California Universities Now Destroying Books After Digitization

Farenheit 451, 1984 or Brave New World, take your pick. It is ironic but not surprising to learn that the educational institutions in California, the global capital of crazy, whose denizens like to proclaim it is the most liberal and progressive state in the Union, is the place where book burning in the free world has begun. Now let me say at this juncture there is nothing intrinsically wrong with burning books if they are damaged or surplus to requirements but when the book burning is an effort to destroy a document of record that once commited to print cannot be changed, the initiative takes on a more sinister aspect. Anybody who has even a competent amateur's understanding of how the internet's storage and retrieval systems work will understand that digital media is not a suitable means of ensuring a definitive and unalterable record of information exists.

A few years ago Californian  universities were caught removing and even destroying library books after digitizing them, a process critics warn leads to 1984-style censorship in which only “corrected” copies of books remain. UC Berkeley in particular was found to have removed 135,000 books from its school library, claiming that by digitizing the books, library space can be reused for meeting rooms and “nap pods.”  

Putting aside the fact that libraries have existed since the Middle Ages as vaults of knowledge safe from tampering; in comparison, the way universities are disappearing books after digitizing them allows anyone with a “politically correct” agenda a way to alter books during digitization – including important texts on history, science and humanities – without anyone ever knowing. Academics and supporters of the political left (where the virtual book - burning mentality seems to reside,) may protest that the people who run universities would never do such a thing, but stories like this give the lie to such self - righteous bollocks:


An Iowa State University instructor has issued a warning to students that if they express opinion that isn’t in line with support for Black Lives Matter protesters, or if they hold pro-life opinions they could be dismissed from the institution.
“No arguments against gay marriage, abortion, Black Lives Matter, etc.”

The Young America’s Foundation (YAF) raised a red flag over the warning on a syllabus by Chloe Clark, in which she wrote “Any instances of othering that you participate in intentionally (racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, sorophobia, transphobia, classism, mocking of mental health issues, body shaming, etc.) in class are grounds for dismissal from the classroom.” CONTINUE READING >>>
Clark added “The same goes for any papers/projects. You cannot choose any topic that takes at its base that one side doesn’t deserve the same basic human rights as you do (i.e. no arguments against gay marriage, abortion, Black Lives Matter, etc.)”
The Daily Caller notes that the YAF was alerted to the warning through its Campus Bias Tip Line.
Continue reading >>>

Exposing the bigotry and hypocrisy of the left in such stories makes no difference however, these people are so full of their own virtue they see what they are doing as righting history's wrongs rather than suppressing free speech and other inalienable human rights.

The removal of 60% of the physical collection at the science library of the University of California, Santa Cruz, for instance, caused an uproar after it was reported that many of the books removed had been destroyed, a story reported the Christian Science Monitor revealed. “A campus spokesman said that nothing had been lost from the scholarly record, since duplicates were retained in other libraries or available online.”

“Given the short timeframe and seeming lack of consultation of the faculty, however, many critics expressed doubts that this was actually the case.” 

This, of course, draws parallels to the novel 1984, in which the protagonist, Winston, works at the Ministry of Truth altering books and important texts while sequentially destroying the original sources to hide the evidence of tampering. In reality, it’s certainly plausible that SJW student-workers digitizing books at a university could “correct for history” by altering or downright removing passages from books that don’t conform to their world view.

Remember, these are the same activists who demand restrictions on free speech if it “offends others” and demand the removal of historical war memorials if they trigger “micro-aggressions” – and college campuses are now breeding grounds for this ideology.

“Suppose they do scan or digitize entire libraries. What then? Will it not be far, far easier for systems of authority to control or manipulate access to historical information?” Asked attorney Quintus Curtius.

“How can we be sure that the University of California will not one day decide to prevent access to all works written before 1950 as being ‘offensive’ or not in tune with political correctness?” “When it comes to our precious cultural heritage, we cannot place our faith in the same institutions that have been betraying that same heritage for the past 40 years.”

On a similar note, Google’s Vint Cerf warned we are heading into a “digital dark age” because digitalized documents will eventually be lost or lack compatibility with new formats. The latter is already more-or-less the case with eBooks which suffer problems converting between different formatting standards.

“Old formats of documents that we’ve created or presentations may not be readable by the latest version of the software because backwards compatibility is not always guaranteed,” said Cerf.

“And so what can happen over time is that even if we accumulate vast archives of digital content, we may not actually know what it is.” 

The far left, in the USA and Europe are embarked on a very dangerous project, one that can only end in blood or fascism. If they had any sense they would take a long hard look at who is bank rolling this project and they will understand that neither option is a good outcome for the working classes and the poor, the very people leftie virtue signallers claim they are fighting for.

