By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK
The psychologists define cognitive dissonance as the “mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time.” I think I might have a case of it. I think that many other Catholics with traditional views have it as well. I am hoping that readers of this column may be able to clear up my confusion.
Here’s what puzzles me: The people I agree with on educational issues — media figures, writers, people I meet in my everyday life — are opposed to the rise of political correctness on our college campuses. They are impatient with the college leftists who shout down opposing points of view, demand safe spaces where they will not have to encounter ideas that clash with their beliefs, and in general threaten the freedom of expression central to the educational process.
Yet these critics of political correctness are also opposed to moral relativism, to pornography festivals and to various convocations by campus chapters of LGBT sympathizers. The question: Why is it wrong for campus leftists to protest a speech on campus by Ann Coulter or Patrick Buchanan, but high-minded for conservative students to petition the administration to stop performances of The Vagina Monologues? The very day I am writing these lines, a group of Notre Dame grads is protesting the school’s invitation to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to speak on campus. Where do these lines get drawn?
Can’t it be said that the champions of modern political correctness are calling for universities to maintain standards of decency? That they are taking a stand against moral relativism in defense of what they perceive as truth? Their standards of decency and truth may not be ours, but they are standards. I am not being coy or playing devil’s advocate. I am hoping that readers of this column will be able to help me formulate a way out of what seems to me a genuine dilemma.
Consider a recent column by Thomas Sowell in praise of the administration at the University of Chicago for showing what he calls “some backbone” in opposition to “the stifling of opinions that differ from political correctness on campuses across the country,” for not “caving in to so many outrageous demands from little gangs of bullying students.” Sowell points to public statements by Dr. Robert Zimmer, president of the university, who wrote recently, “Free speech is at risk at the very institution where it should be assured: the university.”
Sowell praises the decision at the University of Chicago to present entering freshmen this year with a letter from the school’s dean of students, informing them, “Members of our community are encouraged to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn, without fear of censorship.” Sowell laments that “such things need to be said,” calling it a “painful commentary on the academic world in general.”
I’m on Sowell’s and the University of Chicago’s side. But you can see my predicament, no? How can I praise this “fear of censorship” while simultaneously calling for Catholic colleges not to promote performances of plays like The Vagina Monologues, or invite pro-abortion politicians to speak on campus? Doesn’t doing that place me in the category of Napoleon, the pig in Animal Farm whom George Orwell told us “firmly believed that all animals are equal” and who “would be only too happy to let” the other animals “make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?”
I think there is a way out of this pickle, but I would prefer to tackle the problem in public only after hearing from our readers. I repeat: I’m looking for some help on this one.
On another, but related, topic: We have received a letter from a reader who is disappointed with the changes that have taken place in recent decades at Jesuit universities. He agrees with a Jesuit priest who wrote to us in late summer describing the changes as a “squandered patrimony.” Our correspondent writes that the Jesuit’s words “hit home! My dad died when I was five years old. My mother never remarried but wanted me to have a ‘male influence.’ So she sent me to an all-boys Jesuit high school. I graduated from high school in 1956 and attended a Jesuit university after that.
“At that time the Jesuits were the ‘Marine Corps’ of the Catholic Church. To graduate from a Jesuit university, everybody, Catholic or not, had to take nine hours of Catholic theology and nine hours of Thomistic philosophy. Teaching the Catholic religion, its history and the reasoning behind it were the key parts of our education. There was a different attitude back then. You were ‘Catholic and proud of it!’
“Then came Vatican II and the Land O’Lakes agreement. Everything changed! Academic freedom was most important. It trumped everything. So in the 49 years after 1967, the graduates of Jesuit universities did not get the Catholic education that previous graduates got. There was a different attitude — a ‘Catholics are not so special’ attitude, a ‘you can have your cake and eat it too’ attitude. Thus we have Catholics like Joe Biden running around performing a marriage between two gays who are on the White House staff! Some of the things going on at these former Jesuit universities are unbelievable! The Jesuits have played a large part in the secularization of the Catholic Church since Vatican II.”
Our reader ends by noting that the “Jesuits had a huge influence on me as my mother wanted. They were the ‘father’ to me. I’m thankful for that. However, modern Jesuits are not the Jesuits I knew. How did it all happen? Personally, I have returned to the Traditional Latin Mass. It’s good to be back.”
I submit that this letter writer is in the same boat with me. He is opposed to the political correctness of the modern university, but also wants the standards of the past to be restored. Would Thomas Sowell and the president of the University of Chicago who are devoted to freedom of expression on campus see him as an ally? How would they make the case for that alliance?
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Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about this and other educational issues. The e-mail address for First Teachers is fitzpatrijames@sbcglobal.net, and the mailing address is P.O. Box 15, Wallingford, CT 06492.
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