An Era That Won’t Die … A Movie
We’ve Seen Before
Published in Marietta Daily Journal Nov. 29, 2015
We should have expected it. The rise of the emboldened, spoiled college
student protestors, I mean.
When a university football team
threatens to strike unless the university president steps down, we can say that
campus protesting is back in vogue. When
that president steps down 2 days later, we can say the football team scored a
victory, though not the kind the university had in mind when it granted the
athletes a tuition-free education.
Yes, the spirit of the 1960s is
alive and well at the University of Missouri, but not only there. From coast to coast college students are
feeling their oats once again. And
instead of challenging them, college presidents are rolling over, big time.
At the University of Missouri the
problem was that the president, in the eyes of the protestors, failed to deal
with incidences of racial discrimination.
At Yale, President Pete Salovey displayed great cowardice while
addressing protestors who complained that free speech was getting out of
hand. Salovey’s response was “We failed
you.” He promised to do better.
“We failed you”? Why not “We’re expelling you and are calling
up some of the applicants we rejected.
Maybe they will come to Yale for the right purpose. Maybe they believe in free speech.”
Princeton protestors recently
demanded that the university remove from all buildings and plaques the name of
Woodrow Wilson since the former president of the USA (and of Princeton) was,
for a short time in his life, a segregationist.
The University of Michigan canceled the screening of “The American
Sniper” because of Muslim student protests.
At least 100 college campuses have
boarded the bandwagon that was hitched up by the Missouri athletes. Although each band of protestors has cited
concerns relative to their own campuses, there have been two common complaints
at virtually all campuses: racial/sexual discrimination and the need for “safe
space.”
By “safe space,” students are not
referring to physical safety or security but to “an environment free of
offensive ideas and words.” At Smith
College “capitalism” is a bad word; it means greed. One wonders if students there know about
Andrew Carnegie, the greedy capitalist who funded so many public libraries and
gave away 90% of his fortune.
But why do I say we should have
expected this recent wave of college campus protest? One reason is that the past is never
over. It has a way of popping up again. The 1960s college chant, made in reference to
Vietnam, was “Make love, not war.”
Today’s chant is “Safe space.”
The latter chanters are the grandchildren of the former.
No, the 60s children did not and
will not go away. Their poster child,
who said he “loathed the military,” served two terms as president. His very 60s wife is a candidate for
president. Our current president has
governed from the 60s playbook: continued animus for the military, egalitarianism,
big government, and executive tyranny.
His Secretary of State, who after serving in Vietnam, came home and
appeared on every late night talk show to revile his former comrades, now
shuttles around the globe sounding his uncertain trumpet.
Let us say, then, that the spirit
and philosophy of the 60s seized the day.
It penetrated American politics.
It reached the White House, therefrom to spread its ethos across the
land.
Another reason we should not be
surprised at the recurrence of college protests is that parents of the last 40
years have shamelessly coddled their children.
We have taken to “parenting” instead of fathering and mothering, to
saying “Please, kinda, maybe, can you at least consider doing what I just asked
you to do?” Sheer capitulation. Like parents, like college presidents. Seems we’re all abdicating our rightful authority.
But hope springs eternal. When the liberal American Association of
University Professors takes issue with protesting students and labels them
infantile and anti-intellectual for seeking “safe space,” there is real
hope. Another ray of hope lies in a
statement from the University of Chicago.
There a committee was formed to discuss the legitimacy of the
nation-wide campus protests. Its report
reads, “It is not the proper role of the university to attempt to shield
individuals from ideas and opinions they find offensive.”
Shall the pot command the potter or
the college president obey his or her students?
Purdue University in conservative Indiana says no and has voted to adopt
the Chicago statement. Even liberal
Princeton has recently followed suit.
Maybe college presidents will cease
to grovel before students and commence to educate them. Maybe an era that has clung to us politically
and educationally so long will begin its last gasp after all. We should hope so, lest the affliction of
academia become the incurable affliction of the nation.
Roger
Hines
11/25/15
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