Flagged for NSA surveillance:
If you haven't found me yet, let me be the first to inform you that I am in fact a revolutionary. In fact, I'm David Horowitz's worst nightmare (and I'm going to make his expanded hitlist if it's the last thing I do): I'm a tenured professor in the liberal arts in a Red State university with a strong and cohesive academic-freedom policy, and my intent is revolution. I want to change paradigms. I want to problematize students' presumptions and expand their horizons. I want to learn from, rather than ignore, the lessons of the past. I want to listen to the poor, brown, outcaste people of the world for the insights they have which the technological West has lost. I want to drive a stake through the heart of consumerism and teach people how to take culture back into their own hands.
Here is a partial list of what I'd do for the revolution:
- I'd pay $4/gallon for gas if 25% went toward developing green alternatives
- I'd take a 20% faculty pay cut if it would force my university to pay staff a decent wage
- I'd patronize public clinics and nurse-practitioners exclusively if it would enable universal health care coverage
- I'd sell my TV if it would destroy the mass-media advertising business
- I'd walk to work every day if 20% of the other people in my town would do the same
- I'd do without strawberries 8 months out of the year if it would encourage consumers to buy locally and green
- I'd volunteer 20% of my time in community service if even 10% of the population would do the same
- I would in fact take a bullet for any one of my students, dimwits as well as superstars
- I'd go to jail to stop illegal wars
- I'd sacrifice tenure if we could get a more communal, less corporate model, and free access for all, in American college education
And I won't live in fear that an intellectual half-pint like David Horowitz, or an imbecilic frat-boy "hospitality captain" like George Bush, or a sadistic coward like Dick Cheney, might find out.
Bring it on.
No comments:
Post a Comment