Proposal: A Strategy to Reign In Marxist Indoctrination at Universities (LONG! Please read ENTIRE post before commenting)

Posted by Eudaimonia 9 years, 6 months ago to Politics
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All,

A couple of days ago, I posted on an idea that I was forming.
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/17...

This post sparked off some vigorous and, for the most part, appreciated debate.

However, because I was just forming my thoughts on the issue, I did not frame the introduction properly: it became clear there was a lot of response to the title of the post but not to the content which I intended.

For that I apologize and would like to restate my intended point.

In doing so I would like to thank the people who helped me hone my argument, and I would also like to ask that each of you read the entire post before responding.

There are a couple of related crises looming.
1) Our universities are cranking out hundreds of thousands of indoctrinated, ill-educated, unemployed (and even unemployable), angry, disaffected youth.
2) The Feds have nationalized all student loans and in doing so have created a sub-prime education bubble which we the taxpayer are now on the hook for.

Gulcher strugatsky posited that the indoctrination, heavy debt burden, and depressed economy are perfect for the Marxists to create their much needed, angry, revolutionary underclass, and that all of this could have been done on purpose.

If true, I wouldn't doubt it, the Marxists have always had an eye toward “The Long Game”, an eye which we often lack.

To give credence to strugatsky's claim, look at the rising and manipulation of OWS.

If not stopped, the Marxists will find themselves in a no-lose situation:
1) Student Loan debt is forgiven as OWS demands and the US now has de-facto free university indoctrination.
2) The student loans default and further damage is done to the US economy.
3) Enough OWS types are pushed out of the university sausage grinder for full out Marxist revolution.

These *are* The Long Game stakes.

So, what to do?

I propose a class action lawsuit against the US university system to expose them.

Such a lawsuit would claim that universities are engaging in deliberate fraud:
a) An education was advertised and a Marxist indoctrination was delivered - ( class was advertised as 'x' and delivered as “Marxist Criticism of 'x'”)
b) An implied (and at times explicit) promise was made of improving one's chances at one's chosen career, yet through indoctrination over education and through the universities public perception as petri-dishes for leftist agitation, the very opposite is delivered.

The oppositional points to my previous improperly formed suggestion, along with my responses to those points follow:

1) “Lawsuit Distaste”: A deserved heavy distaste for the lawsuit strategy as it is a much abused tool of The Left.

We see this often and lose because of it: the Marxists street-fight and we take the high ground.
If the Marxists choose to duel with swords, then pick up the damned sword.
Moreover, Rand herself included courts in her Atlantis.
The only other option is waiting for our so-called representation to grow some testosterone glands, step up to the plate, and address the issue... sure...

2) “Indoctrination is a False Claim”: An insistence that there is no Marxist indoctrination occurring at the universities, so there is no legal standing to claim fraud.

If you honestly believe this, then there is no point in further discussing the issue.
The premise is too fundamental to address any disagreement with anything other than: I fundamentally disagree.

3) “No implied promise”: An insistence that there is no implied or explicit promise from universities that completion of a degree will better one's chances at pursuing their chosen career, so there is no legal standing to claim fraud.

The Hallings have provided links to specific university literature and brochures which explicitly make such a claim.
Moreover, if such a promise were not implied, so many people would not bother going into debt to attend.

4) “Personal Responsibility” / “Caveat Emptor”: An insistence that the students received an education and if they were scammed, then it was their own fault.

“Caveat Emptor” claim does not apply to “Lemon” situations.
Education is not advertised as “as-is indoctrination”, if it were, few would attend.
What's more, the lawsuit's claim would not be one of negligence, but one of intentional sub-par education for the sake of indoctrination.

5) “Personal Responsibility” / “OWS”: An insistence that the claim is a cop-out which gives credence to the OWS argument.

The OWS claim is that society should bear the burden because they can not find employment in a rigged Capitalist system.
The lawsuit's claim would be that universities purposely produce such disaffected unemployed and that the taxpayers, not the OWS types, need to be made whole and that the universities need to immediately cease and desist creating more OWS types.

6) “Personal Responsibility” / Reductio ad Absurdum: An insistence that the claim is absurd because it would give legal standing to anyone, anywhere, of any age or circumstance who could then claim that their university is responsible for their financial and career failings

The lawsuit's claim gives standing only to taxpayers and to students who have outstanding tax-payer backed student loans who can prove that their university engages in Marxist indoctrination and promotion.
The parties seeking restitution for damages would be the taxpayers, not every OWS type who sees a gravy train.


