Western universities were founded to train doctors, lawyers, divines, educated bureaucrats that run country and empire. Later, real science faculties were added: maths, chemistry. These days, new specialties like gender, race, colonialism and class studies are becoming mainstream. Classics are re-interpreted and deconstructed. Xenophon's Anabasis is now the story of imperialist Greeks intervening in the internal politics of a Third World nation, and Xenophon, a racist propagandist of the superiority of the European race. Plato's Republic is identified with the American South, with its exploitation of slave labor, the suppression of women and the "Other" in public affairs, and forced reproduction by gang rape. One can even find homophobic jokes in Aristophanes' comedies, negating the generally believed openness of Ancient Greeks to pederasty. It is good that the new generation criticizes and "deconstructs" their masters' narratives so, in turn, the next generation will be presented with academic material that can easily be laughed off.
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