Repeating The Old Mistakes

     Back in the Sixties, when students on American university campuses first began to exhibit unruly and uncivilized behavior in large numbers, the administrators of those institutions made a fatal mistake: they tried to placate the disruptors. From that moment on, there was no quelling the mobs. Their principal agitators, most of them openly aligned with the Communist Party, had tasted success and were certain they could get whatever they might demand. Whatever event had initiated the disruptions became irrelevant. All that mattered to the agitators was to “keep pushing.”

     Nothing of that sort can last forever, of course. It had to burn out eventually. But many campuses suffered long periods of complete disorder. Hand-wringing administrators, terrified that calling in the police would somehow damage their institutions unacceptably, persisted in trying to “negotiate” with young thugs whose overt demands mattered little. Their whole goal was to “keep the revolution going.”

     It’s always a mistake to try to “negotiate” with such forces. By their actions, they’ve openly dismissed the purpose of a university in favor of their “cause.” Call it what you will: “peace,” “anti-racism,” “social justice,” “the environment,” “equality,” or whatever else. They have set out on a course that cannot be tolerated, lest it completely invalidate the disrupted institution.

     Perhaps some of today’s campus administrators have learned a little from their forebears:

     Protests over the war in Gaza have taken hold at a handful of elite US universities as officials scramble to defuse demonstrations.
     Police moved to break up an encampment at New York University (NYU) on Monday night, making a number of arrests.

     However, others are displaying the timidity that afflicted their predecessors:

     New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat, criticized Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, saying she has “chosen to surrender control of Columbia to an antisemitic fringe.” Torres also said canceling in-person classes is “an admission of failure” by Shafik.
     “If you cannot ensure the safety of your students, then you have no business serving as President of any university, let alone the alma mater of Alexander Hamilton,” Torres said in a statement. “What Columbia University needs is not an appeaser of antisemitism but a leader who will fight with moral clarity against it.”
     He continued, “That Columbia University has failed its Jewish students so profoundly is an indelible stain on the soul of the institution. If the President of Columbia University cannot lead with moral clarity, then she should step aside for a true leader who can and will.”

     Columbia canceled in-person classes in the name of “safety:” specifically, the safety of its Jewish students, who’ve been assaulted and threatened by the “pro-Palestine” mobs.

     Has Minouche Shafik, an Egyptian-born Muslim, aligned herself with the mobs, or have the civil authorities mislaid their water cannons?

     This much is clear: the “pro-Palestine” mobs, like their predecessors six decades ago, sense the weakness of the college authorities whose campuses they infest. That a university has nothing to do with their “cause” means nothing to them. Their mantra is once again to “keep pushing:” not merely for surrender from the university, but also to strike fear into those who administer other institutions. The more fearful they can render peaceable others, the more likely their tactics will be profitable. It’s been the aim of militant minorities since time immemorial.

     Stay tuned.