Our college campuses are gripped with fear. This fear comes not so much from worry about physical safety, though such concerns certainly exist to varying degrees depending on the campus. Instead, this dread stems from the prospect of being “canceled.”

The term canceled has entered the mainstream lexicon, at least online, as part of a cluster of terms describing contemporary progressive ideology as well as its enforcement against dissenting voices. “Wokeness,” “intersectionality,” and “critical race theory” have helped mark the content of this viewpoint. It seeks a non-religious kind of awakening by enlightening people about the supposedly racist and otherwise bigoted persons and structures in our society.

“Cancelation” demarks a way in which persons threaten those unsure or opposed to this ideological assessment of our country. It involves a kind of ostracism that smears non-compliant persons as evil and demands others terminate all social, economic, and other relationships with them.

Nowhere has the woke system entrenched deeper than on college campuses. One may be reported for a careless word, for expressing simply mild concerns about progressive assertions, or even for not speaking up to virtue-signal your alliance with such political and social forces. Some faculty and many students worry this mob will find them next.

This is no way to conduct education in a free society. One historical figure, Montesquieu, would see the harmful disconnect. The 17th-century French thinker published his most famous work, The Spirit of the Laws, in 1748. Future founders in the American colonies quickly devoured the work, imbibing its description of separating out governmental powers and eventually basing our Constitution’s structure on it.

Montesquieu’s book claimed that every government possessed a “principle,” which he defined as “the human passions that set it in motion.” Education within each society should follow and reinforce that principle. Fear was one option for the passion that set in motion a government’s laws and actions. But it was not the passion spurring on a republic of self-government by the people.

Instead, fear drove despotism. Through fear, a despotism maintained power by making those under its grip cower at the prospect of being viewed as an enemy. Despotism made gods, or at least saints, of the ruler. In so doing, some despotism really just indulged the voracious desires for pleasure in a ruler who acted as the old Greek gods did in their vices. Others partook of a religious or religion-like fervor, enlisting religion itself or religion-adjacent language in service of their rule. We see the latter (though not without the former) form of despotism acted out with regularity on today’s campuses.

Montesquieu can also tell us what we really need as a principle for free persons and the education that is necessary for the proper exercise of liberty. Republics need virtue as that principle which drives them. This political virtue Montesquieu defined as a set of loves, namely for equality, for one’s country, and for law. These loves form core needs for American citizens to act their part in our nation’s civic life.

A love of equality affirms the commitment stated in the Declaration of Independence that all humans are created equal and thus deserving of the same rights. But far from certain progressive views, this equality affirms human nature and sees us all bound by the dictates of natural law.

A love of country makes up our patriotism, in which we hold affection for America both as our own and as good. This contrasts with the “woke” attempts to describe our principles and our past as evil.

Love of law, finally, supports the rule of law by which we act with moderation and with respect to the equal rights of others. This, too, contrasts with the lawless intimidations that pervade other forms of education.

Our campus culture should seek to inculcate these good values. In particular, we must do so by upholding free speech. Free speech is essential for free inquiry, free minds, and thus free citizens. Let us reject education by fear on our campuses. Only then can we truly find an education that cultivates citizens who uphold “liberty and justice for all.”

Adam Carrington is an assistant professor of politics at Hillsdale College.