How unbearably trite it is to call Hillsdale College a “bubble.” Yet many of us do. We feel that there is something special about our fair campus. The people are generally kind, moral, generous, and unusually invested in the pursuit of knowledge. More than this, however, life away from the college can seem mundane. The subjects of our conversations shift from Locke and Tolkien to “Pawn Stars” and Ke$ha. The world feels lesser, and many of us ache to return to our treasured friends and our books.
In one important sense, however, life in Hillsdale aligns with life in modern America. Both share a mixed sense of stubborn hope and pained cynicism. On campus, many of us retreat to our studies and do our best to disregard contemporary politics. We write off the present to focus on the past. The latest election has only served to reinforce this attitude. We talk about “the good, the true, and the beautiful” and our heritage, while dismissing the possibility that we can make a difference in our own society. Our personal conservatism leads some of us to shy away from political activism, and we fear for the future of our country.
Away from campus, the traditional American spirit of optimism for a better tomorrow conflicts with a tremendous pessimism that pervades the country. People are worried, and they are angry, and they are afraid. A recent national poll showing that people prefer cockroaches and colonoscopies to Congress illustrates that they perceive our nation’s capital to be an irredeemable cesspool. Yet many forgo the opportunity to get involved to focus instead on their work or hobbies.
Neither they nor we want to admit the troubling reality in which we live. But we do not labor under a fundamentally tyrannical regime. Not a single soul marches on our venerable institution. The means by which we can improve our own condition still exist. We can vote in free elections, start our own businesses, build churches and libraries, and study free of censorship. Things are not that bad, and we have the tools to make them better.
I urge you to get involved, both in your community and in politics. Hillsdale students and graduates ought to engage in the battle of ideas. We ought to share in the grassroots effort to restore liberty and constitutional government. We ought to use our educations for more than self-examination.
George Washington recommended us to “Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.” He neglected to mention that you are imbued with more than one lonely spark. Each day, you should also struggle to maintain a spark of hope, sparks of beauty, faith, truth, and principle. Upon this foundation, decide how you will make a difference.
Remember the words of one Samwise Gamgee: “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”
