Response to David Horowitz

I want to respond to David Horowitz’s criticisms of my teaching of Marx. Horowitz points to my web page, The Failure of Revolution, which, he says “faces the fact that Marx’s predictions about revolution have been refuted by history.” But he criticizes me because I go on to say “We can understand the failure of a revolution to occur as Marx predicted in Marx’s terms. The conditions that Marx expected to bring about a revolution did not arise. And we can give a powerful social class based explanation of the failure of those conditions to arise.” Thus Horowitz concludes that my point is that “In other words, even though Marx was wrong, he was right, and we can all be Marxists – or neo-Marxists – now.” To say that this is my point is both to take one sentence entirely out of  context and to hold an absurd view of… Continue reading

Academic Freedom at Temple

David Horowitz, the leftist turned rightist who made a fortune as a best selling biographer of Kennedys and Fords, and who has recently been criticizing left wing radicals in our universities, turned up at a State House of Representatives hearing held at Temple last month. He has been pushing an “academic bill of rights” that would, among other things, prohibit professors from using their classrooms “to advocate for their political and partisan views on controversial matter that are irrelevant to their field of expertise” or “pressure students into adopting their personal opinions;” and that would also prohibit them from “grading students on the basis of their political, social or religious opinions.” I had thought that Horowitz’s campaign had some merit. I have learned however, that Horowitz is about as interested in fair and balanced teaching as Fox News is interested in fair and balanced reporting. Continue reading

I have seen the future of progressive politics in Philadelphia and her name is Cherelle Parker

I have seen the future of progressive politics in Philadelphia and her name is Cherelle Parker Cherelle won a special election for State Representative in the 200th district in September. Come see her tonight (Thursday, February 9) at her reelection campaign kick-off at 7:00 pm at Lakey’s Restaurant, 8215 Stenton Ave, Philadelphia, PA. Continue reading

Gambling and Its Alternatives at Wissahickon and Hunting Park

The Budd Company site, at the corner of Wissahickon and Hunting Park Avenues, is one of four potential sites in the city for a gambling casino. Residents from the immediately adjoining neighborhoods, Nicetown and East Falls, have joined together to oppose gambling at this location. I believe that residents and community associations throughout the Northwest ought to join our neighbors in this fight. Continue reading

Athens and Betty Friedan

On Tuesday I will conclude my teaching of “The Funeral Oration of Pericles” to my students in Temple’s Intellectual Heritage Program. (IH is a great books program required of all students.) I will spend a significant portion of the class talking about people who are barely mentioned in the text, the women of Athens. I do this because no other female citizens of a political community in all of Western history were more oppressed than the Athenian women. Continue reading

A Proposal to Ban Smoking

Thank You Councilwoman Marian Tasco It is time to ban smoking in restaurants and bars in Philadelphia. The health consequences for both patrons and staff are well-documented. And there is a better chance for this to happen soon, now that Marian Tasco has introduced smoking-ban legislation to Council. Councilwoman Tasco’s relationship with Mayor Street is not much more warm and fuzzy than Councilman Nutter’s. But getting the smoking issue out from under the ongoing tension between Street and Nutter has to be a help. Continue reading

The Price of Freedom

Defenders of liberty are fond of quoting Thomas Jefferson’s dictum that “it does me no injury for my neighbor to say that there are twenty Gods or no God.” But, while liberty has never had as great a champion as Jefferson, this statement misleads us about the price of freedom and why it is worth paying. For the truth is that liberty and freedom can injure us both as individuals and as a political community. Those who are willing to support freedom only when the costs are low, are just fair weather friends of freedom. Consider some of the burdens of freedom. First, there is the expense of protecting the exercise of liberty. Unpopular groups engaged in political protest require police protection and make de­mands on sanitation departments as well. Second, our security is, on occasion, compromised by the exercise of free speech. The invocation of national security as a means… Continue reading