The announcement that George Soros will commit $1 billion to create the Open Society University Network (OSUN) has flooded the mainstream media and the internet in the last several days.  The announcement has attracted public attention and certainly deserves a closer look. 

George Soros is a currency speculator with political ambitions.  His goal is to remake the world.  The idea of the “open society” goes back to the period of the Cold War when Karl Popper, a British philosopher, advanced it as a response to the Soviet threat.  It has been largely neglected since then.  George Soros has turned the open society into his personal ideological tool that he uses to realize his political ambitions.  He has already spent over $32 billion of his money to achieve this goal   and he is determined to continue pursuing his agenda.

George Soros and his organization -- Open Society Foundations (OSF) -- are very political in orientation.  Soros himself characterizes his activities as “political philanthropy” -- a euphemistic term he uses for what we commonly call buying political influence.  Politics comes first.  All other ventures of the OSF, including educational ones, are directly related to politics.

There is some confusion in the rationale for creating OSUN.  Soros himself is the source of this confusion.  On one hand, he writes in his articles that the goal of OSUN is to help educate “young people and promote ‘personal autonomy.’”  On the other hand, he also stresses that he wants to use education to “fight nationalism, climate change, and to promote the ideal of open society.”  These two orientations are at cross-purposes.  Fighting nationalism and climate change and promoting an “open society” are clearly political in their orientation.  The title of Soros’s article devoted to OSUN is “How a Democratic Counteroffensive Can Win”, which also points to the political nature of this new venture.  When politics is infused in education, the result is usually indoctrination.

Soros made the initial announcement of the new project in a speech he gave at a dinner funded by his organization at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.  The speech was clearly political in nature.  For much of it, Soros talked about the current political situation in the world and the threat of authoritarianism.  Only at the end of the speech did he include a lengthy section dealing with the new educational venture.  The inclusion of education in what essentially is a political speech confirms that OSUN is primarily about politics, not education (however conflated the two may be in Soros’s mind). 

The tone of Soros’s speech in Davos is somber.  He recognizes that the wind is no longer at his back and he has to fight an uphill battle.  He notes political setbacks that his agenda has suffered in the last few years.  He does not have much hope for the impeachment.  He also recognizes that the Democrats are likely to lose big in the next elections as the mood in America increasingly turns against them.  However, he urges his audience not to give in to despair.  Soros points to some positive signs, but he is not particularly sanguine in their assessment.  He says that there is an urgent need for a long-term strategy.  That’s where OSUN comes in.  Soros emphasizes that the future of his lifelong goal now lies in education.

Soros also announced in the speech the choice of Bard College as his partner in the new educational venture. This choice is puzzling.  Bard College is a small artsy school in Upstate New York.  In  mainstream America it is known more for its wild parties than anything else.  It does not particularly stand out among the most prominent American educational institutions.  It is also known for its mercurial president Leon Botstein.

Longevity is perhaps the most distinct feature of Botstein as college president. He has been Bard’s president for over forty years.  His contributions into the theory and practice of education are modest, to say the least.  His educational agenda in the college is fairly traditional and conservative.  A great self-promoter and a self-described Renaissance man, Botstein also often tries to play a role of public intellectual who is willing to talk on practically any subject.

The advertisement of this initiative on Bard’s website bristles with lofty words and grand pronouncements.  But to understand the real import of this plan, one has to look beyond words to real practice. There is little doubt that OSUN is a brainchild of George Soros.  There is also little doubt that this plan is primarily political in its orientation.  It is to promote progressive liberalism and the ideology of open society -- George Soros’ personal ideology. 

The decision to create OSUN is a decision by one man -- George Soros.  No one else, except perhaps Botstein, has made much input into this decision.  There has been no discussion of this momentous decision in the history of the college by the college’s faculty.  This practice does not bode well for those who will have to implement this plan -- the Bard faculty.  It reduces their role to that of mere tools in the hands of ambitious political manipulator.

This initiative does not bode well for future students either.  Their education in the OSUN network will involve heavy indoctrination in progressive liberalism and the ideology of open society.  Most parents choose to send their children to college to acquire skills and expertise that will help them shape their future, not to be instructed in some political ideology.  A full disclosure about the nature of OSUN and its plans is very important as it will allow the public and, above all, parents of prospective students to make an informed decision.