America’s college campuses are in a state of complete meltdown — at least in blue states, where administrators cater to the whims of these America-hating dolts. But why are these students — the most privileged people in literally world history — LARPing as terrorists and stanning for murderous groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the like?
The answer is simple and timeless: aimless, privileged, value-free young people seek revolution. They always have.
In Northwestern professor Gary Saul Morson’s book, “Wonder Confronts Certainty,” about the history of Russian literature, he describes what he says is a Russian literary type: the revolutionary. The revolutionary is typically from a well-off background but in love with destruction for its own sake. “The will to destroy is also a creative will,” anarchist Mikhail Bakunin famously said. In 1918, Russian poet Alexander Blok wrote an essay titled “The Intelligentsia and the Revolution.” In it, he argued that violence is an antidote to “the boredom, the triviality” of regular life — it will “make everything over … change our false, boring, hideous life … this is called revolution.”
But revolutionaries cannot succeed without mainstream support. During the lead-up to the Russian Revolution, the so-called Constitutional Democratic Party openly cheered and encouraged terrorists, even fundraising for them. The party leader said, after a massive terrorist attack of 1906, “Condemn terror? Never! That would mean the moral death of the party.” Naturally, when the Bolsheviks took over, they killed or arrested all the leading members of the Constitutional Democratic Party.
When it comes to our radicals, nothing has changed. Bored middle- to upper-class kids have been privileged by a system that has handed them everything but given no mission by their parents other than to “find themselves.” Then they meet fellow revolutionaries — and revolutionary professors — who inform them that the system that has given them their privilege is corrupt and evil. They feel guilty, and the only way to alleviate that guilt is to join the revolution. To cosplay oppression.
Right now, it’s all somewhat silly. But there are two paths for these radicals — both dangerous. The first path has been the most common in recent generations: the radicals go on to integrate into more mainstream institutions, which they corrupt from the inside. These radicals have absolutely destroyed major American institutions, from universities to businesses.
But there’s an even darker path. That’s the path where the LARPing doesn’t stop at taking over campus buildings and assaulting Jewish students. That’s the path where a few acts of violence blossom into something far, far worse. That’s what happened during the 1960s and 1970s; in 1971 and 1972, there were almost five bombings a day in the United States. Groups ranging from the Black Panthers to the Symbionese Liberation Army, from the FALN to the Weather Underground, engaged in violent terrorism.
Both paths are plausible. Humored by the Democratic Party, propped up by the media, these college revolutionaries will eventually get tired of co-opting institutions and seek to tear them down entirely. All it takes is someone to break the glass first.
What could break the glass? It could be as simple as Donald Trump winning the 2024 election. Remember, while the student protesters were rioting in 1968, it took Richard Nixon’s election to push those protesters underground — and into overt acts of routine terrorism. Given that the entire left has now deemed Donald Trump a fascist threat, would it be all that shocking if the same students now barricading administration buildings on behalf of an actual terrorist group, Hamas, decide to ratchet their “intifada” up to the next level?
Ben Shapiro, 39, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author; his latest book is “The Authoritarian Moment: How The Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.” To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website.
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Actually, an excellent article with very good references to historical points to bolster the arguments made of what may result in the near-term future, if left unchecked. In many aspects, what is happening on college campuses today is quite similar to the actions that existed in both pre-communist revolutionary Russia and the late 1930s in Germany that led to the eventual collapse and replacement of both existing governance systems with authoritarian regimes. One, Russia, ended up going full communist with all that it entails and the other, Germany, going full socialist.
What we are seeing today is obviously the outgrowth of a corrupted public education system, that has been allowed to run wild to the left for far too long (several decades in fact), that both supports the inherent mindset of the protestors preaching death to Israel and death to America over and over again, as well as the current government leadership in Washington that both wants to appease the well-organized and professionally funded mob for political expediency. A truly toxic mix that won’t end well if allowed to continue unchecked.
