The Politics of Fear and Ignorance

by C.J. Carnacchio

When I think of politics I envision Cicero delivering a brilliant oration to the Roman Senate, or the right honorable Edmund Burke waxing poetic in the House of Commons. But, alas, those days of civilized political discourse are gone forever. Today, the political arena belongs to the ideological zealot chanting some inane slogan through a megaphone while his mindless followers wave their signs and parrot his every phrase.

Nowhere is the death of civilized political discourse more apparent than on the nation's college campuses, particularly at academic gulags like our very own University of Michigan ("All hail comrade Bollinger!!"). Books and rhetoric have been replaced by megaphones and sandwich board signs. Carefully crafted political ideals have given way to catchy slogans usually beginning with "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! ... " True tolerance for differing political ideals has been displaced by "in your face" tactics. The thoughtful campus leader has been cast aside in favor of the campus demagogue who speaks volumes but says nothing.

College campuses are breeding the type of ideological fanatics who, to quote George Orwell, "think in slogans and talk in bullets." It must never be forgotten that politics of the fanatic can easily become the politics of guillotines and gas chambers. As Russell Kirk once remarked, "In his march toward Utopia, the ideologue is merciless....The radical reformer, proclaiming himself omniscient, strikes down every rival, to arrive at the Terrestrial Paradise more swiftly."

Since the 1960s, campuses have been terrorized by these militants who fancy themselves political messiahs. University administrators are usually either too spineless to take a stand against them or are all too willing accomplices in their schemes. Student bodies are either too apathetic or too scared to take their campuses back from the lunacy of the far Left. The result has been campuses dominated by the politics of intimidation.

No group at the U­M better illustrates this degeneration of politics into the primordial slime than the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). Jessica Curtin and her boorish brood of mental midgets represent the most vile and base elements of politics. They are little more than a group of thugs who operate under the guise of crusading for social justice. If their actions were not so reprehensible, it would be necessary to pity them for their narrow­mindedness.

BAMN possesses the typical militant ideology. If you are not with them, you are against them. If you represent an opposing viewpoint, you will be shouted down and bullied into silence. Dissent will not be tolerated and they will use whatever means necessary to accomplish their goals. Their street­thug methods and intolerant mentality continue the infamous political tradition handed down by the Brown Shirts and Bolsheviks.

BAMN's intellectual inferiority prevents them from engaging in a productive dialogue, so they hurl epitaphs such as "racist" and "fascist" at their opponents. Of course, they define a racist as anyone who opposes affirmative action or dares to criticize their brutish behavior. By their standards even the average politically moderate student is guilty of some form of racism. BAMN throws the term "racist" around much like Stalin used the term "Trotskyite" during the Great Purges of the 1930s. They are dedicated to fighting racism, be it real or imaginary.

BAMN's tactics alienate not only those opposed to affirmative action but also many who support it as well. Even when moderate individuals support the same cause as the radicals, they are viewed by the latter with scorn and suspicion for not possessing the same fanatical zeal. To the militant, moderation is the virtue of cowards and compromise the prudence of traitors.

Street demonstrations, burning newspapers, chanting slogans, threatening violence, and all the other methods militant campus groups employ are the politics of the ignorant and vulgar. Politics should be a contest of ideas, not a shouting match. True political discourse begins with books and rigorous study. From knowledge flows the free exchange of ideas which ultimately leads to intelligent political action. A sagacious and imaginative mind is the most valuable and effective of all political tools. As Burke pointed out, "Political arrangement, as it is a work for social ends, is to be only wrought by social means. There mind must conspire with mind. Time is required to produce that union of minds which alone can produce all the good we aim at. Our patience will achieve more than our force."

But independent thought and rational debate are the last things the campus militants want, for these would stifle their ability to control the campus through their strong-arm tactics. The radicals strive for conformity through fear not diversity through truth. Groups like BAMN operate on the assumption that they are some enlightened cadre who, through a delusion of moral superiority, have earned the right to dictate policy to the rest of us poor backward wretches. They are the vanguard of social justice and anyone who would dare levy criticism against them must be a "reactionary pig."

There is absolutely no place for organizations such as BAMN in civilized politics. The fate of affirmative action, as with all public matters, must be decided by the courts and legislatures, not by the politics of the angry mob. The rule of law is what separates us from the beasts. If BAMN cannot accept that than we should begin preparing their cages at once.

Students of all political stripes must stand up to these cowardly miscreants and prevent them from dominating campus political life any further. There are more sane and prudent students (at least I hope) on campus than this militant rabble. It may seem as though these groups are large in their numbers but do not be fooled. Their numbers, much like their minds, are small. It is only their mouths which are large.

As Burke reminds us, "Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle ... chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine, that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the hour." MR

C.J. Carnacchio is the Managing Editor of the Review. Please direct all fan mail, hate mail, and death threats to chriscar@umich.edu. If you do not use e­mail just hurl a rock with a nasty note attached through his window. Please address the note, "Dear racist, sexist, homophobic, fascist,reactionary, running-dog imperialist swine ..."

This article was published in the 11 March 1998 edition of The Michigan Review (Volume 16, Number 8).
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