A Message from Noam Chomsky

As usual, Noam Chomsky addresses issues whose existence others refuse to acknowledge.

Chris Hedges On The Perversion Of Scholarship

One of my favorite writers, Chris hedges, continues to do via alternative news what is so rare today in the mainstream media: challenge the status quo.

His latest salvo is against the tyranny of conformity endemic in post-secondary institutions which, he posits, are no longer places where one goes to learn how to think, but rather where one goes to be told what to think.

Hedges suggests that the veneration of athletes and their coaches, admittedly greater in the United States than in Canada, is symptomatic of the pervasive influence of the corporate agenda on places of higher learning.

Hedges reserves his greatest contempt for the Big Ten Conference colleges where, he suggests:

The student is implicitly told his or her self-worth and fulfillment are found in crowds, in mass emotions, rather than individual transcendence. Those who do not pay deference to the celebration of force, wealth and power become freaks. It is a war on knowledge in the name of knowledge.

He says much more in the column, which I hope you will get the opportunity to check out on Truthdig.