It is the job of a nationâs intellectuals to connect current events to principles and to past events. Rarely is that done. Look at three examples.
1. Wasnât it just a couple of years ago that we learned that campuses were concerned about studentsâ need for âsafe spacesâ and âtrigger warningsâ had to be given, for instance to alert sensitive students that the speaker was going to mention something that could be disconcerting to them, such as that he was going to use the word âindividualismâ?
But now itâs fine for âPalestiniansâ to celebrate the October 7th atrocities, to hurl the word âgenocideâ at the children or grandchildren of those who witnessed actual genocide, and to harass and threaten Jews on campus.
What happened to the concept of the college student as a âsnowflakeâ who shouldnât have to endure the prospect of any unpleasantness?
2. Ceasefires. There have been ceasefires all my life, and I heard the term as far back as the Korean War. Out of the hundreds of cease-fires that have been tried, none have worked. All have been broken at the convenience of the more evil side. Hamas broke a ceasefire on October 7th. Just half a year ago.
Put into the same bucket all âdealsâ that the good makes with the evil, all âquiet diplomacy,â all âpeace processesâ and all detentes. After the unbroken record of failure of these things, the call for them goes out unabated. âThat was then, this is nowâ is the mantra.
3. We constantly hear that man can know nothing for certain, that truth is relative to the individual, that observations are âtheory-ladenâ so cannot claim to be objective, that no scientific claim can be proved true, that we can say only it hasnât been refuted by the data so far. At the same time and from the same people, we hear that catastrophic climate change is beyond doubt, that those who question it are âdeniersâ who should be kicked out of any position of consequence.
How does the same mind hold, âNothing is certainâ and âClimate catastrophe is certainâ?
