Opinion : Letter to the Editor: Laying Siege to the Institutions

Dear Editor,

Re:  paraphrased from Laying Siege to the Institutions, Christopher F. Rufo,  

 April/May, 2022 issue of Imprimis a publication of Hillsdale College.

He writes:  I say we need to lay siege to our institutions; because of what has happened to our institutions since the 1960’s.  (Many readers are too young to have experienced the violence of that time or the extremist organizations like, the Black Panthers, the Weather Underground, or the Black Liberation Army.)  The 1960’s saw the rise of new and radical ideologies in America that now seem commonplace – ideologies based on ideas like identity politics and Cultural Revolution.   He writes:  there is a direct line between those ideas born in the ‘60s and the public policies being adopted today in leftist-run cities like Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago; (to name only a few).  He states: the leftist dream of a working-class rebellion in America fizzled after the ‘60s.  By the mid-1970a radical groups like the Black Liberation Army and the Weather Underground had faded from prominence.  But the leftist dreamers didn’t give up.

Abandoning hope of a Russian-style revolution, they settled on a more sophisticated strategy – waging a revolution not of the proletariat, but of the elites and specifically of the knowledge elites.  It would proceed not by taking over the means of production (Communism/Socialism), but by taking control of education and culture.

This march through our institutions, begun a half-century ago, has now proved largely successful.  Over the past two years, I’ve looked at the federal bureaucracy, the universities, K-12 schools, and big corporations.  And what I’ve found is that the revolutionary ideas of the ‘60s have been repackaged, repurposed, and injected into American life at the institutional level.   (Note:  I add that the above has infected our political scene as well i.e. the Squad = Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.  There are others in government as well, but the above are the extreme and most annoying. )

 He concludes – We make a mistake in thinking about politics simply in terms of a left versus right dynamic.  That dynamic is significant, but where the opportunity really lies today is focusing on a top versus bottom dynamic.  An elite class; representing a small number of people with influence in the knowledge- based institution, are acting in their own interest and against the interest of the vast majority of the American people.

I suggest a careful read.  Our educational institutions should be teaching our young HOW to think, not WHAT to think.   I believe that Critical Race Theory (Marxist inspired) has no place in K-12 education. Kindergarten, 1^st, 2^nd,3^rd graders should not be exposed to gender identity theory.  There are other cultural issues as well, but the above suffice for now – our students need to learn – “reading, writing, and arithmetic”; History, Social Studies should be left to later years of study.

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Regards,

John Stieglmeyer