Why Have Elite Colleges Gone Bad?

The Constitution aims to protect our liberties under the “laws of nature and of nature’s God.”

These laws are proclaimed in the first sentence of the most beautiful political document ever written, the Declaration of Independence.

Abraham Lincoln, arguing against slavery, called these laws the “father of all moral principle in us.”

Our elite colleges and many others have repudiated these laws. They recognize no laws above us, written in nature or ordained by God, to command what we do. They teach that we can remake the world as we please.

This teaching is the basis of the American form of totalitarianism: scientific, comprehensive, ever advancing. It is evil. Read 1984.

Much of the blame for this madness has come upon Harvard, the oldest and most elite college in America.

One must condemn what Harvard has become, but also one should wish Harvard well.

It is an old institution that has been great, and there is still some greatness in it. It must return to its old purposes if it is to save its freedom and recover its interest in the truth.

To read more about the causes of the decline of education, read the “1915 General Declaration of Principles” by the American Association of University Professors, of which John Dewey was founder and president.

Also instructive is an article I wrote years ago titled “Why the GOP is Flunking Higher Education” and an exchange about it I had with former president of Boston University John Silber.

Best regards,
Larry P. Arnn
President of Hillsdale College