Jordan Peterson and Education, The School Run

                                 Debate and Education

Students, Cherith McKinstry (1928-2004)

Photo Credit: Queen's University Belfast [CC BY-NC-ND]

The psychology professor and bestselling author Jordan Peterson has, in the way of things, had an offer of a visiting fellowship at Cambridge University withdrawn after the usual protests against his opinions, which are centre-Right to far-Right depending on your own opinions.

…What has Peterson done, beyond being angry and weird and selling lobster-themed leggings and self-help books on his website?

In a liberal democracy…you debate, and you either win or lose that debate. It isn’t painless, listening to people who misunderstand or, or even hate you, but it is necessary…Abolish the debate and, eventually, you abolish the democracy and summon a short road to hell.

…Free speech is a universal gift. You give it to your enemy, and he gives it to you. I cannot believe that the students of Cambridge do not know this. People must be heard even when they are wrong, because it is right to do so, and because without it, we will burn.

This view is not fashionable. The following have been no-platformed (or what I prefer to call “banned”, because platform is not a verb unless you are illiterate): the feminists Julie Bindel and Germaine Greer for transphobia; the gay rights activist Peter Tatchell for transphobia, and also racism; various pro-Life activists.

Recently, at Harvard, there were calls for Ronald S Sullivan Jnr, a black professor, to be sacked because he is on Harvey Weinstein’s defence team. Do people really believe that the presumption of innocence does not matter? Do they consider Weinstein so deadly that they would tear down this presumption to get him? Can they not see how stupid that is?

(Tanya Gold, The Sunday Telegraph, 2019)

Common sense, Tanya, common sense. 

*Melanie Phillips in The Times, 2019 adds her thoughts on this matter.

…This affair is merely the latest example of universities becoming unsafe spaces for people falling foul of ideological orthodoxies or the terror of provoking those who enforce them.

…The university is increasingly being turned from the crucible of ideas, argument and debate into a vehicle for the suppression of ideas, the enforcement of dogma and witch hunts against dissenters.

…As the philosopher Sir Roger Scruton wrote in 2010: “What is expected of the student in many courses in the humanities and social sciences is ideological conformity, rather than critical appraisal, and censorship has become accepted as a legitimate part of the academic way of life.”

Critical appraisal should be the lifeblood of not only the humanities and social sciences. It should be applied to any and all ideologies whether they are political, social or religious.

The School Run and Climate Change

Here in London at least half the rush-hour traffic is “the school run”. If all those kids marching against climate change told their parents they wanted to walk to school, that would be a start.

(David Reed, London, The Guardian, 18.3.2019)

Walk, take the bus, metro or train. In Tokyo, under sevens navigate the public transport network by themselves.