In the WSJ today, Brett Stephens imagines how the Columbia University of 1939 would have cashed the promise of the school’s present-day dean, who averred that were Hitler to have come to New York for a debate with the students and faculty, “we would certainly invite him.”
A good read, and a killer close:
So there is Adolf Hitler on our imagined stage, ranting about the soon-to-be-fulfilled destiny of the Aryan race. And his audience of outstanding Columbia men are mostly appalled, as they should be. But they are also engrossed, and curious, and if it occurs to some of them that the man should be arrested on the spot they don’t say it. Nor do they ask, “How will we come to terms with his world?” Instead, they wonder how to make him see “reason,” as reasonable people do.
In just a few years, some of these men will be rushing a beach at Normandy or caught in a firefight in the Ardennes. And the fact that their ideas were finer and better than Hitler’s will have done nothing to keep them and millions of their countrymen from harm, and nothing to get them out of its way.
Well. They can’t solve all the world’s problems. But they have certainly done what they can to prevent Columbia men from having to face the consequences of their fine ideas in the future.
Thus, progress.
Well. They can’t solve all the world’s problems. But they have certainly done what they can to prevent Columbia men from having to face the consequences of their fine ideas in the future.
Thus, progress.
I’d say you have a “killer close” there, yourself. Yikes!
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but “don’t ask, don’t tell” was the policy President Clinton imposed, was it not?
Why isn’t Columbia critical of Clinton, and not the military…who are only carrying out the policy imposed on it by the civilian leadership?
I’m quite confused.
“Virtuous motives, trammeled by inertia and timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness. A sincere love of peace is no excuse for muddling hundreds of millions of humble folk into total war. The cheers of the weak, well-meaning assemblies soon cease to count. Doom marches on.” — Sir Winston Churchill, March 1936
If the gov’t scrapped the DADT policy what would they do then?
I bet it would totally feak them out as they would have to come up with something else and, in a hurry!
“Mr. Coatsworth takes the optimistic view that “an appearance by Hitler at Columbia could have led him to appreciate what a great power the U.S. had already become,” and thus, presumably, kept America from war”…demonstrates once again the self-absorption of many academics. If the objectives was to show Hitler our great-powerness in a way that would keep him from messing with us, visits to Detroit and Pittsburgh would have been more effective than visits to universities.
There is another side to the arguement. Much of Hitler’s perceptions of the Americans were based on incorrect information. He got his race bating from Heine, and his whole ideas of European domination from a Frenchman-Napoleon. They were very much incorrect and that was why he blundered into declaring war on the Americans in 1941-when he did not have to.
This BTW, is why historians dislike counterfactual history, although I like to read it. Perhaps as the previous commentator pointed out-he might have slowed down and that would have given Britain more time.
Plus let’s not forget-Hilter was the German head of state as is Old Beady Eyes. The US was not at war with Germany (or Iran) yet. We’ve hosted equally repulsive people in the US and not batted an eye. Otherwise, why did Kruschev get a kiss from Shirley McLaine?
If this is the war of ideas-then the whole Columbia event can be counted as a victory for the US-it showed the Iranian President as a deluded guy for all to see.
And besides if it was so objectionable-the goverment could have stopped it, just like they do in Iran. However we are supposed to be bigger than that.
“…prevent Columbia men from having to face the consequences of their fine ideas…”
Men like that have no ideas, just fancies. They will jump to whatever power structure feathers their nest the best. They are idiots and useful.
The reason leftists scream so loudly regarding their fear of the government, free-speech infringement, jack-booted conservatives, and wire-tapping their cell-phones, is because they know that’s what they would do if they were in power and could get away with it.
“bigger that that” Sentimental hogwash.
Where are the adults in all this?
Alas, I believe the university system has been purged of adult systems of belief.
The student has become the teacher.
I clicked the link, it took several seconds for me to realize what the page was.
It will not protect them, for in the long run, anyone not willing to defend their freedom will lose it.
I agree with Skippy. Our primary strength is not our military-industrial strength, particularly in the new battlefields of thoughts and urban house-to-house combat. Our strength, and what tyrannical whackjobs fear the most, is our freedom.
What better way to pointedly demonstrate the strength of our freedom than to fearlessly (well, we could have done a little better at that this time around) allow a man that believes he has a calling to destroy our culture come stand in front of us and speak his mind?