Re: [PEN-L] Churchill Fallout: It’s About Academic Freedom

[Gar Lipow <gar.lipow@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 5/26/06, Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I'm utterly uninterested in the details of the case because, from the
> viewpoint of either academic freedom or left politics those details are
> irrelevant.
>
> Here is the principle that the case establishes, and it is a vicious
> principle:
>
> The _origin_ of an investigation, no matter how illegitimate, no matter
> how poisonous and contrary to all concepts of academic freedom, is
> irrelevant.
>
> That is the line we have to defend. No Academic investigations triggered
> by outside political interference.
>
> I am somewhat ashamed of the posters on this list and on lbo-talk who
> have utterly ignored the poisoned roots of this investigation and have
> contented themselves with the details of the investigation itself. But
> those details should be thrown out as irrelevant by anyone who believes
> in academic freedom. They should be thrown out particularly by anyone
> who accepts the liberal emphasis on procedural legitimacy. The
> procedures in this case were an outrage from the beginning.
>
> Carrol

Except you were replying to my post and that is what I thought I was
saying - that regardless of details of the charge the timing made it
an attack on academic freedom.   You seem to  be attacking me for
agreeing with you.