Thursday, July 10, 2008
Re: PC is PC is PC [Andrew Stuttaford]
Kathryn, how do you debate someone like the professor? Well, by making a case (and maybe it's just a matter of pointing out the value of good manners) that the communion wafer is a symbol worthy of some respect even to non-believers. On the wider issue, naturally people paying tuition should pay attention to whether they think they are getting value for money, and if they don't think that they are, they should complain, and if that doesn't work (and they care sufficiently strongly) they should certainly take their business elsewhere. Alumni should also think much, much more carefully (hello Duke grads!) about where they give their money. As for Mr. Donahue, he is indeed a skilled advocate for his cause, and he's fully entitled to say what he does. Nevertheless, we should be clear that, one way or another, he is in the business of shutting down what he sees as blasphemy. In so doing he creates a space for other even more doctrinaire types, the types, say, that get worked up about what they consider to be, by their definition, 'blasphemous' cartoons, to insist that their sensibilities too should be cossetted, protected, and catered to.
07/10 12:49 PM
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