What a terrible, bad faith engagement with your writing - and that misquotation of you, shameful. You are far too decent to make such a civilized response!
Like Galston, I received my liberal arts degree at Cornell, majoring in History. The descriptions of more than half of the current classes address: racist, sexist and classist prejudices; the problems of racial capitalism; America’s violence in the world; Jews and colonization, empire-building, and racialization; inventions’ impact on race, gender, class and immigration status; religion as a modern invention to address the needs of Europeans; history of environmental justice; queer history; white supremacy; police power and on and on... None of these topics were a part of a rigorous History curriculum in the late 1990s which encouraged discussions and debates. The History Department at Cornell is unrecognizable to me.
Correct, I wonder how much of the problem is that Galston does not know how much "liberal education" has changed in the universities since his idealized time a half-century ago.
'Jews and colonization' - among all the lies and delusions that's one of the biggest, and contains not a little anti-semitism. Israel is not colonialist, it is POST-colonial, created out of the break up of the Ottoman and British empires along with other countries in the region.
Not sure exactly what they teach in that class, but I agree with you. People seem to forget that Israel was formed by a vote of the United Nations after the Holocaust, and that Jews have been persecuted - taxed, tortured, killed, and expelled - all over Europe for centuries.
I'm not sure either, but I know how prevalent that narrative is on many campuses, the idea that the Palestinians are the 'indigenous' people of the region being overrun by illegitimate Israeli colonizers and the widespread yearly campaign of 'Apartheid Weeks' when students en masse compare Israel to the old South Africa regime, another lie.
This is Maoist cultural revolution bullshit that wants to upend liberty,unity,independent thought and cause permanent division instead of the academy it was meant to be.
I’m a liberal that is completely disgusted and disillusioned by academia. It’s been a while since I attended, but at that point the only things I noticed that seemed questionable were “queer studies” and one other class focused on something equally esoteric. I was a philosophy student, and the philo department was still brutal and relentless, as it should be. Now I gather philosophy has been reduced to sophistry and navel gazing, as students are permitted to write their thesis on masturbating, “girl dick,” and removing the “stigma” surrounding paedophiles and sex with kids. The thought that some POS that endlessly expounded on his nasty porn habits could have the same degree as myself? Completely, utterly in-fucking-furiating.
I gather even prestigious medical colleges and departments are now populated by woke activists eager to put their mark on everything. “Queering medicine” they call it, and it literally abandons evidence based treatment. You read that right. They do not feel evidence of efficacy is necessary for a medical professional to use a particular treatment. I honestly do not know how this can possibly have happened, but it has.
Yes, only the beginning. Abolish tenure; it doesn't protect 'free thought', it protects lazy academics who don't want to produce something that others value.
I think the problem that Chris faces (as do any of us who try to oppose the Trojan Horse called "Critical Studies") is that almost every establishment liberal (and I mean "liberal" in the classic sense) who was raised and educated in the 20th century and still has a 20th-century perspective seems to have a form of blindness where their left eye has died and they cannot see or squarely face any illiberal impositions that come from the Left.
Thus when I talk to any of my friends who follow this stuff (and it sounds like the same goes for Galston) things like Gender Theory (ask your toddler to choose a sex and pronoun!), Critical Race Theory (Racism is embedded in every person, place or thing, you just have to dig it out), or Queer Theory (Smash the mammalian sex binary!) seem as natural and harmless to them as water and oxygen. Once you blindly accept that Critical Studies is legitimate scholarship—despite the fact that all species of it are devoted to political activism and all their questions have the same single answer: Bigoted oppression!—and refuse to see its illiberal roots and goals, any opposition to it reads as censorship.
For establishment liberals, whose brains for the most part where formed by the 1960s, the Critical Studies claim to be by and for the oppressed fighting oppression is just too morally and socially strong for them to deny—the New Left have accrued so much power first and foremost by making opposition to them seem as cruel as kicking a kitten—and also since there were vague stirrings of these ideas back in their good ol' college years (and also bc none of it messes w their 401k loot), they see the campus Left as mostly harmless kids who will grow out of it.
