The addendum to yesterday’s post where I linked to an article about how low quality of life ratings for L.A. County have gotten has me on a slow burn for the last 24.  The excuse making is extraordinary and indicative of just how low the character of government there has grown.  But rather than rant about something I rant about almost continuously, I thought I would turn our attention to this morning’s Fox op-ed from the host’s former colleague, William Bennett.  It is deeply chilling.

High(low)lights:

FIRE’s 2026 college free speech survey shows that 91% of students now self-censor at least some of the time in conversations with classmates. …

The fear also extends to classrooms: roughly nine in 10 students self-censor in conversations with professors. There is little wonder why. In 1989, liberal professors outnumbered conservatives by roughly two to one. By the mid 2010s, the ratio was five to one. Today, across the humanities departments at Yale alone, Democrats outnumber Republicans 72-to-1. What few conservative faculty remain often hide their political views in order to keep their jobs.

As one University of Oklahoma student put it, “Why would I disagree with my professors [sic] strong and open political opinions when he is the one grading everything?”

Lord have mercy. I take great pride in the fact that when I was in undergrad I argued one professor into altering the manuscript of a book he was writing.  Nowadays, apparently, such disagreement would simply warrant a failing grade.  Yes, it would appear our universities have ceased to be centers of education and become centers of indoctrination, but I see something deeper at play.

Whether it be the excuse making in LA County or university profs that insist on lockstep agreement from their students, the connective tissue is hubris.  The city and county governments and the university no longer exist to serve the students or the governed, they exists to be served.  In a nation without royalty they have declared themselves such. Students must make sure the profs ego is sufficiently boosted and one must be prepared to kiss the ring when approaching LA government.

I wrote yesterday that I feared California generally was becoming a massive drag on the nation as a whole.  I guess we can add our universities to that list.  It used to be that is you wanted to succeed you headed to California.  Not anymore, you run like the wind away from there to find opportunity now.  It used to be an education was your ticket to success, but no more.  Now, rather than teach you how to think, an education teaches you how not to think – how to fall in line.

The best thing about America is that the freedom it was designed to engender runs deeper than legal structures or free speech.  It leaves us free to develop our character and wisdom.  Yet it seems our institutions are too busy garnering power to permit people such freedom.  These institutions are going to be left behind, the American spirit is too strong to stand for this for long.  What will replace them?