College Students are Being Conditioned to Surrender Their Freedom
Guest post by an anonymous college freshman
Institutions that continue to enforce the vaccine mandates are responsible for a lot of social carnage. Students are isolated, employees are fired, parents are shamed, friendships are ruined, and families are torn apart. College students, in particular, are facing a deeply unconstitutional and unethical medical mandate that violates one of our fundamental liberties as American citizens.
In order to attend some colleges in the US, particularly some of the most elite universities, prospective students are required to receive the initial series of the COVID-19 vaccine, and sometimes, a booster as well. Those who remain unvaccinated are left with no choice but to scramble for an exemption or forgo college altogether. These are potentially the next generation of politicians, lawyers, teachers, doctors, journalists, engineers, and other professionals. And we are limiting the opportunities by which they can contribute to society.
Not only does the current vaccine program encroach on citizens’ bodily autonomy, but it violates personal medical and religious freedoms and biomedical ethics. People have valid reasons for declining the COVID-19 vaccine. Many individuals base their refusal to undergo an experimental medical treatment on medical or religious grounds. However, the freedoms which gave license to such decisions are currently being undermined.
Students are being conditioned to surrender their freedom for a crisis that no longer exists. They are being forced to compromise their values as opposed to standing up for themselves and what they believe to be morally right. One could argue that this is the exact opposite purpose of college to begin with. Along with acquiring a skill set for a certain career path, part of the purpose of college is learning to develop critical thinking skills, being exposed to diversity of thought, standing by your own convictions, and gaining the ability to lead. How can we train future leaders to think independently when we are forcing them to conform to a specific herd mentality, no questions asked?
Continuing to enforce the vaccine mandates also creates an atmosphere of division among college students. Any unvaccinated students that manage to attend college through medical and religious exemptions may have to jump other hurdles such as potential segregation in housing and athletics.
Most of these mandates are grounded in the philosophy of “protecting the greater good.” Not only is this a very un-American, totalitarian, and Marxist belief, but there is also no public health rationale, as we now know that the COVID-19 vaccines do not prevent infection or transmission. It is unethical to force a treatment onto someone for the benefit of another person. Expecting someone who is unwilling to participate in a medical intervention so that you can feel safer is at the height of selfishness.
If the COVID-19 vaccine mandates were about the health of the individual, it would be up to the individual to decide whether or not to receive the treatment. It’s an immoral and criminal construct to suggest otherwise. Taking things away from people until they comply is not medical freedom; it is coercion. One’s concern for catching COVID does not override another’s concern for getting a vaccine injury. Students are unfairly being forced to choose between higher education and their freedom. The unvaccinated are not a danger to the public. They are a danger to the narrative that has been pushed for so long.
Let me leave you with a few thoughts. Why mandate a generally healthy, low-risk age group with an unnecessary medical procedure? Why de-platform or censor anyone who opposes the mandates? Why punish college students for adhering to their core values by stripping them of the privilege of attending college and depriving them of a broad range of future opportunities?
Sovereignty over our bodies is the most fundamental of all human freedoms. If we don’t own our own bodies, what do we own?
The author is a college freshman in Southern California who, regrettably, must remain anonymous for now. She is the founder of Teens Against Mandates, a medical freedom advocacy organization whose mission is to help teens make informed medical decisions.
Excellent comment. Agreed with the argument that this type of conditioning to arbitrary authority over bodily sovereignty is especially repugnant. As a university professor, I struggle to make this point to my colleagues and students alike, whom are too easily seduced by the logic of security and unwilling to evaluate critically the statements of medical and institutional authorities. I have never felt so hopeless and am grateful for the activism of organizations and individuals such as No College Mandates.
These are potentially the next generation of politicians, lawyers, teachers, doctors, journalists, engineers, and other professionals.
Some would say, that politicians, lawyers, doctors, and journalists don't contribute to society; rather, they leech from society. Those four groups of people created, marketed, sold, and tried to enforce the COVID-19 society. Teachers should have known better, but they, too, are collectivized and do what their union tells them to do.