In the intellectually constrained sweatbox of modern life, there’s a prison from which few escape with free minds. I’m referring of course, to universities. I mock them heartily in the next few posts and for good reason. Students who live lives of luxury unrivaled in all human history “speak truth to power” while they mainline power itself. Disconnected from reality, they spiral out of control, cruel and remorseless. They become the “literal Nazi” they project on others.
Many think this is new. They think it’s somehow unique to Orange Man Bad and the mess that was 2020 and continues into 2021. Of course not.
Those who would oppress are present in every generation. They smell opportunity like a vulture sniffs carrion on the breeze. They seek to control and universities are the natural habitat of those who “would inflict on others for their own good”. When they find a grip they begin to squeeze. Whether it’s a fictional university in a squirrel story or China before the great leap forward, students will follow fads until all is ashes.
This is not new. It is only a shock to those who don’t know history. Which is why history is so rarely taught and so fervently rejected. Tear down a statue, burn a book, get worked up and run amok. Bask in the heady mix of righteousness and violence. Universities with their unmoored youth are a natural breeding ground of such things. Husbands and wives, adults making rent payments, and citizens with skin in the game… they’re too busy living actual life to spend their time wrecking the world with the intent that utopia will spring, fully formed, from their unleashed destruction. Those who would control your life are trying to fill the hole in theirs. It’s a story as old as time.
Which brings me to an upcoming post where I’ve strayed from a familiar pattern. I’ve referred often and with a good (if irreverent) heart to the dulcet tones of Swedish disco. Scarcely a human alive doesn’t already have a few notes planted in their subconscious.
For the university crowd, I needed a different and darker example. I turned to Pink Floyd from 1982. This is harder listening and never broke into the zeitgeist like soft gauzy disco. Yet, it symbolizes the mind of a campus in 2021 as perfectly as anything I could ever mention. It makes perfect sense that Winston and his wife think of marching hammers as the university works itself into a lather.
For generations that never listened to Pink Floyd (and probably failed to read Orwell) I provide the references below. I’m amazed these clips haven’t been censored by YouTube but perhaps it’s only a matter of time. For that matter, Orwell, who got things so right it’s almost unbelievable, will follow. Watch these before the people who are living the real madness take the fictional analogies away.
Waiting For The Worms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bDY0DfEjmo
In The Flesh
https://youtu.be/6tKvRqzeXnE