In the above Subject of this Foolishness…Or Is It? who is
the “One” and who are the “Us”?
First of all I must explain a few things and I warn you this
Blog Posting is going to get confusing but the confusion is not my fault. The confusion
emanates from the world we now live in and it’s getting more confusing every
day.
***************
First Of All … Am I
Smart?
I play around a lot in my blog about my being smart because
I keep referring to myself as The Smartfella (here’s where the confusion
starts).
When I started blogging about 15 years ago I had this silly
mindset that I was going to be Anonymous (that’s when I learned how spell
“anonymous”).
I had this vision that I was going to be known all over the
world because of my ability to see the foolishness in the world around me and
sharing what I saw with the world…anonymously.
I decided my anonymous name would be Smart-Aleck. Carrying
on with this silly thinking I decided that, since my name was Alex, I was going
to give away my secret identity from the get-go, so I changed to Smartfella.
It’s as simple as that. This explanation proves I’m not that
smart.
***************
Now starts today’s Blog Posting. Up until this point you
have actually been reading the Preamble to Today’s Blog Posting.
I am not going to try and explain (because I can’t) what I
am going to quote from the Wall Street Journal below. I will promise you that
what you will read in quotation marks are exact quotes and you can figure it
out…Or can u?
The article is entitled, “Why Are College Students So
Afraid of Me?”
First Quote:
“Few things upset
American college students more than being told they aren’t oppressed. I
recently spoke at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. I argued
that American undergraduates are among the most privileged individuals in
history by virtue of their unfettered access to knowledge. Far from being
discriminated against, students are surrounded by well-meaning faculty who want
all of them to succeed.
About 15 minutes into my talk, as I was discussing
Renaissance humanism, a majority of the audience in the packed auditorium stood
up and started chanting: “My oppression is not a delusion!” The chanters then
declared that my sexism, racism and homophobia weren’t welcome on campus. “You are not welcome,”
they added, as if I didn’t know.
The protesters drowned out my response before filing slowly
out of the room, still loudly announcing their victimhood and leaving dozens of
seats empty that could have been filled by students who had been turned away
for lack of space. (The protesters had hoped to occupy the entire auditorium
before vacating it, so no one else could hear me speak.)”
Second Quote:
“The maudlin self-pity on display at Holy Cross doesn’t
arise spontaneously. It is actively cultivated by adults on campus. A few days
before the Holy Cross protest, faculty and administrators at Bucknell
University in Lewisburg, Pa., convened a therapeutic “scholars” panel to take
place during another talk of mine. The goal was to inoculate the university
against the violence that I allegedly represented.
Bucknell’s interpersonal violence prevention coordinator;
the director of its Women’s Resource Center; the interim associate provost for
diversity, equity, and inclusion; a women’s and gender studies professor; and
an economics professor discussed rape culture, trauma and racism. Students and
faculty were then invited to join in painting “self-care” rocks.”
Third Quote:
“The claim that American universities, and the U.S. in
general, are defined by white supremacy is the one unifying idea on college
campuses today, in the absence of a shared curriculum dedicated to
civilization’s greatest works. And that idea is spreading. School systems
across the country are training teachers and administrators that colorblind
standards and the work ethic are instruments of white privilege. Any private
institution without proportional representation of minorities and females is
vulnerable to attack, since bigotry is the only allowable explanation for the
lack of sex and race “diversity.”
***************
That’s it. If you think I am going to say I understand what
these students are so upset about, stop thinking I do because I don’t.
In fact I can hear Jack Nicholson shouting at today’s college students as I peck
this closing out… “You can’t handle the
truth!”
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
