New Threats to Freedom Essay Contest: Response to Greg Lukianoff on Campus Censorship
Ideally, college campuses should be censorship-free zones that are conducive to the personal growth and development of the individual. Popular culture would have us believe that freshmen are presented with limitless opportunities to form their own beliefs and opinions when they arrive on campus. While universities may superficially claim to support free speech, in reality, the close-minded social climate of most campuses does not allow for truly open discourse to occur. Academia is rife with taboos and unspoken rules that stifle the expression of students' thoughts and opinions. Instead of allowing students to engage in an unconditional dialogue about controversial topics, the university system leaves the impression that many of these subjects are already foregone conclusions and that disagreement is tantamount to fascism, racism, sexism, or worse. Students are given no chance to challenge the deeply engrained values found on campuses without being ridiculed as politically incorrect and bringing the full ire of their peers and the institution crashing down upon their heads. Rather than encouraging discussion and allowing for dissent, campuses teach today's youths to smile and nod, not to raise their voices in contention. With self-preservation in mind, students are forced to swallow the bitter pill of their university's preaching as doing contrary might place their degrees, and consequently their futures, in jeopardy.
It gravely threatens our freedom when a college education means students are well-versed not in critically questioning their world but instead in blind acceptance. The hidden curriculum of college campuses engrains in the minds of my peers the sickening notion that respect for authority is a higher virtue than respect for one's self-determined ideology. In essence, the university system is an antiquated machine that churns out generation after generation of followers that exist merely to maintain the status quo. Honest debate without fear of reprisal is desperately needed remedy for modern campuses to stop the suppression of students' wills and to usher in an era of unrestricted idea flow. The time of letting others think for us has overstayed its welcome; it is now time for the academic hive mind to crumble and for the voice of each student to be heard. Everyone has something unique and potentially beneficial to bring to the discussion, and with the harrowing dangers posed against our liberties, we cannot afford to live in an environment that fosters anything less than complete openness amongst our country's brightest minds.
It gravely threatens our freedom when a college education means students are well-versed not in critically questioning their world but instead in blind acceptance. The hidden curriculum of college campuses engrains in the minds of my peers the sickening notion that respect for authority is a higher virtue than respect for one's self-determined ideology. In essence, the university system is an antiquated machine that churns out generation after generation of followers that exist merely to maintain the status quo. Honest debate without fear of reprisal is desperately needed remedy for modern campuses to stop the suppression of students' wills and to usher in an era of unrestricted idea flow. The time of letting others think for us has overstayed its welcome; it is now time for the academic hive mind to crumble and for the voice of each student to be heard. Everyone has something unique and potentially beneficial to bring to the discussion, and with the harrowing dangers posed against our liberties, we cannot afford to live in an environment that fosters anything less than complete openness amongst our country's brightest minds.