At our universities the Great Books may not be read but the archives are red
Universities Orwellian! Peter McCutcheon, abc.net.au, yesterday:
(A)cademic staff at James Cook University (JCU) are avoiding using their staff emails in the wake of the sacking of climate change sceptic Peter Ridd. … Professor Ridd was sacked last month for … comments he made about his colleagues on Sky TV and in private emails … describing a leading coral researcher as “not having any clue about the weather” … (who) “will give the normal doom science about the Great Barrier Reef” (and) … that JCU, along with other universities, are “Orwellian in nature”.
Orwellian? Surely not. Brittany Chain, Daily Mail, June 9:
Top universities … (are) slashing students grades for using banned ‘gendered language’ … such as ‘man’, ‘she’, ‘wife’, ‘mother’ … ‘mankind’ or ‘workmanship’ … The acting executive dean of The University of Queensland’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Julie Duck, thinks the penalties are justified. ‘Students are advised to avoid gender-biased language in the same way they are advised to avoid racist language …’ QUT students … are … penalised for … describing women … (as) ‘wife of’, ‘mother of’ or ‘daughter of’. The suffix ‘man’ is deemed sexist … Griffith University tells staff and students to ‘look for non-binary pronouns so that misgendering doesn’t occur’. The University of Sydney prefers … sentences that are grammatically incorrect but politically correct … The University of Newcastle … bans gendered language, telling students to use … humanity, human race or humankind instead.
Newspeak dictionary from George Orwell’s 1984, web.archive.org:
Crimethink — To even consider any thought not in line with the principles of Ingsoc. Doubting any of the principles of Ingsoc. All crimes begin with a thought. So, if you control thought, you can control crime. “Thoughtcrime is death. Thoughtcrime does not entail death, Thoughtcrime is death … The essential crime that contains all others in itself.”
For Western civilisation? Rebecca Urban, The Australian, June 6:
Australian National University’s incoming history department head Professor Frank Bongiorno … (said) “Tony Abbott’s aggressive article in … Quadrant (in which he described the Ramsay Centre as being ‘not merely about Western civilisation but in favour of it’) had a devastating effect on the attitude of all of us who had been supporting the proposal.”
Hosted on ANU’s website? marxists.anu.edu.au:
Marxists Internet Archive marxists.anu.edu.au. The most complete library of Marxism with content in 62 languages and the works of over 720 authors readily accessible by archive, subject (sic) or history.
About Marxism or in favour of Marxism? Martin Empson, International Socialism journal, Issue 105, January 9, 2005:
Over the last decade the Marxists Internet Archive has become the most comprehensive online collection of left wing texts. Martin Empson spoke to some of the volunteers behind the project about their aims … How do you think the internet has changed things for socialists and activists?
David Walters: … (E)ven … the poorest and most oppressed people in the world have a better chance to organise and learn about socialism … There is also a bad trend … There are now socialists and Marxists whose entire existence is a virtual one. But it’s our ability to mobilise the working class in the streets, not online, that will determine the future of socialism. Being online is a tool … to this end.
Brian Basgen: … neither the … cost nor any right of intellectual ownership should restrict Marxist education.