"Free speech and the first amendment should cover all professors, no matter how repugnant. I think it legitimate to defend Churchill's right to be a vocal asshole (heaven knows most universities are densely populated with such types on both the Right and Left)."
"The American Association of University Professors is rightfully demanding protection of the principle of academic freedom. As we all should. That should not stop any of us from excoriating Churchill and his more than unfortunate views. "
He thinks the left would be idiots to defend Churchill's views, but that free speech should protect his job. And he's right on both counts. I thought those who rushed to blame the US for causing Al Qaeda's attack on 911 were stupid then; it's a formulation that is guaranteed to NOT succeed in communicating what people want to. Even if you believe it, saying it in the way Churchill did is idiotic.
Nathan Newman
----- Original Message ----- From: <philion at stolaf.edu> To: "lbo " <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2005 9:36 PM Subject: [lbo-talk] Marc Cooper's flipping out over Churchill
I'll be kicked off of Marc Cooper's comments board again soon, which as Yoshie reminds me is a most desirable event. It pains Cooper to be reminded of the contradictions in his occasional vitriolic fits of anger he takes at those on the left who disagree with him. In his latest outburst, instead of something more useful, like say a homage to Ossie Davis?, he joins the O'Reilly gang in the attacks on Churchill, declaring, with the usual hyperbole, Churchill to be 'hateful', calling for 'collective punishment', etc. and thus rendering any serious critique of Churchill's arguments pointless.
I reminded his audience of right leaning paranoiacs--with an admixture of a few reasonable liberals and middle of the roader types--that Marc Cooper's own hero Herbert Marcuse was known to make statements not that much different from Churchill's. So what gives? Churchill evil--Marcuse Snow white pure?
>From a summary of Marcuse's orientation:
""In Marcuse's view, the Third Reich was a technocracy, meaning that
technical rationality and the demands of efficiency, along with the
primacy of a "matter-of-factness" mentality generated nonhuman values that
superseded those pertaining to the welfare of the people. Marcuse's
description and analysis of "matter-of-fact" thinking, which he develops
further in a later essay in this volume called "The New German Mentality,"
argues that the technological attitude mediates human thought and
relationships such that human individuality is weakened."
That's Herber Marcuse, the Ward Churchill of the 1960's, Marc Cooper's New Left hero.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~cjscopy/reviews/marcuse1.html
It is odd that none of this vitriol Cooper can direct at the left gets directed at his good buddy Horowitz, who is responsible for conducting a movement to censor professors who dissent from the Party line of empire. Simply a feat of intellectual gymnastics the likes of which few are capable... ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk