Roger’s Rules » Curiouser and curiouser: a footnote to Yale’s Islamophobia-phobia
* * * UPDATE: a friend who is knowledgeable about this episode makes an insightful observation about Ambassador Negroponte’s intervention: “Negroponte says that he agreed with the University’s decision. That implies that the University had made up its mind in advance of even getting in touch with him. He agreed. He didn’t counsel or persuade. I view this as crucial in establishing that the University did not operate in good faith—that it was NOT interested in the interests of academic freedom, historical truth or fairness. It was interested from the outset entirely in squelching the cartoons because they would damage what the University perceived as its own, corporate (economic) self-interest.
My question then becomes: Why did Yale University Press agree to publish the book in the first place?
If it was such a hot potato they felt it necessary to construct an elaborte Potemkin “advisory” system to support a decision they had already made, why bother? Just reject the manuscript entirely - or don’t write a contract for it to begin with.
One answer might be an attempt to have their cake and eat it too, by publishing the bowdlerized version they appear to be brave, without actually undergoing any risk.
Thus have the Ivory Towers been brought low, by their own greedy, cowardly hands.
Submit to Stumbled Upon!
Sometimes they do this kind of kabuki to fool themselves more than outsiders. With the way things turned out, the Yale folks can chatter amongst themselves about how they are the wise, pragmatic moderates who were brave enough to publish a book about a controversial subject but restrained enough not to offend anybody.
And they’ll never see the contradiction in that position. Because it’s an axiom on the left that you don’t hurt people’s feelings.
Except conservatives, of course. They’re evil, and beyond redemption. But Islamic supremacists are just slightly misguided noble savages who have not yet had the opportunity to engage in dialogue with the left. Can’t start out by offending them!