A wave of illiberalism is rolling across America. Once our great universities were the brightest beacons of free thought and free expression. They were great bulwarks against intolerance. Today, they are devolving into bastions of bombast, fanaticism, dogmatism and hatred.
We have great faith in the power of freedom of speech. Our country was founded on it. Our future depends on it. Without freedom of speech, the grand traditions of liberalism will perish. So long as we cherish and preserve free speech in the United States, wisdom will ultimately triumph.
We fear no idea in the marketplace of ideas. The American tradition welcomes them all, including offensive and even abhorrent ideas. Perhaps, especially offensive and abhorrent thoughts. Because those ideas and thoughts will not, in the end, survive the raging rapids of human turmoil. They will not prevail against the essential light of the human spirit. And it is the failures of those offensive ideas, laid bare for all to see, that push humanity ever closer to the better angels of its nature.
We Must Roll Back the Rising Wave of Illiberalism
Faith and confidence in the power of the marketplace of ideas are increasingly forsworn at our greatest institutions of learning. Fear breeds intolerance. And a growing chorus of intolerance ushers in a rising wave of illiberalism. We witness below the sad spectacle of a New York University professor who took to the streets of Manhattan, shrieking uncontrollably and spewing vulgarity after vulgarity. Her purposes: to halt the appearance of Vice News co-founder Gavin McInnes, whose thoughts and words she obviously abhors. And to silence his voice. Our country is stronger than that. And our universities can teach better than that.
We need not agree with Mr. McInnes’ views. We may hold them in disdain and utter contempt. But we do not fear them. And we need not silence them. This nation is based on the very principle of preserving the right of all political speech. Mr. McInnes’ views, if they are unpersuasive, will ultimately lose in the marketplace of ideas. We have overcome far more and far worse in our long history. We will do so again.
The Marketplace of Ideas Can Withstand All Hatred – It Will Overcome
Whatever ideas we find most offensive or most destructive are each, one by one, best said in the open and best addressed in the open. Fascism, Nazism, racism, autocracy, homophobia, misogyny, and more cannot be overcome in the shadows. The great tradition in the United States of America, the bedrock of our strength, is the shining of light on those ideas for all to see. We address them, debate them, and expose their flaws. Our liberal tradition empowers us. And through the strength of our convictions and our compassion for our countrymen we attempt to persuade them. In the end, we hope to lead them forward down a better path. It is through this great effort, through this great endeavor, that we save our own souls.
The essence of liberalism in the great American tradition is freedom of speech. It will forever be freedom of speech. We do not attempt to silence others by force, whether through physical acts or verbal intimidation. Liberalism does not permit “freedom of speech, except for . . .” Liberalism demands freedom of speech for all. We must roll back this rising wave of illiberalism. We must teach ourselves well.
Perhaps better than most, Martin Luther King, Jr. understood the essential power of free thought:
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
And Doctor King’s advice:
I have decided to stick to love. . . Hate is too great a burden to bear.
We look towards that day where Americans once again find it in their hearts to bear the words of those they detest. And be confident in the strength and appeal of their own ideas in that great experiment which is the United States of America.