Free Speech on Campus? It Happened Again!

This really needs to stop.

Charles Murray, a controversial libertarian scholar, was heckled off the stage at Middlebury College. The moderator, a liberal professor who wanted to encourage dialogue, was physically attacked. The protestors stopped Murray from speaking, but they also cast discredit on themselves and on other liberals. Shame on them. Also, their protest was counter-productive, in that they gave more publicity to Murray's controversial opinions.

Middlebury College, via Wikimedia

The country thrives when people hear multiple political opinions. The way to discourage a speaker's wrong opinions is to give a better speech refuting those opinions. That, and not heckling or violence, is the academic way to deal with the opinions that you do not like. Disruption and violence prevent dialogue. Furthermore, when people like Murray express their opinions openly, this gives audiences a chance to hear what they actually say. If reasonable people want to disagree with Murray, they must first know what he actually believes. As it is, reasonable persons only heard that Murray was not allowed to speak.

By the way, I recently read Murray's book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. The book is controversial. Murray's opinions are similarly controversial, and some of his conclusions strike me as outrageous non sequiturs. All the same, he has a lot to say on many subjects. He offers substantial research to support his opinions. His work is worth learning about. Shouting him down does not refute his ideas. Actually, I plan to cite Coming Apart, as well as other sources giving different perspectives about American culture, in a book that I am writing this spring.

There is no need to shelter college students from controversial opinions. It is healthy for college students to be exposed to multiple views, including views that other students think are extreme. Let everyone be heard.

By the way, good for Middlebury College! They gave their students a chance to hear an important scholar explain unpopular opinions. It's too bad that there were people in the crowd who didn't want to hear.