RELATED:

Re-Branding Dissent - The Quiet Destruction Of Democracy
Many people, all the contributors to this publication among them, fear that democracy is being destroyed. OK, OK, hipsters will say but ‘we’ve never had democracy’, or, ‘it was destroyed long ago’, but left wing deceit aside, I think its worth actually thinking about how, many forms of democratic expression, effective dissent and peaceful self-determination are being outlawed and abolished in a sustained attack on free speech and civil rights.
How Mainstream Media And The Major Political Parties Are Making Sure Voters Do not Hear The Voices Of Politics' Most Powerful Critics
As the General Election campaign starts to heat up, we try to shift focus away from the squabbling between Conservative and Labour about who can make the most promises they have no intention of keeping and to the real issues concerning jobs, social breakdown , mass immigration, and loss of national sovereignty.
US Presidents Of The Past warned Against Secret, Shadow Government. By now it should be obvious that peacemake, joybringer and putative aquatic pedestrian Barack Hussein Obama was never really in charge of the US Government. Whatever Obama said would happen, all the American government's policies ensured the opposit would happen. The embedded article thows some light on how the US government really works
Obama's Terrible Trade Pact Is a Scam That Must Be Stopped Says Jim Hightower
Having written a book on the evil trade treaty that will transform the democratic nations into corporate oligarchies, we step aside and hand the baton to Jim Hightower of Alternet who is equally outraged about the iniquities of TTIP's equally evil twin, TPP.
Google Has Become A Threat To Democracy Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, About 10 years ago, Tim Wu, the Columbia Law professor who coined the term network neutrality, made this prescient comment: “To love Google, you have to be a little bit of a monarchist, you have to have faith in the way people traditionally felt about the king.” Wu was right. … Continue reading
Another Reason To Get Out Of EU. UKIP MEP Hits Out At Fishing Policy That Penalises British Fishing Crews
As the General Election campaign starts to heat up, we try to shift focus away from the squabbling between Conservative and Labour about who can make the most promises they have no intention of keeping and to the real issues concerning jobs, social breakdown , mass immigration, and an often overlooked area in which our EU membership has perhaps done more damage than any other, the fishing industry.
Democracy: Does It have A Future Or Has Global Totalitarianism Won?
The General Election in Greece (January 2014) could have much wider effects than most elections in small nation, the vote could decide the future of the European Union and have a major breaing on whether democracy can survive the push towards government by a global, corporate oligarchy. It look like being an interesting few months if the anti - EU party wins as polls suggest they will.

The Pursuit Of Mediocrity

Education? It's overrated in our opinion. Former teacher fatsally who quit the profession to run a pub tells us why she gave up on education.