So the mantra of the American liberal class for the most part continues to be: Nothing to see here, move along! because in their antiquated and simplistic worldview "academic freedom" means any specialty that comes with enough established institutional backing and also because, at bottom, opposing this will require too much energy, step on too many taboos, and make all their kids (and the kids on Twitter) denounce them as Nazi bigots.
If the American liberal class had any integrity or dignity we wouldn't be here in the first place, but they let this rot fester on their watch and now all they want is to keep their heads down till retirement. And hey, if it means that the rest of us have to follow speech codes and sacrifice our civil liberties or an entire generation is indoctrinated to hate their own country and its traditions, that's a small price to pay for their continued comfort.
Oct 2, 2023·edited Oct 2, 2023Liked by Christopher F. Rufo
Galston's argument extends far beyond the educational field; he's saying that government must always be morally neutral. While Mill or Locke would almost certainly agree, Mr. Galson appears to have forgotten much of his Plato and Aristotle.
Aristotle: “Legislators make their citizens good by habituation; this is the intention of every legislator, and those who do not carry it out fail of their object. This is what makes the difference between a good constitution and a bad one.” (Ethics Bk 2)
Plato: “It is not the concern of the law that an one class of the city fare exceptionally well, but it contrives to bring this about in the city as a whole, harmonizing the citizens by persuasion and compulsion” (Republic)
(I used both of these with my philosophy students today and it really pissed them off, since they KNOW that the state must be value neutral.)
The ancient philosophers all understood that human society (like education) was a means to an end... virtuous and wise people. Considering Plato's high esteem for education, he particularly would be appalled at the state abrogating its duty of moral instruction to the young ruling class.
In truth, Galston's complaints about Nazism or Lysenkoism indicate he doesn't actually believe in a value neutral education or state at all. He (and many others) simply find it a useful shield to hide behind while implementing their own competing moral code against that promulgated by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas.
There is a lack of education on moral development throughout our educational systems. This is not the fault of the educators who used to teach the Philosophy of Ethics or the Psychology of Moral Development, as many of them have been driven out or left academia "voluntarily" when they were no longer permitted to teach students how to think. It's good to hear that you are in fact teaching, even when your students get pissed off!
Teaching this subject is my small small way of pushing back the darkness. And with my personality, I need to do something to push it back, even if I know it's probably a losing battle. I'm that kid on the shore tossing starfish back into the sea.
“In truth, Galston's complaints about Nazism or Lysenkoism indicate he doesn't actually believe in a value neutral education or state at all. He (and many others) simply find it a useful shield to hide behind while implementing their own competing moral code against that promulgated by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas.” They have been taught to be Uber moral and Uber moralism is to go at it hammer and tong until everyone agrees to the same morality one way or another, no exceptions. The fact that this is authoritarian and is also responsible for every immoral thing ever done seems to elude their grasp, if not incidentally, then purposely. They are determined that a perfect utopia can and will be established by them. I don’t know how this won’t end badly and that sickens me.
I, for one, am excited for this development on the political Right. It seems that a dialectical form of reasoning and internal debate is finally being utilized by the Right to sharpen its argumentation and to develop further nuance to rival (intellectually) the Left. The classical liberal ideal is appealing to most of the country and I hope that a future candidate for the presidency will internalize this ideal and will recognize the democratic mandate for changing our institutions. A further thought, Christopher Rufo is likely the foremost 'Praxist' of the Right.
You have no idea how excited I was that so many came out in Tampa to see Jordan Peterson. I'd rather get my brain fed than see a concert these days lol. It's sad how many don't get his references under 35.
Ellis Potter in "Three Theories of Everything": 'Freedom and form is a pair of opposites we see in the world. A good illustration is gravity. Gravity is one of the basic forms, or structures of reality, but it gives a certain freedom. If gravity were not here and I began to walk, I would float and spin and soon I would be dead. Form, or structure, is necessary. Let me give you an equation to express this idea: Total Freedom = Death.' Mr. Potter goes on to explain that in order to fly, you do not jump off a building and flap your arms but instead you study aerodynamics, etc. to that you can build an airplane and fly across the ocean. The freedom to fly is directly connected to respecting, not ignoring, the necessary forms. We are living in a culture wherein Mr. Rufo and others are trying to re-introduce the proper forms. Mr. Galston is supporting a culture that has jumped off the building and is flapping its arms. Without the truthful forms, liberty, equality, and fraternity turns into hedonism, jackboot conformity, and shallow sentimentality (from Robert Bork in Slouching Towards Gomorrah.)
