William Shakespeare

WND EXCLUSIVE

WESTERN HERITAGE IN BULL'S-EYE, WARNS AUTHOR

Agenda has PC campuses destroying classics

In 1988, Rev. Jesse Jackson led a mob of students at Stanford University in chanting “Western Civ has got to go!” In response, the university dropped once-required courses in Western Civilization and introduced a more “multicultural” curriculum.

Political correctness has only intensified in the years since.

And now, Donna Zuckerberg, sister of Facebook founder and anti-Trump activist Mark Zuckerberg, has identified the next battleground of the culture wars – classical studies.

In a contribution at Eidolon, where she is an editor, Zuckerberg instructs her fellow liberals “How to Be a Good Classicist Under a Bad Emperor.”

Under a picture of the Roman Emperor Augustus with a Hitler mustache, Zuckerberg complains the so-called “alt-right” and related movements “love the classics.”

Defiantly, she insists, “We must not allow the alt-right to define what classics will mean in Trump’s America.”

Zuckerberg says classicists must tell the alt-right “we do not support your myopic vision of ‘Western Civilization,'” noticeably using scare quotes around the term Western Civilization. She also says classicists should not encourage those who want to study Greek and Roman authors to learn about their civilization.

She writes:

When you hear someone – be they a student, a colleague, or an amateur – say that they are interested in classics because of “the Greek miracle” or because classics is “the foundation of Western civilization and culture,” challenge that viewpoint respectfully but forcefully. Engage them on their assumed definitions of “foundation,” “Western,” “civilization,” and “culture. “Point out that such ideas are a slippery slope to white supremacy. Seek better reasons for studying classics.

It’s part of a longtime crusade for Zuckerberg, who received a Ph.D. in classics from Princeton and authored a book on the subject titled “Not All Dead White Men.”

However, as some critics noted, such a strategy seems more likely to drive young white men into the arms of the alt right by confirming that any interest in classics is somehow racist.Zuckerberg also identifies sex and not just race as one of the more problematic elements for men interested in the classics.

As part of her “research for a book about how these men talk about ancient Greece and Rome,” she stalked various websites associated with the alt right and the “manosphere” and “men’s rights” communities.

In an article on the extreme feminist site Jezebel detailing her findings, Zuckerberg sneers at these groups for posturing as the “protectors of the rich legacy of the classical tradition, defending it against attacks by liberal universities who want to strip all ‘dead white men’ from the canon.”

Scott Greer, deputy editor at the Daily Caller and the author of the upcoming book “No Campus For White Men,” says Zuckerberg’s tirade implies the only people who should be talking about classics are those who “conform to left-wing orthodoxy.”

However, Greer argued in a recent column even the likes of Zuckerberg won’t be able to save the classics.

“No matter how much Zuckerberg professes the field’s new-found interest in identity politics, it’s still pretty much entirely about elite white men, as she herself admits,” Greer wrote. “That makes it ripe for the chopping block by the campus left.

“[I]nvoking identity politics to defend your discipline heavy on dead white men from your political foes is incredibly stupid. The campus left is not going to suddenly take an interest in your subject just because you and your fellow classicists wrote an angry letter to Trump. The subject is still about white men and their history, which is enough of a sin in the eyes of campus leftists who demand diversity above all else.”

Political correctness is just the beginning. The situation on college campuses is worse than you could ever imagine – and America’s future is at stake. Don’t miss the political blockbuster of 2017 – “No Campus For White Men” by Scott Greer

Indeed, it’s not just white men, but men in general who are under attack on campus.

A class at Dartmouth College claims “toxic masculinity” was partially responsible for the mass shooting in Orlando last summer by an Islamic terrorist. The University of North Carolina hosts a program that attempts to deconstruct the concept of masculinity. At a mandatory freshman orientation session at Gettysburg College, incoming male students are told “be a man” are the “three most destructive words” a boy can hear. And at Claremont University, a group called “Thrive” hosted an event to discuss how “masculinity can be extremely toxic to our mental health, both to the people who are pressured to perform it and the people who are inevitably influenced by it.”

“Traditional masculinity is hated because it promotes male ‘domination,’ male ‘violence’ and isn’t fit for a social justice warrior world, according to the campus left,” Greer said in an interview with WND. “They want men to be more docile and feminine so the gender dynamic is more ‘equal,’ which is just a euphemism for ensuring the power dynamic favors women. Campuses are prone to this kind of hatred because women are over-represented in higher education and colleges aggressively push these ideas among students.”

Greer condemns what he calls an almost unprecedented campaign of social engineering.

“These kinds of programs are harmful to young men because it teaches them that many of their natural inclinations are wrong and forces them to be people they’re not,” he said. “Moreover, campuses can penalize even such benign behavior as flirting if someone takes it as a sign of ‘horrific male aggression.'”

Recent incidents on also seem to indicate no historically important white man, no matter how great, can be guaranteed a “safe space” on campus.

At the University of Pennsylvania, students recently ripped down a portrait of Williams Shakespeare and replaced him with a picture of a black lesbian author. At the University of Virginia, there is an effort to stop quoting Thomas Jefferson, even though the nation’s third president founded the school. And lest you protest this, even complaining about “political correctness” has been deemed a “microaggression” at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Thus, Greer says it is not surprising many college students and recent graduates are turning to ancient times for role models. And Greer argues no matter what Zuckerberg’s efforts, the classics are likely to be the next discipline entirely purged from Western campuses.

“At the end of the day, you can’t separate the classics from the reality that these were, mostly, white males, who are inherently unwelcome on college campuses,” he said. “Zuckerberg can try to spin it however she wants, but if even William Shakespeare doesn’t have a place on campus anymore, it’s hard to see how Plato will survive.”

Political correctness is just the beginning. The situation on college campuses is worse than you could ever imagine – and America’s future is at stake. Don’t miss the political blockbuster of 2017 – “No Campus For White Men” by Scott Greer 

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2017/01/western-heritage-in-bulls-eye-warns-author/#LiEwuG8kSIzSFFFz.99