The Sats results for pupils at KS2 and KS3 were finally published yesterday, amidst continuing grumblings about the marking process. This follwed hot on the heels of news that secondary schools regularly re-test the children when they enter Y7 as they have found that the grades they receive at KS2 are not compatible with the childs performance generally. A further concern is that the number of children attaining Level 5, the highest level available to a child sitting a KS2 paper, has dropped. This has led to concerns that brighter children are being neglected. Too damn right they are. When Labour came to power in 1997 Tony Blair said his priorities were,"Education, education education." The first attempt to get over 75% of pupils achieving level 4 in each of the core subjects was quite simply to lower the pass mark on the papers and make the questions easier. When SATS were first introduced in 1993 it was impossible to get a Level 4 on the English reading paper without answering what are termed 'higher order questions' where to answer correctly a child would have to form an opinion, or read between the lines and give reasons for their answers. All this changed after 1997, it became possible to achieve the pass mark, which was lower anyway, just by answering multiple choice questions, or simple comprehension type questions. The same applies to Maths and Science where children were expected to be able to explain how they worked out an answer, how they would solve a problem, design an experiment or draw conclusions from a set of data. However having instigated this change it was still not enough to achieve the target the government had set itself. So then they brought in booster classes. Teachers were asked to identify those children who were at a predicted level 3A or 3B, and these children were given extra tuition, funded by the government, in an effort to boost them up to level 4. In many cases thase children would be removed from the ordinary class to be taught separately, in small groups, whereas the other kids, now the ones from both ends of the ability range, were left in the classroom. But the trouble with cramming is that it just doesn't stick. It's OK if you've got the knowledge there, but if you are trying to get the knowledge in in the first place that is a different kettle of fish, so even though some of the children improved enough to get that coveted level 4 more often than not it wasn't a genuine improvement, as the secondary teachers soon noted. Now, 11 years down the line education is once again in turmoil, this year's SATS ara a fiasco and standards do not seem to improve, only 61% of children who took SATS this year achieved Level 4 in all three subjects. Meanwhile the brighter kids get bored and are turned off education, cruising along without ever being challenged, because despite Mr. Blair's belief that sleight of hand, smoke and mirrors could convince the public that things were changing it should now be obvious to anyone who cares to look that the only change has been the pursuit of mediocrity at the expense of excellence. RELATED POSTS: Academics Warn Politically Correct Universities ‘Are Killing Free Speech’
Free speech is under attack from politicians and minority rights activists, but when universities start censoring ideas, society is in trouble. So what is going on when speakers who have challenged the politically correct consensus are denied a platform to speak on unrelated topics. Tacit Approval From US Liberals For Islamic Indoctrination In US Schools.
Some schools in US State Of Virginia are closed today, because parents objected to Islamic indoctrination by the state education system. The US Constitution's clauses on the separation of church and state forbid the promotion of any specific religious teaching, in fact US liberals tend to get their knickers in a twist over signs in classrooms that show the motto "In God we trust." New UK 'Living Wage' Rules Making Businesses Reluctant To Hire
Concerns about a new, higher UK minimum wage (Chancellor George Osborne's 'living wage' are making UK businesses reluctant to hire new staff. Uncertainty about the 'living wage' rules is contributing to a significant slowdown in hiring via recruitment firms, according to recruitment industry sources >>> Eight Subjects That Ought To Be Part Of The Manadtory Curriculum For Basic Education?
Should subjects like meditation and gardening be part of the school currriculum? Or as one high school in Massachusetts, USA, seems to believe, classes in analyzing conspiracy theories (if taught properly this could help students distinguish between a true conspiracy theory, a fantasy and what is legitimate questioning of official propaganda. The embedded article from Collective Evolution presents some interesting ideas. Students censored – An Academic Community In A Crisis Of Collectivism.
Intellectual freedom in our universities is under threat from ... intellectuals. So overbearing have the left wing screechers of bourgeois politically correct leftism now become that even the universities have surrendered to the intellectual control freakery of cultural Marxism. But if universities are now dedicated to turning out dull minded conformists, what hope is there for western society? Who Should Make Decision About Childrens' Welfare, Parents Or Authoritarian Left Wing Schoolteachers?
We like stories about bureaucrats abusing their authority and about schoolteachers (especiall head teachers) letting their inner fascist out of the closet. So a story than combines both, like this tale of a South Yorkshire primary school head who banned packed lunches because out of concern for 'her' children's welfare she wanted them to have no alternative to the nutrition free slop served by the school kitchen. Poor white pupils put off school by multicultural timetable
Education, should it be about learning to read, write, spell and calculate? Or should it be about feminism, gay rights, black history and 'gender awareness' whatever that is? For many years we have had multiculturalism and politically correct thinking rammed doiwn pupils throats but noe a study by a local education department suggests this obsession with politicallly corret diversity is responsible for the failure of white working class pupils. Education, Education, Education And To Hell With The Kids
Teaching used to be a vocation and education a high minded calling for those who wished to prepare young minds for adult life by making the process of learning, in the classroom, by discovery and through osmosis, an exciting and fulfilling lifelong process The Degree Factory: The Decline Of University Education
The decline of university education in parallel with dumbing down of the general population is contributing to the economic and social problems of the industriaised democracies. But why have standars been allowed to slip so far and can the trend in university education towards theraputic and politically correct courses be reversed? Where Is Bicycle Repair Man When The World Needs Him
A superhero whose superpower is repairing bikes? It was a sketch in a Monty Python's Flying Circus show. But forty years on is it as crazy as it sounded then? We seem to have plenty of people with degrees in things that are not every practical and shortages of people who can do useful stuff. And when we have health and safety officers stopping people from climbing ladders unless they have been properly trained, people are discouraged from learning those everyday skills by themselves. Modern Maths Teaching Is Making Children Mentally Ill
It is a well established fact that people who are good at mathematics are insane so why are we making such a big deal of abstract maths in proressive education when what most people will need to earn a living is a good command of basic arithmetic - which modern education is failing to give them. The Science Fraud: Many Scientific Research Papers Are Pure Gobbledegook
The war between humanities and science goes on, both in academic faculties and internet comment threads. But in an environment that is increasingly politicised and influenced by corporate profit motives rather than the pure and unsullied pursuit of knowledge, can we trust either side? This article suggests not. Its Nineteen Eighty Effing Four In The Education System
Progressive aproaches to education seem to be ideologically driven rather than focused on the needs of the individual pupil. so will the left's dreams of eqality be fulfilled when every child leaving the school system is equally dysfunctional. The STEM Education and Scientism - the curse of modern education.
Education, education, education, said Tony Blair. He meant indoctrination, indoctrination, indoctrination of course. The thing the Politically Correct intellectual bullies of the new left fear most is an educated working class capable of questioning the dogmas of the scientific dictatorship ... Elsewhere: [ The Original Boggart Blog] ... [ Daily Stirre.shtml ]...[Little Nicky Machiavelli]... [ Ian's Authorsden Pages ]... [ It's Bollocks My Dears, All Bollocks ] [Scribd]...[Wikinut] ... [ Boggart Abroad] ... [ Grenteeth Bites ] ... [ Latest Posts ] [Ian Thorpe at Flickr ] ... [Latest Posts] ... [ Tumblr ] ... [Ian at Minds ] ... [ Authorsden blog ] ... [Daily Stirrer News Aggregator]