Engaging with American Democracy » November 20th: American Democracy and the University

November 20th: American Democracy and the University

Powell, Lewis F., Jr., “The Memo” (1971), excerpt pp. 1-20
Le Guin, Ursula K. “A Left-Handed Commencement Address” (1983)

Announcements

Plan for the Day

  • Finish up Dwight D. Eisenhower
  • César Chávez
  • Lewis F. Powell, Jr.’s “The Memo.” Attack On American Free Enterprise System (1971)
  • Ursula K. Le Guin’s “A Left-Handed Commencement Address” (1983)
  • Democracy/Liberty/Freedom/ETC. quotation:
  • “In a State, even a democracy, where power is hierarchic, how can you prevent the storage of information from becoming yet another source of power to the powerful—another piston in the great machine?“
    —Ursula K. Le Guin, Always Coming Home. Harper and Row, 1985.

Lewis F. Powell, Jr.’s “The Memo.” (1971)

Key biographical points:

Associate Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. has been getting a lot of attention in the last couple years for this “Memo” that many consider the blueprint for Project 2025. We’re not covering that because we end in 1989, but it seems important to mention. This memo was supposed to be an internal document (CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM) for the Chamber of Commerce (not to be confused with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), but it got out. We’re only concerned with the first 20 pages, specifically the stuff about Universities.

  • p. 1: “…the American economic system is under broad attack.1“1. Variously called: the “free enterprise system,” “capitalism,” and the “profit system.” The American political system of democracy under the rule of law is also under attack, often by the same individuals and organizations who seek to undermine the enterprise system.
  • p. 2: We’re fine with “critics of the system, whose criticism has been wholesome and constructive so long as the objective was to improve rather than to subvert or destroy.”
  • p. 2: “…a relatively few extremists or even from the minority socialist cadre….It is gaining momentum and converts.”
  • p. 2: Sources of Attack: “… the Communists, New Leftists and other revolutionaries who would destroy the entire system, both political and economic.”
  • pp. 2-3: “…perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians.”
  • p. 3: “…the enterprise system tolerates, if not participates in, its own destruction.”
    • Compare to Eisenhower’s statement:
      “I see no reason for the Federal Government of the United States to be supporting something that advocates its own destruction. That seems to me to be about the acme of silliness” (“The President’s News Conference,” 17 June 1953, para. 37)
  • pp. 3-4: Notice Powell’s concern with the media as a business that “…are owned and theoretically controlled by corporations which depend upon profits, and the enterprise system to survive.”
  • p. 4: William F. Buckley reports on William Kunstler, who claims, ‘You must learn to fight in the streets, to revolt, to shoot guns. We will learn to do all of the things that property owners fear.'”
  • p. 4: “Although New Leftist spokesmen are succeeding in radicalizing thousands of the young…”
  • p. 5: Whether this is true or as prevalent as Powell claims isn’t too relevant because it’s believed:
    • Stewart Alsop—”other major college, is graduating scores of bright young men who are practitioners of ‘the politics of despair.’ These young men despise the American political and economic system . . . (their) minds seem to be wholly closed. They live, not by rational discussion, but by mindless slogans.”
    • “Almost half the students favored socialization of basic U.S. industries.”
  • p. 6: He was not a fan of Ralph Nader
  • p. 7: Calls out Marxist doctrine:
    • “…the broad, shotgun attack on the system itself.”
    • “This setting of the ‘rich’ against the ‘poor,’ of business against the people, is the cheapest and most dangerous kind of politics.”
  • p. 8: “…it must be recognized that businessmen have not been trained or equipped to conduct guerrilla warfare with those who propagandize against the system, seeking insidiously and constantly to sabotage it.”
  • p. 9: “…he tendency of business leaders to compromise with and appease critics. He cited the concessions which Nader wins from management…”
  • p. 9: “…it is long overdue—for the wisdom, ingenuity and resources of American business to be marshalled against those who would destroy it.”
  • p. 11: Corporate Solidarity???
    • “Strength lies in organization…”
  • The Campus
    • p. 12: “The assault on the enterprise system was not mounted in a few months.”
    • p. 12: “The social science faculties usually include members who are unsympathetic to the enterprise system.”
    • p. 13: “Social science faculties (the political scientist, economist, sociologist and many of the historians) tend to be liberally oriented….This is not a criticism per se, as the need for liberal thought is essential to a balanced viewpoint. The difficulty is that ‘balance’ is conspicuous by its absence on many campuses…”
    • “…seeking an answer to why so many young people are disaffected even to the point of being revolutionaries, it was said: ‘Because they were taught that way.'”
    • p. 14: When individuals “enter the enterprise system—in business and the professions—and for the most part they quickly discover the fallacies of what they have been taught.”
    • p. 15: “Few things are more sanctified in American life than academic freedom. It would be fatal to attack this as a principle. But if academic freedom is to retain the qualities of ‘openness,’ ‘fairness’ and ‘balance’…”
  • pp. 16-17: “…evaluate social science textbooks, especially in economics, political science and sociology.”
    • “…should be oriented toward restoring the balance essential to genuine academic freedom.
  • p. 17: “…individual rights and freedoms, and comparisons with the systems of socialism, fascism and communism.”
    • Remember, reductio ad Hitlerum doesn’t need to just focus on Hitler and the NAZis.
  • p. 17: “In a democratic society, this can be a constructive process and should be regarded as an aid to genuine academic freedom and not as an intrusion upon it.”
  • pp. 17-18: “The FBI publishes each year a list of speeches made on college campuses by avowed Communists. The number in 1970 exceeded 100.”
  • p. 18: “…unless the Chamber aggressively insisted upon the right to be heard—in effect, insisted upon “equal time”….indeed, this is the classic excuse for allowing Communists to speak.”
  • p. 19: “The objective always must be to inform and enlighten, and not merely to propagandize.”
  • Powell doesn’t appear to promote capitalism for the sake of capitalism but because he feels it’s the best system out there.

