As the school year begins, protests are expected to break out at university campuses across the country. No one should have any illusions about the malice and intentions of the most radical protesters.
These protesters will not seek to change the present society. They do not want reform; they want revolution.
A Dark Glimpse at a Dismal Future
A dark glimpse of what these students propose can be seen at Columbia University in New York City. The Ivy League college was the scene of violent protests and even a building occupation last spring. Its president, Minouche Shafik, recently resigned in the face of criticism for her mismanagement of the crisis.
The anti-Israel group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, represents the radical students and their views. The group’s statement clearly affirms its members are fighting to “eradicate” Western civilization from Columbia and the world. Indeed, the goal is cultural suicide.
Westerners Destroying the West
The statement reads:
“We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization. We stand in full solidarity with every movement for liberation in the Global South. Our Intifada is an internationalist one—we are fighting for nothing less than the liberation of all people.”
In this battle to the death, the militants see no possibility of compromise. The enemy is so embedded inside society that only annihilation will suffice to remedy the situation.
“As the fascism ingrained in the American consciousness becomes ever more explicit and irrefutable, we seek community and instruction from militants in the Global South…”
An International Struggle
This is not a local struggle but part of an internationalist network of those who reject the West—not unlike the Marxist internationals of the past that sought to unite the workers of the world. Thus, these students claim to carry a more radical version of this fight forward as they “draw inspiration not only from the Palestinian resistance but from every struggle for liberation across the globe.”
Why America Must Reject Isolationism and Its Dangers
As an example of this international solidarity, the anti-Israel group released its statement on Instagram together with the Columbia University Bengali Student Association. Both expressed their satisfaction with the recent student uprising overthrowing the government in Bangladesh.
The Logical Consequence of Liberalism
The presence of such radical anti-West students at one of the most elite Western universities is a paradox. How can the students who profit from everything Western hold a position that is so contrary to their self-interest? Yet more perplexing is Columbia University’s accommodating attitude, which has everything to lose by pandering to anti-Western student demands.
Columbia is part of the liberal establishment that brings forth these radical students. The suicidal attitude of the radicals is a logical consequence of liberal thought. Liberalism calls for a framework that allows everyone the right to think, feel and do everything demanded by their unbridled passions without society falling into chaos.
As liberalism progresses, these passions ask for ever more license. The framework becomes an object of oppression since it restricts some freedom to accommodate others.
The Postliberals Cancel Freedom
Thus, in these postliberal times, the freedom of contrary expressions and thoughts must be sacrificed and canceled to help “marginalized” peoples and groups claiming to suffer oppression.
The radicals target Western thought and institutions that still vaguely represent the rational restricting of the passions. Above all, they reject the affirmation of a loving God that all revolutionaries deem oppressive and the Authority to be overthrown.
The Columbia radicals at least frame the present debate accurately. This is a fight over the last remnants of the West, and it should be taken seriously.
Photo Credit: © Spiroview Inc. – stock.adobe.com