Letters to the Editor
Jim White
Published Letters: 1093 Editor's Choice: 15
-
The marketplace of ideas
[Read the article: Fox News' attack on the honor and integrity of our war generals]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I come down with Ruthie H. on this one. In an ideal world, the best outcome would be for the Senate to vote to revoke the MoveOn condemnation and agree to stop trying to censure free speech.
There was an interesting opinion piece in yesterday's Gainesville Sun. Political Science Professor Richard Scher wrote on the proper role of a university in the exchange of public ideas:
The university remains, probably, the only existing social institution where ideas, no matter who articulates them or how outrageous and unacceptable they may strike some, can float unimpaired but subject to scrutiny and examination through the ether.
What other institutions shoulder this role? Banks? Newspapers? Fox News or CNN? Houses of religious worship? The White House? State legislatures? Local school boards? Libraries might come closest, but given how often they are attacked by one or another outraged groups, it is not surprising that generally they cower from serving as havens for the out-of-step.
No, harboring the dissident, the freethinker, the iconoclast is the special responsibility of the university. And it comes at huge cost, because sometimes what is said or written is offensive to someone somewhere somehow.
At these times universities are attacked - as within the last few days the Hoover Institute at Stanford has been for inviting Donald Rumsfeld to serve as a visiting scholar; or Columbia for providing a forum for the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
But if universities don't do this - if Stanford or Columbia backs down - then the whole concept of democratic expression, not just free speech, erodes, even evaporates. There is no other social institution extant to take up the slack.
Link:http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20070928/OPINION03/709280303
It seems prescient that Scher mentioned Fox News in posing his question just as they come to the front of this debate. I would suggest, however, that Scher missed a major contributor in this free marketplace of ideas.
Blogs are serving a vital role in this exchange of ideas. Yes, most are highly partisan, and people primarily hang out on the blogs that espouse the ideas they support. However, if you look at the exchange on the previous thread, Shooter242 relies on blogs for his support of Rush Limbaugh and the local residents here rely on a number of other blogs for their counter-arguments. In both cases, however, there is an actual attempt by the blogs referenced and by the posters to work from primary sources and provide verifiable evidence to support their assertions.
This, to me, is symbolic of a move to a democratization of a portion of the academic experience. More people can participate in internet discussions than in college education. Of course, the rigor of an extended, organized pursuit of a college degree is not approached by the experience of participating in an internet discussion, but the key concept of stating a position and searching for objective facts with which to back it up is a healthy sign of a functioning society.
Hunt, Limbaugh, O'Reilly and the like deserve the chance to put out their ridiculous drivel and many of us take great joy in poking it full of holes. MoveOn, for those who cared enough to investigate, provided a web page with many references to back up their assertions of Petraeus' move into the political world and his manipulation of facts on the ground.
Right now, the noise from the Right is a bit louder, but voices such as Glenn, Digby, DailyKos and others are pounding away at the beast that they have built. With truth and evidence on their side, I cling to the belief that they will prevail and the Right Wing Noise Machine will break down. My only question is what state our country will be in before balance is truly restored.
-
bop and bah
[Read the article: Charlie Savage at FDL Book Salon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Your comments reminded me of a passage from a long way gone, by Ishmael Beah, the moving autobiography of a child soldier from Sierra Leone:
"We must strive to be like the moon." An old man in Kabati repeated this sentence often to people who walked past his house on their way to the river to fetch water, to hunt, to tap palm wine; and to their farms. I remember asking my grandmother what the old man meant. She explained that the adage served to remind people to always be on their best behavior and to be good to others. She said that people complain when there is too much sun and it gets unbearably hot, and also when it rains too much or when it is cold. But, she said, no one grumbles when the moon shines. Everyone becomes happy and appreciates the moon in their own special way. Children watch their shadows and play in its light, people gather at the square to tell stories and dance through the night. A lot of happy things happen when the moon shines. These are some of the reasons why we should want to be like the moon.
I strongly recommend this book as required reading for anyone who would dare to glorify war. The unspeakable tragedies that it documents reveals war in all of its mindless madness.