<p>I recently opted to take an introductory Sociology class over the summer, and boy is it proving to be a mistake. The professor teaching the class is so out of line it's unreal -- in any given lecture he will spend nearly 2 out of the 3 hours turning the forum into a full blown Alinsky Session, replete with noxious postulations such as the notion that the electoral system should be eradicated and replaced with a system of bureaucrats (this would have prevented the manipulation of the Gore/Bush election, he says) and that anyone making under $250,000 a year should be given a stipend by the government. I mean, as a Libertarian I despise Republicans just as much as the next thinking person, but to listen to this inane drivel targeted at them is making me feel suffocated.</p>
<p>What should I do? He's only a lecturer, so he doesn't have tenure.</p>
<p>I was going to say that the Marxist Perspective is a major branch of sociology, but none of what you describe even resembles Marxism. The guy’s just a jackass who’s trying to push his personal views, the way you describe it. Are other students complaining?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, most of the students in the class are highly uneducated and seem to absorb whatever he tells them. Like most intelligent people, he’s very good at disengaging the rather dimmer students who try to quarrel with him. I, on the other hand, he won’t even attempt to grapple with. I raise my hand and he just ignores me. He’s so radical that I believe he might discriminate against me in relation to grading. He seems like the type who views anyone who’s not a comrade as the enemy.</p>
<p>To protect your gpa, I would advise against ‘rocking the boat’ so to speak. I would keep my views to myself, and as someone else said, just remember that the summer is almost over.</p>
<p>I had a similar professor my first semester. Just learn his views and spit them back at him for a good grade. Don’t argue, it won’t get you anywhere.</p>
<p>It is Marxism. Just apply critical thinking to CB’s points. It’s the whole social justice egalitarianism thing being run by govt and bureaucrats coming through and the promotion of democracy ( tyranny of the majority) to uproot federalism—a very good check on majority rule alone.</p>
Marxism is communism. Communism is a world, classless, stateless society in which the means of production are controlled by the workers. Marx advocated complete democracy, a system where income disparities didn’t exist, and was against a state capable of giving out such hand-outs (and any system in which they would be needed). What this guy describes is a social democracy, but without the democracy. So a social bureaucracy.</p>
<p>Just to give you an idea that it works both ways. While at Directional State U in the 80’s the prof. of Geography was doing his best to convince us that the French (and other Europeans in general) were not as ‘high tech’ as we are here in the US because “they make they own cheese and live in little houses”. Having grown up in Europe and having visited France a few times I kind of got into arguments with him and ended up with a nice round “C” for my work.</p>
<p>My classmates did enjoy learning about Minitel, TGV, and many other things the ‘primitive’ French came up with :-)</p>
<p>The best thing to do is to be the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. Organize like-minded students to make a formal complaint. A written letter of complaint tends to get attention. Avoid making your complaints political in nature, do not come across as attacking the professor merely because your views differ. I would say something like “while sociology is a subject that will inherently touch on political topics, I feel an introductory college class ought to be about learning positive (i.e. non-normative) social science and where various schools of thought are presented as a buffet of existing options rather than advocated. I feel that sermonizing on one’s political views when one holds a position of authority over a captive audience of students is unprofessional.”</p>
<p>The most likely thing that will happen is that the professor will be told to tone down the rhetoric in light of complaints, especially if your letter of complaint makes mention that the offending professor’s actions have been reported to alumni organizations and the parents of the students involved.</p>
<p>The worst thing to do would be to just argue with the guy all of the time in class.</p>
<p>BTW, as a fellow libertarian let me agree with those who said that what you quoted does not constitute Marxism. I highly recommend the book Marxism by Sowell (a former Marxist and current libertarian, whose interpretation of Marxism decades after his conversion to the right is identical to what it was when he was a dedicated Marxist), a thorough, objective, myth-busting explanation of what it was that Marx actually wrote and taught about, instead of being filtered through a century-plus of other peoples’ ignorant opinions piled on top. Saves you the time of actually reading Capital.</p>
<p>But it really helps to have a basic working knowledge of the history of economic thought, primarily the classical economists and the marginal revolution, so you understand how Marx fits in.</p>
<p>You’ll gain a newfound respect for Marx while continuing to disagree with his philosophy, you’ll be surprised by all of the opinions he did <em>not</em> express but which have been attributed to him, you’ll have a better understanding of Marx’s teachings on value (he did <em>not</em> have a labor “theory” of value as is commonly claimed), and you’ll be better able to debate with modern-day quasi-Marxian people you run into.</p>