The Unreal World of College

                             The Unreal World of College

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 2/11/18

      

            What do Bret Favre, Jimmy Buffett, William Bennett and I have in common?  Not much, except that we all either attended or taught at the same university.

              Favre excelled with the Green Bay Packers for 16 seasons; Buffett became a famous rocker, a successful businessman, and the nation’s biggest promoter of partying hard; Bennett became U.S. Secretary of Education, the nation’s Drug Czar, an historian, and a successful radio talk show host.  I became a little ‘ole English teacher.

            What we had in common was the decision to take advantage of the unreality of college.    As an 18-year-old at a small yet outstanding junior college, I sensed that college was quite removed from what we call the “real world.”  When I transferred to Favre-Buffett-Bennett-land, it seemed even more so.  Buffett and I were at the University of Southern Mississippi at the same time. Favre and Bennett came later, Favre to excel on the football field, Bennett to teach philosophy and religion.

             I’m grateful for a college experience that deepened my knowledge of the world.  I particularly wanted to learn history, basic economics, literature, a bit about the philosophies and political systems that have shaped the world, and natural science (facts, not theories).

Right away I learned that college work can benefit anyone who will study.  College life – please see my distinction – can often do the opposite.  It can lead students to a view of the world that is lofty and condescending, turning them away from the practical life and common sense.  Wallowing too long in philosophy, literature, or even history, and attending debates between famous writers or historians who have never gotten their hands dirty can transport 19-year olds into a dreamy world from which many never return.

Appreciating what college was providing me, I still observed early on that colleges were growing into a hungry social behemoth that was asserting its self-importance and arguing that tax-payers should feed its voracious appetite.

Taxpayers are funding Marriott-like dorms, resplendent student union buildings, and college president salaries that often match those of private CEO’s.  Add to the “Gimme, gimme” cry of our colleges the snowflake crybabies that colleges are producing and you can see why Joe Taxpayer is getting a bit fed up.  Like medical costs, college costs are entirely out of whack.

 Academia continues to move leftward.  What is it about college teaching that draws leftists?  Teaching is essentially a conserving activity.  Its purpose is to pass on knowledge to the next generation in order to keep individuals and the society functional.

But somewhere along the way indoctrination and bias entered the picture.  Higher education, with rare exceptions, has become an engine for moving progressive (liberal) doctrine forward.  Consider the following terms that originated from the college scene and are now embedded in our collective psyche.

“Lifestyle” allows and justifies any way of life that anyone prefers.  Forget nature’s way.  Pursue your own.  Aren’t all things relative, personal, or situational?  Don’t be moralistic.  Be broadminded.  Accept the views of others. (But don’t dare have any of your own.)

“Self-fulfillment,” the oxymoron straight out of psychology classes, settled in decades ago and has been gaily embraced.  It’s the opposite of self-denial and putting others first, as many Americans 50 and older were taught to do.  It’s probably the cause of many a divorce. 

“Deconstructionism” is a big word, but we need to understand it since it has penetrated history, literature, and theology.  “Deconstruct,” according to the wisdom of the university, is what every reader should do.  Books and articles no longer have text; they only have words that beg for interpretation.  So break the President’s speech down (or the Constitution, the Bible, or Jefferson or Adam Smith), turn it over in your subjective mind, and tell others what it means.  Meaning depends on the reader.

Colleges have left their first love.  Knowledge now takes a back seat to the indoctrination of progressive thought.  Not all ideas “start even in the race.”

What chaos!  Happily my three fellow Golden Eagles did not succumb to the spirit of the university or to the “college bubble.”  After a professional career, Favre took a job as a high school assistant coach.  Buffett, that rocking capitalist, has given millions to needy families.  Bennett, though a member of the radio/TV chattering class, has always chattered good sense, and has been a defender of social conservatives and other deplorables.

Today’s university setting can easily make one forget his raising.  Fortunately, many students do withstand academia’s progressive barrage.  We should be glad. 

