Today, there was an important announcement about a new university being created, the University of Austin. It is meant to bring universities back to what they once were, where people can study and research without worrying about the “wokeness” that hinders students and instructors from pursuing the truth.
Its principles:
Universities devoted to the unfettered pursuit of truth are the cornerstone of a free and flourishing democratic society.For universities to serve their purpose, they must be fully committed to freedom of inquiry, freedom of conscience, and civil discourse.In order to maintain these principles, UATX will be fiercely independent—financially, intellectually, and politically.
It is a worthy and lofty goal, and I wish it luck.
Sadly, though, these principles are not enough to protect Jews.
When Twitter, Facebook and other social media started going overboard in their censorship, people flocked to other less restrictive platforms under the guise of free speech. And what happened? On Gab, Parler, 4chan, 8chan – there is plenty of antisemitism that people love to spread unfettered.
A university is not a social media site. But the heroes of these principles – the philosophers of the past few centuries, like Voltaire, Kant, Hume, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Heidegger,Wittgenstein, Marx – all expressed antisemitic ideas while architecting their universal moral theories.
Is it that difficult to imagine a course, or an area of research, meant to prove that Jews or the Torah have been the source of immoral ideas? Or that the Holocaust has been exaggerated? Or, for that matter, that Zionism was built on racist foundations? People that make these claims today all claim that their ideas are being quashed by the politically correct and they are only interested in the truth – exactly as the University of Austin says it wants the campus to resemble.
Truth is always better than lies, and freedom better than censorship. However, even the most brilliant thinkers have not been immune to bigotry – or to justifying their bigotry in the name of moral principles. A university that is dedicated to truth can still become a source of hate. After all, Harvard and Yale’s mottos also extol truth.
I once postulated that what needs to be taught, along with the truth, is humility. I believe that the bigotry we see all too often stems from those who think that they have nothing to learn from others. They seek to justify their conscious or subconscious hate, not to examine and expose it.
Too often university instructors and students end up acting like they are better than others, that they have nothing to learn from those who cannot or do not seek higher education or those who choose different ways to educate themselves.
That same mentality can lead to using one’s intelligence to justify bigotry rather than uproot it.
Dedication to truth is not a guarantee that a university will avoid bigotry. Antisemitism is so much a part of the fabric of the world that I’m not sure if any institution can guarantee that its principles are immune to being twisted into hate. But perhaps it is possible to minimize the chances of missteps along the way if the University of Austin, and any others that choose to follow its path, make humilitas as important a principle as veritas.
Humility is still not a guarantee against bigotries like antisemitism, but it is a necessary precondition to seeking the truth instead of confirming one’s biases.
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