The Hamilton follies cont’d

Speaking of political correctnesss, we have an innovative fundraising proposal for little Hamilton College in upstate New York. For years now, Hamilton has been a sort of poster-child for academic frivolity and adolescent leftism. How they have amused the public, endeavoring to bring homegrown terrorists like the Weather Undergrounder Susan Rosenberg to campus to be “writers and activists in residence.” Then there was the Ward Churchill affair, in which the college tried to bring to campus a man who had compared the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks to Nazis. And there was the incident several years ago when Hamilton hosted Annie Sprinkle, a “post-porn feminist” and “performance artist,” who dazzled students and other members of the Hamilton community with her pornographic videos and demonstration of sex toys. Why not let outsiders pay a cover charge to attend these spectacles of hot-house academic leftism at its most moronic and politically correct? This way to the egress!

And the fun continues. A friend writes to alert us to the presence at Hamilton last month of Dorothy Allison, who came to participate in “College Without Walls,” a “free reading group open to students, professors, and community members addressing the question: ‘What is the relationship between feminist theory and practice?’” Doubtless Ms. Allison is in a position to expostulate on what the press release refers to as “that important question.” She is a founder of the Lesbian Sex Mafia, “an information and support group,” Wikipedia reports, “for lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, and transexual women… . The group’s focus is to help promote fantasy role playing, bondage, discipline, sadomasochism, fetishes, costumes, alternate gender identities, and uninhibited sexual expression.” Readers will be pleased to know that “the group is not affiliated with the real Mafia in any way.”

Readers will also be pleased to learn that new members of the group attend a “safety workshop” that

teaches things such as how to tie wrists without cutting off circulation. Once a member, a woman may attend topic and demonstration meetings, discussion groups, and special interest “hands-on” workshops on specific sexual practices. The group also sets up “dungeons” in members’ homes or rents S/M clubs to hold private “play parties” (to which members may bring a guest, so long as they assume full responsibility for them).

Etcetera. How proud Hamilton Trustees and parents of Hamilton students must be! Talk about the benefits of a liberal education. Won’t it be entertaining for discerning parents to learn that they have saved $50,000 by the simple expedient of not sending their children to Hamilton College.

This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 28 Number 6, on page 3
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