As I have stated in previous blogs, my 1970s studies in English Literature were absolutely devoid of political innuendo. Indeed two of my university professors of Asian-Indian ethnicity, Drs. Aziz and Juneja, clearly loved the literature they were teaching without ever suggesting it had been imposed on them by their British Imperialist Oppressors. It was a time in which Man’s capacity for Intelligence and Creativity took precedence over the Neo-Marxist narrative that everything is about “oppression.”
A Sept. 26 article in the National Post by Terry Newman exposes the extent to which the Left’s hatred of Western Civilization has come to infect significant portions of Canada’s youth, those who may very well shape the very future of our country. Her article focuses on the handbook recently released by Concordia University’s Student’s Union, an annual publication apparently intent on informing the student body how best to approach the year ahead of them. Implicit in this year’s book, Newman says, is the notion that Western Universities are but the means by which the Rich and Powerful produce the Serfs willing to submit to a system through which the former intend to become even more Rich and Powerful! Yes, what appears to be about Education and Enlightenment is actually but a byproduct of Capitalist Greed!
Aside from Capitalism, pretty much every other aspect of the West is demonized in the Concordia handbook. Democratic Elections, it is suggested, change little, and citizens need to engage in direct action to achieve real Social Justice. Assuming such actions may be deemed criminal by some, it refutes the notion “that safety and protection necessitate policing and criminalization.” It refutes, in other words, the very Concept of Law and Order. Predictably, it also condemns the ability of Western leaders to control the flow of immigration into their domains as racist and xenophobic. The concept of the Nation State, apparently, is just so much nonsense.
But most distressing of all, Ms. Newman insists, is the Student Union’s perspective on the present conflict in the Middle East. Radically anti-Israeli, it both encourages and celebrates pro-Palestinian demonstrations while expressing outrage at the arrest of various individuals with ties to groups such as Hamas. The 1925 handbook, apparently, celebrated Nakba Day, May 15, 1948, the day Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, etc., invaded Israel in response to its declaration of Nationhood. That declaration, it is implied, was just another example of Western, Colonialist Arrogance. The facts, however, show Jews to be Indigenous to the Middle East through all of recorded history, and the notion that they are somehow imperialist intruders is a brazen lie!
Free Speech is an integral aspect of our Western Democracies, to be tolerated even when the views being expressed are ignorant. Yet one wonders what the authorities at Concordia U. might have done had its Students Union celebrated the amazing accomplishments of Western Civilization, the obvious benefits of Free Enterprise, the need to defend the Rule of Law and our National Borders, and indeed to support the only truly civilized nation in the Middle East! While Terry Newman does not presume to know what percentage of Canadians support the radical views of Concordia’s student union, her intention was clearly to expose the extent to which Leftist Politics have come to infect even our Institutions of Higher Learning. Had Concordia’s handbook promoted Conservative views, there is no doubt it would have been cancelled as an expression of Hatred. Such is the bias of the contemporary West, a Civilization suicidally intent on repudiating both the Ideas upon which it was founded as well as every aspect of its Historical Past. And yet millions around the rest of the world have been intent on violating the borders of both the Nations of Western Europe and North America, in the hope of benefitting from their Amazing Achievements. Truly bizarre!