That's why queer theory goes so far including the breaking down of age barriers. Their so-called virtue lies in eliminating all 'forms', then calling it inclusion. They'd rather not call it freedom even though that's what it is in the absolute sense. It's certainly not liberty.
You convinced me of your conclusion with this excerpt in the second paragraph.
“liberal education,” derived from the Latin word liber, meant the cultivation of the free citizen and the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty”
Marxism, liberation, free inquiry is a path to destruction. As Jordan Peterson would say, people need an ideal to aim at. What education hams that will populate everything within the system. The pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty will develop citizens that are humble, hard-working, respectful, and competent… that’s what we want to reproduce.
The crux of the dilemma lies in the fact that leftist ideology expounds no uplifting values such as what is found in true liberalism. The pursuit of truth as reflected in reality is discarded and replaced by sophomoric desires which embody narcissism and hedonism. This is not what the taxpayer deserves from its investment in public universities. Thank you Christopher Rufo for standing firm against those who wish for civil disintegration.
Excellent response to Galston. I would add that restricting public scrutiny to public universities doesn't go far enough. Private universities have used the government-subsidized student loan program as an anesthetic to pass their hyperinflationary tuition and fee increases onto students, which funded the hypergrowth of their administrative layers, including DEI. When these loans go into default or are forgiven, the taxpayer ends up subsidizing this layer even at private universities. The overhead costs that the government pays on research grants to these universities are another subsidy of this layer.
Well written Chris, unfortunately a good rational conversation is wasted on these people.
Thanks for never backing down.
I have a personal and particular hatred for university education gone bad. UCLA stole my older daughter and she never came back. My other kids went to conservative colleges and are leading happy lives.
As always Mr Rufo, your analysis is spot on. I would like to add my personal
opinion that hate has always lurked in the corridors of Academia. It is easily wrapped in dangerous theories, that, when left unchecked, grow like a cancer. Is that not what we all suffer today?
In the 1920s, Stanford University eugenicists David Starr Jordan and Lewis Terman, advocated for eugenics as a means to improve the human race. Princeton University had a eugenics research center, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. A simple search using chatGPT will uncover widespread "research" on the subject.
The eugenics movement did wane in the 1930s, but it gave academic cover to the Nazi movement. Eugenics-related legislation in the United States was repealed only in the 1970s.
Today we are faced with yet another wave of vitriolic academics and "theories" that are equally dangerous. Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat, as they say.
I suggest, Mr Rufu, if it is not being done or emphasized today, new student to college get high doses of study on false-consensuses. Whether the topic is pre-frontal lobotomies, eugenics, the food pyramid, marxism, or the racism and hatreds built into CRT, our students need to be taught that educational institutions and hate and ism's cloaked as science is common in academia. And that it has been used, and is still being used, to justify the most horrific crimes of humanity. A bit of guilt and humility might just be the right medicine for our next generation of students.
As a resident of FL, I’m 100% behind what you and Gov. DeSantis are doing at New College and other public universities, and grateful for your scholarly ability to clearly explain the rationale for these necessary changes. Disappointed in the WSJ, to which I subscribe, for running Galston’s hit piece. I suppose it’s another sad example of the Murdoch-owned media empire moving to the Left. As you so often point out, the Left thrives on the naïveté of the masses, and the mainstream media suppresses the facts and stories that might help people understand opposing viewpoints, and ultimately, the truth.
What a terrible, bad faith engagement with your writing - and that misquotation of you, shameful. You are far too decent to make such a civilized response!
Yes, the misquote was egregious. I hope that he will issue a correction or apology.
When the wolf dresses up like a grandma in a plot to eat you, he doesn’t get to whine “elder abuse” when you defend yourself from his attack…
Agreed.
