Objectivist speaker condemns multiculturalism at universities

Multiculturalism -- it is a word circulated daily on university campuses, and is especially drilled into students' minds at diversity-focused universities such as Penn State.

The Penn State Objectivist Club would like to change the rampant support of the philosophy of multiculturalism, and attempted to do so last night.

The club sponsored Gary Hull, a professor of philosophy at Whittier College in California, and a graduate of the Ayn Rand Institute's advanced philosophy seminars, to speak about multiculturalism and why its ideology should be abandoned in American culture, especially in universities.

Hull gave his speech titled, "Your Professors' War Against the Mind: The Black Hole of Post-Modernism and Multiculturalism," in 10 Sparks to a crowd of about 300 people.

Stephen Simpson, faculty adviser of the Penn State Objectivist Club, said multiculturalism does not necessarily mean what most people think it does.

"A lot of people think multiculturalism means tolerance of other cultures -- it doesn't," Simpson said. "It means the exact opposite of tolerance."

Simpson said universities, especially Penn State, do have some racist policies, but radical feminism and other multiculturalism movements, while working to combat unfair policies, end up doing more harm than good.

Hull likened the views of the multiculturalist to that of a sadistic doctor who treats healthy patients by infecting them with viruses and breaking their legs and later asking them to come back for more.

Hull explained that the "doctor" is the post-modern professor, the "patients" are the university students and the "viruses" are multiculturalism and post-modernism.

Hull said multiculturalists argue that all cultures are equal and that Western culture is arrogant, believing it is superior to other societies.

"They believe that no society is superior -- a concerto by Mozart is no greater than the beating of a tom-tom," he said.

Some students who attended the lecture did not agree with Hull and thought his ideas were too extreme.

"I disagree with him totally because I think he exaggerates the situation from a male conservative frame of reference," said Jen Edwards (freshman-secondary education).

Edwards said Penn State should promote better understanding through certain programs, but she said things such as racial quotas promote tension. She said the tension created is minimal and is not to the extent that Hull suggested.

Dan Hogan (sophomore-computer science), who accompanied Edwards, disagreed with her and said Hull's ideas made sense.

"The multiculturalist agenda at the University seeks to destroy our American identity," he said. "This ideology says we should be ashamed of our past."

Hull said schools and universities are abandoning important icons of Western history in the interest of promoting equality. He said professors are now omitting figures such as Paul Revere from history textbooks and developing separate history lessons focused on other cultures.

"This movement teaches students that the Empire State Building is as good of an architectural structure as a teepee," he said.

He claims that ideology only promotes increased racism on American college campuses.

"The U.S. is more racist than it was 20 years ago -- college campuses are more racist than they were 20 years ago," Hull said.

He said students are now encouraged to interpret the U.S. Constitution as a tool for the white majority to enslave minorities or for the rich to put down the poor.

Hull added that professors encourage each student to look at history from his or her own cultural point of view rather than a factual perspective.

"The god these professors pay homage to is diversity," he said. "The purpose of diversity is to focus attention on sex and race-- no cultural superiority."

Hull added that University President Graham Spanier supports this dangerous idea of multiculturalism and he said that required courses at Penn State such as women's studies and diversity-focused courses support students' hypersensitivity to race.

Hull encouraged the audience to read Ayn Rand's books The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and the works of Leonard Peikoff, to learn more about the love of life and the respect for human individualism that the objectivist movement supports.