The disturbing stories of intolerance that plague our nation and world’s history should not be forgotten when sometimes the tables are turned.
Some liberals, once advocating openness, toleration, and respect for all, have been behaving as brownshirts on some campuses.
Tom Ciccotta, a libertarian and senior economics major at Bucknell, relates his story of being branded a fascist by an unthinking and reactionary left in “The Isolation of College Libertarians.”
Allison Stanger, a Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College, was actually assaulted by a mob on campus when she tried to moderate a presentation by Charles Murray. That harrowing story is in today’s New York Times.
Many professors seem to be joining in to the practice of un-think and stereotyping. According to Stanger, the professors inciting the students at Middlebury had never actually read any of Murray’s books, and were responding to character assassinations from a web site. So much for critical thinking!
Protesting is good, but physical and emotional coercion of those with whom you disagree is unacceptable. Stanger concludes:
"…our constitutional democracy will depend on whether Americans can relearn how to engage civilly with one another, something that is admittedly hard to do with a bullying president as a role model. But any other way forward would be antithetical to the very ideals of the university and of liberal democracy."
Ahh... the arrogance of youth, thinking that one has all the answers, and the rashness to do stupid things as happened at Middlebury. I'm reminded of my dear brother, who while a student at Boston University during the late 1960s, railed against the corporate monsters and threatened them harm. A few years later, armed with his M.A., he was ... a banker working for Citibank.
Time can heal some wounds.
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