Cornell West’s Alliance With A Conservative Professor

Years ago, uber-liberal Richard Dreyfuss denounced political correctness as killing productive debate. His remarks, championed by conservatives such as actor Charlton Heston, were clearly ignored by universities, and speech codes remained in place.

Today, there may be some cause for celebration among us who see colleges as places that, in the words of the late Christopher Hitchens, teach students “how to think” rather than “what to think.” Alliances have formed.

At first glance, Princeton professors Cornel West and Robert P. George should not be allies in anything. West is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, while George is an outspoken conservative who has gone on record against same-sex marriage. To measure how far apart on the ideological spectrum they are, one need only look at their behavior during the last Presidential election. West attacked Hillary Clinton for being insufficiently leftist, while George refused to support Trump out of his belief that the President-elect was not a true conservative.

Nevertheless both have shown that political correctness can make strange bedfellows. Both, who have called each other “brother,” have for years co-taught a class called “Adventure in Ideas,” which in its examination of the thoughts of such “dead white European males” as Plato, St. Augustine, John Dewey, and–ye gods–such religious writers as C.S Lewis is bane to the enforcers of a politically correct line.

But their alliance can be traceable to the belief that all views should be heard. As West so aptly puts it, “It’s not a matter just of having the courage of our convictions, but the courage to attack our convictions.” George agrees, likening the robust debate in colleges as akin to ” getting on a train not knowing where you’re going to get off and maybe even not recognizing who you are anymore when you get off that train.” West pointed out that students have to be prepared to shed their unexamined beliefs, even ones that are part of their identities: following such an exercise won’t be easy for students because such shedding will be “a form of death.” George has even taken on yuppie sensibilities in colleges: “Our age is an age of the celebration and valorization of wealth, power, influence, status, prestige,” which, while admitting such things “are not bad in themselves, can result in an “unexamined life.”

Both have gone after parents who want their students to echo their own belief system. Such a goal, George argues, is looking to colleges to give parents “a material benefit.”