I read a piece today by Nate Silver who used the phrase Social Justice Leftism to describe the collection of movements that we sometimes call Woke-ism. I like the SJL acronym and so we will start using that here.
Today is December 15. If you live in New York City and have school-aged kids, then your Instagram is absolutely burning today. That’s because today is the day that early-decision applicants to our country’s most prestigious (note, I did not say “finest”) universities find out their fate - accepted, rejected or deferred.
For most of the kids who received their decisions today, their first choice school was decided long before October 7th and well before the three horsemen of the apocalypse made their appearance before the House Education Committee. I understand that it takes a certain kind of family to tell University of Pennsylvania that you are withdrawing your application and that most are not doing that.
So, I have a request. And it is not a humble one. If you or your child decides to go to a US college that sits in the bottom half of the FIRE rankings (there seems to be a very high correlation between those rankings and the extent of infection of SJL rot), you have an obligation to be present, to be active, to be aware and to demand change.
If you attend one of these schools now, you know the extent to which they have been taken over by an ideology that is dangerous to our society. Perhaps, what is even worse, is that those schools’ decline into SLJ poses a danger to their ability to provide a valuable education instead of a credential. Speak your mind. Document incidents where the SJL infrastructure impedes you. Support changes in the way that faculty are hired and evaluated. Withhold financial support beyond paying the bills until you see meaningful change. If you attend Penn, or one of its peers, and just keep your head down, you are complicit in the destruction they are wreaking to our way of life. It’s that simple.
I am very proud of the work my wife has been doing since October 7th to galvanize the Northwestern University community around the pathetic response of the administration to those events.
For the rest of us who may not have realized the significance of December 15, I would suggest we have plenty to do as well. Remember that your shareholders are the most important stakeholders in your company. Remember that going out of your way to make political statements that are irrelevant to your corporate mission may harm your business and those shareholders. Elect candidates who support school choice and charter schools. Elect candidates who support criminal justice reform that does not mean criminal justice repeal. There is plenty to do.
And, yes, please…for goodness sake, do not walk alone outdoors wearing a mask.