Does ‘Academic Freedom’ Still Exist?

Now that the so-called ‘pro Hamas’ demonstrations have been dispersed on all the college campuses, and we can resume our lives in a normal way, I’m going to use this story to explain what I believe needs to be considered in thinking about those kids sitting in their tent encampments today.

And let me make it clear that you will be reading the perspective of someone who was not only one of the individuals who helped plan the anti-war demonstrations at the Chicago Democrat(ic) Convention in 1968, but also was one of the students who helped put together the first anti-war teach-in at a Chicago campus earlier that year, and to this day remains proud of having been involved in both events.

I believe the college administrators who asked cops to come onto campuses last month to crack some heads in the name of ‘restoring law and order’ should be ashamed of themselves because their attitudes happen to be exactly the opposite of what they proclaim the roles or what we now call the ‘mission’ of their institutions should be.

The whole point of ‘academic freedom,’ which is what these arrogant and stupid clerks from university Presidents on down claimed they were protecting every time a campus encampment was destroyed, is to protect the ideas which makes society feel uncomfortable, ideas which force us to face facts and issues we would rather…