No boundaries = anarchy = calls for beheading
While the idea of freedom, in the minds of many, is a life lived with no boundaries or societal limitations, including those that are self-imposed, the truth is that they are the safeguards which carry much benefit, in keeping us grounded, humble and accountable to others, all necessary elements within a peaceful society.
Because anyone who is allowed to do as they please might actually end up believing that they are the master of their fate, free of impediments and barriers. That generally leads to a self-inflated ego, thinking that “no” is not a word that will ever need to be confronted. And if we are guided by our own unlimited desires, to whom will we be accountable?
Much to society’s regret, however, a new generation has risen, with the notion that their demands must be met, because, as things appear, they have apparently lived their lives with little or no resistance from others. These young people, greatly influenced by the Internet and societal constructs, which are meant to defy all norms, have been the beneficiaries of the collapse of so many familiar boundaries that guarded and kept previous generations in check.
They included rules and guidelines which governed everything from sexual conduct to law enforcement and respect for others as well as property. Today, those virtues are old school as statues are defaced and vandalized at will, as stealing, under the amount of $1,000 has become permissible and as gender-fluid identity has become an accepted prerogative. Of course, this is far from an exhaustive list of the boundaries that have been successfully pushed to the point of no return.
But when there are no limits and no restrictions on what a person can do, then civilization becomes endangered, by the fact that the obligation to act within the confines of a normal and ordered life is no longer compulsory. And this is exactly what we are witnessing on today’s college campuses.
The chaos, violence and property seizure that we all view on the nightly news, have led to the anarchy of young people who believe that these universities are theirs for the taking. Studies are no longer the goal nor is the thought of academically preparing for one’s future.
For these students, joined by the paid and organized professional agitators, everything is up for grabs. It just depends upon how far you’re willing to push it, and with no one there to stop them – why not go for the brass ring?
At George Washington University, (GWU), located in America’s capital, students protesting against Israel have pushed the ultimate envelope by demanding that their administrators face a guillotine or gallows. Holding a mock “People’s Tribunal,” putting their administrators on trial, all were found to be guilty of “having a vested interest in the genocide of Palestinian people.”
Also accusing the school’s Board of Trustees of being complicit in the charge of genocide, punishment was determined to be deserved by all the upper echelons of the university. Although 33 individuals were arrested, these “no boundary” students didn’t hesitate to gather and hold a press conference in order to bitterly complain about how they’d been forced to vacate their encampment against their will.
Ironically, it was the very administrators, declared guilty by these anarchists, who had the power, the moral obligation and the legal justification to prevent any of these appalling events from occurring, in the first place, but who, nonetheless, allowed protesting students, to continue their outrageous demands and disgusting verbal abuse for 14 days.
Is it any wonder why they didn’t disband after being warned six times to do so? It’s because no one saw to it that immediate and swift consequences came, probably similar to many of the warnings they received from their parents when they were young children who acted out, but whose bad behavior was never met with painful punishment, sending the message that they had crossed the boundaries.
So now, as they embark on their adult years, calling for beheadings, the proclamation of a death sentence is not beyond their range, since they fancy themselves as arbiters of a truth which is not, at all, up for discussion. What we are seeing is a full-on display of the desire to control people. It is literally an attempt at seizing the mind, one’s actions and even determining who is worthy to live or die. Completely diabolical, in its scope, it refuses to acknowledge anyone or anything as greater than themselves. But make no mistake, this is the rot that results from the idiocy of not guarding boundaries, without which, no one knows their rightful place.
Sadly, this defines too many young people whose parents, educators and overseers have not diligently protected their interests by safeguarding the very limits that provide each one of us with sure identity, solid respect for authority and property as well as the knowledge that we are too faulty and fallible to think that we can set one standard of justice on everyone, in the belief that we have a lock on all knowledge and wisdom.
This is also the type of arrogance and haughtiness which leads to feeling on par with the Almighty, leading to the undoing of mankind which, in the end, contributes to our demise. These young adults are nothing more than the fruit of kids who grew up unsupervised, unchecked and unaccountable. Now, society is paying the price as they choose to upend daily life and throw their temper tantrums in public for all to see and suffer. It is a generation gone mad but one which must experience a reckoning, because, otherwise, left unchallenged, will bring about the sure fall of this age.
Proverbs 25:28 describes a man without self-control as being likened to a city broken into and left without walls. There is probably no better comparison to what we are seeing on today’s campuses than this particular scripture. The damage, vandalism, filth, rage and violence, which is taking place each day, throughout America, all in the name of “freeing” a territory that none of its supporters would be able to locate on a map, is indicative of those who have no self-control. Their unbridled display of hatred has manifested into the breaking of their campuses, leaving it with no walls.
Does anyone think that this is acceptable, desirable or normal by any standard? If not, they must now do the work that they neglected, at a time when it might have made a difference, because if they don’t, they will have no one but themselves to blame as the sharp blade of that guillotine descends on their neck – whether virtual or real!
A former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal who made Aliyah in 1993 and became a member of Kibbutz Reim but now lives in the center of the country with her husband. She is the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, based on the principles from the book of Proverbs - available on Amazon.