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 Saturday December 9, 2017

Free speech conflicts with public health

By Jim Taylor

Conflict has flared in some universities about hearing – or excluding – unpopular viewpoints. Some controversial speakers have been boycotted, some invitations rescinded, some presentations shouted down.

            Recently, universities in Canada have found themselves embroiled in controversy over – of all things – personal pronouns.

            The movement towards inclusive language started in the 1970s. It’s now almost universally accepted that, at least in English, masculine pronouns no longer include the feminine.

            In reality, they never did. The so-called rule about male pronouns including the female was invented by a pedant named John Kirby. He published a prescriptive grammar in 1746, attempting to impose the rigid principles of Latin grammar on ten centuries of undisciplined English.

            Over the last 50 years, the revolt against “he” as the proper generic term for any unidentified person, and against the assumption that “man” includes women and “mankind” describes all humanity, has grown into an irresistible tide. But as always, there are holdouts – people who consider themselves immoveable objects stemming that tide.

Academic controversy

            One of those holdouts, University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson, told the CBC’s Carol Off, “I don't recognize another person's right to decide what words I'm going to use, especially when the words they want me to use…are constructs of a small coterie of ideologically motivated people.”

            Peterson labels some university courses “indoctrination cults.”

            Wilfred Laurier University master’s student Lindsay Shepherd wanted her undergraduate class to think about the use of gender-neutral pronouns. So she showed them a short video clip of Peterson.

            The university first censured her. Then apologized.

            And all kinds of pundits weighed in.

            Harriet Lyons, professor emerita in the University of Waterloo’s anthropology department, took Shepherd’s side: “The answer to the question of free speech is actually pretty simple: if one has a position on a social or intellectual issue, one should have the freedom, at a university, to advance it, in class or published research, using appropriate expertise and respectful language.”

            Rex Murphy, who cannot resist polysyllabic verbiage, fulminated against “politically correct” language: “This is an egregious illustration that some humanities courses at universities function not as educative undertakings, but as commitments to a narrow, predestined ideological viewpoint.”

Wrong focus

            I suggest that they’re all missing the point. They’re assuming this is a philosophical issue, the kind of abstract debate that Aristotle might have enjoyed on the slopes of the Acropolis in Athens.

            It’s not. It’s about health. About our society’s health.

            In health, we don’t debate whether a poison or a disease has a right to exist. We restrict it, isolate it, eradicate it.

            We’ve wiped out smallpox. We’ve almost eliminated polio. We might have ended measles, too, if a few attention-seekers had not exploited freedom of speech to promote irrational fears of vaccines.

            Similarly, we do not let our children play with, say, cyanide. Or plutonium. We don’t let them balance on the railing of a 27th floor balcony. We don’t let them run out into traffic. Because we know those things are dangerous.

            We do not hold public opinion surveys to decide whether I can carry the ebola virus. Or whether I may incinerate hazardous wastes in my back yard. We know the harmful effects of those actions, so we prohibit them. Period.

            Diseases, poisons, and toxins are not optional. One can’t justify them as personal choices.

Insidious poisons

            In the same way, we know that certain viewpoints are dangerous. We have seen the effects of white supremacy in Germany and Africa. We have seen what religious extremism can do in Syria and Iraq.

            We also know that the language we use can have negative effects. If some kinds of language encourage concepts that are harmful to individuals and to society, why would anyone argue that they should be defended?

            I doubt if Professor Peterson would pepper his lectures with words like nigger, gook, chink, jap, or kraut. Or for that matter, with broad, floozy, or nympho. Let alone fairy, faggot, or – well, no, let’s not go there. Because we know how derogatory words can legitimize prejudice.

            As Michael Coren wrote in the Toronto Star, “We have, thank goodness, made enormous progress in expunging some of the worst excesses of social rudeness and abuse from common conversation. This is sometimes tendentiously referred to as political correctness -- but try asking a member of a sexual or ethnic minority what life was like before it.”

            The issue is not about censoring someone’s freedom of speech. It’s about banishing speech that does harm.

            It’s not about personal privilege; it’s about public health.

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Copyright © 2017 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.

            To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

Because of the sheer volume of letters about last week’s column on the implications of the #MeToo hashtag, I’m going to send the letters as a separate mailing in a day or two.

            In the meantime, though, I need to apologize to one writer; I lost her letter. I don’t know where, or how. She wrote about her experience as a teenager, having her breasts stroked by a clothing salesman as she was trying on a coat/scarf. If you’re that writer, could you send that letter again?

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TECHNICAL STUFF

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PROMOTION STUFF…

To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols.

            Ralph Milton ’s latest project is called “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at wwwDOTsinghallelujahDOTca

            Ralph’s HymnSight webpage is still up, http://wwwDOThymnsightDOTca, with a vast gallery of photos you can use to enhance the appearance of the visual images you project for liturgical use (prayers, responses, hymn verses, etc.)

            Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca>

            I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom

            Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawoodATgmailDOTcom to get onto her mailing list.

            Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom or twatsonATsentexDOTnet