welcome to usaapay.com

2020-

2020-10-13 e
Life in a Socialist Paradise - I

An Open Letter on Campus Culture

Academics speak out against the threat of censorship.

The dangers of ideological groupthink in our colleges and universities have been evident for decades. It was over 30 years ago now that Allan Bloom diagnosed the pathology in The Closing of the American Mind. But as the campus Left becomes increasingly empowered, radicalized, and intolerant of other perspectives, it seemed to me that dissident thinkers in higher education would be well-served to consider specific ways to resist these trends at our universities. What follows was initially a letter to myself that articulated my rationale for resisting the campus ideologues and the means by which I would resist them. Through the drafts, it became an open letter to people in academia at large. Over the last two months, the letter has circulated online among professors, many of whom have added their names. We now have over 160 signatures from brave teachers and scholars all over the world. The undersigned speak for themselves—not their institutions. Unlike other open letters that have recently captured public attention, this one doesn’t merely voice disapproval of the ideological vision for higher education. Instead, the signers below commit to particular forms of action that might counter that vision. In short, the letter is a commitment to principled non-compliance. We invite other sympathetic academics to join the fight by adding their names. To do so, email me, Adam Ellwanger, at ellwangera@uhd.edu.

To the Administration, Faculty, and Staff of our Colleges and Universities,

As your colleagues and friends, we feel compelled to collectively express our concerns with the current climate of higher education. Over the last half-century, universities have moved steadily to the left in terms of curriculum, governance, and campus culture. In and of itself, this was not a problem. Although a balanced diversity of political orientations among the faculty is desirable, it is not necessary as long as those in the ideological majority remain resolutely committed to open inquiry, unrestricted deliberation, and freedom of speech and thought.

Over time though, we have watched with some worry as the empowered campus left gradually (but unmistakably) wavered in their commitment to those ideals. At first, the erosion of these key values was evident only in conversations in classrooms and with peers—it seemed the range of acceptable viewpoints on any given issue was shrinking, and that it was consistently the left position that was privileged, while conservative and other dissident perspectives faced increased scrutiny, skepticism, and derision. This development, alone, has weakened the university’s capacity to fulfill its function as a crucible where all ideas are tested and critiqued, by which it helps chart a reliable course for democracy.

In the last decade, the state of affairs on campus has grown increasingly dire. No longer is campus groupthink limited to academic conversation – it is enshrined and encoded in the protocols and procedures of university governance. This has meant that the penalties for any deviation from the accepted left paradigm in thought or speech now far exceed any mere conversational mockery. Rather, often at the faculty’s prodding, administrative structures now investigate and prosecute deviations from orthodoxy through formal and informal exercises of institutional power. (read more)

______________________

Permission is hereby granted to any and all to copy and paste any entry on this page and convey it electronically along with its URL,
______________________