With all of that said, I hope I have restated this idea more soundly.

Your comments are welcome: help me make this argument better.

And please address my points, not misrepresentations of them.

And please, do think about The Long Game.

Thank you.


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  • Posted by $ jdg 9 years, 6 months ago
    It seems to me that "Marxist indoctrination" is a red herring argument that doesn't belong in a debate about universities at all, for two reasons. (1) Most Americans are indoctrinated with Marxism in grade school, courtesy of the Marxist-run teachers' unions. If anything, college grads seem to be less Marxist than the general population, and only a minor fraction of college faculty are Marxist (though they have influence beyond their numbers, often because of Marxist led student-government organizations). (Aside: I would be a lot more supportive of a similar class-action lawsuit aimed at the K-12 school system and the NEA, though for the same reasons as this proposed suit I would expect the suit to get exactly nowhere.) (2) Outside of subjects (majors) directly affected by Marxist views such as economics, the ways in which universities fail their students are mostly the results of plain old incompetence, not of Marxism.

    Now I'll address your points one through six, so you can't pretend I ignored what you said.

    (1) I have distaste for the lawsuit idea not out of some belief that lawsuits are bad per se, but because it would lose and be expensive, and because even if it won, the damages would have to be paid by taxpayers, not by the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats who gave us the present higher education system. If state universities need to be abolished, and I agree they do, it will have to be done legislatively, or maybe by initiative laws in states that have them.

    (2) That same red herring again.

    (3) Yes, there is "no implied promise" with some narrow exceptions. People go into debt to attend because they, or more often their parents, have unrealistic beliefs and expectations about the benefits of college, and in many cases the parents themselves did get the benefits when they attended, but the schools were very different then. The right answer to this problem is publicity, to educate parents and encourage them not to "push" their unconvinced teenagers into going, as I was unwisely pushed, wasting the time, money, and effort of both my parents and myself.

    (4) Hogwash. "Caveat emptor" does apply whenever the buyer has a choice, unless it's a case of outright fraud as in point three (for which the case that can be made is not very good).

    (5) I don't see the OWS claim as anything but insane ranting against capitalism, as if the system we have were actually capitalism and not crony crapitalism. Certainly the idea that the universities purposely produce disaffected unemployed doesn't pass the giggle test, unless you believe that their administrators were reading Alinsky before the President was. Certainly the leftist media will portray any such lawsuit as support for the OWS view, whether it is or not, but we can't let ourselves be ruled by what those liars say. Of course "this lawsuit's claim" is the sticking point here -- no court is going to accept your claims, and even if they did, they'll never order a university to "stop creating more OWS types." At most, a court might order a college to warn students before letting them major in subjects that are unlikely to produce a degree useful in finding a job.

    (6) The reductio ad absurdum is well taken, because any causal connection between colleges' failure to deliver on any promises they've made and Marxist indoctrination is tenuous at best. Indeed, I doubt that most college courses contain any Marxist indoctrination. Most Marxism seen at colleges is picked up from other students, or the political groups there.

    And finally, regarding the Long Game: the Long Game must be to restore capitalism (= the habit of work) as our way of getting our needs met. That must be taught by example -- not by trying to win the Lawsuit Lottery.
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    • Posted by khalling 9 years, 6 months ago
      your point #4. Everytime money exchanges hands it is either a contract, a gift or theft or fraud.
      "Fraud in the Inducement" look it up. Caveat emptor only applies if you do not make material representations and do not hide latent defects.
      Point 3: the question is not about "the right answer," or the optimum answer, the question was about whether college students have a plausible case
      Point 1: If it wouldn't win in court, it would be about politics not the law. ie. the income tax violates multiple parts of the Constitution. We are not talking pragmatics
      Point 6: To even suggest what you're saying is beyond the pale. Either your head is in the sand or you went to Hillsdale. Myself, I went to Iowa. Marxism oozed from most of my liberal arts classes. From Philosophy 101 to Anthropology to Economics. wow. just wow
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  • Posted by $ puzzlelady 9 years, 6 months ago
    Glad to see such crucial topics addressed and discussed here. My only nitpick is that "reign in" in the title should be "rein in".
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    • Posted by khalling 9 years, 6 months ago
      Euda is a political satirist and often does such word play. Yes, it has been a very good discussion.
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      • Posted by $ puzzlelady 9 years, 6 months ago
        Thanks. I appreciate word play and thought this might have been a deliberate pun. Reining in Marxist reign would have been fine. As it stands, any intended satire just looks like a mistake. Sorry to quibble; I really want to be supportive. The subject is too important to trip over small details like a misused word. Precision counts.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 6 months ago
    I originally made argument #4, but it rests on #2. I don't believe there's a large-scale systematic ideological indoctrination among along universities. It varies from school to school and class to class. I recall having one teacher who expressed support for Marx at UF. I never saw it at all in grad school at USF.
    For the most part, school taught me how to get stuff working. I remember getting a back ache, which was new and interesting at age 20, from spending repeated long days and nights getting boards working. They were so tricky and hard to understand, and prone to intermittent bugs. I named them Julia, Amanda, Jessica, and Mica.
    Maybe it was b/c I went to state schools in a technical major.

