A Clash of Worldviews
Welcome to the new Intercollegiate Review, the magazine for students who want to think and live free.
When was the last time you heard someone mention the word liberty? You are much more likely to hear professors and fellow students talk about progress, equality, fairness, justice, and diversity. So it is no surprise that when most people think about politics and political power, they imagine things they want the government to do for them or to others. This mind-set overlooks what people ought to be free to do for themselves, without the government involved. The quest for such freedom motivated America’s Founding Fathers to write a Constitution that limits the power of government and protects our God-given—not government-given—right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Many professors today ignore or disparage the principles on which America built its historic freedom and prosperity: individual liberty, limited government, free enterprise, personal responsibility, the rule of law, and traditional values.
The rights and freedoms that we often take for granted represent hard-won victories in countless struggles. Many professors and students are eager to surrender those liberties, to trade their freedom for the perceived safety and equality promised by wielding the state’s coercive power against individuals and communities.
We are faced with two competing worldviews, and we must choose how we will live . . . and how our children will live after us. The Intercollegiate Review seeks to defend the principles of freedom and confront the growing threats. At the heart of this issue you will find a pair of articles laying out these competing worldviews (see pages 8 and 9).
This magazine is an integral part of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s work to educate for liberty. For sixty years ISI has been inspiring students to discover, embrace, and advance the principles and virtues that make America free and prosperous. If your interest is piqued by the ideas in the Intercollegiate Review, you might enjoy ISI’s other educational programs. We offer scholarships, fellowships, and internships; the chance to network and build friendships with like-minded students and professors; conferences on liberty and limited government; the opportunity to form reading groups, run student publications, and host prominent speakers on your campus; and much more.
I hope that you enjoy this issue, and that we hear from you. America is in need of a new generation of leaders who think and live free.
Cheers,
Christopher Long
President, ISI
