by Alan Goodman, Revolution #044, April 23, 2006, posted at revcom.us
I
reviewed David Horowitz’s ‘The Professors(The 101 Most Dangerous
Academics in America’ in Revolution #42. In reading that book, it was
striking, and ominous, to put together a picture of the kinds of
discussion, research, dialog, and debate that would be banned(not just
from classrooms, but campuses(should Horowitz’s agenda be adopted.
Among the kinds of statements that Horowitz attacks in his book as
unacceptable are basic truths about the genocidal impact of Columbus
and the European settlers on the Americas, and the actual history and
impact of the enslavement of Black people (Horowitz claims ‘Black
people owe (a debt) to America’ for slavery!). If the criteria in ‘The
Professors…’ for defining (and outlawing) ‘dangerous’ thought were
applied, any substantial discussion of the causes and effects of the
war on Iraq, of the nature and impact of capitalist globalization, or
of the rampant use of torture and denial of basic rights by the Bush
regime would also be out of order in academia. [read more]