Commentary by James Shott
College campuses, once a garden where divergent ideas
flourished, are more and more becoming known for their ideological imbalance
and even outright censorship of ideas, and a recent incident demonstrates just
how weed infested that once diverse garden has become.
The Daily Caller online reported that conservative writer
Ben Shapiro had been scheduled to speak on behalf of Young Americans for
Freedom, a registered student organization at California State University, Los
Angeles (CSULA). Following complaints by some students, the institution’s
president, William Covino, tried to cancel the appearance, favoring an event
with a broader set of topics, but the Young Americans group persisted, and the
president backed down. The event was funded by the CSULA student government
organization.
As the audience tried to enter the auditorium for the program
last Thursday, liberal protesters had linked arms in a human chain to block entry,
and video of the protesters shows a lot of pushing and jostling at the
entrance, including the pushing and shoving of police officers, and epithets
such as “racists” and “white supremacists” were reportedly shouted at those
wanting to attend the event.
People eventually did enter the auditorium, but only by
being escorted to a back door by police, and eventually that entrance also was
blocked by protesters. During the speech, someone pulled a fire alarm, although
Shapiro and the audience ignored it.
What topic would produce such a radical reaction? Was he to
talk about doing away with student loans, or education grants, or argue against
free tuition? No, nothing so inflammatory as that. What got the mob all up in
arms was the idea that an institution of higher education would allow a speech
titled, “When Diversity Becomes a Problem.” Apparently, diversity is only a
problem when it involves ideas that some students don’t like.
Unsurprisingly, getting out of the auditorium afterward was
as hard as getting in, as the diversity protesters also blocked the doors after
the event ended. Shapiro and his audience had to wait to leave until police
could clear demonstrators, allowing them safe exit.
This episode is both a symptom of the poison that has spread
throughout the country, and particularly on campuses, a growing idea that
anyone offended by anything outside of their narrow set of beliefs is entitled
to some make-good effort when their delicate feelings are injured, but it also
is a measuring stick showing how far down the road to ruin America has
traveled.
Looking at why we are so far down that road leads to the
conclusion that it is largely through deliberate efforts to subvert two of our
most basic and most important societal functions: educating the younger
generation and providing information to the people. These critical areas are
largely keys to the heart and soul of America, as they are vehicles through
which its ideals and traditions are communicated to the populace, and give
people the information they need to discharge the duties of citizenship responsibly.
In America today the traditional family, that once was where
children learned the basics of life and how to function in a complex society,
has been heavily damaged through social liberalism, so that many or most
children now receive their basic education and cultural footing not in the
home, but in public schools. And public K-12 education and higher education
have changed dramatically over recent decades. Today, the federal government
has a great degree of influence over public education, replacing control and
oversight by states and localities, and leftist indoctrination has crept into
textbooks, curricula and faculty, with far too little resistance.
Thus, when kids graduate from high school and enter college,
if they weren’t already indoctrinated with liberal drivel, they are heavily at
risk of falling victim to it on campus. The criminal behavior of leftist
students at CSULA, suffering under the false belief that what they think is
more important than what others think, supports that idea.
And news journalists and the organizations they work for,
too frequently manage the news to serve an ideological purpose, providing not
the pure information the people need and depend upon, but a slanted version
designed to strengthen a set of liberal ideals.
Some good news on this front comes from recent opinion polls.
A Gallup poll showed that six in ten Americans have little or no confidence
that the national media report the news fully, accurately and fairly, and a
survey by the Pew Research Center showed that 65 percent believe that the news
media have a negative effect on the nation.
Such insecure behavior has at its foundation the knowledge
that if Americans are provided with the pure information they deserve, they would
reject the left’s narrow and destructive ideas, which is why they must employ
dishonesty and indoctrination.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “America will never be destroyed
from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we
destroyed ourselves.”
America is increasingly a nation of delicate personalities,
self-made victims and government dependents. These trends serve the needs of
those who prefer socialism to freedom, our liberal fellow citizens. To see
where this leads, look at Venezuela.
Cross-posted from Observations
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