Ursula K. Le Guin’s “A Left-Handed Commencement Address” (1983)

Ursula K. Le Guin is best known as a science fiction writer who experiments with radical situations, including an Anarchist society on the harsh moon Anarres (The Dispossessed). Her father, Alfred Kroeber, was a cultural anthropologist at UC Berkeley.

In this commencement address, LeGuin raises the issue of a woman’s “place” in society. Sure, the address is from 1983, but I think we can continue to point to contemporary situations where women’s roles are defined in relation to men: think hegemony and patriarchy. Even if you don’t agree that those theories are valid in 2025, at least recognize them in context. The address is at Mills College, an all-women’s college at the time. It eventually had to merge with Northeastern University. Consider the following:

  • Why is the female-only environment peculiar in light of American Democracy?
  • Could the female-only space actually enhance democratic ideals?

Some quotations

  • para 2: “Intellectual tradition is male”; therefore, men are the standard in academic circles and their modes of discourse are seen as the norm.
    • “If you can tell Margaret Thatcher from Ronald Reagan, or Indira Gandhi from General Somoza, by anything they say, tell me how. This is a man’s world, so it talks a man’s language.”
  • para 3: If you want kids, have them…
  • para 4: “Success is somebody else’s failure.”
  • para 5: “You’ll work for possessions and then find they possess you.”
  • para 7: View of society–“The so-called man’s world of institutionalized competition, aggression, violence, authority, and power.”
  • para 7 & 8: What’s her issue with Machoman?
  • para 9: To live in a world “without the need to dominate, and without the need to be dominated.”

Next Class

There’s no class meeting on Tuesday, 11/25, so we won’t meet face to face until the last class day of class: Tuesday, 12/02. Don’t forget to do Weekly Discussion #10 before Friday, 11/21, 1:07pm.

Works Cited

Biskupic, Joan and Fred Barbash. Retired Justice Lewis Powell Dies at 90. Washington Post. 26 Aug 1998, p. A1.

“Douglas Wilder On Race, Politics And America.” NPR.com. 15 Oct 2008.

Pandey, Erica and Margaret Talev. “Poll: College Students Prefer Socialism to Capitalism.” Axios.com, 1 Nov 2025.