[933] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: What is the cost of academic and political freedom?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Wally)
Sun Oct 7 22:30:24 2001
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Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0110071608070.6440-100000@sub-zero.mit.edu>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 16:26:11 -0400
Reply-To: "Documentation at http://web.mit.edu/beland/talk/talk.html"
<MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU>, Wally <wally@SUB-ZERO.MIT.EDU>
From: Wally <wally@SUB-ZERO.MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <200110072001.QAA10008@mindsun.mit.edu>
> 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.
To the contrary: while I'm utterly in favor of free speech, while I think
people should always speak their mind, I also know that the price of our
*very broad* right to to say pretty much what we want is the agreement
that MIT's operation is worth supporting. I'm saying, if you read the rest
of the email I sent, that someone needs to speak up against injustice, but
it doesn't always have to be you (they wouldn't fire Chomsky for saying
what this chap said).
The Left (inasmuch as one entity exists, going by that name) isn't much
for personal responsibility; you take your life and your job and your
freedom into your own hands with every act. Being brave does *not* mean
being dumb.
> 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...)
Bad rhetoric. Give me a break.
W.
ps. For what it's worth: always work to improve everything. But keep
something like perspective, you see what I'm saying? Don't complain about
The System, I'm saying, change it. Being effective is often more important
than being right. MIT isn't much for breeding revolutionaries, but what
can you do? You don't fix anything by destroying yourself. MIT is clearly
in the wrong, but so is the fellow who's been canned. If MIT's sponsors
can't trust MIT to do what they PAY it for, then we get less money and
privilege to play with -- no more MIT-TALK!! No more institute-sponsored
beer at Crossroads! No more Media Lab lunches! No more fashionable 'Six
Hertz' t-shirts! And we end up somewhere we can talk about Shell and not
about some other motherfuckers.
You gotta trade somethin' for something', hon. Small steps.
