A Glimmer of Hope

 

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post in which I had given up on my alma mater, The University of Chicago.  Once a beacon of serious scholarship, free speech and free inquiry, the university began to be consumed by Critical Theory and Wokeism a few years ago.  I was astonished at how fast the change had come.   The Mob attempted to cancel professors Harald Uhlig (economics) and Dorian Abbot (geophysical sciences) last year.   Its English Department announced a de facto bar on white students in its graduate program, saying it would only admit students interested in Black Studies (my email response to my old professor was posted on this blog (https://commonsense-mark.blogspot.com/2020/10/a-letter-to-my-first-professor.html)).  Even the Booth School of Business got into the act.  Formerly a  leader in quantitative management announced that, among other measures,  it would employ “unconscious bias” training at the school.  It would employ this remedy without establishing that any bias existed at the school or that such training would be effective.  Empiricism at Booth gave way to alchemy.  I saw that this very special place was rapidly deteriorating into an ideological swamp like Smith College, Oberlin or UW-Madison.   Finally, when the university announced that it was considering gracing Critical Race Theory with its very own department, I threw in the towel, and decided I would abandon my connection with the school.

Yet, just when I thought all was lost and the university would slip under the waves of Wokeism, I was alerted to an upstart publication started by UChicago students, The Chicago Thinker (thechicagothinker.com).  With the slogan “Outthink the Mob” as its banner, The Chicago Thinker announced its mission:

Some things are too sacred to surrender to the mob, and the free exchange of ideas is one of them.  The Chicago Thinker challenges the mob’s crusade against free speech by publishing thoughtful conservative and libertarian commentary, in addition to fact-driven reporting.

Perfectly and concisely stated.

There are so many things right with this project.   First, it is an initiative by STUDENTS.   It is a hopeful sign that at least a core of young people have enough independent and critical thinking skills to have resisted the critical theory and Woke indoctrination endemic to our education system and have the courage to put their names on this publication.   Second, the university’s response to the introduction of the Woke virus to the school has been a pusillanimous reiteration of the Chicago Principles, while at the same time permitting critical theory to begin to exert power and influence over the entire institution.  The Chicago Thinker is a tool to push back, defend the principles of free speech and free inquiry and aggressively blunt the intellectual attacks that have begun to take their toll on the university.  As I have often stated, Critical Theory and the Chicago Principles are fundamentally at odds.  One will eventually have to yield to the other.   The Chicago Thinker’s mission perfectly states this concept in its first sentence, “too sacred to surrender.”   This group of students have stated it in a blunt and direct way that the administration and faculty have failed to do over the last several years.

I am so delighted by this initiative and am guardedly optimistic that it could begin to turn the momentum and help bring the university back from the precipice.

In the same week, the university announced its new president, Paul Alivisatos, a scientist from UC Berkeley.  He received his undergraduate degree the same year I did (’81) and hopefully he leaves Berkeley thinking behind.  Unfortunately, I didn’t know him or don’t remember him from The College.  But a president from that vintage would likely have had grounding in Western Civilization, the U.S. Constitution and will likely hold the Chicago Principles dear.   My deep suspicion is that the Woke folks took advantage of President Zimmer’s health problems and the gap in leadership at the university to begin to establish a foothold.   President Alivisatos will have a great challenge on his hands to exert leadership and turn this momentum around.  I hope he recognizes the threat.

I hope that I was too hasty in giving up on the university.  I would be overjoyed to state that I had overreacted.  A new publication devoted to turning back the mob and a new president firmly committed to pushing back against an ideology that is beginning to erode  the core of everything the university stands for gives me some hope.