The “progressive” takeover of higher education in America has transformed it from a valuable learning experience into an astoundingly expensive waste of time that actually harms the minds of many students. Rather than learning knowledge and how to employ reason, students often become social-justice warriors who automatically try to “cancel” anyone who disagrees. How on Earth did we get here?
In their new book The Canceling of the American Mind, Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott explore this terrible turn of events, and today I review it for the Martin Center.
The authors provide numerous examples of the way the intolerant left operates to silence and ruin the careers of people who dare to say or do anything that clashes even slightly with progressive orthodoxy.
They also trace the origins of this anti-intellectual trend. The idea that colleges should not be places of free speech and debate but instead should favor leftist speech and crack down on conservatives, libertarians, and traditionalists came from German professor Herbert Marcuse back in the ’60s. It found fertile soil in our universities and has grown apace in recent decades.
Lukianoff and Schlott understand that our educational system — starting in kindergarten — has been badly poisoned by the anti-intellectualism of the Left and argue that we need new institutions. We certainly do!