Written by Richard Butrick   

In 2011 UCLA dropped its requirement [1] that English majors take "one course in Chaucer, two in Shakespeare, and one in Milton." Instead it will require that they take a total of three courses in the following four areas:

(1) Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Disability, and Sexuality Studies;
(2) Imperial, Transnational, and Postcolonial Studies;
(3) Genre Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies, and Critical Theory;
(4) Creative Writing.

The gospel in the above courses is that it is the demons of racism, sexism, genderism, nationalism, culturism and clanism which have wrought havoc and misery on mankind. These demons have to be rooted out from our language, our culture and the dark recesses of our minds in order to achieve a world where social justice prevails.

Why should people have to act a certain way just because they are female or white or Peloponnesian? Maybe someone is female and likes to tie tin cans to cats tails or nail squirrels in the butt with a sling shot or even open doors for boys or something like that. One shouldn’t presume that Captain Hook can’t knit one and pearl two.

And it is not that these demons just inflict pain on individuals and groups within a society. Culturism - the sense of cultural superiority - and nationalism have led to terrible world wars and ideological conflict and have provided the justification for colonialism, slavery and cast systems generally.

Moreover, clanism, as a modern day reincarnation of tribalism, wreaks havoc within a society. Self-anointed elite groups control and jealously guard access to the corridors of wealth and power. Clanism is the fount and enforcer of the great inequalities of the capitalist system. According to none other than President Obama, the champion of social justice, defeating clanism is the defining challenge of our times [2]. Clanism is why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It roams the corridors of power in Wall street and Fleet Street and corporate boardrooms generally. It rigs the capitalist system with private schools and private clubs and secret societies and in general wages a war against all newcomers and bounders.

In academe it is axiomatic that the havoc and misery that these demons wreak on mankind is immeasurable. World wars. Terrible ideological wars: Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan; the terrible suffering of the poorest of the poor across the globe; the destruction of our planet; AGW. And then there is the Orientalism that caused the turmoil in the Middle East and stirred up hatred for the West.

But aside from the properly exorcized graduates of elite educational institutions, how are the great lumpen un-reeducated to be properly realigned for their own good and the good of society? By social engineering! These great demons, it turns out, exist in our souls. We need serious attitude adjustment. This can be done by realignment of the extant reward/punishment rules and regulations and by early indoctrination [3]. This calls for none other than a Nietzschean trans-valuation of values using the techniques of nudging [4] championed by the quintessential academe Cass Sunstein. Of course nudge may come to shove. Resorting to strong-arm Mafia intimidation tactics from the DOJ, IRS and FBI may be necessary from time to time.

But does academe have this right? Are we plagued by nationalism, jingoism, sexism, racism, xenophobia and worst of all Islamophobia? Have not these identity structures in their extreme form been discredited by their own history? And are they not viable in their non-impositional form? Are all these identity structures inherently bad? Family? Patriotism? Pride in community? Inherently bad? Or do loyalty structures come in good and bad versions? Like salt. A little is necessary for life but too much will kill you. Identity structures are necessary for a larger sense of self. Pride in being an Athenian or a New Yorker? Black Pride?

Meanwhile academe has pumped out graduates that now roam the corridors of power and who feel it is their mission to slay the chimerical grand demons of academe. From Pelosi to Reid to Schumer and the Arch Knight of Social Justice, the President, we are being led by would-be Prince Valiants that are convinced that the underlying causes of social injustice are still the evil demons conjured up by their professors and mentors. Failing students, failing job market failing foreign policy? It is the demons that are at it again. Every problem is a social justice problem requiring more regulations and government supervision to expunge the demons from the dark recesses of the souls of the unenlightened. Mesmerized by the chivalric code of slaying the evil demons conjured up in the halls of academe, the proto-grad and hero of the pervasive UCLA curriculum, President Alonso Obama leads his ménage to tilt at every mirage from phony wars on women, the elderly, the poor and immigrants to phony evils like pipelines and racist [5] banks and racist [6] schools and racist Islamophobes who dare utter the phrase ‘Islamic terrorists.’

Instead of tackling the real problems facing the Nation from the worst [7] labor force participation rate since the Great Depression to crumbling [8]student performance to al-Qaeda resurgence [9], Don Obama struts his victory over providing coeds with contraceptives, purging “Islamic Terrorist” from government manuals and abolishing “don‘t ask don‘t tell.”

The humor of the President’s Don Quixote approach to real-world problems has not been lost on world leadership. He has become a global laughing stock [10]. But it is his teachers and mentors from academe that deserve the hyena pen.

[1] http://www.city-journal.org/2014/24_1_urb-humanities.html
[2] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/obama-income-inequality-minimum-wage-live
[3]http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/11/early_education_or_early_indoctrination.html
[4] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/magazine/16Sunstein-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
[5] http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/011514-686517-holder-uses-phony-statistical-analysis-to-fine-banks.htm
[6] http://thehill.com/blogs/regwatch/administration/194790-holder-school-discipline-racially-biased-overly-harsh
[7] http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/02/07/the-worst-five-years-since-the-great-depression/
[8] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/esther-wojcicki/how-will-us-policymakers_b_4475397.html
[9] http://pjmedia.com/blog/obama-inviting-the-whirlwind-by-neglecting-blooming-al-qaeda-strongholds-affiliates-spreading-like-wildfire/
[10] http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/011614-686711-allies-laughing-at-america-for-foreign-failures.htm