Saturday, June 16, 2018

PC Denialism: No Free Speech Crisis: Jeremy Waldron Edition

I'll just link to this for now. It doesn't seem very good to me, but, then, I'm an evil liberal / civil libertarian / "free speech absolutist" (or "free speech fetishist" as I've also been called). I'd say that this is mostly just another bit of denialism...there's no problem about free expression on campuses! This would be called "gaslighting" by the PCs if the tables were turned... Anyway, I do think that there are a couple of points in there worth discussing. For example, I agree that it isn't clear that academia should be setting out to defend democracy. Since I favor a depoliticized university, it seems that cuts against the idea that universities should be structured in order to promote democratic skills and values, too. (OTOH, I think one might argue: academia should be indifferent to democracy, but democracy shouldn't be indifferent to academia; democracies should value non-political universities and their outputs, even if the university should view democracy in the same abstract way it views monarchy.)

   As for the idea that universities might do their thing even without an atmosphere of free expression and open debate: well...it might be logically possible...but it isn't really possible, as we might say. It's a brains-in-vats question, a merely philosophical one. As long as it's mere philosophy: sure, let's discuss it. Universities might, theoretically, do their thing without libraries or books or paper or computers or lectures or grades...without any distinction between professors or students. All sorts of weird stuff. I don't find such questions interesting...but if you do, knock yourself out. But Waldron seems to be making an actual suggestion to the effect that a culture of free expression and open debate is actually optional at universities. Or that's the way it seems to me. And that should, let me suggest, alarm you.
   Look: the illiberal left is trying to complete its takeover of universities. It's actually trying to turn them into anti-intellectual, ideological institutions. I'm not saying that they're sitting there saying those words explicitly to themselves while bwa-ha-ha-ing about their side plans for a laser base on the moon...I'm saying that, as a group, they have a cluster of overlapping ideas and projects, and that those ideas and projects would, if implemented, move us into the neighborhood of a thoroughly-ideological, anti-intellectual "university."
   Even if that last paragraph is alarmist bullshit by half, I say there's plenty cause for concern.
   Also: The Daily Nous linked approvingly to that piece, in keeping with its general orientation.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home