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Thanks to the Internet, we have become expert parsers of language, meaning, and authorial intent. We have grown obsessed with subtext. In other words, we live in very discursive times, when language seems to matter more than ever. Perhaps the return of civility, as those on the right and left have both argued, constitutes a renewal of the culture wars, where taste became an object of national debate. But it also seems like a natural result of the sheer amount of time we spend engaged in the textual worlds of the Internet. There is more to say and share than ever before. As we dive headlong into this world made of words, the temptation will always be to shout above the din.
This is why the University of Illinois’s treatment of Salaita has gained so much attention with the academic world. Despite the careful deliberation that went into his hiring, the school rescinded his job offer once a series of inflammatory tweets about Israel began circulating among powerful donors and trustees. He was charged with incivility. Should the informal channels of Twitter be admissible evidence of a scholar’s record? Was it the words that were uncivil or the ideas they described? Even those who found his tweets vulgar believed that he was being held to a disturbingly vague and arbitrary standard. The school claimed that its case was self-consciously not an abridgement of free speech. In practice, though, it had essentially set out a series of cynical guidelines for how to exercise that right. Two weeks ago, Salaita filed a lawsuit against the university. Among the various charges, many of which involve procedure, Salaita and his attorneys allege that the university denied their request to view administration e-mails detailing their deliberations—specifically, those containing keywords such as “Palestine,” “Jewish,” and “uncivil.”
full: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/civility-wars _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
