From the Tom Woods Letter:
Before COVID, I would occasionally devote this newsletter to reporting on the various lunacies occurring on college campuses.
Today, everyone knows about them. (And college lunacies plus COVID lunacy has resulted in stories too depressing to relate.)
Yet I can’t help myself.
For instance, universities in California are demanding both the initial shots and the booster for all students, and are threatening those who do not comply. Penalties range from having their WiFi shut off to not being able to participate in campus activities, to outright expulsion.
A professor at Loyola Marymount University blamed “white supremacy” (which does not exist) for Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.
Other professors, as I mentioned last week, have been saying they hope for the death of Clarence Thomas, one of the best justices in the history of the Supreme Court.
A brief scan of headlines at The College Fix brings up “Case Western Reserve University Offers Paid Social Justice Fellowships,” “Student Newspaper Deletes Article Because It Included Too Many Quotes From White Students,” and “Students, Professors Demand Scholar Be Allowed to Call on ‘White, Male, or Someone Privileged’ Last.”
In my own day, things were bad but not quite as bad as they are now. The history department (which I knew best) had its propagandists, yes, but it also had genuinely serious scholars.
At the same time, so much of what I know now I had to learn on my own, and I did so with the benefit of the largest private library in the world.
And of course, the truth-telling books I wanted to read were always sitting right there on the shelf, collecting dust.
In this day and age I can’t imagine being inside academia. I’d have to deal with every psychotic left-wing obsession in the universe, on top of the sudden and arbitrary restrictions and vaccine requirements.
The universities, which supposedly consist of our best and brightest, are where the most draconian and irrational COVID restrictions were imposed.
And of course they are where the dumbest and most destructive social theories, and theories of law, are to be found.
I once thought to myself: if ever these ideas (along with the intolerance of opposing views that we associate with our universities) were to start creeping out of academia and into society, we’d be in trouble.
Unfortunately, it’s looking like that time has come.
I can very well understand why many parents wouldn’t want to send their children into these nuthouses.
But what else are they supposed to do? Not get the official credential, and have to suffer with an inferior job?
Well, it turns out there is a genuine alternative, and it’s one that listeners of the Tom Woods Show know about.
It’s called Praxis. It’s an apprenticeship program whereby a college-age person gets on-the-job experience with a startup company, followed by a guaranteed job offer.
So instead of accumulating debt for years, a Praxis participant has been accumulating income and experience.
A bunch of young people who listen to my show have raved about it and done really well. If you’re a parent (or a young person) who would consider a college alternative like this, I recommend watching their presentation and making up your mind:
http://www.tomwoods.com/praxis
