An anonymous sociology graduate has spoken up in an interview for portal DoRzeczy about their experience at one of Poland’s best universities, the University of Warsaw (UW), saying the university is increasingly left-wing and a source for revolutionary communist ideals.
“If we evaluate it based on who is the loudest, then yes. I think, however, that it is not a leftist university to the same extent as American ones are. There are still restrictions on the interference of politics with education at UW. Moreover, in addition to the humanities departments, UW also possesses many others which politics do not influence nearly at all,” he said.
The graduate explained that when it came to sociology at UW, the presence of neo-Marxist currents from Western universities varied from class to class — some focused on analyzing different philosophies in general, while in others professors immediately informed the class about which “tradition of thought” they would borrow from.
He stressed that in sociology, neo-Marxist currents dominated mainly in classes on history and social philosophy; purely left-wing critique without the implementation of conservative critique. What is more, figures from left revolutionary activity were discussed without mentioning the criminal consequences of their philosophies.
The graduate pointed out that the most obvious example were discussions on Marx who was put in line with the greatest sociologists in human history. There were, however, cases when references to Leninism also took place.
“It was as if Marxism and Leninism were ordinary philosophies which did not lead to massive tragedies,” he said.
Another issue which the graduate pointed out was the use of theories of radical thinkers in the syllabus as tools for critique of society, which many critics would claim amounts to abuse when applied in reality to society.
He noted that when it comes to critique of texts during seminars, professors criticized an author who they believe was not critical enough or professors criticized an author using only left-wing authors, or both.
“What was truly shocking was the separation of text from its author. Often, to learn something about an author I had to conduct my own individual research. The element of ‘life’s work’ was omitted very often and considered irrelevant to the discussed topic,” he stated.
The graduate gave another example of left-wing revolutionary influence, when students had to come up with creating a new classless system and consider the necessities and obstacles in its implementation — yet another example of criticizing reality and not text material.
Interestingly, the students always discussed revolution itself and never what would happen after it was achieved.
On the other hand, the former student underlined that if one listened carefully they could learn some valuable things: a leftist revolution must take over the entire world because otherwise it will not work.
“Unless it takes over the entire world, there will never be true communism. This would explain why Marxist will never just lock themselves up in a single country and try out their ideas,” he said.
The graduate concluded the interview by explaining that UW and other universities are in actuality forges for revolutionary cadres.
“I’m unsure as to what the future holds, but the number of students specialized in Marxist thought will have to find places for themselves. Otherwise, they will break apart from the spirit of revolution which is bursting within them and instilled within them during classes,” he warned.
Title image: A visitor looks towards Lithographs on paper from 1933 called ‘Under the Banner of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin!’ on display at the Tate Modern in the Red Star Over Russia exhibition in London, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017, source: AP Images.
