Monday, November 11, 2002
"If it were a white guy, it'd be hate speech"
Preface: I posted this to the listserv in reply to a very offensive email from a faculty member on the list. I asked but was refused permission to quote it. I have used one quote anyway, and if you think that's unethical then I ask that you see it as necessary to keeping the integrity of the post. I have removed the name of the faculty member.
When Mussolini, syndicalist-turned-fascist, took over in 1922, the people in Florence shuttered the entire city. Signs out front read, �Closed for Mourning� (if my Italian is any good, �bloccato por compianto�). They are at it again over the weekend in Florence, where the city hosted an anti-globalization rally this weekend. {The connection was pointed out by Dagger in Hand.}
I am stunned that the campus list falls to silence when the new comprachicos (the old characterized in Victor Hugo�s, The Man Who Laughs) in our midst expose themselves. We now have someone saying that it is okay to racially profile whites, and nobody raises their voice. We have someone who says in his classes: �Trust is a potent weapon often deployed by predators of hate and violence in our society. My students are shocked at first, as apparently some few members of this listserv, when I first make this claim, but twenty minutes later they are able to understand the basic point, with discussions such as the following�� and then proceeds to encourage students to deny their desire for concepts. The education described in {this faculty member's} post is anti-conceptual. It is against reason. Students are getting college credit for learning to distrust a group based on their race.
And you, my friends, remain silent.
The sermon at my church this week was on diversity. The pastor read from I Corinthians 12:
12:4 Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. 12:5 And there are different ministries, but the same Lord. 12:6 And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. 12:7 To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all. 12:8 For one is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, and another the message of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 12:9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 12:10 to another performance of miracles, to another prophecy, and to another discernment of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. 12:11 It is one and the same Spirit, distributing to each person as he decides, who produces all these things.
This is the diversity I have supported. The freedom to be who you are. The right. As Leonard Read wrote in Anything That�s Peaceful, rights can only come from two places, the State or God. It is the State that supported slavery, the State that supported concentration camps. The Khmer Rouge was the State; so too Idi Amin, Stalin, Mao. If my rights are guaranteed by the State, if my ideology is godless, then what protection do I have from the new comprachicos who engage in the mental deformation of our students? Who teach distrust?
And where is your voice? They will take your silence for assent. They will instill fear in you and then use your silence as support for their actions.
Until such time as others participate on this list, I will reserve commentary to the blog. Further posts from me are not helpful to anything except those who want to hide behind their silence. Anything anyone posts here from now on will be put to the blog unless you send a specific request to us asking not to be quoted. My email and all future email will carry the black ribbon to commemorate the death of reason on this campus. Unless you help, it will die without a fight.
If you haven�t time to write, if you haven�t the patience to debate those who deny reason, I suggest a simple posting to every offensive post from the new comprachicos. Simply cut and paste this below.
CLOSED FOR MOURNING
Let them know you don�t support them, for right now they assume you do.
Preface: I posted this to the listserv in reply to a very offensive email from a faculty member on the list. I asked but was refused permission to quote it. I have used one quote anyway, and if you think that's unethical then I ask that you see it as necessary to keeping the integrity of the post. I have removed the name of the faculty member.
When Mussolini, syndicalist-turned-fascist, took over in 1922, the people in Florence shuttered the entire city. Signs out front read, �Closed for Mourning� (if my Italian is any good, �bloccato por compianto�). They are at it again over the weekend in Florence, where the city hosted an anti-globalization rally this weekend. {The connection was pointed out by Dagger in Hand.}
I am stunned that the campus list falls to silence when the new comprachicos (the old characterized in Victor Hugo�s, The Man Who Laughs) in our midst expose themselves. We now have someone saying that it is okay to racially profile whites, and nobody raises their voice. We have someone who says in his classes: �Trust is a potent weapon often deployed by predators of hate and violence in our society. My students are shocked at first, as apparently some few members of this listserv, when I first make this claim, but twenty minutes later they are able to understand the basic point, with discussions such as the following�� and then proceeds to encourage students to deny their desire for concepts. The education described in {this faculty member's} post is anti-conceptual. It is against reason. Students are getting college credit for learning to distrust a group based on their race.
And you, my friends, remain silent.
The sermon at my church this week was on diversity. The pastor read from I Corinthians 12:
12:4 Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. 12:5 And there are different ministries, but the same Lord. 12:6 And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. 12:7 To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all. 12:8 For one is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, and another the message of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 12:9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 12:10 to another performance of miracles, to another prophecy, and to another discernment of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. 12:11 It is one and the same Spirit, distributing to each person as he decides, who produces all these things.
This is the diversity I have supported. The freedom to be who you are. The right. As Leonard Read wrote in Anything That�s Peaceful, rights can only come from two places, the State or God. It is the State that supported slavery, the State that supported concentration camps. The Khmer Rouge was the State; so too Idi Amin, Stalin, Mao. If my rights are guaranteed by the State, if my ideology is godless, then what protection do I have from the new comprachicos who engage in the mental deformation of our students? Who teach distrust?
And where is your voice? They will take your silence for assent. They will instill fear in you and then use your silence as support for their actions.
Until such time as others participate on this list, I will reserve commentary to the blog. Further posts from me are not helpful to anything except those who want to hide behind their silence. Anything anyone posts here from now on will be put to the blog unless you send a specific request to us asking not to be quoted. My email and all future email will carry the black ribbon to commemorate the death of reason on this campus. Unless you help, it will die without a fight.
If you haven�t time to write, if you haven�t the patience to debate those who deny reason, I suggest a simple posting to every offensive post from the new comprachicos. Simply cut and paste this below.
CLOSED FOR MOURNING
Let them know you don�t support them, for right now they assume you do.
