[1491] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: Fwd: party in the hiz-ouse
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Brian T. Sniffen)
Wed Oct 8 12:36:47 2003
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 11:34:46 -0400
From: "Brian T. Sniffen" <bts@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <KHEOLPFBOLHMGOODAKKJOEIJDCAA.jbelcher@ceci.mit.edu> (John
Belcher's message of "Tue, 7 Oct 2003 16:14:37 -0000")
"John Belcher" <jbelcher@ceci.mit.edu> writes:
> I am curious (being old and generationally challenged)
> how the boston globe article on
> the talk show comments about metco (reproduced below) is viewed on
> the scale of this incident. I think what vest is saying is exactly what
> Metco executive director Jean McGuire is sayihng, to quote
>
> "That's what's wrong. There's no one who says, `Who are you kidding? You
> need to
> shut up. You can't talk like that,' "
I think part of the difference between your generation and ours is
that while we've never been threatened with being disappeared into a
bayou -- and most of us have never been threatened with physical
violence for political reasons -- we are regularly threatened with
suppression for political reasons.
I would be shocked if any student expected this incident to evolve
into any form of violence, either mob rioting or authoritarian
menacing. But what I already see is the discourse moving from "That
was in bad taste. They shouldn't have said that," which I think is
generally agreed to be true, to "They shouldn't be allowed to say
things like that. They should be punished for having said that."
Social censure for the tastelessness of the organizers is one thing,
and is an appropriate response. Use of Institute authority to condemn
them or exact punishment is rather different, and inappropriate.
So who are you kidding? You need to stop interfering: you can't stop
people from talking. But you can talk as much as you like, too.
-Brian
--
Brian T. Sniffen bts@alum.mit.edu
http://www.evenmere.org/~bts/
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