The Campus Culture Wars in Two Videos

Two weeks ago, I was working as a staff member at a Buddhist retreat in New York City. On the way to lunch, I was discussing with our instructor for the weekend the passions and anger often ignited when fighting for free speech on campus. He was surprised to hear that sometimes my work is poorly received by my fellow New Yorkers. In his words, "everyone must just assume you're a white hat," meaning the good guy in a Western movie. (Not much a Western fan myself, I needed that one explained.) But I told him that was not always the case. In fighting free speech battles on campus, I have been caught up on the front lines of our country's bizarre and cantankerous culture wars. I have found that if I'm doing my job correctly, someone is always angry at me for something.

Let's take two examples.

First, watch this video. It involves my organization's (the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)) defense of former Valdosta State University student Hayden Barnes. Barnes is not just a student - he's a decorated Emergency Medical Technician. In other words, he's a "white hat." But when Hayden protested the imminent construction of a $30 million parking garage on campus for environmental reasons, this is what happened:

Everyone seems to "get" this case. It's easy to see why it is outrageous, and the patent absurdity of quarantining free speech to a single stage for two hours a day is readily apparent. That's a good thing. If folks didn't get the problem with Hayden's treatment, I would be seriously worried for the Republic.

But take a look at this video:

As the video makes clear, the issue here was the violation of freedom of conscience promulgated by the shockingly unconstitutional program (actually called a "treatment" in their own materials) imposed upon all 7,000 students in the University of Delaware dormitories. The program's many objectionable aspects include compelled speech, invasion of privacy, a speech code, mandatory pseudo-psychological counseling, and mandatory activities designed to out and ostracize people with the "wrong" political points of view. You can read even more about the University of Delaware's stunning Residence Life program in my colleague Adam Kissel's article "Please Report to Your Resident Assistant to Discuss Your Sexual Identity--It's Mandatory!," which won first prize this year from the Education Writers Association in the "Magazines" category.

Disappointingly, when FIRE brought this crazy program to the world's attention, some people scrambled to defend it, dismiss it, or pretend it was some other kind of program entirely. It was amazing--and depressing--to watch. The arguments (at least the ones worth repeating) were along the lines of But it was implemented with noble intentions!

This is something that I think people rarely understand when it comes to invasions of basic rights, particularly censorship: it's almost always done by someone who thinks they are, to a greater or lesser degree, saving the world, their country, or humanity's eternal soul. The Victorians thought they were saving us from damnation, the hawks of the red scares thought they were saving us from revolution and then, later, nuclear annihilation, and even the Senators who investigated the comic book industry in the 1950s thought they were saving the psyches of a whole generation. Indeed, it seems that someone in every generation of Americans comes up with their own argument or cause that they believe is so important that the Bill of Rights should not stand in its way. Fortunately, our history has shown the wisdom of not giving in to those impulses.

Attempts to achieve liberal ends by illiberal means often do--and, indeed, should--meet with failure. Far from encouraging tolerance, as was presumably the intent, the program at the University of Delaware engendered resistance, resentment and distrust. But even if the program was "successful" in some way, it still would have been hostile to the basic moral ground rules of our society: you can disagree, you can argue, but you cannot coercively use power to make your fellow citizens adopt your worldview.

This should be obvious, but in the culture wars many of us tend to break down the world to an "us versus them" dichotomy, with anything used to attack "them" being, at the very least, "understandable." I spoke at the University of Delaware shortly after the school abandoned this invasive program and some resident assistants were absolutely furious, despite my attempts to explain that nobody should want to live in a country where agents of the state have the power to quiz you on sexual identity and practices or political beliefs with the goal of browbeating you into changing them. I tried to explain that just a few decades ago, such a program would doubtless have been used to rout out suspected homosexuals and communists. But having once again given in to the passions ignited by the culture wars, those who truly believed in this program wanted to hear none of it. That is why you can rest assured that this is not the last time we will see resident life officials taking it upon themselves to turn the dormitories into reeducation centers.

I have much more to say from my peculiar vantage point for the culture wars, but I will save that for future posts.

Comments

[SemperLiberi]

FIRE is one of the very few (if not only) groups working to protect free speech on our college campuses. Contrary to the belief in some circles, FIRE is NOT a right wing organization, they truly support everyone's First Amendment rights regardless of political perspective.

[llcooll]

Wow, that is crazy. It's unbelievable the amount of effort they spent on creating this program. To think that these people could be so clueless and yet be in a position of such power over students is really scary. Keep up the good work, Greg.

[Artotraveler]

Higher education mandatory pseudo-psy­chological counseling is religious discrimination back by the notorious NCHERM and behavioral intervention themes. Psychology, not to be confused with medical psychiatry, is a belief just like Buddhism; however psychology is less than 100 years old founded by a cocaine addict, rejects 2000 years of Asian logic, has failed miserably in America as a social cure-all, and made billions for big pharmaceutical on designer drugs that create more side effects than they cure. The bigger disaster is to come as the American populace is now divided in a near civil war between government employees screened by this bizarre belief, and the segregation of private citizens as behavioral problems. Government employees are immune from prosecution while private citizens are behavioral case studies and wards of the state supervised by social workers that destroy families and criminalize those in need.

[LeftRight]

The best movie quote of all time comes from "The American President" with Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepard:

"America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest."

While I don't like to hear the opposing viewpoint (sad to say that about myself, but I like being honest....) I have a very simple solution: I DON'T LISTEN! I'm so tired of those who would stop an opposing viewpoint, or an offensive piece of art, or (heaven forbid!!) a bare nip-ple in the middle of the Superbowl just because they don't like it! You don't like it, TOUGH, just don't pay attention!