Roger Hines

2/6/18

            

The Roar That Has Become a Whimper

                     The Roar That Has Become a Whimper

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 2/4/18

            Helen Reddy’s 1971 song, “I am Woman, Hear Me Roar,” was a huge hit.  It rallied feminists and warned men that they had better watch out.  After all, a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.

            Oh, the halcyon days of the 70’s when women were rising up.  I was working amongst a terrific group of hardworking women who, although they liked the song, often altered it by saying, “I am woman, I am tired.”

            The 60’s were actually the decade when women began to trumpet their declaration of independence.  But a declaration is just that: a declared statement of intent.  It was the 70’s that brought the parades, protests, shouting, and the flinging of bras.  They also brought us Ms. Magazine, the National Organization for Women (Jerry Falwell was kidding; N.O.W. didn’t stand for National Order of Witches), the Equal Rights Amendment (which failed to pass in Congress), and the legalization of killing unborn babies (Roe v. Wade).

            For four decades, now, women have roared.  Not all women, but certainly those who are members of the National Order … I mean, National Organization of Women. Though dwarfed by the conservative Concerned Women of America, N.O.W. has, of course, enjoyed the affection of the media and the Democratic Party.

            But why has the roar turned into a cry for help in the last 12 months?  Well, because the times they are achanging.  Again.  Sexual freedom and women’s liberation aren’t what the radical feminists thought they would be.  Men are still men, and some of them are savages.  Radical feminists have gone from “Hear me roar” to “Help! Abuse! Assault!

            Please follow this line of thought so that you don’t misinterpret it.  Women who are disrespected, mistreated, or assaulted should say so.  They should roar.  Whatever happened to the burning slap of yesteryear across a man’s face?  Long before Helen Reddy, Gloria Steinem, and the N.O.W., Barbara Stanwyck, Susan Hayward, Lana Turner, and other women of film showed females how to respond to aggressive men. You stand your ground.  You say something.  Right then.   Not years later.

            Yes, Stanwyck, Hayward and company were actresses, but art is the imitation of life.  In their movies men were still men, women were still women, and women were strong.  Even movies reflected this.

            Ironically, women’s “liberation,” or what is called liberation, has weakened women.  Liberalism’s and Hollywood’s devotion to sexualizing the nation has come home to roost, and women aren’t helped by it.  “Free love” hasn’t been free after all.  Those who from the beginning opposed the avalanche of “sexual freedom,” abortion on demand, pornography, nudity, and ill-anchored sex education were called prudes and Puritans.  They were ridiculed by an increasingly secular culture.

            But consider what the Sexual Revolution has brought us.  That which was supposed to be liberating has become counterproductive and oppressive.  Even men who would never flirt or hit on a woman have been affected by it.  Who would have thought the day would come when real men (those who treat women as they should be treated) would have to walk on egg shells around the women with whom they work, fearful of accusations?

            Did women, when they entered into traditionally male workplaces, think they would not get attention?  Did men, seeing all around them the changing sexual dynamics, not realize that one day simple chivalry would bring an allegation?

            The root word of civilization is civil which means the opposite of savage.  In the last 12 months a long list of savages from the entertainment world, sports, and politics has made the news.  Their accusers, instead of viewing bad conduct for what it is – disregard for female virtue – call it “disrespectful of our dignity.”

            No, no.  The savages, or those who are actually guilty of sexual assault, were taking advantage of women.  A New York Times editorial recently declared that all of the allegations piling up against men are the result of “the brutality of male sexuality that can only be tamed by the realization of complete equality between the sexes.”

            Good grief!  Savage men behaving savagely and the solution is – still! – equality of the sexes?  No, the solution is a Lana Turner slap and some old-fashioned morals.  The solution is to see sexual chaos for what it is: the result of abandoning traditional views of sexuality.  There is no equality of the sexes.

            The New Morality hasn’t worked.  It has produced the Old Immorality, brutes, and no doubt, a few lying women.

Roger Hines

1/31/18