That's been going on for a while now.
David
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas
which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas
which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.*--Thomas
**Jeff**erson*
On 11/9/2013 12:24 PM, [email protected] wrote:
*USA Today*
*Political divide hurts college free speech*
Patrick Maines
November 6, 2013
Our universities are as polarized as ever and it isn't helping our
students.
The great and widening political divide in the land, marked by
hyperbolic rhetoric and personal attacks, is rued by many. And why
not? Most everyone would agree that ours would be a more serene and
nurturing country if the political differences between us were not so
great.
But it is precisely because of our differences about the correct
social, economic and foreign policies that it's so important to
protect the right to free speech for all, especially in our colleges
and universities.
Unfortunately, that imperative is being honored these days more in the
breach than the observance, often by student "progressives" who, in
gestures not of tolerance or broad-mindedness but of the rankest kind
of illiberalism, attempt to shut down campus functions and speakers
with whom they disagree.
The latest example is the recent shoutdown of NYC Police Commissioner
Ray Kelly, who was invited to speak at Brown University about the
city's "stop and frisk" policy. After he was met with protesters who
wouldn't allow him to speak, the university pulled the plug.
As reported in the /Huffington Post
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/30/ray-kelly-brown-university_n_4176985.html>,/
one of the students who helped organize the protest, Jenny Li, said
that when the university declined to cancel the lecture, "we decided
to cancel it for them." It was, this Li said, "a powerful
demonstration of free speech."
Afterwards, the university president said she would convey to Kelly
her profound apologies
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/30/ray-kelly-brown-university_n_4176985.html>,
but it's unclear how deeply the commissioner will accept them since at
a subsequent campus gathering the professor who invited Kelly to speak
apologized for doing so, an act reminiscent of a /similar //affair/ at
Fordham University
<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323894704578115440209134854>
when, under pressure from students, faculty and the administration,
the campus Young Republicans were coerced into canceling a speech by
conservative writer Ann Coulter.
It's not clear which is worse, the shouting down of people with
differing views, or the Orwellian language employed to justify such
actions. What the students did at Brown was a "powerful demonstration
of free speech" in the same way that mugging someone is a powerful
demonstration of free will.
Happily, there's been commentary about this affair that gives hope for
the future of free speech. Two such examples are a /Daily Beast
<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/30/brown-university-s-campus-liberals-vs-free-speech.html>/
piece written by Peter Beinart and a similar commentary
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-lukianoff/kindly-inquisitors-and-ho_b_4192495.html?utm_hp_ref=tw>
published in the /Huffington //Post/ by Greg Lukianoff.
What Beinart and Lukianoff share is a broadly liberal background.
Beinart
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/books/review/the-crisis-of-zionism-by-peter-beinart.html>
is a former editor of /The New Republic, /and before becoming
president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education,
Lukianoff <http://thefire.org/people/2982.html> interned at the ACLU
of Northern California and served as the development manager of the
/EnvironMentors Project/ in Washington, D.C.
In denouncing the student protestors actions, Beinart warns
<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/30/brown-university-s-campus-liberals-vs-free-speech.html>
against the collapse on campuses of the "vital center" on free speech
issues. "Convinced that freedom of speech is an illusion denied them
outside the university gates" he says, "they take revenge in the one
arena where the balance of forces tilt their way."
Writing about, and on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of the
publication of, the classic book by Jonathan Rauch called /Kindly
Inquisitors: The New Attack on Free Thought/
<http://www.amazon.com/Kindly-Inquisitors-Attacks-Free-Thought/dp/0226705765>,
Lukianoff offers this
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-lukianoff/kindly-inquisitors-and-ho_b_4192495.html>:
Of the many side effects of the retreat from free speech that
Rauch predicted 20 years ago, one was that if we privilege
feelings over free speech and allow claims of offense to slow or
stop meaningful discussion, people will naturally abuse this
ultimate trump card. In the end, the societal bar for what is
"offensive" will simply get lower and lower. This "offendedness
sweepstakes," as Rauch has called it, does not take long to
produce terrible or, often, absurd results.
Indeed it does not, as shown by the retreat of free speech in the face
of triumphant, not to say self-righteous, "political correctness" on
the nation's campuses and elsewhere.
As one commenter <http://networkedblogs.com/QCFp0> poignantly observed
in reply to coverage of the Brown affair in/Legal Insurrection/:
"Really scary real-life person prevented from expressing wrong views
to delicate flower college students. Fragile students saved from
having to listen to upsetting opinion. All is well in academia;
students thoroughly prepared for real world now."
--
--
Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
<[email protected]>
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism
Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
an email to [email protected].
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
---
This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection
is active.
http://www.avast.com
--
--
Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
<[email protected]>
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism
Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
