We seem to be in the midst of a backlash against much of the woke DEI-induced insanity that is rampant in American universities. While it is encouraging that people are increasingly willing to point out the Emperor's nakedness, we also need to be cautious to avoid excessive backlash. One such overreaction, in my judgment, comes from Yoram Hazony. claim The idea of „making universities a 'neutral' place'' is so far removed from reality that it is impossible to realize it. Rather, anti-Marxist liberals and conservatives should defend the theory of the university as an educational institution bound to at least minimal substantive standards of decency. ”
While I share Hazony's horror at the instances of anti-Semitism seen in universities, and also cringe at the woke orthodoxy that has taken root in so many educational institutions, I find his analysis fundamentally flawed. I feel that. I don't think that the problems we're seeing are the result of some kind of excessive and overreaching commitment to free speech by universities. Harvard University has been seen as an iconic example of how things can go wrong, and for good reason. But it's worth pointing out that Harvard has been near the bottom for years and is in that position now, and for good reason. died last Regarding the free speech assessment by the civil rights organization FIRE. The fact that the universities that most embody problems with Hazony are also those that perform worst in defending free speech certainly seems noteworthy. Whatever the cause of Harvard's problems with Hazony, it may be an absolutist commitment to free speech. In my opinion, Hazony, as an avid empiricist, has not done enough to address that point.
But another deadly An assessment of Hazony's views comes from his fellow conservative Robert P. George. There are many sides to George's argument, so I won't reveal them all here. But one of the things George did to truly solve the problem was ask the right questions:
Imagine if a university administrator were asked to determine which opinions are simply unacceptable and the student or faculty member who expressed them should be suspended or fired. Yoram, like me, laments the dominance of a certain ideology (which happens to be a left-wing, “woke” ideology) on most college campuses. For years, we have heard claims from partisans of this ideology that „transgenocide“ exists in this country. We will empower presidents, deans, diversity, and equity to decide which viewpoints on gender and sexuality constitute “hate speech” or advocacy of genocide, leading to revocation of faculty tenure or expulsion of students. What do we want to give university administrators who are responsible for gender and inclusion? That seems to me to be a question that answers itself.
…If I were to adopt Mr. Yoram's call for censorship in areas where I seek free speech, I would ask him, and gentle readers, to consider the following questions: Will the result be anything other than a further enhancement of the current campus? Will legitimacy and protection for dissenters and dissidents be further weakened?
Hazony's solution is: body snatcher An issue previously discussed. If you believe that alien body snatchers have taken over the CIA as part of a plot to conquer the world, then trying to solve the problem by putting more power and resources into the hands of an alien-controlled CIA is self-defeating. right. If you believe that corporations control governments, it is self-defeating to try to solve the problem by increasing the power of corporate-controlled governments. And if you believe that university administration has been taken over by woke ideology, it is self-defeating to try to solve that problem by putting more power in the hands of university administrators who are controlled by woke ideology. is.
I once said, „Government shouldn't have a level of power that allows smart, trustworthy public servants to do a good job.Government should only have a level of power that allows it to be held by the worst people in the world.'' It’s better,” he wrote. political nightmare. Because one day that nightmare person actually wins and is willing to take the tools available to them. ” Similarly, for the same reasons, university administrators should have just enough power to be held by someone who is their worst ideological nightmare. Currently, many university administrators support an ideology that Hazony, George, and I all detest, but the solution to this is not to increase the power of administrators to control speech; I agree with Robert George that it is about weakening.