    I tend to believe the courts and rules of evidence are a good way, as flawed human institutions go, of getting at the truth. So maybe a court case would be good at getting the evidence out there and finding if there's any basis for the claim at all. I maintain #2-- no ideological bias, but I'd be open to new info.
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  • Posted by $ AJAshinoff 9 years, 6 months ago
    "The lawsuit's claim gives standing only to taxpayers and to students who have outstanding tax-payer backed student loans who can prove that their university engages in Marxist indoctrination and promotion."

    ...because schools which indoctrinate in Marxism never provide quality education for doctors, scientists, mechanics, bakers, accountants, electricians, physicists...USSR provided some very competitive minds in a variety of areas, no?

    Sorry, if that is the crux of your "argument" it is flawed. You would need to prove that the marxist indoctrinating school did not meet the educational requirements of the degree the student attended to obtain. Further, you would have to prove that every employer that degreed student applied to denied them a job because they lacked an adequate education despite their certification stating otherwise.

    Yeah yeah, strike 2.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 6 months ago
      No, no strike two or strike one.
      This is a different thread.

      The first part of your argument is similar to Technocracy's ROI argument, which is not what is at issue - it does not matter if the indoctrination lands someone a job, it was education that was advertised.

      For the second part of your argument, proving marxist indoctrination, please refer to opposition point #2 where this is addressed - we are going to disagree on this fundamental point.

      Your disagreement is noted.
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  • Posted by Technocracy 9 years, 6 months ago
    The best grounds to go after the education machine in the courts would have to be strictly on cost, or cost vs value.

    Return on Investment (ROI) for degrees from most schools is way, way out there. In many degree paths there is no effective ROI.

    If you spend $1M on a gender studies degree(s) from say Harvard, how long do you figure for an ROI? And I have seen education loan packages in that ballpark on credit reports. No idea what they were studying but in what field would that be an investment you could recoup in a reasonable time frame?
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    • Posted by 9 years, 6 months ago
      This proposal makes no claim based upon ROI.
      It makes a claim based upon the fraud of an intentionally sub-par product.
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      • Posted by Technocracy 9 years, 6 months ago
        Yes, I am just making the point that ROI is something that can actually be documented as proof of not receiving fair value.

        It is based on numbers, whereas whether or not the product is subpar on a content basis is going to be very hard if not impossible to prove. Too much of that proof is rests in perception or opinion.
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        • Posted by khalling 9 years, 6 months ago
          well I also think you can look in part to graduate unemployment rates. They are at all-time highs. Do we white wash that by saying it's their own fault? 1. show objectively the actual claims made by not only the universities but the government. Then, show statistically with specific examples showing how the claims are not true. Finally at the end, I'd bring up how the cost of education has gone up by x percent over some period of time and compare it to other fast-growing industries, like medical care costs. I would also try to make a case for the number of classes required for a degree which spend alot of time indoctrinating towards a specific philosophy. That won't be hard, tape any liberal arts lectures. Heck, ANY econ class
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          • Posted by $ AJAshinoff 9 years, 6 months ago
            We could say O has tanked the economy and there are more workers in the market than there are jobs to fill? Or we could say that there are fewer workers meeting the qualifications for specific jobs despite a glut of out of work people? I do agree that costs are outrageous and that more filler courses, or on campus living for freshmen, is obnoxious. I looked at my daughter electives (Forensic Science) and none are marxist leaning but few are ECO-Aware, but they are one or two electives our of 5 or so and she has no interest. While I agree that the left tries like hell to shape minds I'm not convinced that the individual is helpless to obtain a quality education and retain their personal ideology.

