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TechnoratiStanford Campus in Uproar Over Fellowship For Rumsfeld
Academics and students at California's prestigious Stanford University have launched a vigorous protest against the appointment of Donald Rumsfeld as a visiting fellow to a right-wing campus think-tank, saying the former defence secretary and architect of the Iraq war offends their ideals of truth and tolerance.
Mr Rumsfeld's appointment as a one-year visiting fellow to the Hoover Institution was announced two weeks ago. Since then, more than 2,300 people on campus have signed a petition calling for the appointment to be revoked - among them an eminent professor of psychology who specialises in the wellsprings of bestial human behaviour.
The professor, Philip Zimbardo, lambasts Mr Rumsfeld in his most recent book, arguing that the defence secretary established the conditions that allowed low-ranking US military personnel to abuse Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Explaining his support for the petition, Professor Zimbardo told The New York Times: "It is unacceptable to have someone who represents the values that Rumsfeld has portrayed, in an academic setting."
The petition, drafted by a history professor, Pamela Lee, reads: "We view the appointment as fundamentally incompatible with the ethical values of truthfulness, tolerance, disinterested enquiry, respect for national and international laws and care for the opinions, property and lives of others to which Stanford is inalienably committed."
The university has defended its choice, saying Rumsfeld's experience at the very pinnacle of government makes him a desirable presence on campus regardless of people's opinions of him. Assuming the appointment goes ahead, he is expected to visit Stanford no more than five times over the year-long lifetime of the fellowship. He may give lectures but he won't do any classroom teaching.
The furore is part of an old pattern at Stanford. The Hoover Institution is a well known haven for right-wing ideologues and former Republican politicians, among them Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, and George Shultz, Ronald Reagan's secretary of state. That, in turn, pits the Institution against the more liberal leanings of Stanford. Condoleezza Rice, the present Secretary of State, was provost of Stanford before being called to Washington by President Bush and endured bitter criticisms from campus liberals during her stormy six-year tenure. She has indicated her intention to return to Stanford when the second Bush term ends in 2009, but some faculty members have said she will not be welcomed back.
In the late 1980s, a campus protest successfully sabotaged a plan to house Ronald Reagan's presidential library on the Stanford campus. More recently, campus protesters forced President Bush to cancel plans for a dinner with Mr Shultz at the university.
Professor Zimbardo, most famous for conducting the so-called Stanford prison experiment in the 1970s, in which students asked to play the role of prison guards quickly became sadistic and students asked to play their prisoners became passive and depressed, has been particularly outspoken about Mr Rumsfeld's role in prison abuse scandals.
Mr Rumsfeld, he writes in his latest book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Become Evil, created the conditions for troops to commit war crimes and torture by sidelining and disparaging the Geneva Conventions.
© 2007 The Independent
31 Comments so far
Show AllWhy don't they let him coach their football team? ___ He talks tough.
Editor Yan Liang of China View printed the story "Columbia University's invitation to Iranian leader draws mixed reactions" which states that "The dean of SIPA, John Coatsworth, defended the invitation as an exercise in good citizenship. 'Opportunities to hear, challenge, and learn from controversial speakers of different views are central to the education and training of students for citizenship in a shrinking and dangerous world,' […]. Is Stanford's invitation to Rumsfeld not exhibiting the same "exercise in good citizenship?" How is it that it is ok to invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia University, while it is not ok to invite a dedicated American political figure to working, thinking and writing at Hoover Institute? This Iranian president has expressed his contempt towards the Jewish race and his wish to do away with them as a whole. He has even gone so far as to host a conference of Holocaust deniers. Along with this, he has expressed a hatred of Americans. Rumsfeld, although you may not agree with his decisions, has only acted in a way in which he felt best able to defend the country. The protestors don't want him even on the Stanford campus although the worst commenters have said about him is that he was in charge when Abu Ghraib happened. If it is ok to host President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, despite his outspoken hateful views, than I think students should embrace Rumsfeld's ideas and the actions he has committed with the countries best interests involved.
Oops, sorry. That Richard Mellon Scaife.
The Hoover Institute is a semi-autonomous organization on the Stanford campus funded largely by John Mellon Scaife. It is no surprise that a fascist war criminal such as Rumsfeld is more than welcome there.
my favorite rummy story:
due to a problem with long term erections rummy has to wear iced shorts. read about it here:
http://superelectric.blogspot.com/2006/04/does-donald-rumsfeld-ice-his.html
no wonder he is always scowling.
hemingway often used the word rummy in his stories to describe some of his characters.
rummy:
- drunkard: a chronic drinker
- curious: beyond or deviating from the usual or expected; "a curious hybrid accent"; "her speech has a funny twang"; "they have some funny ideas about war"; "had an odd name"; "the peculiar aromatic odor of cloves"; "something definitely queer about this town"; "what a rum fellow"; "singular behavior"
but, you know, at the end of the day, when lights are low, when it is all said and done, when the cow is back in the barn and we are reflecting on the little adventure called rummy (murder, torture, lies, high crimes, treason, genocide and and so on) we can be comforted by rummy's observation that:
stuff happens.
