35th Edition

December 5, 2023

Retirement Hobbies

As I approach the first anniversary of my retirement, if there is such a thing, I’ve been contemplating retirement hobbies. One idea I have is to go back to college. My thought is to take all the courses I didn’t take the first time, or at least as many as possible. I’d also like to join social groups and clubs and student organizations that I never considered before, or more accurately, that didn’t consider me. In this vein, I probably should forego the advice from Groucho Marx, that he would never join a club that would allow a person like him to be a member… I always found that line humorous, but perhaps today, in our institutions of higher learning, it isn’t funny at all. 

Much has been written lately about intolerance and the suppression of free speech at many of our country’s finest universities. Why do so many students, faculty, and administrators, feel threatened by those with different ideas and perspectives? Perhaps if I go back to college I can discover an answer. In the meantime, I suspect this problem didn’t originate in our colleges and universities, but began much earlier. Let me try to explain.

We have a culture of fear and distrust today that didn’t exist a generation ago. Over the past few decades, trust has eroded at all levels of our society. Trust in institutions has declined, as has trust between individuals from different backgrounds. Unsurprisingly, one of the unfortunate by-products of this is that we tend to engage in meaningful dialogue only with people who are like minded. To be sure, in individual social settings, there isn’t much harm in only conversing with people who share similar opinions, although over time, it is likely to get uninteresting, if not downright boring. But in education, free expression of ideas, engaging in challenging dialogue is vitally important. It stimulates new thought and is a springboard to innovation and creativity. It tests our intuition and gut instincts, while it forges our character. From challenging dialogue we learn to substantiate and articulate viewpoints. Will all this eventually be lost if the current cancel culture and unwillingness to support free speech continue to take over our institutions of higher learning?

There seems to be a misperception that our world will be safer, if not better overall, if all people think the same. To date, America’s greatness has been a result of the exact opposite philosophy, than what seems to be invading our schools and universities today. There can be no more important diversity than diversity of thought and of ideas. If we lose the ability to disagree and debate, we will eventually lose the ability to innovate and create? Is that a tradeoff we are willing to make? 

So, what can one do about it? We should all try to have meaningful dialogue with someone we know who thinks differently. I’ve done it, it isn’t that painful. We might also discuss controversial topics in our small groups, instead of sweeping them under the rug, for fear of offending someone. If we don’t have these challenging conversations at least once in a while, how will we learn to disagree without being disagreeable? How will we experience the positive energy of reconciliation and compromise? How will we experience true peace that only comes by granting and receiving grace, the most soothing salve of all? 

All of this would be vastly different, it might not even be an issue if trust were restored in our nation. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening any time soon. These disturbing trends in our schools and universities are likely to get worse before they get better. All of us will be worse off for it.  

Please help me grow my readership by forwarding this to a friend(s). In the meantime, say tuned for my next newsletter. Thanks

Michael Kayes 

*These views are my personal opinions and are not the viewpoints of any company or organization.

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