American universities are our town squares. May respect, not violence, fill them | Opinion

History is beyond our control. We inherit a world that we did not create. Behind the current crisis on college campuses and in the Middle East is the bubbling cauldron of history that includes terrifying anti-Semitism, European colonial power, Cold War geopolitical maneuvering, the oil economy, Islamophobia, Palestinian statelessness, a general breakdown of civility, and on and on.

Into this historical maelstrom, American students bravely (perhaps naively) marched, assembled and chanted. American universities are our town squares. They are bastions of free speech with extended networks of alumni and supporters. It is not surprising that political conflicts play out in the quad.

But this past week, these conflicts got rough. Protest villages beneath the ivory towers grew into barricades. Counter protesters attacked. Outside agitators, including members of Congress, stirred the pot. The cops charged in. Graduation ceremonies were cancelled, and the Covid generation concluded college in handcuffs, or in tears.

Violence never ends well. Anger, injustice and resentment push reason and restraint to the margins. Terrorism provokes reprisal. Opportunists drive wedges between us. The militarists beat the war drums. And wisdom goes on holiday.

It is enough to make you want to put your head in the sand. But there is nowhere to hide. The horrors in Israel and Gaza are felt immediately in California. Violence on one campus echoes across every other.

Opinion

In the coming months we will be forced to pick sides at home and abroad. The Israeli war threatens to expand. The resentments of the spring will fester through the summer. The 2024 presidential election will drive us further apart. Hate, repression and violence will continue to assail the better angels of our nature.

Many of us have already picked sides. Some bloodthirsty fools imagine civil war and apocalyptic battles. The agents of chaos fly all kinds of flags.

For the rest of us, the decent majority, now is the time to reaffirm some basic universal values. Violence is wrong and war is stupid. The end does not justify the means. No one’s children should be brutalized, murdered or taken hostage. All people deserve a state to represent them. Religion, ethnicity, and identity must be respected. And human rights are fundamental, including the right to protest nonviolently and the right to be free from violence and fear.

Each of us is responsible for the other and for the world we live in. This sense of responsibility can be overwhelming. It must be leavened with love and imagination. Our love should extend to victims everywhere. We must imagine nonviolent solutions that do not reiterate the status quo or normalize atrocity.

There will be difficult months ahead. It may seem hopeless. The repression of young people on college campuses may further alienate them from democracy and from reasonable dialogue. The youth were already gloomy about the state of the world. Let’s hope that their youthful enthusiasm is not extinguished.

And let’s not forget that the primary mission of the university is education. We must teach these universal values, including lessons in patience and persistence. Nonviolent change is slow. But it’s worth the struggle. And it begins with education.

Present circumstances are unique. But it can help to know that past generations have gone through similar crises. Americans need a summer reading list that features Thoreau, Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Constitution, and the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

One useful resource is Albert Camus, who emerged from World War II as a critic of violence. In discussing the French war in Algeria, he noted that each side justifies its own crimes while condemning those of the other. The result is “violence answering violence” in a spiral that undermines reason and morality. In another essay, Camus concluded, “He who bases his hopes on human nature is a fool, and he who gives up in the face of circumstances is a coward.”

History has bequeathed us a messy and often ugly world. Human nature will not change overnight. It is difficult to make things better. But we can avoid making things worse. We do that by renouncing violence and by nurturing love, reason, and the creative imagination. We build a better future by reaffirming basic values that are shared by decent people everywhere.

Andrew Fiala is a professor of philosophy and director of The Ethics Center at Fresno State. Contact him at fiala.andrew@gmail.com