Toby Young at ‘The Spectator’ considers the implications for Eton’s educational ethos, as well as for the dismissed Mr Knowland, when the head chooses safety over independent critical thought: As he (Mr Knowland) wrote in his letter, if we prioritise emotional safety over intellectual challenge and censor any views that might make students or teachers […]
The Age Of Cant
Theodore Dalrymple at the City Journal considers the differences between the humbug of cant and hypocrisy, which at least has the saving grace of being the tribute vice pays to virtue, and finds the dominance of cant today is illiberal, anti-intellectual and authoritarian: Leaders in cant are not inquirers after truth but seekers of power, […]
Arts Policy Should Return To Keynes’ Vision
Manick Govinda at SDPtalk argues against an arts policy whose model of artists and cultural institutions is closer to a school teacher whose aim is to ensure the public make ‘the correct’ interpretations; an attitude exemplified in the justifications for delaying the Philip Guston exhibition at the Tate Modern: A recent example concerns the planned […]
Parr For The Course
Graphic designer and photographer Howard Sherwood considers the case of Martin Parr, whose response to accusations of being racist, along with little or no institutional support, has been resignation, public apology and a demand for the offending book to be destroyed. If artistic institutions continue to side with activists, whose demands curtail freedom of artistic […]
On Freedom Of Speech and The Culture Of Offence
Like others before him, in France and elsewhere, Samuel Paty was murdered because he offended. Nico Macdonald at medium.com argues we need to be free to offend and that well-intentioned attempts to protect certain ethnic or religious groups from the feeling of being offended, results in an infantilisation that can be profoundly destructive for everyone: […]
On The Importance Of The Right To Offend
Kenan Malik at the New Humanist argues that the right to offend is necessary for social progress and that those lacking power need freedom of speech more than the powerful themselves. Written in 2014, in the wake of last week’s murder of teacher, Samuel Paty, for having given offence, Malik’s words are more important than […]
John McWhorter on why academics fear for their freedom
A national reckoning on race, John McWorther writes, has brought to the fore a loose but committed assemblage of people given to the idea that social justice must be pursued via attempts to banish from the public sphere, as much as possible, all opinions that they interpret as insufficiently opposed to power differentials. This episode […]
The University of Edinburgh’s crusade against the Enlightenment
Edinburgh University takes yet another step to distance itself from its most important intellectual legacy – the Scottish Enlightenment – as it has decided to rename its David Hume Tower after some students claim that the 18th-century philosopher’s views on race cause them distress. There is little that is exceptional about Hume’s views on race. Like the […]
Kirsty Miller on her now cancelled resignation letter to the British Psychology Society
Psychologist Kirsty Miller found the organisation’s behaviour deeply concerning, and after deliberating for a substantial amount of time, decided to resign. She also wrote a letter explaining her decision to leave — feeling it may be useful for ‘the powers that be’ in the BPS to understand why a member of several decades felt she […]
The Tyranny of Groupthink
“Call it ‘Wokeness’ or ‘Groupthink’”, what we are seeing the spread of a “virus of ideological conformity”, says Josef Joffe. “Goodthink,” to recall Orwell, is the project of a passionate minority privileged not by birth and station, but by achievement, acquired status, and job security afforded by their place in the knowledge economy and the […]