            Why pay big money to educate yourself in website development design today? About 10-15 years ago you'd be making great money, not so much today (unless you worked on the O-care website).
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            • Posted by khalling 9 years, 6 months ago
              You ask great questions. If we say Obama's policies are why graduates aren't getting hired, I'd ask what industries are the most responsible for Obama getting elected in the first place? and the Universities have no responsibility? It can't be both ways.
              " I'm not convinced that the individual is helpless to obtain a quality education and retain their personal ideology."
              This is what changes the subject. No one is arguing this. So why is this brought yet again. We agree on this point. The argument was framed this way-whether college students can or should sue universities for not fulfilling their contract. Money changed hands, therefore its a contract.
              There is no macro evidence to support your claim regarding marxist universities producing quality graduates. and again, that wasn't the question. What's essential here is the universities' goal-not the result.
              The ultimate question is whether the amount students pay is at all rational to their return. If not, it's fraud. If a college education was even 10 grand and 2 years of your time...40-50k a year? Ridiculous
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              • Posted by $ AJAshinoff 9 years, 6 months ago
                I'm not trying to change the subject. I am coming back to something very relevant to a lawsuit as proposed. If a lawsuit were to be presented there are many factors which would have to be considered. Perhaps the largest consideration would be the student and his/her seriousness toward his/her education; was he drinking and partying all the time, did he immerse himself in study, etc.

                My claim about marxist universities..the USSR competed with the US for decades on every level. Their immersive marxist society and schools did yield quality people in a variety of fields, no? They did build a formidable military and space program with these marxist minds. I'd think far more than a philosophical teaching would need to be proven for fraud to be determined.

                As for rational return, if a student spends $55 for his education and lands a $35/yr job, his or her benefit from attending and getting a degree will have paid for itself.

                The school would have to be proven to not be teaching the degree (remedial would be something the student should have brought with him/her, no? Again a reflection on the student.)
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                • Posted by khalling 9 years, 6 months ago
                  actually in a class action and the claim of fraud, their
                  performance at the university would not be in question. There are plenty of high achieving graduates who are having a hard time finding work in their field. They are taking jobs that do not require a degree. There is macro evidence to support this. It's one of the reasons why the government set up special programs for graduates to teach in poor areas of the country without teaching credentials. This case simply turns on what the universities promised and were paid for. In any contract, performance is a two way street.


                  As to the rational return: first, what about taxes? take 30% off that 35k off the bat. For those with student loans? what about interest on their debt? What can you make without the 4 year degree (not assuming professional degree)? I know lots of trades which make more. For the total cost we're talking about, one could buy many small businesses which might have a 35k salary equivalent. They are over-selling and not delivering.

                  I did a quick search and saw many sites saying $45k for new graduates. All of the sites were pushing higher education and universities were then picking up those stats and putting them on their websites. In fact, I could not find one unbiased report to verify such claims. I know several recent grads in hard sciences who are not making anywhere near that figure working for well-established companies.

                  You cannot ignore the sales pitch. You cannot make whatever claims you want. They imply lots of stuff how great the education, how much it will help you in the job market, how much extra you'll make over your lifetime, etc. No specifics to induce you to spend 50k to 200k. This is exactly how every 2 bit fraudulent sales pitch goes. and they are a government monopoly.

                  Never was the point, that there is NO value in a college education. But at these prices and this curriculum, what is the value. Was MORE value implied. I think lawsuits might be a clunky solution, but the left has used this tactic expertly. We say it will just cost the taxpayers in the end. It's already a large cost to taxpayers. I really do not want to seem like I am arguing against a college education. I'm supportive of college as a private institution. I want the private sector to be in charge because they get things done and done well compared to the government. again, I do not absolve the student from responsibility, but why do assume the burden is completely on the student and absolve the university of any responsibility?
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            • Posted by 9 years, 6 months ago
              "We could say O has tanked the economy and there are more workers in the market than there are jobs to fill? Or we could say that there are fewer workers meeting the qualifications for specific jobs despite a glut of out of work people?"
              To what end?
              The only thing such a claim would have to do with this proposal is making a case for damages based on ROI.
              But, as already stated, this is not an ROI claim.

