Thursday, October 20, 2005
Perhaps I should count my blessings.....
I complain about the liberalism of my fellow travelers in English literature, but I'm taking a class over in the communications department, and I've decided I have it easy.
I have no idea how a conservative could survive in the Communications department on our campus. At least in our classes, we spend some time discussing the texts at hand. In the Communications department, there are no central "texts" so class pretty much becomes a "let's rant about how much we hate conservatives and Bush for two hours" type thing.
The other day in class we: 1. Watched a music video called "Bush don't like Black people" and discussed how it entertainingly illustrates something "we all know is true." 2. Spent 15 minutes on why Dr. Phil is evil. (I know nothing about Dr. Phil, but the main objection wasn't that he did bad therapy, it was that he was too focused on traditional heterosexual families). 3. Compared Bush to Hitler three times, and each one came with a "this isn't out of bounds - it's the truth!" type comment from other people in the class (and once from the instructor). 4. Did an in-depth discussion of exactly why narrow minded religious people are a danger to America. Why? They have moral absolutes that they refuse to give in on and are incapable of dialogue with other viewpoints (no one saw the implicit irony).
I should have brought a tape recorder to that class - it was almost too perfect an example. I thought I was being had, but unfortunately it’s all too real. A friend of mine in sociology mentioned she had a similar experience with a Communications class. In her words, class time resembled a group therapy session where angry liberals complained all social injustices and railed against conservatives - there was no real discussion of, y'know, communications.
It's all good, I suppose.
I have no idea how a conservative could survive in the Communications department on our campus. At least in our classes, we spend some time discussing the texts at hand. In the Communications department, there are no central "texts" so class pretty much becomes a "let's rant about how much we hate conservatives and Bush for two hours" type thing.
The other day in class we: 1. Watched a music video called "Bush don't like Black people" and discussed how it entertainingly illustrates something "we all know is true." 2. Spent 15 minutes on why Dr. Phil is evil. (I know nothing about Dr. Phil, but the main objection wasn't that he did bad therapy, it was that he was too focused on traditional heterosexual families). 3. Compared Bush to Hitler three times, and each one came with a "this isn't out of bounds - it's the truth!" type comment from other people in the class (and once from the instructor). 4. Did an in-depth discussion of exactly why narrow minded religious people are a danger to America. Why? They have moral absolutes that they refuse to give in on and are incapable of dialogue with other viewpoints (no one saw the implicit irony).
I should have brought a tape recorder to that class - it was almost too perfect an example. I thought I was being had, but unfortunately it’s all too real. A friend of mine in sociology mentioned she had a similar experience with a Communications class. In her words, class time resembled a group therapy session where angry liberals complained all social injustices and railed against conservatives - there was no real discussion of, y'know, communications.
It's all good, I suppose.
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>> They have moral absolutes that they refuse to give in
Wouldn't this be a good thing in most cases? It creates a standard. Then again, standards are "constricting" and "oppressing" to people -- they like to be free as a bird.
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Wouldn't this be a good thing in most cases? It creates a standard. Then again, standards are "constricting" and "oppressing" to people -- they like to be free as a bird.
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