Like Galston, I received my liberal arts degree at Cornell, majoring in History. The descriptions of more than half of the current classes address: racist, sexist and classist prejudices; the problems of racial capitalism; America’s violence in the world; Jews and colonization, empire-building, and racialization; inventions’ impact on race, gender, class and immigration status; religion as a modern invention to address the needs of Europeans; history of environmental justice; queer history; white supremacy; police power and on and on... None of these topics were a part of a rigorous History curriculum in the late 1990s which encouraged discussions and debates. The History Department at Cornell is unrecognizable to me.
Correct, I wonder how much of the problem is that Galston does not know how much "liberal education" has changed in the universities since his idealized time a half-century ago.
In addition, I have long believed that if a majority of Americans were presented evidence such as Lucy’s it would cause them to demand change.
'Jews and colonization' - among all the lies and delusions that's one of the biggest, and contains not a little anti-semitism. Israel is not colonialist, it is POST-colonial, created out of the break up of the Ottoman and British empires along with other countries in the region.
Not sure exactly what they teach in that class, but I agree with you. People seem to forget that Israel was formed by a vote of the United Nations after the Holocaust, and that Jews have been persecuted - taxed, tortured, killed, and expelled - all over Europe for centuries.
I'm not sure either, but I know how prevalent that narrative is on many campuses, the idea that the Palestinians are the 'indigenous' people of the region being overrun by illegitimate Israeli colonizers and the widespread yearly campaign of 'Apartheid Weeks' when students en masse compare Israel to the old South Africa regime, another lie.
This is Maoist cultural revolution bullshit that wants to upend liberty,unity,independent thought and cause permanent division instead of the academy it was meant to be.
Abolish the Department of Education.
Yes, but that is only the beginning.
What then?
I’m a liberal that is completely disgusted and disillusioned by academia. It’s been a while since I attended, but at that point the only things I noticed that seemed questionable were “queer studies” and one other class focused on something equally esoteric. I was a philosophy student, and the philo department was still brutal and relentless, as it should be. Now I gather philosophy has been reduced to sophistry and navel gazing, as students are permitted to write their thesis on masturbating, “girl dick,” and removing the “stigma” surrounding paedophiles and sex with kids. The thought that some POS that endlessly expounded on his nasty porn habits could have the same degree as myself? Completely, utterly in-fucking-furiating.
I gather even prestigious medical colleges and departments are now populated by woke activists eager to put their mark on everything. “Queering medicine” they call it, and it literally abandons evidence based treatment. You read that right. They do not feel evidence of efficacy is necessary for a medical professional to use a particular treatment. I honestly do not know how this can possibly have happened, but it has.
So yes, let’s do this.
Yes, only the beginning. Abolish tenure; it doesn't protect 'free thought', it protects lazy academics who don't want to produce something that others value.
I think the problem that Chris faces (as do any of us who try to oppose the Trojan Horse called "Critical Studies") is that almost every establishment liberal (and I mean "liberal" in the classic sense) who was raised and educated in the 20th century and still has a 20th-century perspective seems to have a form of blindness where their left eye has died and they cannot see or squarely face any illiberal impositions that come from the Left.
Thus when I talk to any of my friends who follow this stuff (and it sounds like the same goes for Galston) things like Gender Theory (ask your toddler to choose a sex and pronoun!), Critical Race Theory (Racism is embedded in every person, place or thing, you just have to dig it out), or Queer Theory (Smash the mammalian sex binary!) seem as natural and harmless to them as water and oxygen. Once you blindly accept that Critical Studies is legitimate scholarship—despite the fact that all species of it are devoted to political activism and all their questions have the same single answer: Bigoted oppression!—and refuse to see its illiberal roots and goals, any opposition to it reads as censorship.
For establishment liberals, whose brains for the most part where formed by the 1960s, the Critical Studies claim to be by and for the oppressed fighting oppression is just too morally and socially strong for them to deny—the New Left have accrued so much power first and foremost by making opposition to them seem as cruel as kicking a kitten—and also since there were vague stirrings of these ideas back in their good ol' college years (and also bc none of it messes w their 401k loot), they see the campus Left as mostly harmless kids who will grow out of it.
