Radicalism breeds on college campuses throughout the country. Extremism runs rampant and in almost every single instance, radical college groups come from the political left. But why?
To answer that question let’s look at our own microcosm of iconoclasm here at Mason.
The other day I was shocked to find a flier for the “Mason Socialists” while perusing a campus bulletin board. On it they refer to themselves as “revolutionary” and “radical” socialists while pondering the question, “What would need to happen…to actually abolish capitalism?” It’s not just my opinion that these self-described socialists are radicals; they proudly offer that mantra themselves. The parent organization of this student group publicly states, “To achieve socialism, the most militant workers must be organized into a revolutionary socialist party.” So here at Mason we have a group that actively recruits militant members for purposes of a socialist revolution.
This misguided group of miscreants isn’t the first of its kind to tarnish this campus. Students for Justice in Palestine are another such faction. They denounce the Jewish state of Israel, accusing them of war crimes, apartheid and occupation. They spit in the eye of the Israelis and their constant struggle to defend their God-given right to exist.
Another fringe Mason organization, the Animal Rights Collective, believes humans are nothing more than animals and real animals should have the same legal rights as humans. So under their belief system, the parents of your chicken nuggets could sue you for manslaughter.
It doesn’t end there, unfortunately. The Secular Student Alliance constantly mocks Christianity while hiding under the guise of supporting “civil liberties.” The Pride Alliance at Mason thought it prudent to recently sponsor a “drag show” which featured cross-dressing men dry-humping audience members. The list of examples continues on and on.
So back to the question at hand: Why does left-wing radicalism fester on college campuses?
It’s a tough question to answer. Perhaps professors are to blame. Left-wing propaganda is often spewed by faculty across the nation. College students are at a very impressionable time in their lives and easily corrupted. The curriculum of many classes contains left-wing literature without any inclusion of conservative or even mainstream thought.
Maybe it’s because many young adults are trying to find their place in the world and are often without guidance. Others mistakenly believe their newly experienced freedom from their parents is tantamount to a feeling of superiority or arrogance.
Perhaps Winston Churchill had it right when he said, “If you’re not a liberal at 20 you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at 40 you have no brain.” Perhaps the reason why there are virtually no radical right-wing groups is because conservatives on campus have jutted ahead in their intellectual journey, bypassing silly notions of leftist follies. Maybe they understand how the world really works and have realized that it isn’t as bad as leftists make it out to be.
After a few years postcollege, formerly radicalized students usually realize the recklessness of their ways and lead normal lives. However, others can’t find a place for themselves in the community so they lash out or slink away into obscurity.
The good news is if you’re one of these people on the far left, there is hope. Just don’t let your hatred of society worsen. Life is too short to fight pointless battles and represent awkward social positions. It’s time to come home and take some advice from your friends on the right: It’s better to be traditional and happy than bizarre and unaccepted. If you don’t now, eventually you’ll understand that premise. Trust me.
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12 Comments
I wanted to ask Broadside if I could write a response to this article…but I realize that the only thing I could possibly utter was “wait..wait are you…what you’re serious?” This is such a joke.
Who could be moved by the author’s poor attempt at a stirring conclusion – “Life is too short to fight pointless battles and represent awkward social positions. It’s time to come home and take some advice from your friends on the right: It’s better to be traditional and happy than bizarre and unaccepted.”
This author is not yet mature enough to realize that there is more than one point of view in our multicultural society. Theory of Mind (ToM)- the ability to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one’s own- is a psychological milestone usually achieved by the age of 3 or 4 years old.
It is clear that this author is ‘slow”, yet there still maybe be hope that he will come along, in time, like the rest of us. It would be a pity to see him waste ALL of his college years. Perhaps he will realize that the advice he rather selfishly gives us all to be “traditional and happy and accepted” amounts to a call many to be forever be unhappy and unaccepted…just so long as we stay in our place and keep the author comfortable in his no doubt “god given” superior position in society.
Sir, I believe I DO understand your premise…and I DO NOT trust you.
I would just like to say that I was involved with several of these organizations as a student at GMU and I certainly had a good upbringing, one much better than many people in the left, right, or dead center of the political spectrum. The point of leaning to the left is to want to change society for the better, not to hate on it. Not everybody has white / upper-middle-class / heterosexual / male privilege, so as long as there are inequalities around the world, this society is not as good as rightists make it out to be.
