1984 and 1984

In the spring of 1984—the actual 1984, not George Orwell’s 1984, which is 2021—I was enrolled in a course called “Economics of Peace” at Manhattan College in the Bronx.  It was taught by one of my favorite professors, who referred to the course as “Economics for Peace” and preferred to be called a “humanist” rather than a “socialist.” Anyway, at some point in this rather intimate class setting of a dozen or so students, the subject of women’s increasing role in the workforce was up for discussion. I don’t recall the specifics of the back and forth, but a classmate—a Nigerian man named Leonard—offered his two cents on the matter at hand. He uttered something to the effect that women belong at home doing women’s work, not working alongside him at the office.

Now, you can imagine the reaction from the females in attendance, including our feminist professor, to Leonard’s offhand remark. They pounced on the poor fellow, informing him in no uncertain terms that he was in a college classroom, in America, in the year 1984. Essentially, the ladies laughed off Leonard’s antiquated thinking, which was probably quite commonplace in his native country. And guess what? Nobody on the scene required a safe space in which to suffer a life-altering meltdown—the Campus Ministry was nearby—or cried crocodile tears about how they now felt unsafe on campus. Nor was there any clamoring to cancel Leonard and ruin his life from that moment forward. And there was no Twitter mob outrage back then because there was no Twitter—the good old days.

I’m genuinely happy that I attended college in that simpler, saner, and more sanguine snapshot in time. When students of all backgrounds weren’t in intellectual straightjackets and didn’t live in fear of expressing a contradictory or even controversial opinion. Leonard expressed his opinion and was met with a forceful rebuttal. That’s the nature of free speech. And what better place to debate ideas—even unpopular ones—and to discover that not everybody thinks the same than in an institution of higher learning? Well, that was then and this is now.

It absolutely astounds me that the college-aged woke have no regard for free speech. In fact—like all good totalitarians in training—they see it as dangerous and desire muzzling one and all who don’t walk the woke. They feel empowered in the here and now because they’ve gotten people fired from their jobs and ruined innumerable reputations. They’ve extracted countless craven apologies from folks who have committed no sin other than deviating—even slightly—from woke orthodoxy. And the woke wear their destruction like a badge of honor. Pretty sad, isn’t it? I think so.

These men and women who purport to be on higher moral ground than the rest of us mere mortals are bad apples. This is still the Land of the Free—if only barely—and we must be ever vigilant in protecting what remains of our basic freedoms. Standing up to the woke mob and the march to madness is job one. So, I ask: Are we better off today because a classic sitcom like Seinfeld couldn’t get picked up by a network? Are we better off today because the Indian maiden is no longer on tubs of Land O’Lakes butter? Are we better off today because the movie classic Dumbo now comes with a didactic disclaimer from some pompous oaf? Are we better off today because Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is no longer must-read for high school students? And, finally, are we better off today because a comedian like Don Rickles, who insulted my father at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in 1996, couldn’t exist? I don’t think we are.