So the mantra of the American liberal class for the most part continues to be: Nothing to see here, move along! because in their antiquated and simplistic worldview "academic freedom" means any specialty that comes with enough established institutional backing and also because, at bottom, opposing this will require too much energy, step on too many taboos, and make all their kids (and the kids on Twitter) denounce them as Nazi bigots.
If the American liberal class had any integrity or dignity we wouldn't be here in the first place, but they let this rot fester on their watch and now all they want is to keep their heads down till retirement. And hey, if it means that the rest of us have to follow speech codes and sacrifice our civil liberties or an entire generation is indoctrinated to hate their own country and its traditions, that's a small price to pay for their continued comfort.
brilliant!. in my good ole college days it was jelly making and basket weaving. These kids are NOT going to "grow out of it"
Of course not, this has been a massive cope and/or gaslighting technique for almost a decade now. As Andrew Sullivan said, We all live on campus now.
Galston's argument extends far beyond the educational field; he's saying that government must always be morally neutral. While Mill or Locke would almost certainly agree, Mr. Galson appears to have forgotten much of his Plato and Aristotle.
Aristotle: “Legislators make their citizens good by habituation; this is the intention of every legislator, and those who do not carry it out fail of their object. This is what makes the difference between a good constitution and a bad one.” (Ethics Bk 2)
Plato: “It is not the concern of the law that an one class of the city fare exceptionally well, but it contrives to bring this about in the city as a whole, harmonizing the citizens by persuasion and compulsion” (Republic)
(I used both of these with my philosophy students today and it really pissed them off, since they KNOW that the state must be value neutral.)
The ancient philosophers all understood that human society (like education) was a means to an end... virtuous and wise people. Considering Plato's high esteem for education, he particularly would be appalled at the state abrogating its duty of moral instruction to the young ruling class.
In truth, Galston's complaints about Nazism or Lysenkoism indicate he doesn't actually believe in a value neutral education or state at all. He (and many others) simply find it a useful shield to hide behind while implementing their own competing moral code against that promulgated by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas.
There is a lack of education on moral development throughout our educational systems. This is not the fault of the educators who used to teach the Philosophy of Ethics or the Psychology of Moral Development, as many of them have been driven out or left academia "voluntarily" when they were no longer permitted to teach students how to think. It's good to hear that you are in fact teaching, even when your students get pissed off!
Teaching this subject is my small small way of pushing back the darkness. And with my personality, I need to do something to push it back, even if I know it's probably a losing battle. I'm that kid on the shore tossing starfish back into the sea.
Many of us feel the same way, aware yet impotent, lacking experience in resisting, battling such forces.
This is correct, and at the core of the problem:
“In truth, Galston's complaints about Nazism or Lysenkoism indicate he doesn't actually believe in a value neutral education or state at all. He (and many others) simply find it a useful shield to hide behind while implementing their own competing moral code against that promulgated by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas.” They have been taught to be Uber moral and Uber moralism is to go at it hammer and tong until everyone agrees to the same morality one way or another, no exceptions. The fact that this is authoritarian and is also responsible for every immoral thing ever done seems to elude their grasp, if not incidentally, then purposely. They are determined that a perfect utopia can and will be established by them. I don’t know how this won’t end badly and that sickens me.
I, for one, am excited for this development on the political Right. It seems that a dialectical form of reasoning and internal debate is finally being utilized by the Right to sharpen its argumentation and to develop further nuance to rival (intellectually) the Left. The classical liberal ideal is appealing to most of the country and I hope that a future candidate for the presidency will internalize this ideal and will recognize the democratic mandate for changing our institutions. A further thought, Christopher Rufo is likely the foremost 'Praxist' of the Right.
You have no idea how excited I was that so many came out in Tampa to see Jordan Peterson. I'd rather get my brain fed than see a concert these days lol. It's sad how many don't get his references under 35.
