There was a time when even the lesser-known colleges and universities strove to develop programs and faculties that would help prepare students for independent and analytical thinking; to help them distinguish fact from fashion; and to produce minds that were both creative and intellectually-disciplined. Had universities remained focused on such pursuits – instead of becoming training grounds to inculcate their clientele in statist group-think – students who were “offended” by the comments of a professor would likely have developed the capacity and will to openly challenge such views rather than running to hide behind the apron-strings of school administrators. The UNLV regent’s view that academic freedom should not extend to those who attack “protected groups” does far more than confirm the prescience in George Orwell’s classic observation that “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” It also reflects the pathetic state of what passes for “thinking” in academia. A recent survey of 100,000 American high school students on the subject of free speech revealed that only half the respondents thought newspapers should be permitted to publish stories that did not have the approval of the government.
Prof. Hoppe’s experience at UNLV is not an aberration. That such incidents do not flare up more frequently is doubtless due to an engrained fear of “offending” the most sensitive member of the student body, leading to a self-censorship by faculty members. The spontaneous, open discussions that fire minds to a vigorous debate become watered down to a recitation of harmless bromides. The validity of a proposition is governed less by factual and rational inquiry, and more by its conformity to the catechisms of “political correctness.” The absurd lengths to which such intellectual lobotomizing goes was shown, a few years ago, at a major university. Containers for the disposal of waste paper were placed in school hallways. One read “for white paper” while the other read “for colored paper.” A day or two later, the signs on the second group of trash containers were changed to read “for paper of color.”
As the incident involving Prof. Hoppe reveals, even the secular age produces its own inquisitions and heresy trials!
2:46 pm on February 8, 2005
