"Dismantling" is a euphemism for destroying, which is the preferred activity of those who cannot create and who take spiteful pleasure in pillage and plunder. Graham Greene's short story, "The Destructors," captures well the nihilistic nature of this movement and the range of people it attracts--from geniuses to idiots.
This is definitely part of what unnerves me about seeing this "dismantling" rhetoric absolutely everywhere now. It would be one thing if we could distinguish strands of discrimination and bias that we could address without having to throw over entire institutions and structures, but here again the rhetoric of "structural racism" intentionally collapses those together, so that in order to rid something of bias and discrimination, the entire institution has to go. The people advocating this seem to have no loyalty to anything but ideology, which is a frightening thought. What on earth would they build in place of these institutions? It's never clear, and without clear answers I'm left to interpolate my worst assumptions.
Yeah. Full-a a *lotta* "stuff." Just wanna mention that You'll never get clear answers on what they wanna replace it with. At the base, it's Marxism but that would scare off to many donors. Besides, what's *bound* to replace all the institutions is, of course, UTOPIA. Who could be against that?!?
"Marxism" only in the sense of "we get to boss you around to our hearts' content." "Dictatorship of the proletariat" without the proletariat. "Vanguard of the working class" against the working class. That "Marxism."
I recently graduated from one of America's top (and most liberal) universities. After beginning my studies I dropped out in 2013 only to return in 2020 to complete my degree. This gave me a good perspective on the differences between that pre and post 2014-2019 window.
From the perspective of quality of learning, the university has dramatically changed for the worse. Why?
Quality of student is much worse; academic scholarship no longer is paramount for admission and this creates an autocatalytic descent into neurotic and hysterical behaviour (in every class disrupted by calls for social justice, it was consistently the dumbest students at the vanguard).
This is precipitated by an admissions system that seems to center around victimhood and oppression dynamics. Before they even set foot in the university, students are inculcated with social justice thinking.
That being said, the majority of students didn't buy into this crap. You can see this by looking longitudinally at class members. Freshmen come in bright-eyed and eager, the sophomores are disillusioned and stressed - by the time they are juniors or seniors and rrealize they've been taken for a ride and the quality of learning is mediocre, they just want to keep their heads down and get out.
I think to solve this, confident students need to stand up (perhaps with parental support) and demand a higher quality education free of ideology. But the stakes are just so low - students are reprimanded for the most inane reasons these days.
As an older student, I had no problem speaking out and voicing opinions confidently. What I noticed was funny - when I challenged my professors on DEI related matters, I could see the relief in their eyes. Even fellow students breathed a sigh of relief. I didn't face any consequences, but I was also completely on my own. While students and faculty would happily tell me privately they supported my speaking up, nobody wanted to say anything public for fear of being reprimanded.
Anyway, just an observation from the student side of things - everyone is tired of this and regardless of politics, many students just want to learn in an exciting and challenging environment. However, as the quality of student continues to decline the already reluctant body of genuinely intelligent and open-minded students will shrink. It is very hard to mobilize stressed and busy students who would rather just 'exit' than face the power, I don't see that happening anytime soon.
One solution might be to admit more 'older' students with less to 'lose'. I'm not sure..
Good talk and not a bad idea at the end. A voice of sanity amongst the lamers.
Problem is, on the scale of oppressions, I'm not sure that older students would even qualify, so lose out in the end. As long as that's the criteria, instead-a talent, the race to the bottom of the lowest common denominator will prevail, right? But, yeah, a *lotta* people would sure *like* to see something besides the mediocrecy.
My OPINION is the best thing would be to develop an alternative to the 4-year school, but that's just me.
Wow. Brutal. About two years ago I decided I would stand my ground in the event of a corporate "anti-whiteness" training. The plan was to call out the racism and then quit effective immediately. It never got to the point where I was forced to demonstrate my courage: I now work for a startup without HR department.
I fully understand your situation and good for you that you were able to avoid a career ending confrontation. I also understand Professor Serafin's adaptation but I have no doubt that temporizing and avoidance are not effective measures if we are to preserve our liberal democracy. Very soon now a couragous someone is going to have to be Rosa Parks.
I may be naïve, but I am astonished that a university - an institution devoted to the pursuit of knowledge through inquiry, would voluntarily transform itself into an institution of indoctrination and propaganda. Whatever the imagined justice in the purported motivations, this is a disaster for the society. It's probably not necessary to point out that the Nazis and various Communist governments affected similar takeovers of educational institutions.
This has been going on for at least 50 years. Disruption, persecution, boycotting, and other anti-liberal (Nazi, Communist) techniques for destroying the institutional functioning of schools are readily embraced by immature, emotional, adventurous youth, whose efforts tend to benefit other factions. Successor ideology may be cresting, God willing!
It rules by consent. As consent crumbles, it will rule ever-smaller territory. Like the USSR, it is vulnerable to ridicule. On the other hand, in the Idiocracy, idiocy can totter on for a long time. Establishment lies may be exposed in days or months in the eyes of the few, but survive for an indefinite period among the willingly indoctrinated.
