Are the youth out of control—or the old out of touch?

We thought we were past generation gaps -- yet rarely has there been a more profound one

The philosophy of Khymani James,protest leader at Columbia University

“Hope I die before I get old,” sang The Who’s Roger Daltrey about a half century ago, in perhaps the ultimate cultural reflection of antagonism between generations. It seems to never change: Older people think the youth are gullible and confused, and the youth think the old are “out of touch.”  Rarely has this phenomenon been on starker display than now.

Many older Americans have watched with amazement and horror as pro-Palestine protests gathered steam on college campuses, veering toward what seemed to them as bizarre support for Islamist terrorists and even hatred of America itself. Now some universities—including Columbia where I was a grad student—have called in the cops. There is handwringing and angst about where to draw the line on free speech.

It shouldn’t be so hard. Whether the students are right or wrong is immaterial to the question of whether they should be allowed to continue the protests. The reasons to break up some of the protests are clear.

First, they featured hate speech not as an exception. One of the leaders of the Columbia encampment actually appeared on video declaring that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and suggested people “should be glad” he wasn’t “going out murdering” them. Zionists are those who think Israel has a right to exist and their number includes me as well as President Joe Biden, by his own declaration.

Second, many of the protests became genuinely dangerous and threatening to Jews—with the declaration of “Zionist-free zones” and with police keeping Jews away, which in some cases has meant off campus.

Third, there is a limit to the disruption that a university can tolerate until the free expression of one group with deeply held opinions ends up being unfair to all others trying to get an education.

Lastly, it is clear that many of the protests included non-student agitators who have no business being on campus, and indeed were threatening to other students.

So far, so simple. Where it gets more complicated is when you do examine the content of what is being said.

It is odd when people deny that the massacre of Oct. 7 was an act of barbarism that—especially with Hamas threatening to repeat it—justified and perhaps even required a response. But it is also OK to believe Israel’s response has gone too far and that the Gaza war should end.

Many Israelis think this as well—but this is not the dominant message coming out of the protests. What we are hearing—not just in selective interviews but in the main chants by crowds—is support for Hamas and for its maximal aim of eliminating Israel from the map of the Earth “by any means necessary.” It’s OK to call on divestment from Israel, too—but then again, why are the students focusing on Israel alone, and not, say, China or Sudan? It’s reasonable to point out a double standard and ask where it comes from.

More than anything, it is fair enough to ask the pro-Hamas students whether they really want to support a movement that sees gay people as not deserving to live, believes in an aggressively patriarchal society in which women are property, and would instill an Islamic theocracy on any territory it captures. If they don’t, then they’re actually rather stupid, and if they do, they’re dangerous.