[MD] Are we the people stupid?

[Platt Holden]

Hi All,

>From time to time I have expressed my skepticism of political 
correctness and speech codes so prevalent in today's universities 
because they represent an assault on free speech, the  cornerstone of 
intellectual values. Little did I realize until today that there's more 
to it than simply a ubiquitous social value (let's all be sensitive to 
one another's feelings) asserting itself.

A study reported in the American Sociological Review by Morris 
Rosenberg entitled 'Misanthropy and Political Ideology' formed the 
basis of the following commentary by Frank Furedi in article entitled 
'Confronting the New Misanthropy. 

"Misanthropy has a profound influence on public policy and political 
debate. Back in the Fifties sociological research found that there was 
a clear correlation between how society viewed people and the 
prevailing political attitudes. One study of individuals' views of 
human nature suggested they were shaped by political attitudes in 
general (14). So attitudes towards the democratic ideal of free speech 
are directly influenced by whether we believe people are capable of 
making an intelligent choice between competing views. 'The advocate of 
freedom of speech is likely to believe that most men are not easily 
deceived, are not swayed by uncontrolled emotions, and are capable of 
sound judgement', noted this 1950s study. This implied a high level of 
faith in humanity. In contrast, 'the individual with low faith in 
people tends to believe in suppression of weak, deviant, or dangerous 
groups'. The study concluded that the 'individual's view of human 
nature would appear to have significant implications for the doctrine 
of political liberty' (15). People who viewed human nature positively 
tended to be more tolerant towards free speech and social 
experimentation. People who saw humans as being driven by narrow self-
interest, greed and other destructive passions were inclined to support 
measures that curbed freedom.

"Today, the growth of censorship, the criminalisation of thought by the 
enactment of so-called hate crimes legislation and speech codes, and 
the widespread frowning upon causing offence to individuals and groups 
is underpinned by the idea that people cannot be trusted to make up 
their minds about controversial subjects. Today's censorious imperative 
is driven by a paternalistic and negative view of human nature, and by 
a lack of faith in people's capacity to discriminate between right and 
wrong."

Not trusting the public to make wise and/or moral decisions lies at the 
root of leftists in academe and politics who excoriate free market 
capitalism and indeed democracy itself. How many times have we heard 
that those who elected President Bush are a bunch of boobies, or cited 
the public's gullibility in responding to the siren songs of 
advertisers? 

The origin of putting down of the general public as a mob of yokels who 
need the guidance of their betters can be traced to Pirsig's 
observation:

"When people asked, 'If no culture, including a Victorian culture, can 
say what is right and what is wrong, then how can we ever know what is 
right and what is wrong?' the answer was, 'That's easy. Intellectuals 
will tell you. Intellectuals, unlike members of studiable cultures, 
know what they're talking and writing about, because what they say 
isn't culturally relative. What they say is absolute. This is because 
intellectuals follow science, which is objective. An objective observer 
does not have relative opinions because he is nowhere within the world 
he observes.'" (Lila, 22)

Interesting don't you think?

Best,
Platt

P.S. The article referred to above can be found at: 

http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CB021.htm