Objectivist Professor Maligned

[Trebor]

At Andrew Breitbart Presents Big Government

Marxist Professor: Education ‘Forms Cadre of Revolutionaries’

"Last week, Education Action Group exposed a couple teachers explaining how to push Marxist principles in public school classrooms. Media Matters didn’t like that. It really won’t like this next one.

Meet Dr. Stephen Hicks, a Rockford (IL) College professor and self-described “Marxist educator.”

He explained in a video that Marxist teachers must show children early in their school years, before they become “conditioned” capitalists. He says this will help form the “cadre of revolutionaries” that will be necessary to bring about a socialist government and economy.

But he warns teachers that in the current system, they’re “not in a position to institutionalize socialism directly.” So, what to do? Because they can’t be in a position to be “institutionalizing Marxist curricula ourselves, what we need to do is either be subversive – subversively critical – and smuggle in a certain amount of anti-capitalist instruction into our classrooms, or to the extent that we do have some leeway as Marxist educators – maybe we’re a professor with tenure or high school teachers with tenure – we can be more overt about this.”

Of the many comments, there are:

- "The Second Amendment solves that problem with these Flaming Liberal Anti-American Revolutionaries."

- "Does this guy realize what they do to people like him the moment they take power? What would you do with people who are able to foment a revolution that you are now the leader of?

What did Stalin and Hitler do? How about Pol Pot and Ho Chi Minh?"

- "Students, keep your recorders handy.. Expose ALL the marxist indoctrinators.."

Edit: I should add: Be sure to read the following (next) post before drawing any conclusion about this topic

Edited May 7, 2011 by Trebor

[Trebor]

And, for the rest of the story, read some of the comments further down:

- This is one of the most bizarrely mistaken posts I've ever read and frankly it makes Kyle Olson and the EAG look just plain silly. Dr. Hicks is an Objectivist, not a Marxist.

- He's an Objectivist, if I recall correctly. Looking at his course list, it would certainly seem his classes are balanced regardless of his political orientation.

As well, see Dr. Stephen Hicks own, "Am I really a Marxist revolutionary?":

"According to Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website, Professor Stephen Hicks of Rockford College is a Marxist devoted to educating cadres of revolutionaries.

A good case of an under-researched post that jumps to a very wrong conclusion."

Next Breitbart will be informing us that Dr. Peikoff is a neo-Nazi given that he authored, "The Ominous Parallels"

Edited May 7, 2011 by Trebor

[brianleepainter]

Wow, what an example of context dropping by the author, Kyle Olson.

Here are a few comments on youtube,

-"I'm sure Dr. Hicks, an advocate for Ayn Rand's Objectivism, will be surprised to learn that he is being called a "Marxist Professor" here.

I would advise eagfoundation to check Dr. Hick's website.

Hicks is also the executive director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship.

Objectivists have been called many things but Marxist is not usually one of them. I think an apology to Dr. Hicks is in order." (bold mine)

-"Dr. Hicks writes on his web site in reply to a comment about this series of videos:

"This lecture is part of a series on eight (so far) philosophies of education. I present each from the perspective of that philosophy."

...

"In this case, I am very much not a Marxist, but in introducing it as a philosophy of education in this lecture my first goal is to present it, not to advocate or criticize it."

Hicks is an individualist, not a Marxist as this post suggests."

Edited May 7, 2011 by brianleepainter

[Trebor]

I asked softwareNerd, if he thought my original topic title was in poor taste, which I had come to think after posting the first two posts to this thread, if he would change the topic's title. I did not want to add to any mischaracterization of Dr. Hicks.

Thank you, softwareNerd!

[softwareNerd]

I'm not surprised. Andrew Breitbart is in the mode of Drudge: if the story will get clicks and eyeballs, and if it will support the party narrative double-checking for truth can come a day later.

I don't know much about Hicks, except for having seen a movie he narrated; but it would take a quick Google to learn he is not a Marxist.

BTW, that movie by Hicks is interesting. He examines how the Nazis drew inspiration from Nietzschean writings, and also how they went against those ideas. It's on Netflix instant play (book form too).

Edited May 7, 2011 by softwareNerd

[2046]

Hilarious fail, but thanks for posting Trebor. That guy has some pretty good lectures for free on his site about all sorts of philosophies.

[Black Wolf]

I think this may be the first time in history that MediaMatters has defended an Objectivist teacher, and promoted him as a "teacher that allows opinions to be had in the classroom". I wonder if Media Matters even knows they're defending an Objectivist from BigGovernment.com

This is very interesting. It's like the time when an article called Keith Lockitch a liberal

[Trebor]

I guess that Breitbart (and Kyle Olsen, the author of that hit-piece) have a right to cut their own throats, credibility speaking.

[Trebor]

Hilarious fail, but thanks for posting Trebor. That guy has some pretty good lectures for free on his site about all sorts of philosophies.

You're welcome. brianleepainter first mentioned Dr. Hicks to me, pointing out his article, "Post-Postmodern Art," his analysis of the degeneration of art. He has also written a book on the subject, Explaining Postmodernism.

Edit: Actually, this article, though similar to the above mentioned article ("Post Postmodern Art"), was my introduction to Dr. Hicks: "Why Art Became Ugly"

Modernism had no answer to Duchamp's challenge, and by the 1960s it found it had reached a dead end. To the extent modern art had content, its pessimism led it to the conclusion that nothing was worth saying. To the extent that it played the reductive elimination game, it found that nothing uniquely artistic survived elimination. Art became nothing. In the 1960s, Robert Rauschenberg was often quoted as saying, "Artists are no better than filing clerks." And Andy Warhol found his usual smirking way to announce the end when asked what he thought art was anymore: "Art? —Oh, that's a man's name."

Edit to add: If anyone finds that article interesting, you might enjoy artist Scott Burdick's four-part YouTube presentation, "Banishment of Beauty," found on his YouTube channel. Well-done presentation though he doesn't go to the depth, philosophically, as does Dr. Hicks (or Miss Rand).

Edited May 7, 2011 by Trebor

[Black Wolf]

Kyle Olson just took his article down. He apologized.

[brianleepainter]

"I have been advised that my recent characterization of Dr. Stephen Hicks was inaccurate and that he is not, in fact, a “Marxist educator.” My conclusion was drawn upon a series of videos in which he discussed Marxism and education. Upon further research, and out of an abundance of caution, I have asked BigGovernment.com to take down my post. I apologize to Dr. Hicks."-Kyle Olson