I too am appalled by the extremist organizations associated with George Mason, namely the Mercatus Center, the Institute for Humane Studies, the School of Law, the Economics Department and many other right-wing groups funded by billionaire oil heirs the Koch family to push a discredited free market agenda that causes widespread misery. What can students do to fight these, other than join credible social justice groups?
You have got to be kidding! “The good news is if you’re one of these people on the far left, there is hope. Just don’t let your hatred of society worsen. Life is too short to fight pointless battles and represent awkward social positions. It’s time to come home and take some advice from your friends on the right: It’s better to be traditional and happy than bizarre and unaccepted. If you don’t now, eventually you’ll understand that premise. Trust me.”
Your undeserved feelings of social superiority is why I have “a hatred of society”. Your envisioned version of society is sick and this is what “radicalizes” students when they become enlightened by higher education. “Pointless battles”? Exactly what does that mean? That pursuing peace, social justice or anti-racism is foolhardy?Hardly. “Awkward social positions”? What does that mean snob? I have nearly 200 REAL friends on Facebook that prove that at 40 years old and as a devoted socialist revolutionary I’m far from “bizarre and unaccepted”. You sir are a drooling fool and no nothing or intentionally lie about socialists and how overwhelmingly POPULAR we are! Dave Zirin, Michael Moore or for that matter a list of thousands of successful writers, actors, poets, artists and politicians prove that you’re full of shit.
You clearly don’t understand what Churchill was talking about in his quote. Then again, your entire article is rife with ignorance and shows a complete misunderstanding of the topics you’re discussing. Read a book not penned by Ayn Rand and get back to us.
I wonder if you could present these views in a way that does not belittle your opponents with name calling.
“misguided group of miscreants isn’t the first of its kind to tarnish this campus”
-Miscreants? So they hold a false religious belief and or are inherently evil? How can you tell they are evil if you have never spoken to one of the members and have only looked at one of their fliers?
“On it they refer to themselves as “revolutionary” and “radical” socialists while pondering the question, “What would need to happen…to actually abolish capitalism?” It’s not just my opinion that these self-described socialists are radicals; they proudly offer that mantra themselves.”
How do you feel about the Tea Party? A group that has a flag other than the one of the United States that is called the “Second Revolution Flag?” Its got revolution in its name. The Tea Party was a protest and one of the starts to the revolutionary war. http://www.worcestermag.com/city-desk/top-news/95576569.html
“After a few years postcollege, formerly radicalized students usually realize the recklessness of their ways and lead normal lives. However, others can’t find a place for themselves in the community so they lash out or slink away into obscurity.”
Basically you are saying our graduates can’t find their place in our community? That’s ridiculous! Do you have proof? Where is the proof of our liberal graduates crying in a corner in their apartment after failing to either become conservative or go into our community?
“it’s better to be traditional and happy than bizarre and unaccepted.”
So basically anyone who isn’t traditional is unaccepted. You are like the bully in High school who picks on people different than yourself.
Instead of posting an article about how great you are at college-age, go out and meet the people you are talking about. Find out what makes them tick and make an intellectual argument about their beliefs with good, hard evidence and citation. Otherwise you are not going to be taken seriously.
As one of the “miscreant” socialists whom you attack, I feel obliged to offer a brief response. Others have torn your so-called “arguments” to shreds, so I’ll use this opportunity to offer a totally shameless plug for the Mason Socialist Organization. We are a new student group on campus that is comprised of current students, former students and members of the NoVa community. Yes, we are a revolutionary socialist organization, and we make no apologies. After all, the RADICAL assault being played out against the working class right now- decreased wages, rising unemployment, lowered benefits, layoffs, etc – requires a radical response. And as mentioned above, we “hate society” enough to fight against racism, bigotry and other forms of hatred. We, as socialist activists, seek to break down all of the barriers that divide the working class. We are radically democratic, and unlike the so-called socialist states such as the former Soviet Union, China, or Cuba, we fight for the democratization and self-determination of all people. Thus, we are anti-war, anti-imperialist, and pro-Palestine. The events in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and elsewhere have, once again, proven that the self-emancipation of the working class can be achieved by mass struggle.
