Academic Purity and the New Jacobins
An ancient religion has been made new again. It is a religion that requires total allegiance and public declarations of fealty to the “one truth.” It has no compassion and does not care who or what gets hurt along the way. The only thing that matters is the purity of the professed new faith.
The world has seen this story many times, and yet we never seem to learn the lessons of history. It is an insidious religion that has already permeated many aspects of society, including many of our academic institutions.
It is the religion of intolerance, and its poison seems to have reached the soul of our nation. It currently masquerades, for many, under the organizational banner of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and the sloganeering banner of “social justice.”
First came the “safe spaces” that were carved out on college campuses across the country. This is where students could find respite and retreat from the harsh reality of other people’s opinions that might be offensive and could make them feel “marginalized.” Then, entire campuses had to be made “safe” since students needed to be protected from being judged and micro-aggressed against.