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The Daily Signal
The False Ideas
Intellectuals Peddle at College Campuses
Walter E. Williams
October 11, 2017
As George Orwell said, “some ideas are so stupid that only
intellectuals believe them.”
Many stupid ideas originate with academics on college campuses. If they
remained there and didn’t infect the rest of society, they might be a
source of entertainment, much in the way a circus is.
Let’s look at a few stupid ideas peddled by intellectuals.
During the Cold War, academic leftists made a moral equivalency between
communist totalitarianism and democracy.
Worse is the fact that they exempted communist leaders from the type of
harsh criticism directed toward Adolf Hitler, even though communist
crimes against humanity made Hitler’s slaughter of 11 million
noncombatants appear almost amateurish.
According to Professor R.J. Rummel’s research in “Death by Government,”
from 1917 until its collapse, the Soviet Union murdered or caused the
death of 61 million people, mostly its own citizens.
From 1949 to 1976, Communist China’s Mao Zedong regime was responsible
for the death of as many as 78 million of its own citizens.
On college campuses, the same sort of equivalency is made between
capitalism and communism, but if one looks at the real world, there’s a
stark difference.
Just ask yourself: In which societies is the average citizen
richer—societies toward the capitalist end of the economic spectrum or
those toward the communist end?
In which societies do ordinary citizens have their human rights
protected the most—those toward the capitalist end or those toward the
communist end?
Finally, which societies do people around the world flee
from—capitalist or communist? And where do they flee to—capitalist or
communist societies?
More recent nonsense taught on college campuses, under the name of
multiculturalism, is that one culture is as good as another. Identity
worship, diversity, and multiculturalism are currency and cause for
celebration at just about any college.
If one is black, brown, yellow, or white, the prevailing thought is
that he should take pride and celebrate that fact even though he had
nothing to do with it.
The multiculturalist and diversity crowd seems to suggest that race or
sex is an achievement. That’s just plain nonsense.
In my book, race or sex might be an achievement, worthy of considerable
celebration, if a person were born a white male and through his effort
and diligence became a black female.
Then there’s white privilege. Colleges have courses and seminars on
“whiteness.” One college even has a course titled “Abolition of
Whiteness.”
According to academic intellectuals, whites enjoy advantages that
nonwhites do not. They earn higher income and reside in better housing,
and their children go to better schools and achieve more. Based upon
those socio-economic statistics, Japanese-Americans have more white
privilege than white people.
And, on a personal note, my daughter has experienced more white
privilege than probably 95 percent of white Americans. She’s attended
private schools, had ballet and music lessons, traveled the world, and
lived in upper-income communities.
Leftists should get rid of the concept of white privilege and just call
it achievement.
Then there’s the issue of campus rape and sexual assault.
Before addressing that, let me ask you a question. Do I have a right to
place my wallet on the roof of my car, go into my house, have lunch,
take a nap, and return to my car and find my wallet just where I placed
it?
I think I have every right to do so, but the real question is whether
it would be a wise decision.
Some college women get stoned, use foul language, and dance
suggestively. I think they have a right to behave that way and not be
raped or sexually assaulted. But just as in the example of my placing
my wallet on the roof of my car, I’d ask whether it is wise behavior.
Many of our problems, both at our institutions of higher learning and
in the nation at large, stem from the fact that we’ve lost our moral
compasses and there’s not a lot of interest in reclaiming them.
As a matter of fact, most people don’t see our major problems as having
anything to do with morality.
Read this and other articles at The Daily Signal
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