An Educational Opportunity for Universities and Students

When college and university students — whose historical and constitutional obliviousness is matched only by their self-assured morality of outrage and entitlement — face no discipline from the adults who have abandoned education in favor of indoctrination, the barbaric antics now on display are the inevitable result.

The worst, and perhaps only, lesson these students have learned is that speech is violence if they disagree with it, and violence is speech if it serves their cause. The Marxists’ “long march through the institutions” may be a pyrrhic victory ending in the destruction of the very institutions they sought to control, if university presidents fail their students again by not enforcing sane policies and the law.

The purpose of education is to instill in the next generation the civic virtues necessary to live as free men among free men. On many university campuses today, we see the result of abandoning those fundamental precepts.

Free speech is an essential component of a free society. Such a statement is as self-evident a truth as those named in our Declaration of Independence. There is no “hate speech” exception to the First Amendment, nor should there be.

To revile another person, a fellow image bearer of God, for his ethnicity or religion is arguably the lowest form of human speech and indicative of a much deeper stain on the human condition.

“For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” So said the central figure in the history of the world, a Jewish carpenter, in His most famous sermon. The Judeo-Christian principles so prevalent in the minds and writings of the founding generation led to the establishment of our nation not as a theocracy, but a republic. One in which our Constitution is recognized as the highest civil law of the land, empowering government to protect the God-given rights of the people.

Anti-Semitic speech, as ignorant and hateful as it is, remains protected speech. But that does not give the speakers free rein to incite violence, trespass on school property, damage or destroy university property, or physically harass and intimidate Jewish students or block them from entering campus, as we have seen at Columbia, UCLA, and elsewhere.

University presidents should use their authority to distinguish between simply despicable words and clearly illegal actions — and act accordingly. Some of the most valuable lessons in life are learned the hard way, and university presidents should be teaching some of their students a hard and valuable lesson right now.

The University of Chicago, and the University of Florida stand out as examples of rational leadership demonstrating the proper balance between respect for free speech and the rule of law.

There is no right to a college education in our Constitution, or in the “laws of nature and of nature’s God.” To foster an environment of learning and peaceful interaction requires discipline of those who disrupt that environment.

Expulsion from the university is a necessary first step, while criminal penalties for criminal action can be left to local prosecutors. Anyone guilty of a crime while here as a guest of our nation through a student visa should lose the privilege immediately.

Aristotle once said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Centuries later, our nation’s poet laureate, Robert Frost, would echo Aristotle when he stated, “Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence.”

Judging by this standard, many of our universities have failed to truly educate our youth. Trigger warnings, safe spaces, and speech codes have sprung up like weeds to choke out free expression and civil discourse.

What we are witnessing on college campuses across our nation is the fundamental misunderstanding of the right to free speech and its accompanying duties and limits. Worse, we’re seeing that combined with indoctrination into the toxic, Marxist ideology incompatible with a free, civil society and a constitutional republic. Those who have sewn to the wind for decades are now reaping the inevitable whirlwind.

Yet, even amidst this chaos, there is a teachable moment to restore ordered liberty and return to the classical liberal tradition. These principles, deeply rooted in American soil, are not dormant. If we muster the moral courage and clarity to cultivate them, our nation can renew the bloom of Western Civilization and human flourishing once again.

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Lathan Watts is vice president of public affairs for Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal).

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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