Good faith discussions are hard to come by. Political polarization runs hot, but it’s not the distance between our views that concerns me. On campus, our problem is not dissent or even fervent disagreement. Our problem is an inability to meaningfully critique and an unwillingness to call things what they are. Our problem is the current rise of anti-intellectualism.
We are not here to agree; we are here to reason. We are here specifically to challenge, debate and experiment, so that some truth might emerge. The accolades of the outstanding alumni upon which our revered traditions stake their claim, did not result from accepting the status quo for its own sake. Rather, each of our students and professors adds to a necessary tension. A tension that, when exerted properly, will pull us in each of their respective directions and on target.
Now, as a community, we find ourselves at a crossroads. In a moment where the group must decide what it will become. Our past greatness cannot deliver us from that burden. Fabricated wedge issues and culture war nonsense cannot take the place of free expression and scholarship. A university that becomes so obsessed with curating its image that it does so at the expense of academics is not a university at all. It is, at best, a brand.
Our University, like our country, requires participation. They coined the perfect phrase with “democratic process.” Democracy is exactly that: a process. It is not a thing that is achieved or done, it’s an unfolding. Our University is the same. If our values and policies can be bought or choreographed through intimidation, we can just quit calling ourselves a school now. A head in the sand is no refuge, and neither is an online echo chamber. What we do not challenge, we affirm. Make no mistake: your mind will be made up. The question is by who?
As students, we can only do so much. It’s not our job to fix all the world’s problems tomorrow. Nonetheless, this is our University. It’s the flagship University of one of the world’s foremost economies. The culture we create here through our actions each day matters.
We must be willing to critique what we love, out of love. We cannot raise the cost of changing one’s ideas so high that none of our peers could bear it. We must take it upon ourselves to consider where we stand and what our actions (or inactions) reinforce. Our solution to the tension of political polarization cannot be an appeal to whatever centralized authority or cult of personality is willing to beat down opposition.
Something we need to recognize about UT is that it doesn’t exist. At least – not how we often think of it. Our rich traditions, world-famous alumni and history of accomplishment is just that: a history. This could never diminish the humbling, incredible work of our many thousands of colleagues and peers. However, it is imperative that we, the Longhorns of today, understand that an institution is the sum of its participants not its past. Our character will be the character, of this University. Students, faculty and administrators alike imbue this place with exactly and only the rigor and integrity they themselves possess.
Mashhoon is a geography senior and grassroots activist.