Yeah, can survive for a long time. And the thing is, like this article and comments point out, as long as they hold the *power* to hire and fire, and *squash* dissent, who's gonna hear the ridicule, or believe it if they hear it?
And unless there's a really *viable* alternative to the lies being sold, a lotta people will just keep their heads down and try to save their job. Luckily, the voting box is secret, so people can vote their conscience.
It is so powerful: the prospect of being called a racist makes fighting for your position unthinkable, friendly advice will tell you to shut the fuck up. As I read this piece I was thinking, this French professor in British Columbia is fool hardy or crazy too push back on this stuff. I am positive these people are religious zealots and I for one do not plan to martyr myself. We are at the early stages of a multi- decade decent into chaos. It’s gonna get much worse and 2024 will be incendiary not restorative of the old order, rational inquiry is abandoned.
You're probably right, Sir RJF. But there's a hope for a soft takedown still out there. Could *start* the ball rolling in '22. Hafta see what happens in '24, right? If it's Trump, the pendulum will just keep swinging, right?
But, either Way, probably a long-term project, tho hope otherwise, of course.
From the photo, I'm assuming this is UBC and it seems they're following the path of all schools (elementary and secondary) in the province of British Columbia in which the curriculum is being smothered with Indigenous references. In fact, a new mandatory course on First Nations was just introduced for all high schoolers. As a parent of kids in BC, it's been simply astonishing to see how this stuff has taken over social studies and even classes like French and the sciences.
The problem, other than detracting from the teaching of non-Indigenous subjects, is that they're not teaching actual Indigenous history which was often brutal and, in the case of BC's First Nations, heavily dependent on slavery for wealth. The students are instead fed a diet of false, Disney-like narratives about native history that seem to serve the sole purpose of undermining the history of other Canadians.
I can only speculate but this seems eerily similar to what usually happens in countries with revolutionary movements, where the leaders must sever the public's ties with history in order to create a new autocratic system (think Year Zero). In Canada this means poisoning our history of individual liberty, free markets, private property etc with a sense of shame and guilt so that today's youth become more open to the expansion of government.
So the problem is two-fold. One, it peddles lies about our past. And two, it's part of a push to make future generations more accepting of statism.
The bent toward a magical-realism, Disney-fied version of such history is ironic, given that so many of the same people think the movie Pocahontas is deeply problematic (a teacher friend recently went to a conference on teaching Native issues and this was explicitly mentioned: "Don't show your kids 'Pocahontas'").
Didn't the Microsoft thing expose some of this, a little bit anyway? A lot of people pointed out that the coast Salish peoples which Microsoft "acknowledged" had practiced slavery extensively, which was pretty inconvenient to the narrative that "they were here first and therefore are better than we."
One of the foundational beliefs of Leftism is Rousseau's myth of the Noble Savage, which is the fanciful idea that prior to the existence of modern society (and its gross hierarchies and money worship) humans lived in an Edenic paradise where no one fought or hated but instead lived together in perfect peace and harmony, sort of cavemen crossed w bonobos all singing John Lennon's "Imagine".
The first people cast in the role of Noble Savage were the sans-culottes, basically the French lower classes, with the idea of the Revolution being that if only the pure and noble poor could rule unimpeded, a New (more perfect) World would appear. (And we know how that turned out: the Terror and thousands murdered).
The next people cast in the role of Noble Savage were Marx's proletariat (workers of the world) who also magically mystically incarnated some higher wisdom, and who Marx scientifically proved would one day establish a utopian dictatorship, but first a vanguard class would be needed to destroy all their enemies. ((And we know how that turned out: the only thing a Marxist society ever successfully manufactured was corpses).
Since the collapse of European Marxism, other potential Noble Savages have been fitted with the glass slipper, first the poor of the 3rd World (aka the Wretched of the Earth), then American blacks, and now the Canadian indigenous (among others).
There just seems to be something inherent in Leftism that requires the actual leaders (the vanguard or ideas class of disaffected intellectuals) to first posit some sacred spotless victim to be the true focus of their goals, that allow them to present themselves as righteous crusaders on behalf of the poor and helpless (it is all very Christian too).
My guess is that this allows them to seize the moral high ground of unimpeachable goodness and also to give their will-to-power schemes a sheen of moral legitimacy ("if you don't do what I say, a marginalized victim will be hurt.")
Leftism is very much a modern secular post-Christian religion and all of what we're witnessing is part of the program.
I hate to be partisan, but it's true that red states won't put up with that crap here. We're more likely to have the Balkans than the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
Yeah, sort of. While I am glad I live in FL, there is a reactionary side to all this woke insanity in “red states” that is also leading to some idiotic behavior like book banning. To be clear, I am fully supportive of our Parental Rights In Education Bill - you will never convince me that anything should ever be withheld from parents of young children, nor that said children should have sexual instruction at those ages. But some of the the “red state” reactions clearly go too far, which ultimately narrows support for the broader anti-woke effort and becomes counterproductive.
