CATEGORY: EDUCATION (4 MIN)

Reestablishing order in education

Over the past several decades, leftists have seized control of the vast majority of our educational institutions. Conservatives only recently realized the degree to which K-12 schools and universities have degraded. But now we’re fighting back.

In RealClearPolicy, Johnny Burtka, praises the educational reforms happening in Florida: “While each state will have its own unique set of needs and priorities, the transformation of Florida’s education system shows that it’s possible to raise standards, support students and parents, boost teacher compensation, fight radical ideologies, and win the broad support of the public.”

Furthermore, Burtka—president and CEO of ISI—discusses the proactive role that the Intercollegiate Studies Institute is taking to reestablish sanity across educational institutions. This week, we’re hosting our first national faculty conference, the American Politics and Government Summit, in order to “provide scholars with a forum to civilly debate controversial topics and pursue truth.”

Read the full story here.

CATEGORY: MARXISM (9 MIN)

Flattering their father

Although his theories have been shown inaccurate and destructive time and time again, it cannot be said that Karl Marx’s writings had no admirers. Thinkers who have followed in Marx’s footsteps have largely idolized and exalted his material, taking every opportunity they can to sing its praises. 

For the New Criterion, Anthony Daniels reviews one poet who wrote a book with just such praise. The book, Marx’s Literary Style, comes from the mind of Ludovico Silva, a Venezuelan Marxist who died in the late ‘80s. Daniels says that Silva believes all Marx’s writings are “superlative in every way,” and Daniels then proceeds to expose the brazen flattery. 

Daniels highlights issue after issue with Marx’s writing style, from its violent tendencies to its “fundamentally shallow and adolescent” nature to some passages that are “the most unutterable drivel.” But Silva, undeterred, continues to fawn over his idol’s work with no critical tendencies whatsoever.  

It’s a shame, Daniels believes, since Marx and Silva were both highly intelligent—even brilliant—men. Yet mere IQ is not enough to make a philosopher or his devotees worthy of praise. 

Read Daniels’ essay right here. 

CATEGORY: POLITICS (4 MIN)

A new train of thought

The effects of the train derailment and resulting chemical leak in East Palestine, Ohio, may never fully come to light. But one thing is for certain: it presented a chance for both parties to take a popular stand. President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg missed that chance. Could the GOP take it? 

Sohrab Ahmari, in The American Conservative, thinks two senators may have stepped into the spotlight at the right time. Ahmari discusses a letter from Sens. Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance to Buttigieg in which they ask how this disaster could have happened. They press Buttigieg for information on how the U.S. balances efficiency with safety in railroad construction and maintenance. 

Ahmari says this type of inquiry is a great example of where American populism should be headed. By noting the importance of regulation and safety, Ahmari argues, Rubio and Vance are acknowledging the vital role of some government agencies in stopping the excess of huge companies.  

Discover Ahmari’s full reasoning—and why he believes Teddy Roosevelt matters—here.  

Gender: Who Decides?
A Debate on Transgenderism & Womanhood

What does it mean to be a man or a woman? Can you be born a man and actually become a woman? Is identity tangibly attached to something inherent in us, or is it intangible and subjective? Is it merely some social construct or is it embedded in our genes, in our biological identity itself? ​​​​Can we actually conquer our human nature and identity in the same way we seemed to have conquered the other realms of nature? If we try, what are the consequences? 

Join the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Pittsburgh, PA on April 18th at 7 PM as Michael Knowles and Deirdre McCloskey debate womanhood and transgenderism. Register here to attend in-person or online.

Join us in Pittsburgh >>>

Because our student editors and writers are bravely bringing conservative ideas to their campuses, we’re highlighting their efforts here.

CATEGORY: HISTORY (18 MIN)

Expectation v. reality

The Marxist theories that led to the creation of Communist states may have promised great wealth and freedom to their people. But the reality that those people faced across the world, and especially in Soviet Russia, was a disaster likely crueler than their worst nightmares. 

For our Intercollegiate Review archive, the late Ralph Raico in a 1988 article dives into the tragic history of early Bolshevik Russia, shining a spotlight on the true results of applying Marxist policies on a national scale. He discusses the horrific spate of executions by the secret police, the devastating famines that killed millions, and the destruction of peasant life in Ukraine. 

The Soviets, according to Raico, swept these atrocities under the rug to try and keep their Marxist reputation sterling. But this was a natural result of their radical beliefs, Raico says. 

“I suggest that what we have here, in the sheer willfulness of Trotsky and the other Bolsheviks, in their urge to replace God, nature, and spontaneous social order with total, conscious planning by themselves, is something that transcends politics in any ordinary sense of the term,” Raico writes. 

Read the entirety of Raico’s article through the Ludwig von Mises Institute here. 

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