By Kelly Sloan | Guest Commentary
The disruptions on university campuses around the world continue, to the point that on many colleges actual conduct of educational activity is something available only to the most resourceful. We know the cause of the day that serves as the catalyst for the disorder; support for Hamas and implicitly – and often explicitly – antisemitic hatred for Israel. That, of course, is merely symptomatic; the real hatred is broader, and more generally revolutionary – a hatred for Western Civilization and all of the manners, morals, and customs that accompany it.
The most immediate question is what to do about it, the answer being: that’s what society has police officers, jails, and courts for. But it is fair to probe a little deeper, especially those of us who have the luxury of observing things from a bit of a distance.
On the surface, these encampments and disruptions are a solid indication of just how far education in much of the West has degraded. The liberalization of education – its purpose pivoting from being the passing along of knowledge for its own sake to one of focusing on the satisfaction of individual whims – which began in earnest in the 1960’s has cultivated predictable results. Those young malleable minds that were radicalized in that latitudinarian environment, many of whom quite likely engaged in the same disruptive behavior 60 years ago, went on to become senior faculty and administrators of the same institutions they once upon a time tried to burn down. The barbarians who disrupted lives and prevented others from speaking in the 1960’s have bred the barbarians who do so today.
It is not simply a matter of being taught “wrong”. Properly educated people can, and should, have disagreements, even profound ones, over matters of public concern. But the ingrained contempt for civilization itself is something far more feral, more vulgar, uglier. It is revolutionary in the true sense, an ideological rejection of that which binds society together – order, tradition, customs, moral codes – all of which are viewed as nothing but oppressive constructs, obstacles to utopic “liberation”. This disdain for reality is largely the product of a deficient education that fails – more correctly, refuses – to impart the lessons of the ages. It is easier for one to hold in contempt that which one is unfamiliar with, and familiarity with – much less an appreciation of – the canons and art of Western Civilization is something which is almost expressly forbade in what passes for most modern education.
The shifting of educational focus from knowledge to the individual has metastasized into a sort of solipsist nihilism over the years, in which many students cannot see beyond the insular confines of their own self. There is nothing greater than them – not country, not a civic inheritance, certainly not a God. It is little surprise that this has seeped into public policy. The modern iteration of the welfare state, the redistributionist culture, the overarching sense of entitlement and rejection of concepts such as individual effort, duty, and responsibility, have all worked their way into the official machinations of government.
This is as good an explanation as any of President Biden’s actions concerning this matter, from his anemic response to the campus disruptions to his halting, on-again-off-again support for Israel. This week the President is reported to be holding up arms sales to Israel because he is anguished that they may be about to actually win the war by – finally – going into Rafah and clearing out Hamas’ last remaining redoubt. Progressives are outraged over the “imminent” invasion of Rafah – something that should have happened weeks ago, but has been delayed by U.S. hand-wringing, not to mention ongoing efforts by the cruel Israelis to warn and try to evacuate civilians from the city. I do not recall Hamas sending warning leaflets to the kibuttzim they ravaged last October or the Viet Cong putting up warning posters around Saigon ahead of the Tet offensive.
The ever-astute Allister Heath, writing in UK’s The Telegraph describes these young fools as “self-loathing, inchoate nihilists who hate the West, hate America, hate Britain, hate Israel, and want to tear down everything great about our civilisation.” He goes on to point out that “it’s a pathetic case of weakness being turned into the only moral value, of delusional activists so detached from the harsh reality of real wars that they believe those they demonstrate against owe them free food. It is cosplay politics, protest as a performance art, made for a gullible, easily manipulated smartphone generation that cannot distinguish fact from fiction.”
Just so. Heath ends his missive a touch ominously: “Don’t be fooled: the protests defiling universities may be naive, amateurish and solipsistic, but they are the harbinger of far worse to come.” There is very little, I’m afraid, to suggest that he is wrong.
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