Welcome back!
As I wrote in my letter for our last edition, we closed school last year on something of a strange, new note. Princeton students, defying the old stereotype that cast them as politically disinterested and perhaps even uninformed, protested in public, in print, and by petition on a range of issues from campus race relations to the misogyny apparently endorsed by our Lawn Parties headliner. It was unfortunate that, as spring progressed, our rhetoric became at times bitter and our tactics underhanded in pursuit of our various causes, but then again we were new to this game and still possessed of the naive belief that Yik Yak was a productive outlet for our grievances.
I hope we have returned from the summer somewhat wiser and more charitable, because the past few months, which have seen the executive branch’s passage of a nuclear deal with Iran, the launch of innumerable presidential campaigns, and the release of a sequence of increasingly horrifying videos documenting Planned Parenthood’s business practices, have given us much to discuss on the national stage. And on the University level, our questions from last year regarding the kinds of speech considered acceptable on campus will join this magazine’s usual list of concerns about maintaining a vibrant intellectual culture, an honest administration, and a respectful, if not entirely unbiased, professoriat as topics demanding discussion and debate.
All of which points to an exciting year for the Tory. On a campus gripped by the progressive animus from the most senior administrators to the most junior professors, we are dedicated to providing thoughtful commentary on and, when called for, reasonable solutions to the central challenges that confront us as students and citizens. Moved by a prudent admiration for tradition, order, and reason, we will write and speak the truths others will not, and we welcome any of you, our readers, to join our staff of writers and editors if you feel similarly inclined.
I should also take this chance to inform incoming freshmen of some of the other student groups on campus who will aid in your intellectual development and fight for causes you may also support. The James Madison Program, which hosts lectures on matters of constitutional law and political philosophy, is a haven for thought and discussion that would perhaps be unwelcome in your average Ivy League politics department. Once praised by The Nation as a shadowy “vehicle for conservative interests,” the Madison program is well worth your time. Princeton College Republicans is also an another admirable organization that hosts lectures, takes trips to DC and conservative conventions, and facilitates meeting and networking with your conservative peers here and around the country. The Anscombe Society, which fights for sexual integrity on campus, and Princeton Pro-Life, whose name explains itself, are also worthy causes worth checking out.
I hope you enjoy this issue and, as always, I welcome your thoughts in response. I will publish any letter to the editor that productively responds to or challenges any of the thoughts contained here in our next edition. Letters unpacking how these articles’ theses might be “problematic,” however, will be disregarded.
Cheers,
JP Spence, Publisher
Image Link
Copyright © 2024 The Princeton Tory. All rights reserved.