I don’t remember the details, but I’m sure some googling would reveal the answers. I suspect what you’ll find is that they have removed some particular books from school libraries, as opposed to the general public library. That being said, most public libraries don’t carry lots of books, so some of would have to a real analysis to determine what the underlying bias is for each library. 
edit: just noticed these links purporting to address book banning (note that I am highly skeptical of anything either of those papers published and certainly don't have a subscription):
I would definitely read both of those links if they weren't paywalled to be in a better position to discuss; sorry!
So, I do remember the details of these scripted freakouts over book "banning." Titles were either rotated out of a particular curriculum or from ready access in the school library (which happens all the time; note that Team Blue evinces no righteous indignation when their side does it, such as with Dr. Seuss books that have a line drawing of a stereotypical Chinaman or To Kill a Mockingbird which uses the N word). Those same titles remained in all cases freely available at the local public library, or at anyone's favorite bookstore. At no time was any book ever "banned," although the campaign to pretend so was evidently successful as evidenced by your comment. "Yeah look at those anti-intellectual Team Red rubes, hurr durr" was the goal but not reflected in reality whatsoever. Don't fall for it next time.
Great article, and all best wishes. In Minnesota, some lawyers responded to the newly mandated anti-bias Continuing Legal Education requirement by offering courses on anti-Christian bias. Anti-colonialism in Canada, for truth's sake, would have to include the expulsion of the Acadians, the Scottish migration, the migration of obscure religious communities, Canadian support for the American Revolution, Quebecois separatism, repression of the truckers, and more ambiguously, contemporary migration from China.
Ultimately, it should involve an examination of the way elite minority coalitions have colonized the 13 provinces by imposing their ideology, their monopoly of the public forum, and their financial domination. New flag for Canadian patriots: seven red, six white, horizontal stripes, with a blue union in the upper inside corner containing a circle of 13 white maple leaves. (And how should we represent our 50 colonies?)
The abuse of Canadian loyalty to the Crown by its enlistment, at horrendous cost to Canadians, in the questionable First and Second World Wars is another potential anti-colonialist theme.
As for law, I urge you to hold firm on teaching actual aboriginal law truthfully under the broader rubrics of land-use customs and dispute resolution practices instead of sullying your mind and the minds of your students with the Disney version referenced by descripter. Think of your ethical obligations as a lawyer.
I just read John Williams' Stoner. The department head punishes Stoner for refusing to promote an unqualified Ph.D. candidate by forcing him to teach only freshman composition. He turned the tables by using his specialty, medieval literature, as a vehicle for composition courses--his students did better than anyone's. The department chair gave in, and gave him back his graduate seminar.
Your situation, Professor Widdowson, is indeed similar to the case of Professor Sérafin's. There are some differences, as well. If You have time, I was wondering how the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship is able to help You? No need, of course.
With these stories, I am already interested in phase two of the Successor Ideology, when the tactics of destruction finally reveal there is no public utility of fairness and liberty at the bottom -- indeed there is no bottom at all -- and the proliferating in-group tribes and grievance unions turn on each other for whatever remaining resources there are.
I'd like-ta see that too. But most-a the foundations and basically all the other monied interests would hafta shut down before there's any limiting of resources, right? Not saying it won't happen, but have no idea when it would. That's just me..
I don’t expect a shut down, like closing up shop, but a withering away as we witness humanities departments simultaneously contesting curriculum and aims while enrollment numbers lower and faculty hiring come to a stop. Law, medicine, and STEM fields are a close second behind English, Classics, history, etc in eradicating the broad ideals on which they are built. Grant foundations like Ford, helmed by Brahmin activists, pivot all money into the very causes working to destroy the universalism on which concepts as “public good” and “commonwealth” exist (by assigning them labels such as white supremacist, colonial, Eurocentric, etc). So, as jobs and grant money, for example, increase in scarcity, so too does the competition for them.
Of course, this would be a travesty of justice, but since there actually *is* no such-a thing as justice, it can't be.
This is probably a dumb question, but I'm frequently dumb so it doesn't bother me. Is part-a the purpose of this article to encourage the reader to become one-a the outside forces to help Prof. Sérafin? If so, what would that be? If not, 'scuse lameness.
Ya JT, of course you are dead right, we through our support of WesleyYang are supporting a better more fulsome understanding of the phenomenon, it’s a good start.
I made a couple donations. The Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship https://safs.ca/ and Foundation for Individual Rights in Education https://www.thefire.org/
But it's just a drop in the bucket, and doesn't really help any individuals, so doesn't do much for *me.*
We need to know who the people are who are pressuring university deans to enact these changes. Open the kimono. These are public institutions and the public has a right to know. None of this behind the scenes nonsense.
Will they ever learn? This is so close to the Lindsay Shepherd saga of 2017 that I'm thinking there will be a perpetual five year cycle of this persistent woke idiocy. It's really too bad that the size of her settlement was suppressed by mutual consent, so the current perpetrators don't have a clear idea of what this is likely to cost them monetarily. Intellectual and moral cost is not a consideration, since the establishment is too ignorant to appreciate what that may be.
