Political Activism, Institutional Failure, and Anti-Intellectualism in America

The West shares an old problem with the rest of the world: the constant menace of totalitarian zealots determined to interfere in the lives of others, however they brand themselves ideologically, citing religious or political dogma.

What sets the West apart is that it has actually been the home of free thought since the Enlightenment. However, the pressure on freedom worldwide has been growing; there is no such thing as eternal peace. Civilization depends on solidly founded institutions for its lasting protection against barbarism—and as always, the Jews are the canary in the coalmine. Totalitarianism, whether it marches under the banners of fascism, socialism, or Islamism, has the Jews and free society as its enemies.

Increasing its vulnerability to totalitarianism, the West has a tendency to melancholic self-torment that has weakened morality and social cohesion, and without warning, it reached a peak three years ago, prompted by controversial police business. On the tarmac of a Minneapolis intersection and under the knee of an officer, a career criminal died, as upset bystanders filmed the incident. Both the main officer and his colleagues were convicted in court, and it would seem that justice had thereby been served. Even before the legal proceedings were over however, things unraveled.

Leftist news outlets and social media unanimously canonized the deceased. Straight away, his death became the symbol of an alleged social phenomenon called “structural racism.” Posthumously, the 46-year-old man, a rapper wannabe, but without any real success in life, rose to fame, presented as the very epitome of a victim in the equally destructive and mendacious oppressor-oppressed narrative of our time.

Subsequently, riots broke out across the country. For a start, the street protests may have evoked nostalgic memories of the 1960s civil rights battles—however, the agenda was completely different this time. Marches led by political activists, who instantly scented the morning air of untapped opportunities, though typically characterized as “mostly peaceful,” deteriorated into random vandalism and Haitian-style mass lootings. Not humility, but vengeance, characterized the attitude of the ravaging crowd.

As the protests spread, it became clear that they were set on crushing the institutional framework of the Western world. That was the true scope of the conflict. In short, the protests challenged a social order resting on freedoms and the rule of law. Under the guise of moral outrage, implacably anti-democratic forces in the midst of our society, “anti-racist,” “anti-colonialist,” or plainly “socialist” by name, succeeded in seducing public opinion.

Held back by indecision, authorities allowed a general atmosphere of anarchy to paralyze large parts of society, notably in cities like Portland, Los Angeles, and Seattle. At the time, slogans such as “defund the police” echoed in the streets. Revolution was in the air. A motley crew of self-styled “leaders,” who all had issues with the present society, mingled with the crowd and called for a fight against “capitalism,” “colonialism” (past and present), “Zionism,” and “moral traditionalism,” which included “sexual conventionalism.” The perception that the most savage attacks on social order were somehow legitimate, combined with the absence of law enforcement, emboldened every resentful maladaptee. Now was the chance to take revenge on the world.

Like socialist agitators of the past, the leaders of Black Lives Matter (BLM) knew how to play the game—they were “trained” Marxists after all. Impatient to exploit the momentum and rally the protesters around a common cause, they leaned towards conspiratorial rhetoric. It represents a strategy well-known from the recruitment of the street mob: Blame everybody but yourself for the misfortunes of your life (e.g. “white bigots,” “capitalists,” or “Jews”—depending on the political season). Rather than having to account for anything, the terrifying brigades of covetous, envious, and maladapted souls could now, inspired by BLM, plead their victimhood.

Obvious distortions of historical realities (the 1619 Project), set the ideological agenda. Being rewritten from the revisionist perspective of identity politics, history turned into a single indictment against people of European descent for racism—and, implicitly, a colonialist view of the rest of the world. At universities, a witch-hunt for academics unwilling to sacrifice truth for political orthodoxy cost unknown numbers of employees their livelihoods. Undocumented, grotesque claims of such a nature that they ought to embarrass the scientific community, conflicting with common sense, principles of civilized reasonability, and the spirit of the constitution, gained access to the classrooms, creating distrust and division between population groups.

