{"id":212,"date":"2017-02-22T19:15:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T00:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/?p=212"},"modified":"2017-02-22T19:15:52","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T00:15:52","slug":"the-importance-of-freedom-of-ideas-and-the-expression-of-them-on-american-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/212","title":{"rendered":"The Importance Of Freedom Of Ideas And The Expression Of Them On American Universities…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following is an excerpt from a speech\u00a0John Etchemendy<\/a> made before the Stanford Board of Trustees. Etchemendy is the former Provost. His views ought to be listened to because academic political correctness, which is what he is talking about, does the student, our society and our democratic republic no good.<\/p>\n

Institutions of higher learning should encourage different viewpoints to be considered and debated. Even ones the institution’s administration finds disagreeable. Censorship of ideas or people\u00a0because of\u00a0pressure by peers\u00a0is never a good and it\u00a0and almost always\u00a0ends badly.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m actually more worried about the threat from within. Over the years, I have watched a growing intolerance at universities in this country \u2013 not intolerance along racial or ethnic or gender lines \u2013 there, we have made laudable progress. Rather, a kind of intellectual intolerance, a political one-sidedness, that is the antithesis of what universities should stand for. It manifests itself in many ways: in the intellectual monocultures that have taken over certain disciplines; in the demands to disinvite speakers and outlaw groups whose views we find offensive; in constant calls for the university itself to take political stands. We decry certain news outlets as echo chambers, while we fail to notice the echo chamber we\u2019ve built around ourselves.<\/p>\n

This results in a kind of intellectual blindness that will, in the long run, be more damaging to universities than cuts in federal funding or ill-conceived constraints on immigration. It will be more damaging because we won\u2019t even see it: We will write off those with opposing views as evil or ignorant or stupid, rather than as interlocutors worthy of consideration. We succumb to the all-purpose ad hominem<\/em><\/strong> because it is easier and more comforting than rational argument. But when we do, we abandon what is great about this institution we serve.<\/p>\n

It will not be easy to resist this current. As an institution, we are continually pressed by faculty and students to take political stands, and any failure to do so is perceived as a lack of courage. But at universities today, the easiest thing to do is to succumb to that pressure. What requires real courage is to resist it. Yet when those making the demands can only imagine ignorance and stupidity on the other side, any resistance will be similarly impugned.<\/p>\n

The university is not a megaphone to amplify this or that political view, and when it does it violates a core mission. Universities must remain open forums for contentious debate, and they cannot do so while officially espousing one side of that debate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read entire talk HERE<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following is an excerpt from a speech\u00a0John Etchemendy made before the Stanford Board of Trustees. Etchemendy is the former Provost. His views ought to be listened to because academic political correctness, which is what he is talking about, does the student, our society and our democratic republic no good. Institutions of higher learning should encourage … Continue reading The Importance Of Freedom Of Ideas And The Expression Of Them On American Universities…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-philisophy","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ovtF-3q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":268,"url":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/268","url_meta":{"origin":212,"position":0},"title":"DeVos’ Post Meeting Statement After Hearing Black College and University Leaders…","author":"Les","date":"February 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Statement from Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos Following Listening Session with Historically Black College and University Leaders February 28, 2017 Contact:\u00a0\u00a0 Press Office, (202) 401-1576, press@ed.gov Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos released the following statement after meeting with presidents and chancellors of Historically Black Colleges and Universities at the White\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/education"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":436,"url":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/436","url_meta":{"origin":212,"position":1},"title":"The Repentant Glenn Beck…","author":"Les","date":"March 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Many say a leopard can't change his spots. 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The problem for conservatives is that the movement is directly connected to the major right-wing news outlet Breitbart.com; its former executive chairman,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Government"","block_context":{"text":"Government","link":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/government"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":270,"url":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/270","url_meta":{"origin":212,"position":3},"title":"Just As We Thought, Sessions On he Move… Watch Prison Population Rise…","author":"Les","date":"February 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Red alert. AG Sessions signals return to tougher stance on crime, including federal marijuana laws. Can you see the WOC (war on crime) and the\u00a0WOD (war on drugs) again rapidly escalating\u00a0an already ridiculously high prison population? Must be the good old USA\u00a0has the\u00a0highest criminal\u00a0citizenry in the world. Or, maybe we're\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime\/Law Enforcement"","block_context":{"text":"Crime\/Law Enforcement","link":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/crimelaw-enforcement"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":230,"url":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/230","url_meta":{"origin":212,"position":4},"title":"Sweeden Pushing The Envolope On Novel…","author":"Les","date":"February 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A local official in Sweden has a novel proposal to improve work-life balance and lift the local birthrate: give municipal employees an hourlong paid break each week to go home and have sex. Sweden is already celebrated for its generous welfare state, including 480 days of paid parental leave, universal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Novel Ideas"","block_context":{"text":"Novel Ideas","link":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/novel-ideas"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214,"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rationalnationusa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}