The author has been asked to discuss academic freedom and political correctness in wartime or times of great stress. He talks about real threats to security--not the danger that one will be offended by a student's or professor's arguably sexist, racist, or homophobic point-of-view and will feel dis-empowered, demeaned, or stripped of self-esteem. It is axiomatic that external threats to security create great pressures toward conformity and against the expression of ideas or dissent deemed dangerous to that security. (Contains 11 notes.)