Hiding
Weakness Through Speech Codes
GrassTopsUSA Exclusive Commentary
By Gennady Stolyarov II
07-20-07
Advocates of
speech codes on most college and university campuses do not seek to
stifle all ideas that could be construed as offensive, and this is a
well-known fact. They only seek to stifle the ideas that the Left
considers offensive, while ideas that offend conservatives,
libertarians, and classical liberals are allowed to be expressed
vehemently and often violently. Calling homosexuality physically
unhealthy – a medical fact – can be censored, but comparing global
warming skeptics to Holocaust deniers is sometimes actively
encouraged.
At first, it may seem that speech codes reveal a certain power
possessed by leftist academia. After all, the Left controls the
administration of many public and private institutions of higher
education throughout the country. Those who violate speech codes are
severely reprimanded. More damagingly, they can be failed in their
classes, expelled, or even sued in court. The tremendous amounts of
resources and activism devoted to supporting the speech codes
suggest that the Left at universities wields vast power, a Draconian
kind of power at that.
But this is only a first impression. In fact, the Left only has a
semblance of power, a veneer beneath which is concealed the most
significant weakness. Indeed, leftist ideas are intellectually
indefensible. They have been debunked time and again through theory
and practice alike.
The colossal failures of communist states wherever they have sprung
up, as well as the morass into which the more heavily regulated
economies of Europe have entered, show with stunning clarity the
utter failures of government economic regulation. America’s greatest
statesmen, many Classical, Neoclassical, and Austrian economists,
and the record of history have been demolishing the case for
government interventionism for centuries. Scientists are
increasingly recognizing the unjustifiable nature of attributing
global warming to manmade causes – as other environmentalist myths
like the harmful nature of the pesticide DDT are steadily becoming
diffused. The “Sexual Revolution” – more accurately, devolution –
has been shown time and again to lead to broken families, ruined
health, frustrated dreams, and a large segment of society for which
nothing matters but sheer hedonistic indulgence. Intellectually, the
Left has failed on all counts; the entirety of its agenda has been
shown in every possible way to be nothing short of catastrophic.
Yet when anybody presents a civil, rational argument showing in one
of a myriad ways the deficiencies of leftist ideas, the Left most
typically does not respond with a civil, rational argument in
return. Some leftists, like Lord John Maynard Keynes, used to do so
over sixty years ago – but even Keynes only wanted government
spending to occupy about 25% of the Gross Domestic Product. Even
Keynes would not have been able to make a persuasive case for
defending the gargantuan government advocated by the Left today;
indeed, he would have been horrified by it.
Instead, when faced with an argument against their beliefs, many
leftists at universities launch into ad hominem attacks or try to
use the administrative powers at their disposal to silence
dissenters through speech codes. If the leftists were confident in
the strength of their ideas, would they need to resort to censorship
in order to defend them? Obviously not! They could simply make their
case civilly and non-coercively, showing what they considered to be
the weaknesses of their opponents’ ideas. They might end up in the
wrong anyway (and I am sure they would), but civil, tolerant
argumentation would at least demonstrate that they thought they had
a fighting chance.
What speech codes demonstrate above all is the great insecurity
which pervades the Left today. Many leftists recognize that if their
ideas were openly challenged on fair terms, they would lose. In
turn, they seek to supplant the power of truth with the power of
compulsion and punishment. These speech code advocates fear that
numerous others might actually be persuaded by opposing views and
thus go as far as possible to prevent those views from ever being
voiced.
However, this tactic of cowering behind the walls of censorship only
delays the inevitable. Intellectually, the Left is dying; it is
steadily spiraling downward into advocacy of ever more bizarre ideas
and lifestyles, none of which are sustainable in the long term – as
they are in direct opposition to the kinds of beliefs and actions
needed to sustain prosperous lives and an advancing society.
Individuals can express their displeasure with the Left’s ideas and
practices using the Internet, and many college and university alumni
throughout the country are rebelling against speech codes and
threatening to withdraw support from schools that impose them.
The weakness of the ideas that speech codes “protect” will soon be
too glaring to be overlooked by any sane individual. At that point,
not even all the censorship in the world would be able to save the
Left from utter collapse.
Gennady Stolyarov II is
Editor-in-Chief of
The Rational Argumentator, a magazine championing the principles
or Reason, Rights, and Progress. His works have been published by
Le Quebecois Libre,
Enter Stage Right Magazine, the
Ludwig von Mises Institute,
Rebirth of Reason, and other organizations. Mr. Stolyarov can be
contacted at
gennadystolyarovii@yahoo.com.
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GrasstopsUSA.com 2007
