Reacting to a poster ... [the Midd student] says: “The message it conveys is of an isolated America facing the menace of militant Islam. For a college that prides itself on a high percentage of international students, and of exemplary programs of international study, it is unbecoming of Middlebury to tolerate this kind of rubbish on its walls,” wrote Andrey Tolstoy, a sophomore.

"Anyone with a sufficient knowledge of history could point to the dangerous errors embedded in the poster. The events illustrated on it — the Iranian hostage crisis, embassy bombings in Africa, September 11th, flag-burning, and others — are separated not only by time, but by motivation and political context. By weaving them into a unified chain — or, to be more precise, quilt — the College Republicans attempt to incite panic and muddle our understanding of the political challenges facing America, not to mention carelessly promoting racist — and, more importantly, false — generalizations about Arabs, Islam and their relationship to structures of international terrorism."

Andrey is learning the lessons of modern academia well.  Sneering condescension?  Check. ("Anyone with sufficient knowledge of history . . .")  Depersonalized postmodern gibberish?  Check.  (Nice reference to "structures of international terrorism").  Failure to see the hand in front of your face?  Check.  (So what common characteristics do the hostage crisis, embassy bombings, and September 11 share?  Anything?).  As one astute IHE commentator noted, if those events were all the work of Catholic terrorists, people like Tolstoy would be awash in anti-Catholic rhetoric.

Those are some expensive blinders.  Purchased at the low, low price of about $30K per year.

Damn those condescending postmodernists! If only they could see the menacing hand of Islamofascism in front of their faces. But wait. Let’s take another look at the “Never Forget” poster. Six panels: the U.S.S. Cole attack, the Daniel Pearl murder, the smoking Twin Towers, the Iranian hostage crisis, the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, and a teeming crowd of Arabs burning an American flag. In the background of the last panel, there appears to be something else, too: posters of guess-which-recently-hanged secular dictator? In other words, insidiously embedded in a poster about 9/11 is a conflation of Saddam Hussein and Islamic terrorism. Then, too, there’s the conflation of Shiite revolutionary anger directed at a United States that had intervened directly in Iranian (note, non-Arab) affairs and the Sunni Arab terrorists of 9/11. To put it another way, the events in these panels are separated not only by time, but by motivation and political context .... but God, what am I saying, let’s all just shut up and remember 9/11 properly. No analysis necessary. Finally, French falls back on a classic quip of the right-wing higher ed critic—“Those are some expensive blinders. Purchased at the low, low price of about $30K per year.” All this proves, though, is that for a guy regularly blogging about higher ed, French is hopelessly out of touch. $30,000 a year for a private liberal arts school? Ha! If only. Tuition at Midd crossed the 40k mark over three years ago.

Anyhow, allow me to educate Mr. French: Intelligent people aren’t supposed to gasp and shed their critical faculties at the first sight of a burning flag and the numbers 9-1-1. That’s what we learn in modern academia.