Thank you Professor Serafin for speaking out. The Fair For All organization (Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism) has come to Canada and not a moment too late. Everyone needs to support their local chapters. https://www.fairforall.org/chapters/
How did you go bankrupt? Gradually and then all at once. Cleverly chosen subtitle! This ideology does not offer any solutions, only endless recriminations and chaos, hence wealth destruction. Today, reserve currency status allows us to print money to uphold the illusion of wealth, while foreign countries foot the bill. This year brought news of Saudi and China discussing trading in their own currencies, India and Russia another example. We might be arriving at the "all at once" phase. The good news? The woke zombies will be gone.
Marxist "woke" is the lipstick on a pig named TOTALITARIAN FINANCE.
James Lindsay and friends (NEW DISCOURSES) long ago unmasked the creation and insertion of an ideological commissariat (HR/DEI) into both the public and private spheres of influence. The commissariat is inhabited and controlled by one percenters who weaponize the "professional feminist" tactic (see Camille Paglia/Janice Fiamengo) of feigning moral concern, creating a commission, demanding a study and forever discovering yet one more reason to ensure the eternal flow of Corporate/ State/Federal grants and tax free donations. I'm not an academic, but suspect, that DEI terrorists through their direct connection (Mommy and Daddy) to the surveillance state/ corporate/governmental bureaucratic tax dollar hog trough, wield power over University administrators with the implied threat that they can cause P.C. trouble making private, corporate and government cash stop flowing into University coffers, which will of course lead to the removal of top administrators.
I know that's a bit of a simplification but, If everything is exactly what it appears to be, the influence and corruption of politics and status revealed in the cash for admissions scandals of recent years, and the sanctioned life destroying assaults on the lives of dissenters from the "party line" by I'm a victim, crocodile tears totalitarians like Taylor Lorenz of the New York Times, (who is a direct product of one percenter education and politics), points directly to a unified baksheesh driven class war being waged within and without academia. (Batya Ungar-Sargon)
Of course Marxist "woke" isn't really Marxist "woke". It simply employs totalitarian communist psyop tactics. This was made clear by the "trained Marxist" leaders of BLM who continue to encouraged the destruction of America while looting the resources of those they pretend to care about. It's a for profit airball manufactured by the inhabitants of a false moral high ground, financed by financial totalitarians who, as has always been, want access to subsistence level labor and the unhampered ability to exploit all resources for their personal gain. Everyone here understands that the people at the top of the CCP/WEF/Wall Street/MIC etc. enjoy the absolute best in life style. "Rules for thee but not for me."
One approach might be demanding accountability from Federal and State legislators on how tax dollar grants are issued, how those dollars are spent, and who benefits. If, as in BLM, the money goes to high salaries and personal bureaucratic expenses they need to be stopped. Especially if being weaponized for the destruction of sanity and community. Why should American tax dollars pay for the destruction of America?
The destruction of the American Democratic Republic, the American Constitution, American Citizenship and a financially independent middle class (see Victor Davis Hanson) must be destroyed for "totalitarian finance" to ascend. It's happening. Unite or perish.
"Dismantling" is a euphemism for destroying, which is the preferred activity of those who cannot create and who take spiteful pleasure in pillage and plunder. Graham Greene's short story, "The Destructors," captures well the nihilistic nature of this movement and the range of people it attracts--from geniuses to idiots.
https://www.shortstoryproject.com/stories/the-destructors/
This is definitely part of what unnerves me about seeing this "dismantling" rhetoric absolutely everywhere now. It would be one thing if we could distinguish strands of discrimination and bias that we could address without having to throw over entire institutions and structures, but here again the rhetoric of "structural racism" intentionally collapses those together, so that in order to rid something of bias and discrimination, the entire institution has to go. The people advocating this seem to have no loyalty to anything but ideology, which is a frightening thought. What on earth would they build in place of these institutions? It's never clear, and without clear answers I'm left to interpolate my worst assumptions.
Agreed. The “fuck hate” people turn out to be full of hate.
Yeah. Full-a a *lotta* "stuff." Just wanna mention that You'll never get clear answers on what they wanna replace it with. At the base, it's Marxism but that would scare off to many donors. Besides, what's *bound* to replace all the institutions is, of course, UTOPIA. Who could be against that?!?
"Marxism" only in the sense of "we get to boss you around to our hearts' content." "Dictatorship of the proletariat" without the proletariat. "Vanguard of the working class" against the working class. That "Marxism."
Yah, that's the Marxism I expect. Well, and see day-in and day-out. Power perverted to work *against* their constituents.
Or even just “inclusion”. Who could be against that? After all, it includes everybody – hello, that’s why it’s called “inclusion”!
Yes. See Nietzsche’s discussion of ressentiment.
"Stalk and destroy"
We in the West are Slouching Towards Bethlehem https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/
Yeah, just like in the story. TYTY M disagreeable.