It doesn’t help things that the current administration in Washington does not so secretly support many of the same goals of the protestors, as shown by many public statements over the last few months regarding the constant demands for Israel to stop fighting and allow Hamas to regroup and rebuild their forces. Our foreign policy over the last 3 1/2 years has been a case study in why endless appease of your adversaries is a very bad idea. So, with little in the way of any proactive actions being taken by either the college administrations (all populated by leftists), the spineless Democrats in charge locally or at the federal government level, there is little being done to prevent this from mentality from spreading further and creating an even larger, more serious problem as time progresses. Eventually the system buckles under the stress, if actions are not taken to end the growing threat.
Remember, it was weak or ineffectual actions by the then governments in power in both Russia and Germany that allowed both Lenin and Hitler to not only spread their messages of hate and revolution, but ultimately enabled them and their followers to seize control and topple the governments in their respective countries. History has a real nasty habit of either rhyming or repeating itself, if people don’t learn from past mistakes and take action to prevent a repetition of bad events. Currently, I expect this summer will be a repeat of the summer of 2020, which is what many in the Democrat Party want to help justify pushing the election in their favor. The only difference will be BLM and ANTIFA will be replaced by legions of pro Hamas, anti-American demonstrators coming from across the socialist and Marxist spectrum. A more generalized, wide-spread coalition of the far left.
Just wait. When the spring semester classes end in a few weeks, these snot-nosed brats will riot in the streets under the financial support of Soros. They all need a good scourging, then they should be either deported or expatriated to Iran.
These knuckleheads and the “professors” who fill their skulls full of mush think that anyone even slightly right of Ché Gavara is a right wing facist.
The Good Book tells me not to call another man a fool, but these folks in modern day academia are really pushing the envelope.
Actually, very few of the crowd are students. Most are professional activists who go around the country protesting anything and everything.
i stand with the idf
Our current government is the most corrupt, criminal, treasonous administration we have ever had, on top of being illegitimate. These riots would not be taking place if we had a legitimate government, so do not expect anything to be done. Our leadership is controlled by the globalists, whose goal is nothing less than the destruction of this nation and the downfall of Western Civilization, to be replaced by a worldwide dictatorship run by the elitists and for the elitists (The One World Government/The New World Order/The Great Reset). I fully expect the chaos of Summer 2020 to look like child’s play next to what the Summer of 2024 is going to look like. Knowing full well that Trump is headed for a huge, overwhelming victory, the globalists and their servants will do anything and everything they can to ensure there is no election this year and that martial law will be declared so they can arrest anyone who stands in their way. Mark my words…
Last night on O’Reilly’s No Spin News a Canadian viewer wrote in and ask why Bill thought the protests weren’t happing on Canadian campuses. His response, be patient, give it time, it will happen. Scary thought.
These are characteristically wise words from Mr. Shapiro that underscore how ambitious many collegiate imbeciles have become about getting noticed.
Until consequences are implemented, these idiots will continue to “peacefully protest”. Unfortunately, spineless university presidents don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings so they’re very very reluctant to implement consequences. And lord knows we can’t have arrested protestors who are literally crying about how they shouldn’t be arrested because they’re supposed to graduate in a few weeks.
If they are students, kick them out of the college, no refunds, no degrees. Arrest them, implement consequences, and if they’re not US citizens, deport them.
Hundreds of J6 political prisoners were taken simply for being around the capital grounds. Because the current left wing Biden regime won’t stand for an opposing opinion. And here we have hundreds of “students” destroying university property, defacing buildings, taking over campus halls, and in some cases holding hostages. But we all known nothing will be done to them because we have left wing university presidents and a left wing US government that actually agrees with their points.
Results of the Department of DUHMACATION that educated your children.
You mean INFANTada, don’t you? Did you see the damage done at these burglarized buildings? And they call one day, Jan. 6th, the “insurrection”!
How are these students doing in China?
It’s not the students, it’s the organizers; from Soros to the Rockefellers to obamas to foreign players…they’ll do anything to bring America doan
For how long can an ostrich with it’s head buried in the sand survive?
why is an antisemite named john shipway posting his drivel?
That’s nice Ben
how old are you today? Lol