ASK any average 19-year-old who the brilliant 18th century philosopher David Hume was, the chances are you will be met with a blank look.
But then they will probably Google him and all hell will break loose.
Before long his entire legacy will be consigned to the bin because his views do not meet today’s censorship police’s standards.
Edinburgh University has made the baffling decision to rename the Hume Tower because a mere 1,700 people signed a petition calling for the change due to Hume’s dubious views on slavery.
So, one of the giants of the Scottish Enlightenment has become the latest historical figure to become a figure of hate and be ‘cancelled’.
Unsurprisingly, the move has been met with a furious response from academic staff at the university some of whom have written to principal Professor Peter Mathieson urging for it to be reversed.
But the really disturbing thing is that universities are increasingly pandering to the woke generation which could have far-reaching consequences when they graduate and enter the workplace.
Where once universities were hotbeds of intellectual debate, where challenging the orthodoxies was encouraged, now they seem to have become glorified care homes for the under-25s, whose every whim is catered for and pandered to.
For institutions that for centuries have helped create brilliant surgeons, lawyers, teachers, rocket scientists, geologists and a myriad of other careers, this is an increasingly worrying trend.
Some universities have even started using ‘trigger point’ warnings for students that they may find some material in lectures distressing.
This even extends to law students before lectures that may contain graphic crime scenes which is not exactly ideal training for future High Court judges presiding over complex and distressing criminal trials.
A judge cannot excuse themselves from the bench because the evidence is a ‘bit graphic’.
Likewise, a doctor cannot be excused from treating an accident victim because they were allowed to skip lectures on trauma injuries, either.
Universities should be at the forefront of debate and change, where free speech is allowed to flourish and intellectual thought encouraged and applauded.
Ignorance may be bliss, but knowledge is power.
Woke students should remember that before rushing to make another cancellation.
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