Re: separating radical thought into a safe academic haven. Just for the sake of irony, can we admit the same thing about the internet/blogosphere? Colbert took that on with respect to the tasering incident; I know I have sure written a lot about it to a lot of like minded people, and even to some who aren't............ That's our freedom of speech = freedom to vent. Venting keeps the system safe.
Rummy was a student of Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago and he has spent his life creating chaos throughout the world in the name of "free" market capitalism. His persistance in advocating a bankrupt economic theory should be rewarded with a room in a mental hospital; not a fellowship at Stanford.
pleasethink:
I cannot agree with you entirely. In times like ours, when the media is a monopoly, when "real news" is relagated to the inner pages of the press and banned from TV, a refusal to accept a public figure such as Rumsfeld gets into the news circuit.
Rumsfeld pranced and pivoted before the cameras almost everyday for years, held a pinnacle position from where he presided over one of the worst military interventions in history or at least on par with "Custer's Last Stand," or the "Charge of the Light Brigade," helped send subaltern personnel to prison for policies he instigated with the rest of this administration.
Now a few more people will hear about his shabby but never reprimmanded conduct, at least for a moment before history is rewritten.
Of course you are right, so many thinkers producing thoughts for a people who do not think or value thought is discouraging. Artists too were thrust to the outskirts until the "Art Market" was invented, but when we look at the past so little remains other than thought and art.
true enuff, pleasethink, to some degree, but eventually and inevitably the university itself comes under assault. it is not sufficient in the end that "liberals" are tolerated in academic settings (and even here, we are only talking a pretty thin slice of academia, humanities, social sciences, etc., not bizness, law, science, etc., the real breadwinners for the university system. these areas are all thoroughly coopted by the corporate-military-statist agenda. just look around: ward churchill, norman finkelstein, etc., contrarian academes are being warned.)
I make the following comment as someone who has been thoroughly ensconced within the hallowed halls of academia for most of my adult life:
Italian philosopher of fascism and hegemony (i.e. power structures) Antonio Gramsci explained that universities provide the State with a means to separate liberal-minded, progressive intellectuals from the political sphere. They are sort of a holding pen, where people like me (and perhaps some of you out there) can think all of their radical thoughts about social change, talk about them in class to students barreling towards the positions made possible for them in the economy, and stay safely at a distance from the wheels of power.
I am aware of my own irrelevance. Whatever is going on at Stanford, in the grand scheme of things, won't make any difference.
What can this visiting fellow, "Shock and Oil" terrorist, teach at any university? They have to haul his ass to The Hague for crimes against humanity.
Hoover Institute housed Milton Friedman in his latter years.
Stanford is the academic heart of Silicon Valley which has its share of military contracts.
"experience at the very pinnacle" is most important to Stanford. Ethics have nothing to do with it.
How liberal are the liberals at Stanford? Maybe just enough, ehh?
"The university has defended its choice, saying Rumsfeld's experience at the very pinnacle of government makes him a desirable presence on campus regardless of people's opinions of him."
Another 'Trophy Criminal' for Stanford to show off to its ever adoring and financially supportive 'base' of criminally enterprising contributors and benefactors!
Ahhh...The sweet taste of good ol' fashioned revolving backdoor corporate-governmental maneuvering...
Could someone please pass the salad?
I'm feeling all fresh and zesty again!
"The university has defended its choice, saying Rumsfeld's experience at the very pinnacle of government makes him a desirable presence on campus regardless of people's opinions of him."
Does this apply to foreign/visiting fellowships also?
For instance, Saddam Hussein would have met this requirement as well.
This Stanford alum is already not giving because of Coni and whichever right wingnut they contributed to the US Supreme Court.
The Republican right (wrong) believes the govt and the nation only exist to serve the rich and powerful.
Actually the real reason I'm not giving is that the human race does not seem to have or deserve a future.
First of all we're animals, though; and "morality" is just one of many tools used by the powerful to control those further down the food chain.
Some wingnuts must give $$$$ to Hoover, or maybe it's just Halburton, Bectel, Blackwater, Mobil/Exxon, MSM, RJR Nabisco, Big Drugs, and all the other ruthless predators on the top of the food chain.
Don't feel useless, Rummy.
You can always be used as a bad example.