              As far as the classes you are perusing, again, please refer to opposition point #2.
              This is a fundamental point which we are going to disagree on.

              Your disagreement has been noted.
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              • Posted by $ AJAshinoff 9 years, 6 months ago
                Even if there was a philosophy class requirement or a business ethics requirement that expressly espoused the merit of the marx and engals social philosophy the onus would still be to PROVE that the damage from that course or series of courses prevented a quality education to the extent the degreed student was unemployable. Unless the indoctrination was blatant, all-consuming and enveloping this lawsuit would have no legal merit.
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                • Posted by 9 years, 6 months ago
                  Perhaps not, but that would be for a judge to decide.
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                  • Posted by $ AJAshinoff 9 years, 6 months ago
                    and when the student loses the lawsuit he/she will pickup the legal costs of the university.

                    Pointless.
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                    • Posted by 9 years, 6 months ago
                      Please refer to the Opposition point 6.
                      It is primarily taxpayers who have standing.
                      It is primarily taxpayers who would file suit.

                      In case of a loss, legal costs of any university pale in comparison to the continued student loan debt bubble.

                      And, again, this is a Long Game strategy.
                      Winning is certainly preferred but even in a loss, the case is made to picked up again on another day.

                      Your opinion that the whole enterprise is pointless has been noted.
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      • Posted by $ jbrenner 9 years, 6 months ago
        My university does tout its ROI. It places > 95% of its graduates within their major field. If you sue my competition, I am not sure whether that will help a private, non-tenure-granting university like mine or not. Bringing them down does help my university, relatively speaking. However, if your lawsuit succeeds in its goals, then my university would no longer be nearly as different as its competition.
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  • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 6 months ago
    I would recommend addressing this issue using the Tobacco lawsuit model. Yes, individuals were/are aware, or could or should have been aware, that a master’s degree in basket weaving is unlikely to result in a profitable employment. So did the smokers, with respect to the health hazards that they were ingesting. However, the mass of false advertisement, creating societal pressure, echoed and promulgated by the government (essentially, a belief that one needs a bachelor’s degree to work in McDonald’s) lead most people, especially the most vulnerable (insert class, race, etc., here) to disregard what they should have done and instead believe and rely on the government and universities’ claims, with catastrophic results for themselves and the tax payer who is now forced to pay for the defaults.
    The underlying premise here is the belief, if not a conviction, that the Marxist ideologues have created this on purpose, but for the purposes of the lawsuit, if using the Tobacco model, the intent is not as relevant as the final effect, which is easier to prove. The same concept is used in civil rights litigation.
    As to the issues that suing for something that people should have been responsible themselves, I see this as a war of survival. The only thing in a war that is unfair is to fight without the goal of winning, regardless of what it takes to achieve victory.
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  • Posted by Temlakos 9 years, 6 months ago
    I think the ones who really have standing, are the businessmen who find themselves the targets of all those regulations the college kids write.
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  • Posted by plusaf 9 years, 6 months ago
    Student Debt Bubble?
    Can no one understand that the 'Bubble' can be explained by the influence our Dear Leaders In Government had on making Student Debt TOO INEXPENSIVE through subsidies and grants and credits, so that the Market Price was made artificially low, creating Excessive Demand?!

    Ah, but I seem to repeat myself uselessly.

    This is a COMPLEX issue, with MANY causes and Driving Forces, yet you seem to believe that a half dozen 'solutions' or 'talking points' comprise a complete Root Cause Analysis plus Optimal Recommended Solutions.

    I'm Disappointed.


    And "long game"?! Bridges and highways are supposed to provide safe service for 40-50 years, yet who, where, plays the "long game" in sizing those resources initially or designing the rights-of-way for economical future expansion over 4-5 decades.

    Nobody is rewarded for playing a 'long game.'

    Can't find a job in the industry you chose and paid a college to train you for? Don't blame the University, blame your parents and your high school 'guidance/career counselors' for not asking you sensible questions like 'will there be ANY demand for your services, how much competition will you face for employment positions and, amazingly enough, given the average salaries in your 'chosen field,' can you afford a house, car, spouse and kids on that kind of income?'

    Sorry for wasting your time and electricity again.
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