© “Allegory of Bad Government,” by Ambrogio Lorenzetti; painted ca. 1338-1340.
Seventy years ago, the thankless task of ideological indoctrination in Polish universities fell upon the communist leadership and their approved instructors. The people would learn what was best for them, even if it killed them. Today, by contrast, the students seem perfectly happy to indoctrinate themselves. No government coercion necessary. Things have a way of coming full circle, and then some! "
The Legutko Affair," covered in last month's issue of
The Postil should demonstrate that. But before discussing the present state of affairs, we must return to the past. The time is 1951, just a few years after the imposition of communism. The place: the gothic lecture hall at Jagiellonian University, Professor Legutko's alma mater.
Previously, students had heard lectures here by scholars like Roman Ingarden, a student of Husserl. But when the students were herded into the hall that year to attend the recently introduced Marxist-Leninist indoctrination lectures, a new man appeared at the lectern, informing them he was to be their new professor. This particular class of students — soon to graduate with degrees in psychology — were about to learn some important lessons about the nature of totalitarianism. In a twisted way, these were actually lessons in psychology, though that certainly was not their professor's intention.
First of all, the man spoke nonsense unfitting of a university, and the students immediately recognized this — or at least
most of them did. Second, he wasn't even a real professor. The students soon discovered that he had attended high school, but it was unclear if he had ever actually graduated. Third, this new "professor" treated the students with contempt and barely concealed hatred.
His tyrannical teaching style mirrored that of the communist party leadership — whom he had to thank for his new, "socially advanced" position.
Comment: Observation would yield the idea that while the citizens of Israel is being used to test out the extremes of vaccination protocols, Australia and New Zealand are labs for gaming the limits of societal controls that can be imposed. New World Order indeed.