CEOs bribing universities to teach Ayn Rand crap

[swag]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=as6BR0QV4KE8&refer=home

April 11 (Bloomberg) -- Ayn Rand's novels of headstrong entrepreneurs' battles against convention enjoy a devoted following in business circles. While academia has failed to embrace Rand, calling her philosophy simplistic, schools have agreed to teach her works in exchange for a donation.

The charitable arm of BB&T Corp., a banking company, pledged $1 million to the University of North Carolina Charlotte in 2005 and obtained an agreement that Rand's novel ``Atlas Shrugged'' would become required reading for students. Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, say they also took grants and agreed to teach Rand.

The author, who died in 1982, used her self-righteous heroes to promote objectivism, a philosophy that embraces reason and individualism, while rejecting religion. While Rand, an advocate of free markets, would support a university's getting paid to teach her works, the idea riles academic ethicists.

``A corporation crosses a line and a university is complicit in crossing the line if it accepts money'' and accedes to a request to assign specific books, said Jonathan Knight, director of the program on academic freedom, tenure and governance for the American Association of University Professors, in Washington. ``It's unique in my experience.'' Knight has worked in the field for 31 years.

...

[Lars39]

1. Good grief.

I don't know why that surprises me.

[mitchum]

2. Well,it's not as if literature or philosophy departments are ever gonna teach her trash

typo: I misspelled "literature" Yes,indeed

[Beregond2]

3. I once

got into a big arguement with a follower of "Objectivism," Rand's "philosophy." I pointed out that no university in the world teaches it, no academic philosopher takes it seriously. Looks like her cult is trying to force it into the mainstream.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

4. Alan Greenspan must be in nirvana as he worshipped her at her feet.

[nashville_brook]

5. wow -- schools have to be PAID to teach her crap. that's brutal. too bad she isn't alive

to enjoy the oh so well deserved humiliation.

[mitchum]

7. I once saw that shrill lunatic go nuts on the Phil Donahue show...

back in the 70s. During the questions from the audience segment, a lady began,"I really believed your philosophy when I was a teenager, but when I gained a little more experience and wisdom..."
Alice Rosenbaum (her real name) went batshit crazy on the poor woman.
Obviously, it was because of the phrase "I really believed your philosophy when I was a teenager"
It remains one of my favorite TV moments

[Elspeth]

9. It's on youtube....Ah, back when daytime TV was intelligent

Five parts listed

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=phil+donahue+ayn+rand&search_type=

[devilgrrl]

12. Isn't it incredible how henious things have gotten?

Now there's The View.... :eyes:

I've never seen Ayn Rand.... what a ghoul!

Thanks for posting that link. :thumbsup:

[Elspeth]

15. Rand is kind of ghoulish. But to get a show like Donahue's now, almost impossible

except on PBS.

[swag]

26. 06:00 of this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q7cje1I3VM

Good stuff!

[nashville_brook]

27. Donahue was so cool in the 70s. he's still cool, but his show was really meaty unlike

those kinds of shows now. damn, i wish msnbc had given him a real shot. maybe he belongs on PBS now.

[Elwood P Dowd]

6. Corporations have been buying college econ professors for years.

The professors then twist and spin David Ricardo's free trade theory to fit the corporate agenda. Two of my nephews attended college in the 80s and 90s, and I had to basically deprogram them on free trade.

[bicentennial_baby]

11. Hmmmm, that doesn't happen in my Econ Dept.

:shrug:

[Elspeth]

17. Have you checked to see with the profs' grant money is coming from?

And which corporations or think tanks they are associated with?

[Bozita]

8. Thom Hartmann has a guest from the Ayn Rand Institute on his show weekly.

IMHO, these folks are nuts.

[mopinko]

20. always and entertaining segment.

i guess ya gotta give it to them for coming back week after week to have thom clean his clock.

[Elspeth]

10. She actually doesn't believe in "free" markets and competition, but in oligarchy

The leadership of a financial elite. Everyone else is just weight on the shoulders of Atlas.

[Quantess]

13. I saw a car with "AYN RAND" license plate

In Federal Way, WA. It was a fairly nice car, but not that nice.

[mitchum]

18. I guess that's because there wasn't room for "ALICE ROSENBAUM" on the plate

every time I see Tracy Ullman do her "Francesca" sketch,I think of ol'Alice saying to herself, "And my name...my name...will be...Ayn Rand!"

[struggle4progress]

14. I wonder if the so-called "religious" right will be up-in-arms about godless capitalist propaganda

*crickets*

[nam78_two]

16. Ugh.nt

[undeterred]

19. Then they should teach creation science too

so the students will be equally messed up.

[smoogatz]

21. The inevitable end result of the de-funding of public education.

Universities are forced to whore themselves to the highest bidder. We'll be teaching creationism next, in exchange for xerox paper and free Discovery Institute backpacks for the kiddies.

[Arctic Dave]

22. This makes me laugh. You would have to pay people

to read that brick of self righteous blather. She shares the same mental defects as all the neo nut cases I've had the non-pleasure of meeting. I'd say say used the book as TP but you might develop an infection using it.

[Forrest Greene]

23. A Simple & Appropriate Analogy For This

...is: Universities = johns, Ayn Rand's product = hookers, the charitable arm of BB&T Corp = pimps.

[Cleita]

24. If universities were tuition free, paid by the government, to

hard working students like they are in many other countries of the world, they wouldn't have a need to get donations and pander to ideologues with fat checkbooks.

We need a single payer universal higher education system that could operate much like single payer universal health care could. The universities would be paid for each student enrolled. They could compete for enrollment by the quality of their faculty and educational programs or their specialization. The best universities would get the best minds to educate.

Graduates could go out into the world with a minimum of debt to pay back and universities wouldn't have to be scrounging around for cash.

[MisterP]

29. and the Randroids are intent on keeping unis the way they are now... n/t

[mitchum]

25. But could she have beat up L. Ron Hubbard?

[Orangepeel]

28. Do they have to agree on what to say about it?

There is nothing wrong with "teaching" it, as long as they encourage critical evaluation.

[ZombieHorde]

30. Pathetic.

Next thing you know they will be paid to teach Dionetics.

[Prophet 451]

31. I wish I was surprised

It's little wonder that Rand was so embraced by the business class: Her philosophy in it's entirety is about putting a plausably "moral" cover on naked greed. She's Gordon Gecko with a vocabulary.

[rucky]

32. We studied it in college.

and concluded that objectivism was some fucked up shit.

While I don't think corps should try to influence curriculum, there's no problem with teaching Ayn Rand in college - as long as it's done right.

[entanglement]

33. First Yoo gets tenure at Berkely and now this?

I mean, WTF?