Washington and Lee University offers a course on ‘How to Overthrow the State’, and they are proud of it

Washington and Lee University is offering a course on “How to Overthrow the State” where students write revolutionary manifestos.

Newt Gringrich, whom I admire and who is generally more analytical, slammed the program and said that it is “another sign of the madness that is taking over higher education”.

With such blindness coming from one of the most brilliant conservative minds, this is unlikely to change anytime soon. For the real madness is that of the Republicans, who have allowed the left to infiltrate and take total control of America’s educational system, manufacturing for 30 years the elites who today run the most powerful corporations in the country, finance the left, and, above all, owns all the major media, which have become Democratic propaganda machines.

And the real question M. Gingrich should ask is: what are we going to do about it? What is our strategy to regain a balanced control? Is there even a strategy? Can you say it louder, M. Gingrich, I cannot hear you.

Washington and Lee University has defended its course titled “How to Overthrow the Government” which requires students to write a revolutionary manifesto, after coming under fire from critics led by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The president of the private liberal-arts university in Virginia on Monday issued a statement defending the course, which is one of 15 introductory writing seminars that first-year students are required to take.

The controversy exploded after the course description gained notice, stating in part:

’This course places each student at the head of a popular revolutionary movement aiming to overthrow a sitting government and forge a better society.’

“How will you attain power? How will you communicate with the masses? How do you plan on improving the lives of the people? How will you deal with the past? From Frantz Fanon to Che Guevara to Mohandas Gandhi and others, we explore examples of revolutionary thought and action from across the Global South,” the course description continues.

Are revolutionaries (aka murderers) like Che Guevara the best choices for learning how to write? Frantz Fanon was a Marxist humanist. Is writing a “manifesto” a good way to teach? Why not studying Pol Pot while he’s at it? Or Arafat? We need criminals to learn how to write? Is “rewriting history” a good place to start? It sounds more like a Marxist “how to” class rather than an actual writing class.

The course tasks students with “producing a Manifesto, drafting a white paper that critically analyzes a particular issue, and writing a persuasive essay on rewriting history and confronting memory.”

Gingrich, who was a professor of history before being elected to Congress, slammed the course offering in a tweet.

Washington and Lee University’s course on “how to overthrow the state” is one further sign of the insanity taking over higher education. The alumni should rise up and show how to overthrow a crazy college administration.

— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) September 4, 2020

In a statement, Washington and Lee President Will Dudley lamented that the course had been “distorted, sensationalized, and turned into political fodder on blogs, television, and social media.”

He said that the goal of the sensational course description was “getting students’ attention and capturing their imagination.”

’What better way to teach the power of writing — the idea that the pen is mightier than the sword — than to ask students to read and evaluate historical texts that aspired to move their original audiences to revolution?’ wrote Dudley.

He noted that both the Declaration of Independence and South Carolina’s 1860 Articles of Secession were required reading in the course.

’The course does not advocate revolution or train students for it. It studies how revolutionaries have written in order to help students become more powerful and persuasive writers,’ wrote Dudley.

He continued that the “overreaction” to the course “calls for reflection on civility,” noting that within the campus, people “disagree about many things, ranging from course titles to the name of the university.”

That is very hypocritical. Dudley claims that the objective of the course was “to attract the students’ attention and capture their imagination” when it actually is meant to train their minds in hatred of America and methods to destabilize a future Republican government, even a democratically elected one.

Dudley does not lack historical sources to train students to think from the best, through the nobility of the ideas that advanced the world: capitalism, for example, which made America great.

His case is more like a Marxist “how-to” course than a writing course, and Dudley knows this perfectly well (unless he too has been brainwashed, which is not to be excluded).

Why not have the students focus on how to improve society by examining the ideas and methods that have actually improved people’s lives, and those that have plunged them into distress, dictatorship, death, famine and misfortune such as communism in Russia, Cuba, and today in North Korea and Venezuela?

Ah yes, because the students would open their eyes and be convinced of the nobility of the country where they live.

I know, we are not all equal under the law. Democrats and minorities enjoy privileges that are not offered to the rest of, and I suppose that the following law applies only to Republicans:

According to Title 18 U.S. Code § 2385, whoever knowingly teaches the overthrow of the US shall be fined and/or imprisoned not more than 20 years & shall be ineligible for employment in the US for 5 years following his conviction.