banned as well. What they want is freedom to viciously annihilate any threat to their profits-- under the semantic shield of "competition and the Free Marketplace."

All they have EVER wanted is for the government to empower them to steal everything they can lay hands on, and butt out of their business. They want to continue establishing bigger and bigger monopolies, buying up or driving out weaker "competition" in a cutthroat economic Darwinism. Because in their shrivelled, flabby little coronary cell, each of them truly believes that s/he is the fittest to run Global Megacorp, Inc., and own, control, and profit from everything and everyone else in the world.

This kind of intellectual suppression and devaluation goes back long before WWI, as well. It started the day we declared independence and established ourselves as a nation. Our collective national values system has NEVER internalized dissent and free thought. It has enshrined lip service to those values into our manufactured self-image, as a way of facilitating the ongoing rape of everyone except our Corporate Owners. The downside of the need to pretend we value dissent and free thought is that occasionally the pretense opens up a chink for small amounts of progress to wiggle through. However, as soon as the wiggling starts, the reaction gears up and slaps concrete and barbed wire on the chink.

We just have to keep watching and pushing for new chinks, and wiggling whatever we can through them.

'Twas ever thus, alas.

regretfully,
Bright

[KossackRealityCheck]

10. Chris Hedges sometimes writes silly exaggerated things

Sure America became dumber during those years and sure the witch hunt led some professors to be black listed, but saying one caused the other doesn't make sense, much less that the universities in general were purged of liberal ideas. Universities were hot beds of liberalism in the period after this, during the 1960s. There was almost a complete liberal agreement in the 60s. Universities didn't get dumber in the 60s, even much of the public did.

Chris you're not looking at the 800 pound gorilla in the room: TELEVISION!

[Uncle Joe]

13. He addresses what took place in the 60s

The silencing of radicals such as Davis, who had been a member of the Communist Party, although he had left it by the time he was investigated by HUAC, has left academics and intellectuals without the language, vocabulary of class war and analysis to critique the ideology of globalism, the savagery of unfettered capitalism and the ascendancy of the corporate state. And while the turmoil of the 1960s saw discontent sweep through student bodies with some occasional support from faculty, the focus was largely limited to issues of identity politics—feminism, anti-racism—and the anti-war movements. The broader calls for socialism, the detailed Marxist critique of capitalism, the open rejection of the sanctity of markets, remained muted or unheard. Davis argues that not only did socialism and communism become outlaw terms, but once these were tagged as heresies, the right wing tried to make liberal, secular and pluralist outlaw terms as well. The result is an impoverishment of ideas and analysis at a moment when we desperately need radical voices to make sense of the corporate destruction of the global economy and the ecosystem. The “centrist” liberals manage to retain a voice in mainstream society because they pay homage to the marvels of corporate capitalism even as it disembowels the nation and the planet.

[KossackRealityCheck]

16. This paragraph shows Hedges is dumber than I thought

Identity politics did not dominate campuses until the late 70s and 80s, and were unheard of in the 60s. By the 60s, almost all the social scientists, historians, sociologists, etc., were Marxists, although neo-Marxists. Only economics wasn't affected. For Hedges to write, "broader calls for socialism, the detailed Marxist critique of capitalism, the open rejection of the sanctity of markets, remained muted or unheard" just shows he's a complete idiot.

[Uncle Joe]

18. Weren't Civil Rights, the Second Wave Feminist Movement and anti-Vietnam War protests,

Identity Politics?

To my memory those were the primary dynamics behind the calls of change during the 60s and after, but whether something dominated college campuses in the 60s, 70s or 80s doesn't change Hedges' point regarding the long term effects behind the demonization of thought.


I can't recall any major protests promoting Communism or Socialism.

I agree with you in regards to television's influence in manipulating the masses beginning with McCarthy's witch hunts televised live gavel to gavel.

McCarthy was damaged by the coverage but was so was Communism and Socialism.

You may not agree with Hedges but that doesn't make him a "complete idiot."

[Lydia Leftcoast]

29. The real death blow to academic leftism was a sudden

(within two or three years) refusal of major corporations to hire liberal arts graduates.

Suddenly, only business majors and IT/engineering majors could get jobs, whereas previously liberal arts graduates could easily get jobs in management training programs.

This was a major change that occurred in the late 1970s, early 1980s.

[swilton]

15. I agree with you

More than just the aftermath of McCarthyism was going on in the US in the 1960s. Furthermore, I don't think this anti-intellectualism within the US started with McCarthyism or for that matter, the stigmatizing of socialists which was decades earlier. The causes are deeper, more profound and also more sinister. I posted to a greater extent below - but again, it is a very large problem.

[pattmarty]

22. Did you fucking read the same piece I did? Oh, and how are the......

........universities doing today compared to EVEN the 80's?

