We're Squandering an Important Teachable Moment
This week we're watching large protests continue to grow and spread on college campuses across the country. Central demands often include urging university administrations to divest from companies that do business with Israel, endorsing the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, and calling for the recognition of Palestinian statehood. There have been counter-protests as well, pro-Israel groups claiming that the pro-Palestinian protesters are often anti-Semitic or are calling for the destruction of Israel. Some universities are now attempting to remove the protesters who are, in many cases, violating university policy, and it's all getting very, very messy.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a lot of teaching going on around these topics, and most of the colleges and many of the protesters seem to have forgotten that one of the core goals of a higher education is to learn how to intuit, analyze, and act on complicated scenarios with intellectual integrity and human compassion.
Let's just get this out of the way -- all of the following have happened in the several weeks, in no particular order (and there is no attempt to conflate them, either):
lots of students taking a stand for what they believe is right
plenty of racism, hate, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism
race baiting
"provocateurs" who have deliberately posed as protesters on one side or the other to get crowds to chant racist, Islamophobic, or anti-Semitic things
thoughtful protests designed to raise awareness of legitimate problems and human struggles
police departments and universities trying to responsibly allow students to invoke their first amendment privileges
police departments and/or universities acting like thugs and fascists
lots of first amendment rights being properly exercised, allowed, or even encouraged
plenty of unprotected free speech being tolerated
plenty of unprotected free speech not being tolerated
some protected free speech not being tolerated
a complicated situation
a complicated situation being oversimplified by people who are more interested in talking and scoring points than listening and cooperation
It's a mess, and it's a mess that in many ways mirrors the mess that's going on in the Middle East. And we're no closer now than we were on October 6th, 2023, from solving these messes. In fact we might be further away.
Too many people are "keeping score." Far too often, terrible actions are dismissed or even justified by recalling other terrible actions conducted by the other side. This is just as true on American soil than in the Middle East, and it's the core reason we're not making progress in either place.
In the case of many of these protests, they are run by young people and young people are doing two of the things they do best -- enthusiasm and stupidity. Watching fake protesters, under-cover provocateurs who infiltrate a protest in order to get the crowds to chant the worst possible things, hurts my brain and my soul and seriously undermines the message the protesters sought to deliver in the first place. But it's completely predictable, as anyone who has studied group think in large crowds can attest.
Sadly, the colleges and universities which should act like the adults in the room have mostly made matters worse. Most were initially too dismissive of the protesters which created a dynamic of hostility out of the gate. Many are too politically entrenched with one side of this argument or the other. Once again, current events has given our nation and indeed our world an incredible chance at a "teachable moment," and too many of our teachers have delved into the stupid rather than rise to the occasion.
We live in a global society where everyone is more eager to speak than listen, to act than reflect, to dig-in than to change.
All of this said, there are hundreds or thousands of protests that you're not hearing about on the news. Many universities, religious groups, and writers have quietly engaged in thoughtful discussion and analysis, even if their work has been drowned out by tear gas and airstrikes. I do believe that many people are simply tired of this conflict and are seeking ways to change it. Sadly, I also think those people are not now in power and may take many years for their voices to be heard.
Our choices are not Netanyahu or Hamas, Islamophobia or anti-Semitism, free speech or a police state. We shouldn't "pick a side" when these sides have given us a brutal October 7 terrorist attack and a genocide in response. And in order to move away from this dynamic we're going to have to come to agreements with people who have done some very bad things. You can't sign a peace treaty with someone with whom you're already at peace.
Let's hope some of the leaders at these "prestigious universities" can figure this out & lead by example.
