Universities and ideas aren’t the enemy, author William Barron says. (123RF)

Universities are not fortresses of indoctrination or cabals of conspiracy. They are incubators of ideas, innovation, and independence. Yet, in times of fear, they often become scapegoats. History has shown us what happens when knowledge becomes the enemy, when inquiry is suspect, and when education is seen as subversion.

“Education is dangerous — every educated person is a future enemy.” — attributed to H. Goering, a leader of Hitler’s Nazi party

Today’s attacks on universities echo darker chapters of the past. When public figures brand professors as “the enemy,” claim that universities are “hostile institutions” conferring “legitimacy to the most ridiculous ideas,” they step into rhetorical territory dangerously close to totalitarian dogma. These aren’t just criticisms of curriculum; they are efforts to discredit education.

Ideas are powerful. So powerful, in fact, that J. Stalin once said, “Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns—why should we let them have ideas?” Fearful, weak regimes suppress thought. Secure, free societies cultivate it. Indeed, ideas can wound more deeply than fists — and their scars often outlast bruises.

University campuses are cauldrons of friction and growth. For many, this is their first encounter with people from different faiths, regions, and ideologies. That tension — uncomfortable as it may be — tempers conviction and sharpens perspective. Whether you come out with your views fortified or transformed, you come out thinking. That is the point.

These institutions are not perfect — no system is — but they are essential. Universities question assumptions, rewrite narratives, and challenge dogma. They are both repositories of history and laboratories for the future. Without them, our medical breakthroughs, technological advances, and understanding of ourselves would stagnate.

This is not just about liberal arts colleges or elite universities. The attack on higher education is part of a broader attempt to discredit education at all levels — trade schools included. There is a symbiosis between designers and builders, researchers and craftsmen. One imagines, the other realizes. We need both.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” – A. Einstein

And yet, some would shut the doors on curiosity itself. Book bans. Mandated curricula. Politically driven defunding. These are not acts of fiscal prudence — they are acts of intellectual cowardice perpetrated by those who are the beneficiaries of those same institutions. Education should be supported, not to control ideas but to unleash them. To ensure that research is guided by truth, not tribalism. To ensure the historical records are studied and analyzed, in their fullness, to guide us away from past folly and despair.

“For an idea that does not first seem insane, there is no hope.”– A. Einstein

The freedom to think dangerously, to imagine the impossible, has been the lifeblood of progress. Yes, bad ideas exist — but so do good ones, and ironically, some of the most outlandish were once thought heretical. That is the risk of liberty: the right to be wrong, and the space to grow into something right.

Universities are not enemies of the people. They are expressions of a free people. Critique them, yes. Improve them, certainly. But fear them? Only if you fear ideas themselves, which some have and apparently some still do. Because without ideas, there is no democracy. Only dogma, perpetual fear, and misinformation.

— William Barron lives in Bend and is the author of “Lap Around the Sun” and “Joy in Alzheimer’s.”