Response to Mark Steyn

Today at Assembly, Exonians had the opportunity to hear from conservative Mark Steyn. While he critiqued partisanship and said he had problems with both parties, he only mentioned what Obama has done to increase the debt and not what Bush did before him to exacerbate the problem. Steyn was correct in introducing himself as a de-motivational speaker. His speech focused on self-indulgence in society, how education is overrated, the debt, and multiculturalism.

In his critique of multiculturalism, he discussed how Muslim morality police are trying to control women in France. While there are downsides to multiculturalism, he ignored the benefits of multiculturalism choosing instead to say that coexist bumper stickers aren’t applicable to real life due to a few isolated problems with multiculturalism. The movement allows integration of different cultures and effectively reduces prejudice. It seems odd to me that Steyn would argue against appreciating other cultures.

Steyn was right in criticizing self-indulgence and overspending by American citizens and their government. I agree with him that prosperity isn’t ensured forever and that his crowd spent our money. He seemed a bit confused though by Obama’s promise to Joe the Plumber to redistribute wealth. This had nothing to do with taking money from the future and using it for the present. Obama cut taxes for the majority of Americans. It seems disingenuous to me for Steyn to say that Obama’s redistribution of wealth has nothing to do with the Robin Hood model of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor.

His critique of higher education was spurious and based on the idea that people with low level educations achieved a lot after World War II. This model simply doesn’t apply nowadays though given the necessity of at least a high school diploma to find any sort of work in the US. Steyn critiqued world poverty and saving the planet as overly lofty causes, but isn’t reducing the debt an equally lofty cause? Besides, just because a cause is lofty doesn’t make it not worth fighting for.

Steyn was downright apocalyptic in the closing parts of his speech, saying that America is doomed. He predicted total societal collapse because of the debt. This idea is more than a little alarmist. Every generation faces great problems. The Greatest Generation faced World War II, the Baby Boomers were up against Vietnam, and now we face the debt. That doesn’t mean we’re on the brink of societal collapse.

The Perils of Political Correctness

Previously published in The Exonian

On January 6^th before a Republican Club meeting, Dr. Philip Tisdall made a comment to the Multicultural Affairs intern that the intern found racially offensive. By January 15^th, the remark had been reported to the administration and Dr. Tisdall, the guiding force behind the club, had been banned from campus. The fact that it was an uncalculated remark made about the “nice rhythm” in the intern’s voice, according to Upper Dean Walsh (the sole witness to the event), is important, but is not the crux of the issue. While it was, at worst, a mildly offensive remark, the more important lesson to take away from this situation is that you should try really hard not to offend anybody at all, or you might get kicked off of campus. This is political correctness taken to a new extreme here at the Academy.

While a comparable penalty exists for hazing, which the E-Book defines in part as an action with the “result of embarrassment, disturbance, or humiliation,” the Discipline Process provides the opportunity for a thorough investigation of the incident, and includes advocacy for the student by representatives from the groups that would be affected by the student’s requirement to withdraw, including the student themselves. In the case of Dr. Tisdall’s expulsion from campus, this process was minimal. To say that a single unfortunate—but by no means egregious—comment outweighs his six years of mentorship to students at the Academy is irresponsible and shows little compassion for the many students that have learned and grown because of him, quite apart from diminishing the voice of another minority group on campus that deserves the Academy’s respect: Republicans.

The response to a comment that Sarah Palin made in the days after the Tucson Tragedy, in which she used the term “blood libel” to label the accusations that gun metaphors that she and other Tea Party politicians caused Jared Loughner’s shooting spree, provide another example of the perils of political correctness. I am no Sarah Palin fan, but while using the term may have been a bad decision, it is hardly worse than some articles I have seen that claim that Chicago Bears’ Quarterback Jay Cutler is being “crucified” by fans for his decision to leave this Sunday’s NFC Championship game because of injury. Indeed, Palin’s comment is much more appropriate as she is being accused of causing the death of six innocent people. No, she is not a Jewish woman being accused of murdering Christian kids and draining their blood to make matzah, which is the historical origin of the term “blood libel”, but neither is Jay Cutler actually being nailed to a cross. They are figures of speech and should be taken as such.

Political correctness is the antithesis of much that Exeter claims to stand for. The Harkness method succeeds when it fosters an environment of open, honest communication. When students are unable to speak their mind because of fear of reprisal from their peers, many of the best insights are left unsaid, which ends up hurting everybody. Academia itself relies on the ability of professors and students to expand their intellectual horizons without restrictions on what they can study or publish. Unpopular views are often the ones that turn out to be right in the long run, and should be protected, except in cases of outrageous offense or inappropriateness. Dr. Tisdall’s views, along with the views of many in Republican Club, may be unpopular in this liberal institution, but they, along with Dr. Tisdall himself, deserve a place here at the Academy. Out-of-control political correctness does not.