Faculty from Top Universities Sign Letter Urging Students to Reject ‘Vice of Conformism’

'Don't be tyrannized by public opinion. Don't get trapped in an echo chamber'

Faculty from Princeton, Harvard, and Yale have signed an open letter to incoming university students, begging them to reject the "vice of conformism," and instead, "Think for yourself."

In "Some Thoughts and Advice for Our Students and All Students," fifteen scholars from nearly as many disciplines agreed that thinking independently "always demands self-discipline and these days can require courage."

"At many colleges and universities what John Stuart Mill called ‘the tyranny of public opinion' does more than merely discourage students from dissenting from prevailing views on moral, political, and other types of questions. It leads them to suppose that dominant views are so obviously correct that only a bigot or a crank could question them," the letter reads. "Since no one wants to be, or be thought of, as a bigot or a crank, the easy, lazy way to proceed is simply by falling into line with campus orthodoxies."

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