Alienated from the spirit of the founding fathers, by the looks of it, the nation that heroically saved the world from totalitarian rule during World War II and the Soviet era now approached a state of perplexity. The absence of organized, assertive resistance from a great nation, whose freedom-loving constitution and democratic institutions have been ideals for the rest of the world, was at least as disheartening as the pure savagery of the protesters.

Not least the vulnerability of honored academic institutions, like the universities of Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford, to the wildest whims of wokeism (e.g. the toe-curling “teachings” of philosophical impostors such as Ibram Xolani Kendi) and anti-Semitic activism is deeply shameful; it shows a disturbing degree of intellectual cowardice.

The universities, if any, should stand together in these times of crisis and issue a call to arms, protecting the nation from the enemies of civilization. However, it is as if the academia of the West, in the absence of Christianity, has no real resilience to show for it, but falters before a determined enemy; hoping to appease the totalitarian beast it is willing to submit to irrationality and barbarism. It has allowed the uncivilized, violent street fighters to storm the gates and conquer the campus and auditoriums with intolerance, hate speech, and cancellation.

The development in our society is reminiscent of the ravaging behavior of Nazi thugs in the streets of the Weimar Republic, culminating in Kristallnacht, and at German and Austrian universities in the late 1930s. Millennia-old nations of culture then fell without any appreciable resistance in the fight against barbarism. Neither as individuals nor as a group, unprotected by the rest of society (which barely recognizes the existential threat to free thought), do the present-day academics have the courage to go against the violent activists rampaging the streets. To survive as private persons, they can choose to go along with it, feigning sympathy for the subversive agenda, or withdraw from public life altogether.

Who, then, might come to our rescue and resist the toxic propaganda of wokeism (and socialism)? Who will safeguard our way of life? To whom can we ultimately entrust the responsibility of protecting our precious institutions from degradation by totalitarian forces in society?

English professor emeritus Mark Weightman Bauerlein has been a relentless critic of his contemporaries. In books and lectures, he has chronicled the intellectual decline at American universities, warning against the effects of undue politicization, like anti-meritocratic initiatives under the heading of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). Making a mockery of academic excellence, it is a disturbing tendency that has the potential to undermine our civilization.

Originally, Bauerlein portrayed the generation named “millennials.” With unwavering faith in the future, sociologists and others from the progressive elite had self-assuredly predicted these people to become the best educated of all generations in history. However, Bauerlein argues that the millennials, which should take over the world and make it at better place to live, have disappointed terribly. The same, for that matter, generally applies to their successors, the so-called “zoomers,” who occupy campus in 2023. Too self-absorbed, complacent, and lazy to make the necessary sacrifices of scientific commitment, they follow the whims of political fashion, susceptible to sentimental, dramatized evidence and the machinations of pseudoscience, e.g. sociological and environmental.

Strangers to history, classical literature, and natural sciences, the young students evade the comprehensive reading (and disciplined, meticulous learning) of previous generations, and are largely ignorant. Accordingly, they are incapable of the critical, independent, and balanced assessment of facts that should characterize an academic. They are helpless kids swayed by propaganda based on distorted notions of victimhood, the intrinsic evil of the West, and the unlimited right to reparation of the oppressed.

BLM took advantage of an unfortunate death to step up its fight against Western society. The movement exploited the sympathy that rightfully belonged to the civil rights movement, took the fight a step further, crossed the line, and ultimately joined the enemies of freedom; the policy makers did so because they are socialists at heart. In the wake of the “10/7” atrocities, the organization of BLM showed its true colors by siding with Islamists in the Middle East.

A black man expired under the knee of a white man, and his death was a gift to leftwing political activists—the extremists. To the enemies of freedom, death does not mark tragedy, but opportunity; death serves as the fuel of political zealotism.

Many keep wondering about the alliance between socialists and Islamists. What could they possibly have in common? Well, a common enemy, stupid! And that enemy is the West, the open society, enlightenment, and freedom. America, ultimately.

Lars Møller holds the position of chief physician at a psychotherapeutic clinic for patients with severe personality disorders, PTSD etc.