Editor’s Note: The author of the commentary below, Patsy Reed, is about as deep a thinker as they come, in my estimation. I was once told by a reliable source that I’m a deep thinker. Compared to the thought resistant masses, I suppose it’s true. I’ve often wondered about shallow thinkers. “How can they be so naive? How do they even survive?” Well, Patsy touches on that very thing in the following:
Here’s a link to the article that Patsy is commenting on:
We Aren't Raising Adults. We Are Breeding Very Excellent Sheep. (substack.com)
Recently, Bari Weiss has published on her Substack site several horrifying accounts of people's experiences at the hands of the supposedly "best" people that our culture can produce--at least by conventional social criteria which emphasize attending and/or being employed by elite institutions. I posted and emailed one such account a few days ago, about the personal destruction of one of the world's top cancer researchers.
Here are two more accounts of similar downfalls that were clearly undeserved and absolutely brutal. In one of these, a young Princeton graduate recounts the personal destruction of her husband-- a former beloved Princeton professor-- by the faculty, students and administration of Princeton. His supposed crimes? 1. He had a consensual affair with a student. Something that we all know is not uncommon. Most of the people who are guilty are never punished at all, let alone have their lives ruined. 2. He questioned Critical Race Theory. Clearly, that was the real offense.
Weiss also recently published a critique by a former Yale professor of the quality of the minds--dare we say souls?-- of most of his Yale students in recent years. He is dismayed by their lack of real character. They have no personal moral compasses. Their reactions are crowd driven. One does not have to think overly long and hard to realize the dangers of that.
As long as the "gatekeepers" of our society are so corrupt themselves, it is criminal to hand power to them without protest. One hopes that parents will stop focusing their efforts on getting their children accepted in the "best" schools at any cost. The intense competition for and in those schools is no longer a meritocracy. It is a social meat grinder. It is all about social class, about being politically correct. The people who wield their gate-keeping function so irresponsibly, will continue to do so as long as the rest of us defer to them. We need to STOP DEFERRING TO THEM. STOP PRETENDING THAT INFERIOR PEOPLE ARE SUPERIOR BY VIRTUE OF THEIR HEAVILY POLITICIZED CREDENTIALS AND THEIR VERY WILLINGNESS TO BE RUTHLESS.
It does not appear that the cancel culture can be reformed from within. You cannot appeal to the consciences of people who have no consciences to appeal to. The very viciousness of the reaction against the slightest dissent is designed precisely to abort dissent before it can be born. If a culture cannot be reformed from within, it can only be outperformed from without by a self-aware alternative. A counterculture, if you will.
The cancel culture must be rejected. It is shattering our institutions as a functional constitutional democratic republic, and it is shredding our values as decent human beings.