[Bluenorthwest]

23. The television and film business also underwent a witch hunt

blacklisting and purges. Same as happened in the universities. That altered TV, film and the entire culture.

[WingDinger]

11. When the wingers first drooled over Palin, they intended to purge education.

They thought that a few generations of indoctrinated Americans would end liberals forever. Now, they feel that giving no prestige to further degrees, and ending tenure is the way to cast a threat to stop using science and logic.

There is only one right way. No need to teach any alternative. They will allow you all you need to know.

Expect a new encyclopedia of all knowledge. Only this time, it is evangelicals creating the dark age, not Catholics.

[Uncle Joe]

12. This is a good article.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.

[swilton]

14. Hedges is to be credited

for illuminating the Davis incident for us - however, I agree with an earlier poster....who alluded to the influence of television. My point is this the Davis incident was not created in a vacuum nor were its ramifications perpetuated in isolation of other events.

I believe that Richard Hofstadter's ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM IN AMERICAN LIFE (1962) gives us the best social explanation for the US anti-intellectualist phenomena....i.e., in twenty-first century 'Amerika' the lack of skills with English grammar while mandating that English be the only spoken language, criticizing Hispanics for their lack of English skills, creationism, minimal knowledge of US geography to the extent that those in Texas think that New Hampshire is a foreign country...(not to pick on Texans but this does happen), denial of global warming...etc.,

Very briefly, Hofstadter among other things notes the clerical intellectualism in New England and pride in higher education as opposed to the religion of settled south and western America by missionaries w/o formal education...the notion grew from that children were raised to be no more educated than their parents. Hofstadter also notes the pension in America to undervalue intellectual attributes as opposed to military/physical attributes in our elected leaders - only look at the Gore vs. Bush 2000 election for those examples...

Regarding the influence of media and television. In the late 1930's members of the Frankfurt School/neo-Marxists came to this country from Germany - their intellectual question was why the Marxist revolution that appeared in the east never occurred in the US - their answer...people would go to the movies and live out and answer their frustrations vicariously rather than taking to the streets. Ever see the movie IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE?

In more contemporary (post 1960s America), I find the influence of the Powell Memorandum on academia to be influential yet rarely written about....Keep in mind the sixties were radical times intellectually - morality & ethics of war were questioned....Powell in a private memo (please google 'Powell Memorandum' as my details may be fuzzy) argued that academia ought to be more corporate friendly...contributed to the fostering of intellectual pro-corporate think tanks (i.e., Rand Corporation), etc. before Powell became a Supreme Court Justice appointee by Nixon. I find it more than coincidental that at this time within academia there was an intellectual revolution within the social sciences - the 'behavioral revolution'....Political science was driven not by moral/ethical questions but statistical (value free) analysis.

To date this question still rages within political science communities and major questions are raised about its relevance. In 2006, I researched the flagship journal of political science APSA (American Political Science Association) - nothing about the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan, global warming, climate change, zero.

Thus, Hedges is to be applauded for illuminating this incident and raising important questions about American intellectual thought - unfortunately, he only addresses the tip of the iceberg of a far more profound and deeper problem....

Also unfortunately, tweaking our education system will not fix this - but that is for another post.

[snagglepuss]

27. Interesting obeservations. nt

[Doctor_J]

17. David Horowitz and Lynn Cheney are terrorists

they should be referred to as such

[LongTomH]

19. K&R & Bookmark

We'll need to refer back to this post - and the more insightful replies - in the next two years, as the Republican-dominated House begins its own witch hunts. This time, the major targets will include climate scientists, as well as any environmental scientist whose work is inconvenient for the big corporations poisoning our planet.

[pattmarty]

20. I read the whole piece and it was excellent and right fucking on.........

.........I've read a couple of his books and read his pieces all the time and am liking him more and more. All this from a guy that went to Harvard Divinity school.

[Hardrada]

24. Great piece. Read his book too on the death of Liberalism.

[MisterP]

26. the US lacks a real left, except for a 1965-75 flare

any condemnation of the right wing is done to make sure we GOTV for the center right

[Number_Six]

28. Refresh my memory here....

...but wasn't the purging of leftists from colleges part and parcel of the infamous Powell Manifesto?

I seem to recall, yes, it was. Welcome to Plutamerica!

[Independem]

30. Higher Education Gone Wrong: Universities Are Turning into Corporate Drone Factories

By Chris Hedges

Higher Education Gone Wrong: Universities Are Turning into Corporate Drone Factories

Unless we take hold of the reins we will be cursed with a more ruthless form of corporate power wielded through naked repression.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/133446/higher_education_gone_wrong:_universities_are_turning_into_corporate_drone_factories