I'd be cautious of denying anyone who feels physically unsafe access to security and I am suspicious of reverse discrimination claims. I think professors should do what they can to support anyone that might feel or be perceived as vulnerable when they thoughtfully defend minority (either unpopular or culturally minority) views. Professors should put the most effort into scrutinizing the conventional wisdom and even their own curriculum. Other than that, the direct appeal to authority figures to manage conflict doesn't scale. On campus or at the workplace that leads to the proliferation of crybabies who don't know how to win, retreat from, or refine arguments.
As far as `social justice' training goes, to paraphrase Mrs. Clinton, I'd say there are indeed a class of people that are deplorable (or stupid) and won't (or can't) change how they think. All you can do is train them to behave a certain way and punish them if they don't comply. Sexual harassment training is in this category. It's annoying it is necessary, but unfortunately it is necessary. I think there's a deeper misunderstanding about the functions of universities. Doing research is about falsification, activism through the academy is about bringing that knowledge to a wider audience beyond campus, and education is significantly about making students navigate a complex hierarchical social system so that they can be good little workers. It is amazing that these things can coexist at all. As far as the proliferation of the left at universities, to the extent that's true, it is just because liberals tend to like novel things (e.g. multiculturalism) more than stable things and a university is a good fit for them. Marcus ________________________________ From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> on behalf of Eric Charles <eric.phillip.char...@gmail.com> Sent: Monday, December 5, 2016 8:33:47 AM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: [FRIAM] Truth vs. Social Justice on college campuses Seems like the type of thing this group likes to digest. (Note, there is an outline of the talk below the video, so you don't need to watch anything.) http://heterodoxacademy.org/2016/10/21/one-telos-truth-or-social-justice/ The argument is that Universities have put themselves in a bind, because you cannot be fully dedicated to both "the truth" and "social justice". This is not at all to say that students should be discouraged from working towards social-justice causes, but rather that the colleges must reassert themselves as a space in which, when multiple values collide, "truth" is the fundamental telos. Or, at the least, colleges should explicitly choose one or the other, and be upfront with prospective students about which they have chosen. In summary, Haidt states: "As a social psychologist who studies morality, I have watched these two teloses come into conflict increasingly often during my 30 years in the academy. The conflicts seemed manageable in the 1990s. But the intensity of conflict has grown since then, at the same time as the political diversity of the professoriate was plummeting<http://heterodoxacademy.org/problems/>, and at the same time as American cross-partisan hostility was rising<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/01/07/the-top-10-reasons-american-politics-are-worse-than-ever/>. I believe the conflict reached its boiling point in the fall of 2015 when student protesters at 80 universities demanded<http://www.thedemands.org/> that their universities make much greater and more explicit commitments to social justice, often including mandatory courses and training for everyone in social justice perspectives and content. Now that many university presidents have agreed to implement many of the demands, I believe that the conflict between truth and social justice is likely to become unmanageable. Universities will have to choose, and be explicit about their choice, so that potential students and faculty recruits can make an informed choice. Universities that try to honor both will face increasing incoherence and internal conflict." ----------- Eric P. Charles, Ph.D. Supervisory Survey Statistician U.S. Marine Corps <mailto:echar...@american.edu>
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