Digby: Rand To The Rescue (Ayn Rand indoctrination in schools)

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



Rand To The Rescue
By Digby

April 14th, 2008 - 4:06pm ET


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Paul Krugman points to an article that should send chills down the backs of good progressives everywhere:

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.

I have written about the pernicious effect of Rand before, and noted that the Ayn Rand Institute provides nearly half a million free copies to American high schools to indoctrinate teen-agers into romantic selfishness (thus validating their natural adolescent tendencies as being acceptable adult behavior.) But this is truly beyond the pale.

Corporations, which have very good reasons to train young people into an ethos that extols the alleged virtues of heroic captains of industry and their lonely fight to retain freedom in the face of left wing collectivism, should not be buying academic curriculum of any kind. The very idea of academic freedom is that the academics decide what to teach, not the government or the community or especially some company who wants to promulgate a puerile political philosophy designed to make people believe that selfishness is a virtue. That it's in the form of a very bad romance novel makes it even worse. (To those romance novel aficionados out there, please note that I said "bad" romance novel. It's not a slam at the whole genre.) ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://ourfuture.org/blog-entry/rand-rescue

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Exactly why our business college received over $1 billion in 'gifts' and the college of arts and

sciences is housed in a deteriorating building and severely underfunded.

[Johonny]

2. Is there a Cliff notes

for Atlas Shrugged. I'd hate for someone to have to read it.

[tanyev]

7. Yes. I got it because I wanted to learn more, but I didn't think I could stomach

the actual book. Turns out I couldn't even stomach the Cliff's Notes. Read 5 or 6 pages, then gave up.

[BonnieJW]

3. I had to read Rand in high school,

and here I am on a liberal blog. It's another point of view to ponder. I don't think just reading her books will make you into a Randbot.

[RoseMead]

4. Ah my dear alma mater

BB&T missed their chance: if they threw enough money at the football program, MU would probably agree to teach *only* Ayn Rand.
:(

[mitchum]

5. Here's how her scribblings could be incorporated into science classes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B4pgo9Db6w

[gratuitous]

6. This will be met with thunderous applause from certain corners of DU

I don't think those corners will be dumb enough to post as such, but as Joaquin Andujar was fond of saying, "Youneverknow."