Brainwashed, by Ben Shapiro

As a conservative college student at UCLA, Ben Shapiro kept a record of the insanity of college while writing a column in the campus paper.  Based on his college experiences and research, Shapiro published his first book, Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth, at the age of 20.  To give you an idea of the content of the book, the publisher gave this disclaimer at the beginning: "To paint the full picture [of the decline of higher education] has required author Ben Shapiro to quote some fairly crude material and deal with offensive subject matter. . . . We do not publish this material to appeal to prurient interests but to more fully advise and inform students, parents, and those concerned about the university system and what they can expect from it."  In other words, prepare yourself to be shocked and dismayed at college life and curriculum content.

To that end, Shapiro does not disappoint.  Starting with the rejection of moral absolutes, the foundation of moral reasoning at many universities, Shapiro covers a variety of topics that demonstrated the left-wing perspective of many professors.  Anti-faith? Check.  Global warming?  Check.  Sexual permissiveness, even perversion?  Check.  Anti-capitalism?  Check.  Anti-American?  Check.  As survey after survey will demonstrate, fewer and fewer conservative voices are behind the podia in university lecture halls, and conservative ideas are often not tolerated.

Shapiro may over-generalize at times.  Many sentences begin with something like, "Professors believe. . . ." when obviously not every professor would believe exactly that.  But Shapiro provides enough anecdotal and statistical evidence to show the trend and inclination among universities.  For those of us who have been out of college for a while, what Shapiro reports is pretty disturbing.  I am thankful that there are private, Christian universities that provide an alternative to the secular schools, but even professors at Christian schools feel the pressure from the profession when they are excluded from publications and academic conferences due to their views.  It's a sorry state of affairs.  Shapiro published Brainwashed in 2004, but the message is no less relevant today.