-
1 of 10
-
2 of 10
-
3 of 10
-
4 of 10
-
5 of 10
-
6 of 10
-
7 of 10
-
8 of 10
-
9 of 10
-
10 of 10
"Today IPTV, tomorrow academic freedom?"
Archive
Comments
Story
Precisely the same body who found Idaho Public Televison’s programming so objectionable for portraying homosexuals as normal human beings controls the purse strings and, therefore the future of this, our, university.
If the intellectual freedom to pursue knowledge, in whatever form or by any method of inquiry, should become abridged or violated at this, our, university, that threat will originate from the same legislative body.
And, if, as students we are not allowed to pursue intellectual freedom, what then becomes of our university? It is a short path from censoring IPTV to censoring our intellectual product. If, in the interest of saving our souls it becomes necessary to chain our minds to the whim of a legislative body, what freedom remains?
True enough, money rules what does or does not occur at our university. With that in hand, the University serves at the pleasure of the legislative body. Should at some future point the intellectual task of gaining understanding of from whence our species originated and to hence we might arrive challenge the beliefs of that body should we not expect iron budgetary hand to throttle the objectionable sinner?
The short list of possibly objectionable subject manner would include: any examination of dominant religions, evolution and its sister genetics; any historical subject which does not wrap itself in the flag; calling into question the economic basis for our society; explicating business practices which result in separating the work of labor from the product of that labor; any scholarly examination of the notion of family and marriage; study of the origins of the universe or conversely the possible future of the universe; and any analysis of the wisdom of the legislative branch.
The safe course lies in insisting as Dr. Pangloss so effectively proved that this is the best of all possible worlds. By extension then should we, for purely financial reasons insist that this is the best of all possible legislative bodies occupied by the best of all possible legislators? Nuts.