For someone well on the way to complete news and opinion addiction (in other words, I need to get a real life), I began reading some of the "news" about academic freedom with no little amusement and cynicism. Having been in the hallowed halls of academics for eleven years, I could laugh at the foibles of those who are now there. After all, with memory that is 30-years distant, I recalled a time in which academic freedom meant the right to think, publish based on knowledgeable research and speak freely. One didn't have to agree with the speaker, just agree that he had the right to his opinions, no matter how "wrong" they were. Lately, I've come to believe that things have changed for the worse. The inmates have taken over the asylum. It was interesting to notice, and now appalling as I see the depths to which the trend has gone, the attacks the left make on someone who has the audacity to disagree with them. Quite often these attacks are couched in terms of "academic freedom" or "hate speech." The left, which seems to dominate the acadamy, has adopted, in the name of academic freedom, McCarthyism with a vengeance.
A while back a graduate student had the audacity to remark in class that his religious beliefs led him to disagree with the professor's viewpoint that homosexuality was normal and good. My rather naive response was that, as a graduate student, the young man should know that the wise student parrots back the professor's viewpoint and goes on with his life when the course ends if he wants decent grades. I even questioned why a "Gender Studies" or some such title was included in the UNC graduate english cirriculum. Little did I realize that the course was not intended to educate students, it was more intended as a propaganda session for the prevelant political beliefs of the department and the student had transgressed onto dangerous ideological ground by daring to question the professor's wisdom. The response by this professor was part of the new McCarthyism. She did not press her view point in the market of ideas, make sound arguments as to the correctness of her cause or anything approaching rational intellectual discourse. Instead, she emailed members of the class expressing her concerns over the trauma they must be suffering because of the hate speech and offering counseling for those who had been severely damaged by such speech. She attacked the person who disagreed with her with a vengeance that would have made Old Joe pround. Since when do adults with college degrees need counselling when they hear someone express ideas that they may, or may not, agree with? The attack machine of the left, went to work with full force.
We have the recent case of Jonathan Bean, reportedly a prize winning author and a previous teacher of the year at SIU. Mr. Bean sinned mightily by including links to the Zebra Killings in an assignment. Mr. Bean was rapidly attacked as a racist by numerous faculty members and by his department chair. Mr. Bean is in danger of losing his job. Did he make up the Zebra Killings? Did he erroneously imply that these killings were done by blacks linked to the Nation of Islam? Did he erroneously imply that the victims were white? The answer to all questions is no, he made no errors. The only fact that matters is that Mr. Bean strayed from the party line and must be punished for such an infringement. The new McCarthyism of the left attacked in full force.
The recent fuss at Columbia in which students lodged complaints against a "Muslim Studies(?)" for allegedly attacking them because they were Jewish is another prime example of the new McCarthyism of the left. Columbia investigated the complaints and all but completely exonerated the professor. However, the impression left by the ad hoc committee being stacked with department members and the professor's thesis advisor certainly would give rise to the thought that the "investigation" had all the appearances of a whitewash. Now, it seems that the new McCarthyism cannot let the issue end. The students who complained are being labeled as "Zionists." In other words, don't disagree with the Prof. If you do, you will be the recipient of Character attacks.
The recent news of attacks on concervative speakers at college campuses is appalling in that the leaders of those institutions make no efforts to put a stop to the left-wing brown shirts. Ms. Coulter has recently made the news as a result of the activities of protesters in her audiences. Does the academic leadership deplore the actions of those who would stifle fee speech? No. It seems, at least according to the president of St. Thomas College, that it is Ms. Coulter's fault that students were so enraged at her. Rather than have a diversity of ideas, the McCarthyites of the left chose to attack Ms. Coulter for "hateful speech." I don't care for Ms. Coulter and cerainly wouldn't pay to see her. However, if she is invited on campus, then common courtesy and a respect for the right of free speach of others should have restrained the hecklers.
Recently I returned to Mr. Lieter's blog <Leiter Reports: Chronicle of Higher Ed Article on David Horowitz and his Campaign to Purge the Universities. The blog defends the current state of academic freedom and attacks on it. How does a professor in a well-known law school do this? The arguments (not by Leiter, but cited by him) run to ""It's Orwellian," says Roger W. Bowen, general secretary of the American Association of University Professors. "He's trying to create an atmosphere in the classroom where faculty are not treated like the professionals that they are." and "David Horowitz's Gang "Smears the Dead" and "Horowitz does not want us to take Lenin’s apocalyptic injunction too literally. Instead, he believes you should drown your political opponents in a steady stream of bullshit, emanating every day from newspapers, TV and radio programs, as well as lavishly funded smear sites and blogs." Just the stuff for the marketplace of ideas.
If you can't win on intellectual power and the rightness of your cause, resort to name-calling, personal attacks and language not fit for the hunting camp. The left is devoid of ideas. The left on our campuses attack with a vengeance anyone who dares to disagree. That is the new McCarthyism. All will get teary eyed at the attacks of outside evil on the bastions of Academic Freedom. Even call it Orwellian. No real academic freedom, is academic Freedom. That's Orwellian. The new McCarthyism is alive and well on our campuses, nutured by those defending academic freedom.
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