Until recently I thought chants of  “gas the Jews” and signs calling for the “final solution” of Jews were confined to history books on the Weimar republic.  Reality hit me across the face in the weeks since Hamas massacred 1,200 people in the vilest ways imaginable and kidnapped over 200 on October 7.  The less egregious forms of anti-Semitism still parrot the murderers’ slogans — “from the river to the sea” — or are filled with stomach churning callousness, like tearing down posters of kidnapped Israelis.  In what has to be a new definition of absurdity, “queers for Palestine” signs have appeared, apparently oblivious that this sign is an open invitation to be thrown off a rooftop in Gaza.  According to a recent poll, 20% of Americans aged 18–29 think the Holocaust is a myth.  Almost 30% think Jews have “too much power” in America.

This should be a wake-up call to all reasonable people that we have deep educational and cultural issues to deal with in our country and in the West.  Without understanding the cause, everyday people are at risk of becoming desensitized to the cultural rot, until those shouting the genocidal slogans decide to outdo themselves.  

The fact is, our universities are nurturing stations for this form of nihilism because they are hostile to every Enlightenment value.  The elevation of unabashed subjectivism, the rejection of objective cognition and truth, multiculturalism that presents every culture from Stalin’s Russia to the American Republic as on equal footing, are a few examples.  Emoting rules the day, not thinking.  Facts and logic are dismissed as old-fashioned “tools of oppression.”  With ideas like this, it’s not surprising that students casually throw out the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s self-defensive response to Hamas attacks.  It’s all “semantics,” English department professors would say.  The only truth the universities seem to agree on is the “oppressed/oppressor” framework that lazily clumps every group that’s rich and successful as the oppressor of those who are not. 

If brazen anti-Semitism is the acts, the universities are the voice that make it possible.  The infuriating part is that you and I are the amplifier.  That’s because universities are publicly funded and supported.  We’re literally funding our own destruction. 

Every year, tens of billions of dollars in subsidies pours into education.  Most of this is in the form of student aid.  It’s been extensively noted how this has ballooned the cost of education, but another deleterious effect is the quality of education.  When I get a loan from the bank, it’s dependent on a reasonable expectation that I’m able to pay it back.  Government guarantee of loans removes this review process.  In a free market, lenders would be hesitant lending to students studying sophistry like gender studies, or to a student going to a school that subordinates merit to DIE (diversity, inclusion, equity) because their productive value in a market is questionable.  It aligns the incentives to keep education focused on the goal of productive outcomes. 

The heavy hand of government also crowds out any real competition in education.  Schools that enroll students using federal aid have to be accredited by an accreditor recognized by the Department of Education.  This limits the space for innovators because those accreditors favor the stale four-year model.  Regulators have also imposed regulations, like defining what constitutes a credit hour.  This is hardly an exhaustive list.  There are also indirect ways government limits innovation in education.  Licensing laws, for example, demand that employees have a four-year degree. 

Free market reforms will not guarantee that colleges adopt pro-reason and Enlightenment-oriented ideas.  But unleashing innovation and dynamism in the area of education gives them a chance to take root.  When individuals have the freedom to decide where their dollars go, the odds of more pro-reason and freedom-oriented campuses go up dramatically, since schools have to earn your dollars through persuasion and quality of return. 

This is a long-term vision that’s sure to face opposition from both parties.  There’s something we can do today though to initiate change.  Stop voluntarily giving money to your alama mater.  It’s estimated that Harvard will lose $1 billion from donors after the recent anti-Semitism on campus and President Gay’s wishy-washy refusal to categorically condemn it.  It’s a start.  What I would like to see is that money used to start alternatives to higher education with the backing of more deep pockets.   

There’s a fundamental truth that must be confronted when government gets entangled with education.  The Founding Fathers were clear how axiomatic freedom of speech, religion, press, and assembly are to a flourishing society.  The common thread of these is the freedom of thought.  They knew that freedom of thought is vital to living a good life.  When government entangles itself with education, it erodes freedom of thought.  Recapturing it is the most “bang for the buck” thing we can do for a long-term prosperous and flourishing country.

Image: pasja1000 via Pixabay, Pixabay License.