From Conor Friedersdorf at the Atlantic:
As the fall semester begins, 15 professors from Yale, Princeton, and Harvard have published a letter of advice for the class of 2021.
Think for yourself.
The “vice of conformism” is a temptation for all faculty and students, they argue, due to a climate rife with group think, where it is “all-too-easy to allow your views and outlook to be shaped by dominant opinion” on a campus or in academia generally.
Mmmm, yes. Especially if one who opposes the group think could get expelled, fired, burned out, or end up in the hospital, …
They warn that on many campuses, what John Stuart Mill called “the tyranny of public opinion” doesn’t merely discourage students from dissenting from prevailing views:
It leads them to suppose dominant views are so obviously correct that only a bigot or a crank could question them. Since no one wants to be, or be thought of, as a bigot or a crank, the easy, lazy way to proceed is simply by falling into line with campus orthodoxies. Don’t do that. Think for yourself. More.
Given that coddled Millennials refuse to tolerate any idea that challenges them (triggers!), could we simplify these profs’ advice?:
Quit looking, acting, and sounding like a prison riot. Unless a prison riot is truly what you are. And in that case, those of us who are still a free society will know what to do. If your profs told you to do that garbage, they have given you some really bad advice and you should change profs, disciplines, or schools.
Get free now. And don’t thank us. Thank yourself for the rest of your life.
See also: The war on freedom is rotting our intellectual life – including the sciences