In Plato’s Apology of Socrates, Socrates says that “the most reprehensible form of ignorance [is] that of thinking one knows what one does not know.” Kenyon students are smart and exposed to a great many disciplines, meaning we know a little bit about a lot of things. While this can be a blessing, it can also be a curse, leading many of us — including me — to think that we know what we don’t. In an article in the Oct. 29 issue of the Collegian, Kenyon Young Democratic Socialists of America (KYDSA) co-Chair Angus Allan ’28 is quoted, saying, “I encourage people to make a stronger critique of us.” I take him up on that invitation here, and argue that KYDSA is one of the worst culprits of thinking you know when you don’t.
Our world is highly complex and, with so many topics to become an expert in, it can take years of passion and patience to become an expert in even one. This is why liberal education ought to produce at least as much doubt as it does confidence. And for any readers who don’t like my old war-horse notions of liberal education, this one is backed by actual science, too. There is a phenomenon called the Dunning-Kruger effect, where you can know just enough about a subject to think you are right, but not enough to know that you are wrong. This little bit of knowledge causes a sharp increase in confidence — what online graphs of the Dunning-Kruger effect call Mount Stupid — while even more knowledge allows one to see that the confidence was false, and to send it tumbling down. To be stuck on top of the mountain of false confidence is to be ignorant, and to pass over it is to be liberally educated. This year KYDSA has found itself atop, and, in the worst cases, yelling from Mount Stupid.
This was best displayed at their recent protest of Chris Brose, the president of defense technology company Anduril Industries. Because notification of the event was sent out the day of, the protesters organized their protest within part of a single day. This was made clear through the protesters’ uninformed questions about the military-industrial complex itself. They asked Brose to clarify easily verifiable information about, for example, whether or not he influences national policy. I’m sure the protesters did a bit of research (what they could within one day), which is good! But what should have remained open-minded curiosity or skepticism was clearly mistaken for adequate knowledge to draw falsely confident convictions, in this case strong enough to try silencing a person and interrupting discussion about a topic they clearly knew little about.
As a chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), KYDSA is bound to promote the principles and governance of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Even without making a value judgment, I would argue DSA is clearly radical by an American standard. They publicly supported abolishing the Senate, a staple of American liberal democracy, which is clearly impossible to do under any reading of the Constitution. They also advocate for fully abolishing the police and prison system, closing military bases, destroying the standing military and establishing public ownership of the largest corporations. This platform strongly denotes an underlying worldview — one that encapsulates economics, foreign policy and domestic police powers — and assumes that America has always, not just under President Donald Trump, addressed these policy areas wrongly. To adopt such underlying worldviews that reach across so many different spheres, and to call yourself a revolutionary, is to have embraced a false confidence.
By no means do I think that you need to be an expert on a given issue to advocate for it, nor a radical skeptic who questions each and every premise for purposes of certainty. Nor do I take any issue with KYDSA studying the socialist stance as an intellectual exercise as they do in their study groups, or with voting for their favorite DSA candidates. In fact, I encourage doing so as your civic duty. What I do take issue with is clearly adopting these theories before adequately questioning them, especially during the four years intended to open your mind through liberal education. And you certainly shouldn’t be interfering with anyone who might be interested in doing so.
Kenyon students, including me when I find myself there, should continue trying to push ourselves over the peak of Mount Stupid. Why shout from the mountain tops, either in protest, or maybe in opinions, as if you’ve traipsed over them all?
Robbie Lifson ’27 is a political science major from Sudbury, MA. He can be reached at lifson3@kenyon.edu.