Thursday, March 24, 2011

Georgia Rejects a Scholar for Quoting Marx

Kennesaw State University, a dinky, insignificant joke of a university somewhere in Georgia, was going to hire Dr. Timothy J. L. Chandler as its new provost. Some local ignoramuses, however, disinterred Chandler's article from 13 years ago and used it to create a scandal in the uneducated, stupid, and fanatical local community. The horrible truth that this community of fools discovered is that Chandler quoted Marx in this article:
The controversy started with a column in The Marietta Daily Journal, written by three of the newspaper's top executives -- who did not respond to request for comment for this article. The headline of the article suggests that Kennesaw State might need a new color (red) to go with its traditional black and gold. The column goes on to give a series of citations of Marx or of Marxist philosophy that appear in Chandler's 1998 journal article, such as "Increased competition results in increased ethnicity and racism." And: "Ownership is taken for granted in capitalistic societies and is central to the accumulation of wealth and domination. All ownership of land or material means of production was at one time or another obtained by force." And: "While the United States has the most sophisticated propaganda apparatus ever assembled, it is also the most violent nation-state in history."
What the sad fools around Kennesaw don't understand is that there are no major philosophers, thinkers, scholars in the Humanities today who are unfamiliar with Marx's work. If universities were to fire every scholar who quoted Marx or his followers, there will nobody left to teach. 

It is unconscionable that a bunch of fools who have obviously read less in the course of their entire lives than Dr. Chandler has published would think nothing of expressing their uninformed opinions in a public forum. There is a cult of stupidity in this country, which makes it possible for such idiots to parade their ignorance around with a profound belief in their own importance.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kennesaw State is in Georgia, not near it. It's outside of Atlanta. I have friends who went there and I have friends who work there. It may be insignificant in the larger scheme of things but denigrating it as a joke is the worst kind of snobbery. I'm not trying to be a jerk but that was over the top. Not everyone at Kennesaw agrees with this decision. Not even close.

Clarissa said...

Can you give me the day and the time of the protests that the enlightened people at Kennesaw are organizing to demonstrate their disagreement with this barbarity? I'd also like some links to the petitions, articles, and blog posts they are writing to express their concern about these attempts to stifle academic freedom.

Thank you!

NancyP said...

And you think that SIUE is immune from jackass legislators? EVERY public university has to go through this sort of thing. Universities are resented by enough voters to make good targets for conservative "Know-Nothing" legislators. Hello? Anti-intellectualism has been present in the USA for at least 150 years or so.

Anonymous said...

Wowsers....I have been out for awhile and come back to see that we still have narrow minded folks whom turned in a good man for provost...wow...someone took an threw "political knives" into the back of what i have read so far a very educated man...far more educated than those underneath Dr. Papp will ever be...truth hurts VP's...someone was no match and did not want someone smarter than they could ever be over them...sad sad sad.....Thanks Clarissa...for the post..