The mere suggestion of his book brings about "sexual harassment" complaints on campus, but David Kupelian, author of "The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised As Freedom," isn't surprised since academia has truly become a marketer of evil.
In an exclusive interview with Human Events U, Kupelian talked about the ridiculous discrimination and harassment complaint filed against Scott Savage, a research librarian at Ohio State University - Mansfield, who suggested freshmen students read "The Marketing of Evil" along with a few other conservative books.
Upon hearing of the incident, Kupelian says his initial reaction was, "'Is this an April Fool's spoof?' I mean, the entire faculty voted, without a single dissenting voice, to destroy an innocent man's life by branding him as a sexual harasser - and all because he recommended that the freshman class read my book? I thought that's what librarians are supposed to do - recommend books!"
Savage sits on the school's First Year Reading Experience Committee. But, after making his reading recommendations, a "sexual harassment" investigation ensued after a few openly gay members of the school’s faculty filed a complaint of discrimination and harassment. The list of books Savage suggested apparently made them feel unsafe.
I asked Kupelian if he could comprehend or understand the rationale behind this case.
"Sure. The OSU campus, far from being a bastion of free speech and tolerance, is in reality a place of fear and intimidation. Remember, when the faculty voted 21-0 to investigate Scott on the bogus harassment charge, nine other faculty members abstained from voting. That means almost a third of the faculty members present were too scared to vote. They knew the sexual harassment charge was ridiculous and unjust and couldn't vote 'yes' - but they also didn't want to be tarred as 'homophobes' and 'bigots,' so they were afraid to vote ‘no.’ Therefore they abstained. So much for free speech on campus.”
Last week Human Event U reported that the OSU Office of Human Resources issued a letter clearing Savage of any wrongdoing. I informed Kupelian that according to the "decision letter," the complaining professors "indicated they were offended by the book…because of what they deemed as the incendiary nature of the book's anti gay stance and lacking scholarly merit."
He replied: "'Incendiary'? No one, to my knowledge, has burst into flames while reading 'The Marketing of Evil.' But I suspect the gay professors were 'offended' because chapter one really lays out all the manipulative techniques the gay rights movement has been using so successfully to alter Americans' attitudes toward homosexuality. As far as the book 'lacking scholarly merit,' I think that's just code language for 'we can't find anything factually wrong in it, but we still don't like it.'"
When asked if he would classify the kind of liberal indoctrination that takes place on our nation's college campuses as the marketing of evil, Kupelian said,
"Absolutely. If what goes on in most colleges and universities today isn't the marketing of evil, then I don't know what is. In fact, one of the OSU professors who attacked my book so viciously teaches courses in 'lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender literature.' It's mind-boggling to think that, as parents, we scrimp and save for years so we can afford to pay tens of thousands of after-tax dollars per year to put our children into one of these places."
While college campuses market evil, the OSU Mansfield incident is keeping "The Marketing of Evil" among the nation's bestsellers. According to Anne Tyrrell of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, "…in the wake of this controversy [Kupelian’s book] has seen a huge increase in sales and is topping Amazon lists nearly a year after its publication. So the liberals saturating American campuses, who preach the need for diversity but disallow any diversity of thought have, in effect, failed. This is a good thing and more people are reading these conservative titles because of the controversy!"
In fact, I asked Kupelian about the title of his book "The Marketing of Evil," how he arrived at it and if he defined "evil" in a Christian sense - "without God"?
He answered: "Chris, 'The Marketing of Evil' is a phrase that describes exactly what we're seeing in America today: Destructive beliefs and behaviors, the sorts of things that would have horrified the World War II generation, are being packaged, perfumed, gift-wrapped and sold to Americans as though they were good. And conversely, good values and behaviors are being packaged to make them appear bad. What is 'evil'? Well, as M. Scott Peck said in 'People of the Lie,' 'evil is in opposition to life. It is that which opposes the life force.' For the purposes of my book, I would say it is definitely 'evil' to lie, manipulate and seduce other people into embracing immoral and self-destructive behaviors and worldviews."
While his book was causing quite the controversy at OSU Mansfield, Kupelian said he talked with Scott Savage and his attorney David French of the Alliance Defense Fund several times.
"We're all bedazzled by what a powerful grip the politically correct, 'gay-is-great-and-if-you-don't-agree-you're-a-Neanderthal' ethic has on that campus. David French said that in all his years of fighting free-speech and religious-persecution cases, he's never seen a case like this one."
Kupelian says as far as he knows his book hasn't caused this much trouble on other college campuses. But, Human Events U suspects that will change as time goes on and with a possible sequel to "The Marketing of Evil" in the works.
The author and managing editor of WorldNetDaily.com and Whistleblower magazine says he'll keep at it as he would like to see his children grow-up in a "decent" world where they can raise their families.
