The Young Conservative's Dilemma

On academic discrimination and the nature of being yourself

The New York Times has published a new essay by Robert P. George offering some advice to young conservatives, specifically to young conservatives in academia. He gets approached for such advice regularly. As he would — he’s Robert P. George.

George is sympathetic to the young conservative’s dilemma: How can I succeed while conservative? Is it even possible? Will I have to choose between losing my career or losing myself?

To show he understands that they’re “right to worry,” that these questions aren’t just springing from paranoia, he mentions a few concrete examples of academic discrimination: a student removed from a leadership position on a sports team because she expressed an un-PC opinion about policing; a black conservative woman kicked out of a black students’ group chat for participating in a campus pro-life event; Jewish student journalists slapped with “no contact” orders when they tried to cover pro-Palestine protests.

That sort of stuff is happening, George agrees, and it’s no fun, for sure. But he believes young intellectual conservatives shouldn’t take this as their cue to self-censor. They should take it as an opportunity to show what they’re really made of. “Don’t hide,” he encourages them, “and don’t be silent.” Also, don’t be a victim. Stand up for yourself, and for others too. In the words of Hillel the Elder, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”

It sounds inspiring, but in my humble opinion, it’s incomplete. Granted, Dr. George only had so many words, and he understandably wanted to strike a rousing, upbeat note for his young readers.

Needless to say, I’m not Dr. George. But I am a second-generation Ph.D., and I have many academic friends and acquaintances. And I have a few more words to talk about what I think the young intellectual conservative is up against. You can take them or leave them. But here they are.