Ellis Potter in "Three Theories of Everything": 'Freedom and form is a pair of opposites we see in the world. A good illustration is gravity. Gravity is one of the basic forms, or structures of reality, but it gives a certain freedom. If gravity were not here and I began to walk, I would float and spin and soon I would be dead. Form, or structure, is necessary. Let me give you an equation to express this idea: Total Freedom = Death.' Mr. Potter goes on to explain that in order to fly, you do not jump off a building and flap your arms but instead you study aerodynamics, etc. to that you can build an airplane and fly across the ocean. The freedom to fly is directly connected to respecting, not ignoring, the necessary forms. We are living in a culture wherein Mr. Rufo and others are trying to re-introduce the proper forms. Mr. Galston is supporting a culture that has jumped off the building and is flapping its arms. Without the truthful forms, liberty, equality, and fraternity turns into hedonism, jackboot conformity, and shallow sentimentality (from Robert Bork in Slouching Towards Gomorrah.)
That's why queer theory goes so far including the breaking down of age barriers. Their so-called virtue lies in eliminating all 'forms', then calling it inclusion. They'd rather not call it freedom even though that's what it is in the absolute sense. It's certainly not liberty.
Wow. Incredibly cogent piece!
You convinced me of your conclusion with this excerpt in the second paragraph.
“liberal education,” derived from the Latin word liber, meant the cultivation of the free citizen and the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty”
Marxism, liberation, free inquiry is a path to destruction. As Jordan Peterson would say, people need an ideal to aim at. What education hams that will populate everything within the system. The pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty will develop citizens that are humble, hard-working, respectful, and competent… that’s what we want to reproduce.
The crux of the dilemma lies in the fact that leftist ideology expounds no uplifting values such as what is found in true liberalism. The pursuit of truth as reflected in reality is discarded and replaced by sophomoric desires which embody narcissism and hedonism. This is not what the taxpayer deserves from its investment in public universities. Thank you Christopher Rufo for standing firm against those who wish for civil disintegration.
Excellent response to Galston. I would add that restricting public scrutiny to public universities doesn't go far enough. Private universities have used the government-subsidized student loan program as an anesthetic to pass their hyperinflationary tuition and fee increases onto students, which funded the hypergrowth of their administrative layers, including DEI. When these loans go into default or are forgiven, the taxpayer ends up subsidizing this layer even at private universities. The overhead costs that the government pays on research grants to these universities are another subsidy of this layer.
Time to destroy the monasteries.
Well written Chris, unfortunately a good rational conversation is wasted on these people.
Thanks for never backing down.
I have a personal and particular hatred for university education gone bad. UCLA stole my older daughter and she never came back. My other kids went to conservative colleges and are leading happy lives.
Sorry to hear this!
Purposely misrepresenting "free inquiry is the method, not the goal" as "free inquiry is bad" doesn't sound like a "thoughtful" response to me.
As always Mr Rufo, your analysis is spot on. I would like to add my personal
opinion that hate has always lurked in the corridors of Academia. It is easily wrapped in dangerous theories, that, when left unchecked, grow like a cancer. Is that not what we all suffer today?
In the 1920s, Stanford University eugenicists David Starr Jordan and Lewis Terman, advocated for eugenics as a means to improve the human race. Princeton University had a eugenics research center, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. A simple search using chatGPT will uncover widespread "research" on the subject.
The eugenics movement did wane in the 1930s, but it gave academic cover to the Nazi movement. Eugenics-related legislation in the United States was repealed only in the 1970s.
Today we are faced with yet another wave of vitriolic academics and "theories" that are equally dangerous. Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat, as they say.
I suggest, Mr Rufu, if it is not being done or emphasized today, new student to college get high doses of study on false-consensuses. Whether the topic is pre-frontal lobotomies, eugenics, the food pyramid, marxism, or the racism and hatreds built into CRT, our students need to be taught that educational institutions and hate and ism's cloaked as science is common in academia. And that it has been used, and is still being used, to justify the most horrific crimes of humanity. A bit of guilt and humility might just be the right medicine for our next generation of students.
Good stuff Christopher. Your work is much appreciated.
As a resident of FL, I’m 100% behind what you and Gov. DeSantis are doing at New College and other public universities, and grateful for your scholarly ability to clearly explain the rationale for these necessary changes. Disappointed in the WSJ, to which I subscribe, for running Galston’s hit piece. I suppose it’s another sad example of the Murdoch-owned media empire moving to the Left. As you so often point out, the Left thrives on the naïveté of the masses, and the mainstream media suppresses the facts and stories that might help people understand opposing viewpoints, and ultimately, the truth.