t seems to me that America is fast becoming a culture of hatred.  We do not just disagree anymore.  Rather, we vilify and demonize those with whom we disagree.  Unfortunately, the result is a kind of moral desensitization that will surely unravel society itself.  Painfully, and quite surprisingly, academic institutions are at the very forefront of this despicable trend.  You want to hear nastiness, just listen to a professor at a university put down a view that she or he does not like.  It happens all too often in such cases that the professor makes adherents of the opposing view seem like the very embodiment of evil.  In what follows, I wish to offer an explanation as to why this is so. 

On the one hand, no place pays greater lip service to freedom of speech than colleges and university.  Why, they take themselves to be the very guardian of this ideal.  On the other, though, many issues are quite complicated and admit of considerable discussion.  This latter point is relevant because it stands in stark contrast to yesteryear when there were very clear evils being imposed upon various groups.  The wrongs of sexism and racism were widespread and ever so palpable.  Why as late as 1966, a woman could not enter the main library of Harvard University. 

No decent person can think it appropriate for a woman or a minority not to be admitted to an institution of higher learning given that she or he meets the requisite credentials.  There are absolutely decisive arguments that can be brought to bear here.

So we went from views that no decent person could reject, and so the acceptance of which was a sign of basic moral decency and social progress to views that have proven to be much more controversial—views for which equally decisive arguments cannot be proffered. 

Vilification and denomization, then, have essentially become the tactic employed in order to impose views for which equally decisive arguments cannot be proffered.  The idea that women and minorities cannot do mathematics or sciences is utterly indefensible.  Absolutely decisive arguments can show this—to say nothing of the reality of experience itself. 

But what equally decisive argument can show, for instance, that affirmative action is good or that abortion is always justified?  I understand that many believe that this is the case.  But we know that deep beliefs are no substitute for truth.  After all, views that have been demonstrably shown to be false were once held with great fervor by all sorts of people. 

At most colleges and universities, the prevailing view is that the views we now hold about women and minorities are just as cogent as the views that were once advanced in support of women and minorities years ago.  Regrettably, name calling has become the avenue by which this line of thought is exemplified. 

Don’t think that abortion is always justified?  Well, then, it follows that one is none other than a sexist oppressive man who is committed in one’s heart to raping women.  Or, if one is a woman who does not think this, then it follows that one is none other than a self-hating female.  And if all else fails, there is the charge that one is a nazi. 

The first thing to note here is the rhetorical force of such charges.  How exactly does one even diffuse the charge that one is a rapist in one’s heart?  How does one demonstrate that one is not a self-hating female?  It is not like one can simply scan one’s retina or whatever in order to get at the truth. 

Precisely what makes demonization and vilification so powerful and effective is just the fact that they are not readily diffused.  Words that do either are extraordinary rhetorical weapons. 

If this is right, then we have the rather surprising view that universities are turning out to be one of the breeding grounds for America’s culture hate. 

At universities and colleges, the rhetorical skills that enable one to silence those who one oppose are among the things learned.  Often these rhetorical skills favor liberals, but not necessarily.  Thus, conservatives have claimed that abortion is none other than America’s holocaust, the very point being to use a label that evokes a quite negative judgment.  I suspect that the only reason this strategy did not stick is that there are indeed legitimate reasons for having an abortion.  For example, no 15 year old victim of rape, who conceives because of that violent act, should be forced to complete the pregnancy.  We might think of her as a hero if she did complete pregnancy.  However, she would not in any way be a moral monster if she did not. 

With the charge of sexism or racism, a person is automatically put on the defensive.  This is undoubtedly owing to the fact that so much in the past has indeed been sexist or racist.  Moreover, no one wants to overlook an instance of sexism or racism; and it is possible to overlook either.

But it is striking to watch the move—or leap, rather—from sexism is wrong to abortion is always justified, or from racism is wrong to affirmative action is justified.  And it is astonishing to see the moral sullying that is thought to be justified in the name of advancing the cause.  And this brings me to the very point of hatred itself.

In terms of what we might do, few things are more spiteful and painful and outright wick than sullying an individual’s character in order to undermine the moral credibility that the person’s decency lends to the view that we oppose.  And doing precisely that has become an art form on many college and university campuses. 

If undermining the moral credibility of others has become one of the strategies that many universities and colleges now legitimate, this, alas, turns these institutions into veritable crucibles of ill-will. 

History shows that the distance between hatred and acts of evil readily evaporates, because hatred is evil’s handmaiden.  If this is right, then one of the great impediments to the realization of complete justice in America comes from a most unexpected quarter, namely America’s institutions of higher learning.  Thus, I am reminded of the biblical passage which reads: “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”. 

They say that college is not what it used to be.  Sound right to me, where this is not the compliment it once was in the sixties and seventies.