Prof From Romania Says Woke Ideology More Harmful to Education Than Communism

Prof From Romania Says Woke Ideology More Harmful to Education Than Communism

Sergiu Klainerman, a professor of mathematics at Princeton, grew up in Romania under the dictator Ceausescu.

He writes at Bari Weiss’s blog:

There Is No Such Thing as “White” Math

In my position as a professor of mathematics at Princeton, I have witnessed the decline of universities and cultural institutions as they have embraced political ideology at the expense of rigorous scholarship. Until recently — this past summer, really — I had naively thought that the STEM disciplines would be spared from this ideological takeover.

I was wrong. Attempts to “deconstruct” mathematics, deny its objectivity, accuse it of racial bias, and infuse it with political ideology have become more and more common — perhaps, even, at your child’s elementary school.

This phenomenon is part of what has been dubbed “The Great Awokening.” As others have explained powerfully, the ideology incubated in academia, where it indoctrinated plenty of bright minds. It then migrated, through those true believers, into our important cultural, religious and political institutions. Now it is affecting some of the country’s most prominent businesses.

Unlike the traditional totalitarianism practiced by former communist countries, like the Romania I grew up in, this version is soft. It enforces its ideology not by jailing dissenters or physically eliminating them, but by social shaming, mob punishment, guilt by association, and coerced speech.

When it comes to education, I believe the woke ideology is even more harmful than old-fashioned communism.

Communism had a strong sense of objective reality anchored in the belief that humans are capable of discovering universal truths. It forcefully asserted, in fact, the absolute truth of dialectic materialism, as revealed by its founders Marx, Engels and Lenin. Communist ideology held science and mathematics in the highest regard, even though it often distorted the former for doctrinal reasons.

Sergiu Klainerman, now a math professor at Princeton, came of age in Ceausescu’s Romania. He believes that woke ideology is even more harmful to his field than communism. https://t.co/vYFvWIrGoy

— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) March 1, 2021

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