While the libertarian think-tanks at Mason attempt to permit the ever increased exploitation of human and natural resources, we stand up against sweatshop wages and environmental destruction. While the right attempts to tell women what they can and cannot do with their bodies, we stand up for the freedom of choice and self-determination for all women.
We stand in solidarity with all of the progressive and leftist student groups on campus. Every oppressed voice deserves to be heard. The ruling class tries its best to divide us. Sure, we certainly are unique as individuals, and we face vastly different challenges under modern capitalism – but we are always, always, always stronger when we unite together! Whether Muslim, Palestinian, gay, straight, trans, black, white, immigrant, whatever–we are all in this together and we will not be divided, not even on a campus as conservative as Mason.
Revolutionary socialists believe, at the heart of it, that while capitalism has given us many good things, we can do so much better. Global capitalism is now the root of all of these problems, and we as a society can orient around need rather than the relentless pursuit of profits. Bringing all of these issues together under the same umbrella helps socialists offer a compelling and logically rigorous case against the status quo. Libertarians try to tell us that we somehow don’t have enough capitalism. Their corporate think-tanks tell us that “liberty” equals the promise of extreme exploitation on the labor market: slave wages, low benefits, minimal education, and maximum precariousness. While we don’t have the influence of the countless millions of dollars spent on the university by the likes of the arch-conservative Koch Brothers, we have a power greater than that: people power. It is toppling ruthless, US-backed dictators as we speak. Next stop: America. Are you ready for it?
We are looking to organize on campus in support of worker’s rights, for women’s rights, in support of the struggles in Palestine and the middle east, and whatever other fights need to be waged.
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglass
For questions about the Mason Socialist Organization, email us: masonsocialists (at) gmail (dot) com
Really great response Adam! This idiot’s diatribe and your elequent response will probably serve to build the ISO’s profile on campus even more. What a fool this “Moore” is. Good luck comrade!
‘Maybe it’s because many young adults are trying to find their place in the world and are often without guidance. Others mistakenly believe their newly experienced freedom from their parents is tantamount to a feeling of superiority or arrogance.’
Oh dear, Alan Moore, I think you may have had ‘guidance’ from Fox News, USA Today and and all the other Glen Beck types.
Perhaps some students find freedom from parents is freedom from ‘superiority or arrogance’ But that is by the by.
Winston Churchill was a war monger, not only a war monger, but a class war monger who hated the British working class, which is why as soon as WW11 was over he was kicked out of Downing Street.
Fifty years ago while ‘conservatives on campus have jutted ahead in their intellectual journey’ others were not ‘bypassing silly notions of leftist follies’ by getting on buses and going down to the segregated south to stop the racist Jim Crow laws. Many were physically attacked and some killed. These brave young people changed this country,while the likes of you at best turned a blind eye and at worst were part of that segregation. I could go on and on about all the different struggles like ending the American war on Vietnam, supporting Native Americans, womans rights, gay rights and so on, but really you should read a book of working people and the oppressed people written by them not about them.
And if you were ‘shocked’ to see a flier about socialism then you should really take a look at what is going on in the real world around you. I am shocked that this country has invaded other countries and killed 100’000’s of civilians, commits war crimes, locks up people without charges or trials. There are over 40 million people in this country without health insurance, thousands of people are losing their houses every day, they have lost their jobs and have been unemployed for a very long time. Budget cuts are being made all over the country to the poorest and most vulnerable people who have little voice or power in fighting back. So I’m very happy to see student groups, who have a long and proud history of organizing to fight injustice carrying on. It is part of where change has come from.
I will leave you with a quote from Frederick Douglass:
“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation…want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters…. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
Problem is, you may have the best interest of your fellow man at heart, but with the social and government structures you are putting in place, those who have no regard for the individual, or majority for that matter, can come in and create a totalitarian system with ease. You are throwing away the protection the founding fathers fought for, knowing full well this can happen. History is our best teacher, and it shows us we are in big trouble when young intelligent students like you, can be used to promote their agenda.
Please explain how one man or group could somehow completely hijack radical democracy? I’m not proposing a perfect system where the end of history and politics would have arrived. Nor am I advocating “socialism from above,” as in the USSR or China. Tell me, if our “founding fathers” (who were certainly not monolithic as a group) created a society with 17% effective unemployment, immense poverty, inadequate health care and tremendous inequality? It appears so. You must convince me that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and I’m sorry, but you can do no such thing.