When one lets the kids run the universities, well else would one expect, other than the whole thing turns to shite.
“Any jackass can kick down a barn.”
And young jackasses have the brains to do it with.
They have the hooves — brains is less certain!
Naw. Both as hard as a rock, right?
Or mebbe it's bricks for brains. Dunno. Something along those lines.
I recently graduated from one of America's top (and most liberal) universities. After beginning my studies I dropped out in 2013 only to return in 2020 to complete my degree. This gave me a good perspective on the differences between that pre and post 2014-2019 window.
From the perspective of quality of learning, the university has dramatically changed for the worse. Why?
Quality of student is much worse; academic scholarship no longer is paramount for admission and this creates an autocatalytic descent into neurotic and hysterical behaviour (in every class disrupted by calls for social justice, it was consistently the dumbest students at the vanguard).
This is precipitated by an admissions system that seems to center around victimhood and oppression dynamics. Before they even set foot in the university, students are inculcated with social justice thinking.
That being said, the majority of students didn't buy into this crap. You can see this by looking longitudinally at class members. Freshmen come in bright-eyed and eager, the sophomores are disillusioned and stressed - by the time they are juniors or seniors and rrealize they've been taken for a ride and the quality of learning is mediocre, they just want to keep their heads down and get out.
I think to solve this, confident students need to stand up (perhaps with parental support) and demand a higher quality education free of ideology. But the stakes are just so low - students are reprimanded for the most inane reasons these days.
As an older student, I had no problem speaking out and voicing opinions confidently. What I noticed was funny - when I challenged my professors on DEI related matters, I could see the relief in their eyes. Even fellow students breathed a sigh of relief. I didn't face any consequences, but I was also completely on my own. While students and faculty would happily tell me privately they supported my speaking up, nobody wanted to say anything public for fear of being reprimanded.
Anyway, just an observation from the student side of things - everyone is tired of this and regardless of politics, many students just want to learn in an exciting and challenging environment. However, as the quality of student continues to decline the already reluctant body of genuinely intelligent and open-minded students will shrink. It is very hard to mobilize stressed and busy students who would rather just 'exit' than face the power, I don't see that happening anytime soon.
One solution might be to admit more 'older' students with less to 'lose'. I'm not sure..
Good talk and not a bad idea at the end. A voice of sanity amongst the lamers.
Problem is, on the scale of oppressions, I'm not sure that older students would even qualify, so lose out in the end. As long as that's the criteria, instead-a talent, the race to the bottom of the lowest common denominator will prevail, right? But, yeah, a *lotta* people would sure *like* to see something besides the mediocrecy.
My OPINION is the best thing would be to develop an alternative to the 4-year school, but that's just me.
Wow. Brutal. About two years ago I decided I would stand my ground in the event of a corporate "anti-whiteness" training. The plan was to call out the racism and then quit effective immediately. It never got to the point where I was forced to demonstrate my courage: I now work for a startup without HR department.
I fully understand your situation and good for you that you were able to avoid a career ending confrontation. I also understand Professor Serafin's adaptation but I have no doubt that temporizing and avoidance are not effective measures if we are to preserve our liberal democracy. Very soon now a couragous someone is going to have to be Rosa Parks.
I think it'll take a number of Rosa Parks' like this guy: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/ohio-court-upholds-bakerys-victory-against-oberlin-college-over-false-racism-accusations/ That's just me.
I may be naïve, but I am astonished that a university - an institution devoted to the pursuit of knowledge through inquiry, would voluntarily transform itself into an institution of indoctrination and propaganda. Whatever the imagined justice in the purported motivations, this is a disaster for the society. It's probably not necessary to point out that the Nazis and various Communist governments affected similar takeovers of educational institutions.
I was thinking that, too, that it's reminiscent of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Glad I don't teach anymore.
Successor ideology, after a long march has arrived, it is transcendent, fully above other considerations, the old values must give way.
This has been going on for at least 50 years. Disruption, persecution, boycotting, and other anti-liberal (Nazi, Communist) techniques for destroying the institutional functioning of schools are readily embraced by immature, emotional, adventurous youth, whose efforts tend to benefit other factions. Successor ideology may be cresting, God willing!
Cresting? My guess is several decades and potential conflagration, there may be blood.
It rules by consent. As consent crumbles, it will rule ever-smaller territory. Like the USSR, it is vulnerable to ridicule. On the other hand, in the Idiocracy, idiocy can totter on for a long time. Establishment lies may be exposed in days or months in the eyes of the few, but survive for an indefinite period among the willingly indoctrinated.
Yeah, can survive for a long time. And the thing is, like this article and comments point out, as long as they hold the *power* to hire and fire, and *squash* dissent, who's gonna hear the ridicule, or believe it if they hear it?
And unless there's a really *viable* alternative to the lies being sold, a lotta people will just keep their heads down and try to save their job. Luckily, the voting box is secret, so people can vote their conscience.
