Academic institution are Sacred Temples of Knowledge...
They provide knowledge to the next generation of leaders. They provide the world next generation of leaders. So tempering with them and restricting the free flow of ideas and debate...and knowledge is a sin against humanity...
Academic institutions should tolerate ALL ideas and open up the discussion wider... Book burning is academic sin, restricting ideas in any shape or form is nascent and budding fascism NO MATTER WHAT THE MOTIVES ARE...
If we cannot talk and discuss and debate ideas in a civilized manner, then we are opening the doors for dictatorship of some ideas and may be usher in political dictatorship too...
Here are examples...
1. Attack on Classics
Recently a new initiative has started which will demand "trigger warnings" for books of all kinds which portray violent incidents...They mention two examples - Ovid's Metamorphosis and Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus...
Granted both contain violent scenes...But both are classics of human literature.
I am sure that university students reading these or similar books will be mature enough not to be traumatized by the violent scenes. Also, every book has a synopsis of some sort on one of the cover pages or in the preface...Why initiated tagging books and loading them with warnings...?
I think the initiative is ill advised and will be a sort of academic censorship...Which will be a slippery slopes of all kinds...which we have to avoid.
We should free academia of "trigger warnings" of trigger happy students, academics and faculty...Let academia and academic institutions breath freely and not be polluted with +trigger warnings".
2. Attack on Academia
He called the controversy over a planned speaker sad and troubling.
In Haverford College, Smith College and Rutgers University students and some members of faculty protested against an invited speaker...at the graduation. So the invited speakers withdrew...
This is not a good way to debate...Forcing ideas on others is not proper and we should not condone it...
I am for freedom of ideas and freedom of speech and freedom of association...Restrictions herald creeping dictatorship...
I agree that Condoleezza Rice was a leading war advocate in the Bush administration...So let us debate her ideas...and enlighten ourselves and fight against all war advocates...and promote peace.
Christine Lagarde as the leader of International Monetary Fund (IMF) can be criticized and there is a valid critique of its policies...that it actually harms poor countries with the economic regime that IMP imposes on those countries...So let us debate end discuss and attempt to change the economic policies of the IMF...
Another invited speaker was Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. Under his leadership University of California at Berkeley handled the "Occupy" Protesters extremely violently...So let us debate his methods and expose his violent methods...
All three of the leaders cancelled their commencement addresses...and we are poorer for that...We lost opportunities to debate and the student protesters acted very similar to these leaders...They imposed their whims and opinions on others...
Academic freedom and human dignity demand free exchange of ideas...
...And this...
Harvard allows but the Student group succumbs to pressure and de-sponsors a Satanic worship...
They kicked the students and promoters out of the campus...Here Harvard students sponsoring
the event succumbed to organized religion and kicked the Satanic people off campus...
This is not a good way to debate and sanctify the campus...Let those who object organize their religious ceremonies too...Let the students have a choice...Let them choose and let them debate...Education fundamentally means free choice of ideas and free expression of opinions...
Galileo...was banned to promote his ideas by the organized church...
At one time the public was banned to read the Bible...by the organized church...
The Jihadists Islamic extremists burn books...
The Jihadist Islamic extremists ban women to attend schools...
Boris Pasternak was banned to publish Doctor Zhivago in the Soviet Union and Solzhenitsyn could not publish his books in the Soviet Union...
The organized church excommunicates...Jihadists just behead and crucify and mutilate...and now the West and the U.S. are becoming victims of "enlightened" extremists and fanatics...and they attempt to hijack our academic institutions....
Governments and Organized Religion and Bureaucrats running our academics institutions and...students are making...
Mockery of Academic Freedoms...
Yelling at each other is the most ignorant way of debating ideas...In fact it is the animal instincts let loose...
Banning ideas and shouting down opinions is very primitive and undemocratic...
I am sure we can do better...I am sure we can debate in the open and not be afraid of the repercussions...and persecutions...
Let's talk and debate ... and ban wars...
Let us keep the sanctity of our academic institutions...
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