culture of dishonest

Culture of Dishonesty
By Daniel G. Jennings
What amounts to a culture of dishonesty seems to have developed on some of our college campuses particularly in the liberal arts departments. A culture of dishonesty that seems to be spreading into other areas of American life at an alarming rate.
Take the case of University of Colorado Indian Studies professor, Ward Churchill. Churchill has based his whole career on his self proclaimed Native American heritage, yet a check of Churchill’s genealogy by Rocky Mountain News reporters found no verifiable Native American ancestors in his family tree. The extent of his heritage: one of his male ancestors was married to a Cherokee woman back when George Washington was President. Nor is Churchill a legally recognized member of any Indian Tribe. He was enrolled in one for awhile but tribal leaders took his name off the books when he couldn’t verify his ancestry.* Other aspects of Churchill’s life have been called into question, he claims to have been in combat in Vietnam yet records indicate he was a heavy equipment operator. Churchill also claims to have been involved in the American Indian Movement in the 1970s, yet other members of that group have said he wasn’t there.
So in other words we have a man who is basically a liar and perhaps a fraud teaching at a major university he even served as a department head there for two years. Nor is Churchill alone, Joseph Ellis, a Pulitzer Prize winning history professor at Mt. Holyoke College regularly lied to his students telling them that he had been in combat in the Vietnam War (he hadn’t) and exaggerating his political activities. Ellis’s punishment for lying to his students: a one year suspension, despite his flagrant disregard for the truth Ellis kept his professorship.*
In other words our universities are tolerating fraud on the part of supposed academics, and it’s easy to see why. Many of the so called liberal arts faculties have turned their backs on truth and replaced it with ideology.
The basic beliefs many academics buy into lend themselves to dishonesty for example Marxism. The history of Communism calls Marxism into question and debunks much of it yet vast numbers of college professors teach watered down Marxism to their students. Marxism can only be taught if the true history of the Communist states is ignored or denied. The tiny matter of 100 million people dead at the hands of Communists or the spectacular failures of the communist states must be excluded.
Then there is anti-Americanism this can only be supported by a selective revising of American history in which the achievements of Americans in the past are ignored and atrocities real and imagined played up. For example teaching 19th Century American history in terms of atrocities against Indians while ignoring accomplishments such as the railroads, industrialization and democracy. In many cases, historical events are taken out of context or misrepresented to support Anti-American lies.
Only a culture of dishonesty could support the belief system that has taken root in our so called Liberal Arts faculties. Seeing that the facts don’t support their theses these pseudo scholars either ignore or reinterpret them to support their prejudices. Truth, is effectively vanquished and reality kept out.
Nor is the left alone in propagating the culture of dishonesty. Phillip Johnson, a prominent professor of law at the University of California (who once clerked for US Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren) denies the scientific truth of evolution because it offends his religious beliefs and gets hailed as a hero. Instead he promotes intelligent design a return to 18th century scientific beliefs.
If this culture of dishonesty were restricted to the liberal arts schools it might be of no concern to us but this culture is seeping out into other aspects of our society. We see it in journalism where a number of journalists including a staffer at the mighty New York Times Jayson Blair falsified stories to advance their careers. Influential producers at CBS ran story attacking a politician they didn’t like even though it was based on fabricated documents. We see it in Hollywood where a piece of political propaganda, Fahrenheit 911 is passed off as a documentary and a propagandist, Michael Moore, is hailed as a hero by many. We even see it in the highest councils of government when Presidential staffers deliberately lied to the public, congress and our allies about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq in order to sell the war.
All these cases of deception have one thing in common, the people behind the deception were the products of the universities where the culture of deception has taken hold. They feel they have a right to lie to us, deceive and manipulate us as long it is in a good cause. Truth has no real value to these people all that matters to them is forcing their beliefs on others.
So how do we fight the culture of deception? The answer is simple tell the truth and in the process expose the liars and lies upon which the culture of deception is based upon for what they really are. Then demand higher standards from our colleges and their administrators and demand that honesty and truth be restored to college classrooms before it is too late.
* "Prof’s genealogy is sketchy he offers little clarification" Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News, Feb. 5, 2005.
* "Dismissing Controversial Professor Would Set a Frightening Precedent" Eugene Volokh, Rocky Mountain News, Feb. 5, 2005.