College Conservatives Must Embrace the Importance of Action, Not Apathy

In recent years conservative college students have made headlines exposing the liberal indoctrination that runs rampant on college campuses. Many students have been subjected to an inaccurate, liberalized history curriculum while others have experienced the social rejection faced when “outing yourself” as a conservative. Personally, I’ve experienced the entire spectrum. From the Facebook taunts and eye rolls of my peers to a B+ I received on a theology paper for daring to quote Ronald Reagan, I’ve seen it all. By now, combating liberal indoctrination is a core concern of a majority of politically concerned conservative college students. While this may seem challenging to some, I contend that the increasingly liberalized collegiate culture is simply a manifestation of another issue: apathy.

The monstrous rise of liberal indoctrination on college campuses threatens not only the students subjected to it, but our future as well. My fellow college students and I are the leaders of tomorrow. How can we face the chaotic world without a proper education and secure environment to exercise our intellectual curiosity? To combat this indoctrination, the remarkably high level of apathy I’ve seen among my fellow college students must be addressed. I am shocked with the number of students who know nothing about how our political process works. Many cannot name more than a few of our elected officials. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard my fellow students say things like “I voted for Obama,” while claiming to “hate” politics in the same breath. Others say things like “I’m conservative but know nothing about current events.” It’s certainly not necessary that all college students need to be political junkies, but a degree of civic education is necessary. Politics can be frustrating, but that’s not an excuse to throw the baby out with the bathwater and ignore current events all together. This is merely a form of self-imposed ignorance. Apathy gives rise to ignorance and this lack of knowledge makes us prey to biased professors and the left-leaning academic culture.

The results of this ubiquitous collegiate apathy are far-reaching. Students, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, rarely “question with boldness” anymore. Without the motivation to pursue truth and accuracy, apathetic students tend to believe what they are taught. They are simply putty in the hands of biased instructors and the liberal collegiate atmosphere. To combat such a force, it’s necessary to arm yourself with the seed of political power: knowledge. Unfortunately, the lack of desire to rise above one’s own ignorance can be crippling. Students rarely desire to find the truth when apathy reins, leaving many college students slaves to their own ignorance.

To a politically active college student like myself, this is particularly upsetting. There are hundreds of students at my university who claim to be conservative, but few actually put their ideology into action. This leaves us with a small, albeit strong, group of conservative students left to fight against the overwhelming influence of the liberal campus culture. How can we fight this war without an army of concerned, intellectually curious college students? Apathy leaves us without the weapon of knowledge or the fuel of intellectual curiosity.

But all hope is not lost. Apathy might be difficult to combat, but we still have a few weapons left in our intellectual arsenal. First, intellectual curiosity needs to be instilled early on. This starts with the family. Parents must teach their children to “question with boldness,” or more accurately follow the words of Ronald Reagan: “trust but verify.” In college, it’s up to the politically interested students to fill the intellectual void caused by unnecessary apathy. We need to educate, encourage, and empower our peers before liberal indoctrination sweeps in. We must be a force of concerned college students if we ever intend to win the intellectual battle. Some believe that it’s safer to remain apathetic, to glide below the radar. However, as our nation slides downhill, we need to ask more of ourselves. Indifference might put off battles, but it never wins the war. We need action, not apathy.