It is so powerful: the prospect of being called a racist makes fighting for your position unthinkable, friendly advice will tell you to shut the fuck up. As I read this piece I was thinking, this French professor in British Columbia is fool hardy or crazy too push back on this stuff. I am positive these people are religious zealots and I for one do not plan to martyr myself. We are at the early stages of a multi- decade decent into chaos. It’s gonna get much worse and 2024 will be incendiary not restorative of the old order, rational inquiry is abandoned.
Look on the bright side, Sir RJF: China make take over and make us all slaves. Or the transhumanist elites will just make us.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-future-of-human-machine-relationships-is-already-upon-us
And an arm and both legs chopped off the humanity in us.
You're probably right, Sir RJF. But there's a hope for a soft takedown still out there. Could *start* the ball rolling in '22. Hafta see what happens in '24, right? If it's Trump, the pendulum will just keep swinging, right?
But, either Way, probably a long-term project, tho hope otherwise, of course.
From the photo, I'm assuming this is UBC and it seems they're following the path of all schools (elementary and secondary) in the province of British Columbia in which the curriculum is being smothered with Indigenous references. In fact, a new mandatory course on First Nations was just introduced for all high schoolers. As a parent of kids in BC, it's been simply astonishing to see how this stuff has taken over social studies and even classes like French and the sciences.
The problem, other than detracting from the teaching of non-Indigenous subjects, is that they're not teaching actual Indigenous history which was often brutal and, in the case of BC's First Nations, heavily dependent on slavery for wealth. The students are instead fed a diet of false, Disney-like narratives about native history that seem to serve the sole purpose of undermining the history of other Canadians.
I can only speculate but this seems eerily similar to what usually happens in countries with revolutionary movements, where the leaders must sever the public's ties with history in order to create a new autocratic system (think Year Zero). In Canada this means poisoning our history of individual liberty, free markets, private property etc with a sense of shame and guilt so that today's youth become more open to the expansion of government.
So the problem is two-fold. One, it peddles lies about our past. And two, it's part of a push to make future generations more accepting of statism.
The bent toward a magical-realism, Disney-fied version of such history is ironic, given that so many of the same people think the movie Pocahontas is deeply problematic (a teacher friend recently went to a conference on teaching Native issues and this was explicitly mentioned: "Don't show your kids 'Pocahontas'").
Didn't the Microsoft thing expose some of this, a little bit anyway? A lot of people pointed out that the coast Salish peoples which Microsoft "acknowledged" had practiced slavery extensively, which was pretty inconvenient to the narrative that "they were here first and therefore are better than we."
One of the foundational beliefs of Leftism is Rousseau's myth of the Noble Savage, which is the fanciful idea that prior to the existence of modern society (and its gross hierarchies and money worship) humans lived in an Edenic paradise where no one fought or hated but instead lived together in perfect peace and harmony, sort of cavemen crossed w bonobos all singing John Lennon's "Imagine".
The first people cast in the role of Noble Savage were the sans-culottes, basically the French lower classes, with the idea of the Revolution being that if only the pure and noble poor could rule unimpeded, a New (more perfect) World would appear. (And we know how that turned out: the Terror and thousands murdered).
The next people cast in the role of Noble Savage were Marx's proletariat (workers of the world) who also magically mystically incarnated some higher wisdom, and who Marx scientifically proved would one day establish a utopian dictatorship, but first a vanguard class would be needed to destroy all their enemies. ((And we know how that turned out: the only thing a Marxist society ever successfully manufactured was corpses).
Since the collapse of European Marxism, other potential Noble Savages have been fitted with the glass slipper, first the poor of the 3rd World (aka the Wretched of the Earth), then American blacks, and now the Canadian indigenous (among others).
There just seems to be something inherent in Leftism that requires the actual leaders (the vanguard or ideas class of disaffected intellectuals) to first posit some sacred spotless victim to be the true focus of their goals, that allow them to present themselves as righteous crusaders on behalf of the poor and helpless (it is all very Christian too).
My guess is that this allows them to seize the moral high ground of unimpeachable goodness and also to give their will-to-power schemes a sheen of moral legitimacy ("if you don't do what I say, a marginalized victim will be hurt.")
Leftism is very much a modern secular post-Christian religion and all of what we're witnessing is part of the program.
Totally unrelated to your post. But I'm curious, what is the statue in your avatar pic?
It's a marble sculpture of a boy that's in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, but I do not remember its name or the artist, unfortunately.
That's helpful enough — I'll be in Paris a month from now and I'm definitely going to see it!
That's it, in a nutshell, M descriptor. Couldn'a said it better. Same as in the good ole U.S. of A.
I hate to be partisan, but it's true that red states won't put up with that crap here. We're more likely to have the Balkans than the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
Yeah, sort of. While I am glad I live in FL, there is a reactionary side to all this woke insanity in “red states” that is also leading to some idiotic behavior like book banning. To be clear, I am fully supportive of our Parental Rights In Education Bill - you will never convince me that anything should ever be withheld from parents of young children, nor that said children should have sexual instruction at those ages. But some of the the “red state” reactions clearly go too far, which ultimately narrows support for the broader anti-woke effort and becomes counterproductive.
