[926] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: What is the cost of academic and political freedom?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Paul D Elbourne)
Sun Oct 7 16:03:01 2001
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Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 16:01:34 -0400
Reply-To: "Documentation at http://web.mit.edu/beland/talk/talk.html"
<MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU>, Paul D Elbourne <elbourne@MIT.EDU>
From: Paul D Elbourne <elbourne@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 07 Oct 2001 14:40:52 EDT."
<Pine.LNX.4.21.0110071434410.6117-100000@sub-zero.mit.edu>
wally@sub-zero.mit.edu said:
> but whining about oppression of our freedoms by MIT is like saying
> that McDonald's is fucking the consumer by not serving filet mignon.
> You and your fellow students/faculty/staff are freer to speak here
> than most anywhere else in America, to say nothing of (I choose my
> example partly to irk) Taliban-controlled Afghanistan or heroically
> Communist Cuba.
If, like the drafters of the First Amendment, you think that the right to
freedom of speech is a good thing, you should be keen to defend that right
even in cases where the level of censorship does not reach that experienced in
Afghanistan or Cuba. Your examples are only irksome because of their
spectacular irrelevancy.
Or are you saying that we shouldn't bother to improve conditions on America's
campuses, or in the country as a whole, until things become as bad as
Afghanistan? Just don't become a Supreme Court judge, that's all I ask. Or,
come to think of it, a member of MIT's administration. (Now, now, freshmen --
don't remove your burkas. 100 lashes in Killian Court for anyone who complains
about Aramark food...)
-- Paul