Who gets to decide that Rummy deserves to be granted a fellowship? I bet you'd find an interesting network of connections if you looked into backgrounds and associations and money trails over the past two or three decades. Hey . . . wasn't Condi a professor there? That, I'm sure, is just for starters.
"The university has defended its choice, saying Rumsfeld's experience at the very pinnacle of government makes him a desirable presence on campus regardless of people's opinions of him."
Is this a tenable argument? The "Ivy League" logic of this particular board would astound even the most misguided creatures walking the planet, creationists. Let me see, by the same logic can anyone else name ten people, dead or alive, that would be "a desirable presence on Stanford's campus.?" I'll start with the first ten cretons. How 'bout the last ten scumbags to resign in disgrace from the current administration in the last four years? Gee, they're just peachy keen!!!
Hi all,
Just a tidbit of opinion from a old friend of mine....
My friend has worked for various scientific companies and had to meet with the board of directors to work out product concepts, production and budget concerns, etc. Donald Rumsfeld is on many of these boards and influences these outcomes. My friend's several contacts with Rumsfeld has led him to describe Rumsfeld as "a dim bulb."
"I will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do." Where have I read this before?
Remind me again why Stanford is so "prestigious". I thought the inflated grades scandal in the 90s would have put to rest the illusion of Stanford's elite status. It was something like 60-70% of students were receiving 4.0 GPA over a several year period. They were investigated and officially censured. The investigation would have cut a lot deeper if it wasn't for the connectedness of alumni and staff such as Condi Rice.
Stanford is simply a Pac-10 school where who you know (or who you are) counts for a lot more than what you know. Christ-all-mighty, Condi was the f%$#ing provost. Stanford deserves the likes of Ronald Dumbsfeld and the right-wing think-tank, which, of course, is an oxymoron!
Remember, his full name is Donald Aspartame Rumsfeld. He laid the marker down early in his career that he would not let anything, even human wellbeing, stand in his way when there was a chance to make money.
As you know, you go to Stanford University with the Hoover Institution you have. They're not the Hoover Institution you might want or wish to have at a later time.
Will they feel differently once Rummy gets his Medal of Freedom Award? :-)
RCPMAC. Thank you for the sobering lesson. I should have known I was full of it before I bothered to post any dumbass remarks. Guess i'll just shut up from now on and absorb the knowledge given by television programs, ___ join the "moral" or ignorant majority.
When military embeds your thinking institutions, then thought itself leans towards a martial concept of nationalism, history, and ethics and all disciplines similarly move further towards a respect for the military. All these devices are wearing away at any semblance of democratic ideals, so that as the nation begins to use its prison camps, silence dissent more and more, and probably burn books and jail intelligent academics (where have we seen this exact program model utilized before?) there is little response. The conditioning is in place. It's in place when media does the dumb-down dance, when food does not nourish, when schools demand conformity in the name of education, when protest zones are cordoned off (and protesters tazer'd), when TV celebrates the image of the police breaking down THE door... so that when those boots come walking, there is no reaction. IMPRINTING and conditioning of mass consciousness is doing its pavlov thing as we write away on this board. Some contributors have played with the idea that WE could be on the next shit-list. I always wonder about that when I fly. Nice to know people with power boats in the Florida Keys for what it's worth. As I said a few weeks ago, these times have most certainly caught up with the paranoids!
ALOHA !!
How is it these idiots keep getting awards and appointments? In the words of Bush ... "Good job Browny!" ... GOOD JOB RUMMY !!!
Keep voting Rep and Dem and this is the result. Someone please make a list of all the successes of the Rep and Dem policies over the past 40 years ...
Based on their track record I would not hire any of these politicians to even mow my yard much less vote for them!
I was going to post, but rcpmac said it all! Rumsfield = evil.
Kem wrote; "If and when college students across the entire nation become activists and begin to demonstrate against the Bush administration, we'll have a chance of regaining our Constitution and our Bill Of Rights."
Not going to happen. Their attention is on paris, britney, and youtube's lonelygirl15. Reinstate the draft and this generation will wake up.
I still attend the rallies and protests and the majority are still boomers.
Regarding the constitution, 90% of congress doesn't understand or respect it. How can one expect the citizenry to.
Looking for democracy? Look elsewhere. The experiment of democratic capitalism has failed. It's just a matter of time for the classes to assume their positions as 1% haves and 99% have-nots.
I think Rumsfeld should be waterboarded.
If and when college students across the entire nation become activists and begin to demonstrate against the Bush administration, we'll have a chance of regaining our Constitution and our Bill Of Rights.
When the Kent State incident occurred, it was the real beginning of the end of the war in Vietnam. After that, the press didn't prevent the Watergate story from being persued either. I do hope college students at every university are aware of Common Dreams.