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In Praise of Eccentricity:
Why Authentic Freedom of Speech Benefits All of Us
(according to John Stuart Mill)
2016 LaCroix Lecture, Rockhurst U.
Andy Gustafson, Creighton University

Atlantic Monthly, September 2016
“The Coddling of the American Mind”

Cover Story from Atlantic 9/2016
• “SOMETHING STRANGE IS happening at America’s colleges and universities. A
movement is arising, undirected and driven largely by students, to scrub campuses
clean of words, ideas, and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense.
Last December, Jeannie Suk wrote in an online article for The New Yorker about
law students asking her fellow professors at Harvard not to teach rape law—or, in
one case, even use the word violate (as in “that violates the law”) lest it cause
students distress. In February, Laura Kipnis, a professor at Northwestern University,
wrote an essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education describing a new campus
politics of sexual paranoia—and was then subjected to a long investigation after
students who were offended by the article and by a tweet she’d sent filed Title IX
complaints against her. In June, a professor protecting himself with a pseudonym
wrote an essay for Vox describing how gingerly he now has to teach. “I’m a Liberal
Professor, and My Liberal Students Terrify Me,” the headline said. A number of
popular comedians, including Chris Rock, have stopped performing on college
campuses (see Caitlin Flanagan’s article in this month’s issue). Jerry Seinfeld and
Bill Maher have publicly condemned the oversensitivity of college students, saying
too many of them can’t take a joke.”

What Would John Stuart Mill Say?
What are the proper limits of free speech?

John Stuart Mill On Free Speech
I. Liberty - Society Benefit – Eccentricity
II. Contemporary Concerns about Limits of Liberty
1. University Administration Censorship
2. Students Censorship
3. External parties (alum, government) Censorship
4. Religious
5. Intellectual debates (Trans/RadFems)
III. Conclusions

Utilitarianism: Benefit Society
• “The utilitarian morality does recognise in
human beings the power of sacrificing their
own greatest good for the good of others. It
only refuses to admit that the sacrifice is itself
a good. A sacrifice which does not increase, or
tend to increase, the sum total of happiness,
it considers as wasted.” (Mill, Utilitarianism)

Human Nature: Progressive Beings
• “Human nature is not a machine to be built
after a model, and set to do exactly the work
prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to
grow and develope itself on all sides,
according to the tendency of the inward forces
which make it a living thing.”

Tyranny of Opinion vs. Eccentricity
• “In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the
mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a
service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is
such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable,
in order to break through that tyranny, that people
should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded
when and where strength of character has abounded;
and the amount of eccentricity in a society has
generally been proportional to the amount of genius,
mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained.
That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief
danger of the time.” (JS Mill, “On Liberty”)

Eccentric:
• Different
• Odd
• Peculiar
• Atypical
• Unusual
• Unexpected
• Not Normal or Customary

What kind of Liberty/Freedom?
• Of Thought
• Of Association
• Of Speech
• Limits: “that the sole end for which mankind are
warranted, individually or collectively in interfering
with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-
protection.” And additionally, “That the only purpose
for which power can be rightfully exercised over any
member of a civilized community, against his will, is to
prevent harm to others.”

We may not limit someone’s freedom:
1. For His own good, either physical or moral
2. because it will be better for him to do so
3. because it will make him happier
4. because, in the opinions of others, to do so
would be wise, or even right.
It is perfectly fine to try to convince, reason
with, attempt to persuade or beg someone to
change, but no one should be compelled.

Why Liberty?
1. We Shouldn’t Assume Infallibility
• “However, positive anyone's persuasion may
be, not only of the faculty but of the
pernicious consequences, but (to adopt
expressions which I [Mill] altogether
condemn) the immorality and impiety of
opinion. – yet if, in pursuance of that private
judgement, though backed by the public
judgement of his country or contemporaries,
he prevents the opinion from being heard in
its defence, he assumes infallibility.”

Why Liberty?: 2. Social Benefit
• “The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an
opinion is, that it is robbing the human race;
posterity as well as the existing generation; those
who dissent from the opinion, still more than those
who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived
of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if
wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit,
the clearer perception and livelier impression of
truth, produced by its collision with error.”

Why Liberty? 3. Hearing the Other side
• He who knows only his own side of the case knows
little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may
have been able to refute them. But if he is equally
unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he
does not so much as know what they are, he has no
ground for preferring either opinion... Nor is it enough
that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from
his own teachers, presented as they state them, and
accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He
must be able to hear them from persons who actually
believe them...he must know them in their most
plausible and persuasive form.

4. Wisdom Comes from Hearing
Variety of Viewpoints
• “the only way in which a human being can
make some approach to knowing the whole
of a subject, is by hearing what can be said
about it by persons of every variety of
opinion, and studying all modes in which it
can be looked at by every character of mind.
No wise man ever acquired his wisdom in any
mode but this; nor is it in the nature of human
intellect to become wise in any other
manner.”

3. Administration Censorship
• