The Napoleonic University

Napoleon seduced much of Europe to his Empire by speaking of liberty, equality, and fraternity. He was a grand leader capable of making artists, academics, and artisans forgive his faults for his vision.

Napoleon would bring freedom through the force of his personality, his star, and his will to power. He made many men feel lucky to serve him and the rest fortunate to fight him. The British, who exhausted themselves to defeat this tyrant, still admired him and sent him to comfortable exile . . . twice.

The first time he was packed off, Napoleon invaded France by himself. He could command adoration and that was enough. His foes could promise any reward, but the men sent to arrest him would switch sides to serve him.

He promised liberty and gave certain freedoms, if political power was his. His opponents required obedience, he required veneration and veneration is easier to maintain than obedience. We rebel against authority, but we will volunteer anything for love.

Thank God the combination of genius and competence that Napoleon had is rare. Alexander certainly and Franklin Roosevelt probably had the ability to produce adoration and then use it for power. We are also more skeptical of men on horseback, having been burned too many times. Social media can expose foibles too quickly for even the greatest genius to cover his sins. Worst for a would be Napoleon is how easy it is to show weaknesses or amusing faults: a Napoleon can survive fear better than mocking laughter.

If we need fear the man on horseback less, we should fear the men on committees more. They can inspire veneration for ill defined goods without facing any personal scrutiny. The American university is the new Napoleon, more dangerous, because more diffuse. You could mock the man on horseback, but the endless administrators in the American university are hard to name, let alone mock. Yet they have learned the Napoleonic trick for power and gain adoration by promising liberty and gaining political power.

A young adult goes off to college and is given a simplistic explanation for the problems of the time: sex, money, or power. This is seductive, because the first move is to reject restraints to deep desires. You can ignore sexual restraints and create your own identity! You can covet your neighbor’s money, because anyone with money gained it by a complex set of privileges. You can assert yourself against parents paying the bill, because their power is old fashioned or based on repression.

A student can become the prophet of a new world order simply by doing what she or he wishes to do! Liberty! Equality! Transgender!

We have a cause and any argument against the cause is evil! All the modern university asks is billions in government money, billions in student debt slavery, and no scrutiny of soaring money, privilege and power. They are bringing on the new order of liberty and so tyranny is necessary to crush the despots in the way.

Liberty without God’s law is mere licentiousness ending in tyranny: Great Britain knew it and Wellington made sure Napoleon understood by defeating him. Wellington was a flawed man, but he knew that the best of the old order was needed in the new era. We cannot look for a Wellington in our time, because the same reduction that we practice on a would-be tyrant takes down a Wellington.

We need communities of Wellingtons. We need institutions that provide liberty with God’s law. What if we could have schools that asked good questions, but also taught virtue? We could produce free women and men that did not need tyrants whether the tyrant is one man or a committee of administrators. 

The most dangerous tyrant is the one who promise liberty tomorrow and gives us licentiousness today: the Napoleonic University. Don’t despair, instead let’s make place for resistance. Wellington built up his power (slowly) in little Portugal. The guerilla warfare of Spain made victory by the tyrant too costly and Wellington exploited the frustration to invade France.

We can win, but only if we stand for liberty combined with God’s law. Death to committees and God save King Jesus!