The Illiberalism in Our Institutions – by Sahil Handa – Persuasion
Like the newspapers, elite universities are reorienting themselves to cater to a new and narrow customer base. Schools like Harvard once operated as a patronage system for the white male upper class, most of whom were drawn from a tiny set of New England prep schools. This system was certainly restrictive in terms of who could get inside, but it was not so restrictive in terms of what could be taught or thought. As that patronage system started to disappear, so too did Harvard s commitment to liberalism and open inquiry.
I m a student at today s Harvard, and I m no stranger to the campus illiberalism so well-documented in the American media. This manifests in many forms: canceling speakers, trigger warnings, firing professors, and widespread self-censorship. I ve previously argued that the prevalence of support for these actions amongst the student body is exaggerated by media outlets most of the madness is executed by a small minority on campus but I do think the illiberalism is getting worse, and that it needs to be properly addressed.
I don t think the root of the problem is that Harvard undergraduates have made a wholesale conversion to the woke religion. Rather, that a vocal minority has done so and the college caters to that minority, working terribly hard to avoid offending those who belong to it. This isn t stupid, and it isn t weak-willed. But it is deeply problematic, and I see two main causes for it:
Firstly, the old patronage system is mostly gone. Entrance to Harvard is open to anyone in the world, and finding your way through the door is taken as a sign that you are deserving of being listened to and catered to. Since most of the students who get in come from liberal, upper-middle-class families, that is the culture and politics to which the college caters.
Second, most students simply have no incentive to honestly express their opinions, especially if they aren t aligned with the vocal minority. Harvard freshmen arrive at the most prestigious university in the world and are reluctant to do anything that could threaten their newfound level of social status. Campus debate is dominated by the most privileged students, who have spent years climbing at elite prep schools, learning the vocabulary of microaggression, trigger warnings, and intersectionality and they bring that language to seminars, club meetings, and town halls. Everyone else just tries to keep their head down and get by without feeling like an impostor. There’s no social reward for standing up to the woke minority, so the woke minority are the only students that the college administration is forced to appease.
And so, Harvard has gone from defending free inquiry among a tiny crop of the upper class, to now catering to its loudest students and doing everything it can to avoid offending them. In both situations, Harvard was focused on pleasing a tiny base of customers but now, those customers demand ideological, rather than demographic, uniformity.
Pretty insightful. Admit this kid to Harvard. He’ll have to be cancelled of course.