A Letter to Students Returning to Campus

Summer has ended and you are returning to university.  I loved  choosing courses for fall semester, which instilled the same excitement I now feel when planning travel to new destinations.  Unfortunately, illegal  encampments and hate-filled  intimidating protests are also returning to many campuses.

Universities used to be marketplaces for ideas where students were taught to pursue knowledge and truth. They were encouraged to reason,  dig deeper, and challenge existing beliefs.  Now campuses have become incubators for activism that promotes uniform ideology, shuts down debate and rewards outrage and aggressive protest. Make no mistake, these are not like Vietnam-era antiwar peaceful protests. Then, no one masked to hide their identity. Today’s protests are highly organized  with support from   foreign  groups,  anti-western  professors,  unions , school boards and even clergy.

What should students do when their heterodox opinions don’t align with cultural norms, and there is the real risk of being ostracized by peers and professors?   How do you engage with someone who is passionately screaming for social justice? How do you respond when they quote  august bodies like the BBC,  UN or Human Rights Watch?  If the members of the UN say  Israel is a Settler Colonial Apartheid State that commits Genocide- it must be true.  They can’t all be wrong, can they?

Let me  share my experience as a physician and perpetual student,  and the challenges we have faced “when the whole world is indeed wrong”.

Medicine is a wonderful path for lifelong learning. It is gratifying to observe new knowledge translated into improved health status for our patients and progress for society. However, studying medicine also taught me humility. Good ideas are not always accurate, even when they seem reasonable on the surface.

One case in point is the opiate crisis. Physicians were taught that research demonstrated that Oxycontin was safe and effective treatment for debilitating chronic pain, a condition I unfortunately see daily in my practice.  Highly respected world experts presented  weak data to support their recommendations and stated that not prescribing opiates for chronic pain, was cruel and negligent.   Many of these experts passionately believed in eliminating suffering. Others were paid by drug companies.  What were well meaning physicians to do? We all know the outcome of this tragic story.

All of us feel uncomfortable and develop cognitive dissonance when trying to understand nuanced and contradictory information.  People prefer simpler narratives that sound reasonable. These ideas can become supercharged when coated with a moral varnish and are presented as either good or evil. What can you do when they are promoted by teachers and leaders who may have conflicts of interest, or when information is suppressed, or falsified for what is perceived to be the greater good?

How is this connected to current university culture and campus protests? Just as vociferous proponents of opiate prescribing used inaccurate expert opinion, including FDA approval, the current campus protestors passionately validate their actions by quoting inaccurate statements and ignore corruption from the UN, NGOs and public broadcasting. Recall how authorities, including women’s organizations in Canada, sullied themselves by  refusing to recognize Hamas’ brutal attacks, demanding proof for rape of Israeli women, a standard not used for any other victim of sexual violence.

Well meaning activists may call for “ceasefire now”.  We all deplore war. But passionate feelings have also given rise to oversimplified de-legitimizing and demonizing narratives. These lead to dehumanization of opponents that can easily slide into violence.  This  is how Hutus  in Rwanda willingly slaughtered Tutsis who were repeatedly called evil cockroaches.  I am a  Zionist Jew, someone who supports a Jewish State in our  ancestral homeland where we are indigenous and have lived continuously for 3000 years, despite expulsions and foreign conquest.  I share the same Zionist identity as 90% of Canadian Jews. For this belief, I have been falsely labelled a racist supporter of a White European,  Settler Colonial,  Apartheid State that intentionally commits war crimes,  mass starvation and genocide. Can you think of a more odious accusation?

This bitter rhetoric also poses risks for our whole society. It has generated calls for divestment and academic boycott. Dr. Daniel Drucker, a world renowned Canadian researcher on diabetes was  temporarily  “dis-invited” from speaking at the University of Ottawa. Why? Because he publicly supported Israel, in addition to Palestinian rights.  His research has saved countless lives of people suffering with diabetes, obesity, heart and kidney disease. Should people stop using Ozempic in the name of social justice?

So, what can students do? First, avoid loud aggressive bullies. You cannot have a meaningful dialogue with someone obsessed and consumed with hatred. Trade in your certainty for curiosity. Question dogma and consider the true meaning of slogans on placards. Ask a Zionist Jew why they support Israel, or if you really enjoy risk,  go to a campus Hillel event. Ask yourselves if chanting “ River-to-the-Sea”, (destruction of the state of Israel,) or “Global Intifada” (marginalization and harassment of Israel’s supporters), is truly meant to foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians, or instead to intimidate Jews.  Always choose compassion over contempt and reason over rage.

Lived experience is important, but study history. It tends to repeat itself.  Joining a social cause can feel exhilarating. In 1930’s Germany, aggrieved National Socialist students stormed their universities, outraged over unemployment, poverty and inequity following the First World War. During the Cultural Revolution of 1960s China, students were organized into violent Red Guards to attack “traditional values”. Students from the Sorbonne, the Khmer Rouge, who hated capitalism and imperialism, orchestrated the Cambodian genocide.  Anti-western radicals  like the Red Army Faction and Weather Underground  bombed , hijacked, kidnapped and murdered in their pursuit of social justice.  Look up the English translation of the Greek word “Utopia”.  It may not mean what you think.

Learning is not a destination. It is a difficult but wonderful lifelong journey. It certainly has been for me. Sometimes it is frightening. Don’t be intimidated. Ask questions and dig deeper for the truth, especially when you feel cognitive dissonance.