SIDNEY HOOK
209
not been pauperized . Marx never anticipated the rise of totali–
tarianism either in its Fascist or Stalinist form. The first attempt at a
Socialist revolution came not where he expected it but where his own
theory of historical materialism asserted it was impossible . He
himself had declared in
Die Deutsche Ideologie,
in the very year that he
became a Marxist , that a high degree of "development of productive
forces . .. is an absolutely necessary practical premise [of com–
munism] because without it, privation,
want
is merely made general,
and with
want
the struggle for necessities would begin again, and all
the old shitty business would be restored .
n2
And as if to prove him
right on this point, the very countries , the Soviet Union and China,
which in defiance of his predictions, socialized their economies, are
now jettisoning collectivist principles, while retaining the Leninist
state , a perversion of the Marxist ideal which never envisaged the
absolute dictatorship of a minority party based on brutal force as an
expression of a democratic , socialist commonwealth .
Indoctrination
IS
a process of teaching through which accep–
tance of belief is induced by nonrational or irrational means, or
both.
It
may be unavoidable when teaching very young children
who must acquire certain social habits before they are mature
enough to understand their justification. But it has no place what–
soever in the curriculum of a liberal arts college . Any course of study
that does not consider, where relevant, dissenting views where mat–
ters of opinion are involved , especially in the fields of the humanities
and social studies , is an exercise in indoctrination , and often un–
disguised. That is the source of so much pedagogical concern and ,
except among partisan and fanatical elements, on many campuses
intelligent student rejection of Black Studies , Feminist Studies,
Chicano Studies , etc ., in which only one position is heard on con–
troversial issues about which reasonable men and women may dif–
fer . Whoever heard of a teacher in Black Studies who does not
believe in
total
divestment of American corporation holdings in
South Africa , regardless of its effects on the local black population,
or who agrees with the Zulu chief Buthelezi, spokesman for a con–
siderable portion, if not a majority, of the black population? Who–
ever has heard of an antifeminist or of someone who agrees with
Eleanor Roosevelt's opinion of the Equal Rights Amendment teach–
ing in Women's Studies? Or a teacher of Chicano Studies who dares
to agree with American policy in Salvador, Nicaragua, or even Gre-
2. Ibid., Volume 5,
p.
49.
