The College Fix is reporting that NC State’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean Jeffrey Braden is coming under fire for a controversial passage in an email to students:
“Finally, a bit of advice. The friends you make in college will be your friends for life, and will influence what you do and how you think throughout your life time-so choose wisely. Some of the best friends I made as a student were Plato, Henry David Thoreau, Mao Tse-tung, Margaret Mead, and Maya Angelou. My colleagues are eager to make similar introductions for you!”
For perspective, Chairman Mao was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions through starvation, murder, civil war, and the horrors of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Dean Braden is, assumably, not praising the deceased Chinese Communist for his murderous efforts, and instead making a point that students should read broadly to understand history. But calling one of history’s greatest villains a “friend” is a step too far. Many professors will assign passages from Hitler’s deranged writings for historical perspective, but that hardly makes him a buddy of students. The outrage that would come from referring to Hitler, Mussolini, Pinochet, Franco, or other fascists as “friends” would provoke justified outrage and campus protests. Referring favorably to a mass murderer from the left will probably lead to nothing more than some ineffectual conservative grumbling.
This is probably a error with no Marxist indoctrination intended, but nonetheless one that reveals some intellectual biases in academia.
Hat tip to Andrew Stiles of the National Review and Mark Seelinger of theCollegefix.com.
Wow. If Mao was his friend, how about George Bush?
Oh you are funny, myohmy. Unlike your buddy Obummer (the Marxist), at least Bush loves this country. The big Zero seems to want to destroy it. But what would one expect since most of his administration, czars and cabinet members really do look up to Mao.
This guy may not have wanted to share a beer and a sweet massacre or two with Mao. That’s not the point. The point is that, from his view, the construction doesn’t ring any bells in his tone-deaf, selectively tin ear. To mix metaphors.
If he’s half as smart as a frog, iow qualified for his position, he will be smacking himself in the forehead and wondering how he missed it. Simple. It’s the way he thinks. No judgments allowed.
@Richard-I think you explained the point better than I did. I’m trying to give the Dean the benefit of the doubt, but the fact that he included Mao in his list shows a real ideological blind spot. In what universe would you come up with a list of 5 intellectual “friends” and include a communist dictator?