The College Fix

‘Propaganda and power now reign where there used to be a pursuit of truth’

Dr. Everett Piper, president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, may have made the phrase “this is not a daycare, it’s a university” famous, but that’s just one of his many brilliant insights on the dismal state of higher education.

Piper’s analysis has earned him the 2016 Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick Award for Academic Freedom, and in a recent speech he gave as he received the honor, he offered more choice words on modern scholarship.

“Education has lost its way and consequently our country has lost its soul and our culture has lost its sense,” Piper said. “The contemporary academy is known not for pursuing truth but rather for its celebration of tolerance and in the name of tolerance we are told that our intolerance is intolerable.”

“… The result of this nonsense is that the banner tolerance has become a dark flag of tyranny almost overnight. What was academic freedom just yesterday is ideological fascism today. Rather than celebrating liberty, liberals now demand conformity. Campuses are now bastions of speech codes rather than free speech. Students are more interested in ‘trigger warnings’ than they are in pursuing truth. Disagreement is now synonymous with hate.”

“The bottom line is this: Education is in peril. Run by the State and its thought police, colleges across the land have become indoctrination camps more so than campuses of open inquiry. Propaganda and power now reign where there used to be a pursuit of truth.”

Piper can clearly articulate truths better than most, one reason he was tapped with the honor, named after Kirkpatrick, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a fierce defender of American ideals and academic freedom.

In an interview with The College Fix, Dr. Piper offered more powerful insights:

What does the Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick Award mean to you?

I am obviously humbled to receive this award. Ambassador Kirkpatrick modeled a willingness to follow ideas to their logical end. She was willing to change course if her presuppositions were proven wrong. She recognized what Richard Weaver told us in 1948 was true: Ideas have consequences. Mrs. Kirkpatrick knew that the pursuit of truth ultimately leads to freedom and, conversely, the protection of opinions inevitably leads to oppression and slavery. As a college president I can’t think of a higher honor than to be recognized as a champion of truth and I can only hope and pray that the citizens of our nation recognize that they will have intellectual freedom only when that self-evident revelation serves as the judge of the debate rather than politics and power.

How can we convince students to be tough, to fight back against the “shut it down” mentality?

Ask them if they believe in intellectual liberty or if they’d rather have ideological fascism. Show them that it’s fallacious for them to argue that they can’t tolerate my intolerance or that they hate those they find hateful. Let the brokenness of their foreclosed worldview implode on itself. It is frankly self-refuting nonsense for them to argue for justice while at the same time refuting any objective standard of what is just. It is intellectual suicide to say that they know nothing can be known. They are sawing off the branch upon which they sit and we do them no favors by not trying to take away their saws.

What is your advice to students when dealing with a fight for freedom of speech?

I would ask the rhetorical question: Do you believe in diversity of thought and are you open to contrary ideas? Do you believe that education should involve a robust debate where the best ideas are embraced and the worst ideas are discarded? Is classical liberal education your goal or would you rather be subject to indoctrination that is controlled by those who happen to have the most power at a given time? Are you a intellectual liberal or are you a intellectual fascist? Bottom line: What do you want from education: Power or principles? Veritas or vengeance? Information or ethics?

Is there a war against freedom of speech and expression on campus?

I don’t know if I would call it a war or not but there sure is a suppression of free speech on many campuses. When a speaker is shouted down simply because he or she has a new idea or an idea that challenges the given hegemony of the day then I would argue we are coming perilously close to elevating power over the principles of liberty, tolerance, freedom and justice.

Can you expand on any experiences you may have had as a college administrator regarding free speech issues?

The interesting thing here is that being part of a Christian liberal arts college givens me a much more freedom than any other academic community I’ve ever been part of. The reason is clear in my view. Because we believe in a “measuring rod outside of those things being measured” (C.S. Lewis) we can have an open and robust exchange of ideas without fear of being oppressed, shut down, expelled or fired. When the judge of the debate is “truth” rather than politics, popularity, power or personalities, you can pursue ideas to their logical end. You can “play the game” because you can trust the referee.

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