Opinion
Re: Polarized Campus
By Peter F. Cannavò, Associate Professor of Government
February 20, 2015
The Spectator reported the following on February 13: “Almost every copy of Enquiry went missing this week.” This is totally unacceptable. First, some disclaimers: I myself published an article in Enquiry last spring and I do believe that conservative voices have often been marginalized on this campus. Moreover, I have had several of the editors of Enquiry as students (and would welcome them in my classes again) and do not mean any remarks here as a personal attack on them. That said, I have come to find Enquiry’s coverage of certain issues deeply offensive and infuriating. This prompted a letter from me to the Spec in December. I also know that many students regard Enquiry as hate speech, and I am beginning to wonder if the editors are determined to provoke outrage for its own sake.
Yet I make these criticisms to underscore my deeper point: For members of the Hamilton community to confiscate a publication, even if they find its contents repugnant, runs completely counter to principles of free speech and academic freedom and smacks of intolerance and despotism. It may seem quaint to argue that offensive speech should be countered with more speech, but abandonment of this principle sets us on a dangerous path. Today it may be Enquiry, but in the future, it could be another publication with a very different perspective. Indeed, it is not conservatives, but women, people of color and LGBTQ people whose voices have been most frequently silenced in society at large. Furthermore, to try to suppress an offensive publication is generally self-defeating. Censorship turns those it targets into free speech martyrs and makes them more self-assured in their own beliefs. Such suppression of speech also creates a distraction that obscures legitimate concerns that members of the Hamilton community have about Enquiry. Finally, to both the editors of Enquiry and those who confiscated their publication: the polarization on this campus really has to stop.
—Peter F. Cannavò
Associate Professor of Government
Director, Environmental Studies Program