Similar warning from David Cole: https://www.takimag.com/article/doom-and-groomer/
Can you explain this book banning? Which books have become unavailable for purchase or lending at a public library?
I don’t remember the details, but I’m sure some googling would reveal the answers. I suspect what you’ll find is that they have removed some particular books from school libraries, as opposed to the general public library. That being said, most public libraries don’t carry lots of books, so some of would have to a real analysis to determine what the underlying bias is for each library. 
edit: just noticed these links purporting to address book banning (note that I am highly skeptical of anything either of those papers published and certainly don't have a subscription):
1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/04/17/public-libraries-books-censorship/
2) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/arts/jennifer-buck-bad-and-boujee-book-pulled.html
I would definitely read both of those links if they weren't paywalled to be in a better position to discuss; sorry!
So, I do remember the details of these scripted freakouts over book "banning." Titles were either rotated out of a particular curriculum or from ready access in the school library (which happens all the time; note that Team Blue evinces no righteous indignation when their side does it, such as with Dr. Seuss books that have a line drawing of a stereotypical Chinaman or To Kill a Mockingbird which uses the N word). Those same titles remained in all cases freely available at the local public library, or at anyone's favorite bookstore. At no time was any book ever "banned," although the campaign to pretend so was evidently successful as evidenced by your comment. "Yeah look at those anti-intellectual Team Red rubes, hurr durr" was the goal but not reflected in reality whatsoever. Don't fall for it next time.
This is true. I live in South Dakota and know exactly what you mean.
Great article, and all best wishes. In Minnesota, some lawyers responded to the newly mandated anti-bias Continuing Legal Education requirement by offering courses on anti-Christian bias. Anti-colonialism in Canada, for truth's sake, would have to include the expulsion of the Acadians, the Scottish migration, the migration of obscure religious communities, Canadian support for the American Revolution, Quebecois separatism, repression of the truckers, and more ambiguously, contemporary migration from China.
Ultimately, it should involve an examination of the way elite minority coalitions have colonized the 13 provinces by imposing their ideology, their monopoly of the public forum, and their financial domination. New flag for Canadian patriots: seven red, six white, horizontal stripes, with a blue union in the upper inside corner containing a circle of 13 white maple leaves. (And how should we represent our 50 colonies?)
The abuse of Canadian loyalty to the Crown by its enlistment, at horrendous cost to Canadians, in the questionable First and Second World Wars is another potential anti-colonialist theme.
As for law, I urge you to hold firm on teaching actual aboriginal law truthfully under the broader rubrics of land-use customs and dispute resolution practices instead of sullying your mind and the minds of your students with the Disney version referenced by descripter. Think of your ethical obligations as a lawyer.
I just read John Williams' Stoner. The department head punishes Stoner for refusing to promote an unqualified Ph.D. candidate by forcing him to teach only freshman composition. He turned the tables by using his specialty, medieval literature, as a vehicle for composition courses--his students did better than anyone's. The department chair gave in, and gave him back his graduate seminar.
Land acknowledgement--thin end of the wedge.
Stoner is such a great and disturbing novel!
TY XYZ and C.P. both for tips. Had never heard-a it before.
This story is amazingly similar to what happened to me at Mount Royal University - https://c2cjournal.ca/2022/02/academic-freedom-vs-wokeism-the-frances-widdowson-affair/.
Great article, thanks. Good luck with your arbitration. Surely historical materialism deserves to be debated, not silenced.
Your situation, Professor Widdowson, is indeed similar to the case of Professor Sérafin's. There are some differences, as well. If You have time, I was wondering how the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship is able to help You? No need, of course.
SAFS wrote an article in support of me in January 2022 and has advertised my case - https://safs.ca/mount-royal-university-fires-tenured-professor-frances-widdowson/. They also provide a supportive network of colleagues to offer advice and help with strategizing.
Ah. Thank YOu for Your reply. I gave a little to them, tho it's a drop in the bucket. https://safs.ca/ if anyone else is inclined.
Forgot: I like the acronym for Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity You use. TY for posting that article.
Harassment!
You KNOW it!
With these stories, I am already interested in phase two of the Successor Ideology, when the tactics of destruction finally reveal there is no public utility of fairness and liberty at the bottom -- indeed there is no bottom at all -- and the proliferating in-group tribes and grievance unions turn on each other for whatever remaining resources there are.
I'd like-ta see that too. But most-a the foundations and basically all the other monied interests would hafta shut down before there's any limiting of resources, right? Not saying it won't happen, but have no idea when it would. That's just me..
I don’t expect a shut down, like closing up shop, but a withering away as we witness humanities departments simultaneously contesting curriculum and aims while enrollment numbers lower and faculty hiring come to a stop. Law, medicine, and STEM fields are a close second behind English, Classics, history, etc in eradicating the broad ideals on which they are built. Grant foundations like Ford, helmed by Brahmin activists, pivot all money into the very causes working to destroy the universalism on which concepts as “public good” and “commonwealth” exist (by assigning them labels such as white supremacist, colonial, Eurocentric, etc). So, as jobs and grant money, for example, increase in scarcity, so too does the competition for them.
Of course, this would be a travesty of justice, but since there actually *is* no such-a thing as justice, it can't be.
This is probably a dumb question, but I'm frequently dumb so it doesn't bother me. Is part-a the purpose of this article to encourage the reader to become one-a the outside forces to help Prof. Sérafin? If so, what would that be? If not, 'scuse lameness.
Ya JT, of course you are dead right, we through our support of WesleyYang are supporting a better more fulsome understanding of the phenomenon, it’s a good start.
Hm. A *small* start, getting the conversation going.
Hi Jt. Yes I believe the professor is reaching out to others to be the outside forces to help in whatever way possible.
HiYa M. Nevada. Think of any ways we could help?
I made a couple donations. The Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship https://safs.ca/ and Foundation for Individual Rights in Education https://www.thefire.org/
But it's just a drop in the bucket, and doesn't really help any individuals, so doesn't do much for *me.*
Great article. But you missed a chance to quote Hemingway:
“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.
“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
Just put “intellectually” before “bankrupt.”
We need to know who the people are who are pressuring university deans to enact these changes. Open the kimono. These are public institutions and the public has a right to know. None of this behind the scenes nonsense.
Will they ever learn? This is so close to the Lindsay Shepherd saga of 2017 that I'm thinking there will be a perpetual five year cycle of this persistent woke idiocy. It's really too bad that the size of her settlement was suppressed by mutual consent, so the current perpetrators don't have a clear idea of what this is likely to cost them monetarily. Intellectual and moral cost is not a consideration, since the establishment is too ignorant to appreciate what that may be.
A coup of mediocrity.
Thank you Professor Serafin for speaking out. The Fair For All organization (Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism) has come to Canada and not a moment too late. Everyone needs to support their local chapters. https://www.fairforall.org/chapters/
How did you go bankrupt? Gradually and then all at once. Cleverly chosen subtitle! This ideology does not offer any solutions, only endless recriminations and chaos, hence wealth destruction. Today, reserve currency status allows us to print money to uphold the illusion of wealth, while foreign countries foot the bill. This year brought news of Saudi and China discussing trading in their own currencies, India and Russia another example. We might be arriving at the "all at once" phase. The good news? The woke zombies will be gone.
Marxist "woke" is the lipstick on a pig named TOTALITARIAN FINANCE.
James Lindsay and friends (NEW DISCOURSES) long ago unmasked the creation and insertion of an ideological commissariat (HR/DEI) into both the public and private spheres of influence. The commissariat is inhabited and controlled by one percenters who weaponize the "professional feminist" tactic (see Camille Paglia/Janice Fiamengo) of feigning moral concern, creating a commission, demanding a study and forever discovering yet one more reason to ensure the eternal flow of Corporate/ State/Federal grants and tax free donations. I'm not an academic, but suspect, that DEI terrorists through their direct connection (Mommy and Daddy) to the surveillance state/ corporate/governmental bureaucratic tax dollar hog trough, wield power over University administrators with the implied threat that they can cause P.C. trouble making private, corporate and government cash stop flowing into University coffers, which will of course lead to the removal of top administrators.
I know that's a bit of a simplification but, If everything is exactly what it appears to be, the influence and corruption of politics and status revealed in the cash for admissions scandals of recent years, and the sanctioned life destroying assaults on the lives of dissenters from the "party line" by I'm a victim, crocodile tears totalitarians like Taylor Lorenz of the New York Times, (who is a direct product of one percenter education and politics), points directly to a unified baksheesh driven class war being waged within and without academia. (Batya Ungar-Sargon)
Of course Marxist "woke" isn't really Marxist "woke". It simply employs totalitarian communist psyop tactics. This was made clear by the "trained Marxist" leaders of BLM who continue to encouraged the destruction of America while looting the resources of those they pretend to care about. It's a for profit airball manufactured by the inhabitants of a false moral high ground, financed by financial totalitarians who, as has always been, want access to subsistence level labor and the unhampered ability to exploit all resources for their personal gain. Everyone here understands that the people at the top of the CCP/WEF/Wall Street/MIC etc. enjoy the absolute best in life style. "Rules for thee but not for me."
One approach might be demanding accountability from Federal and State legislators on how tax dollar grants are issued, how those dollars are spent, and who benefits. If, as in BLM, the money goes to high salaries and personal bureaucratic expenses they need to be stopped. Especially if being weaponized for the destruction of sanity and community. Why should American tax dollars pay for the destruction of America?
The destruction of the American Democratic Republic, the American Constitution, American Citizenship and a financially independent middle class (see Victor Davis Hanson) must be destroyed for "totalitarian finance" to ascend. It's happening. Unite or perish.
Got Constitution?
End the Fed.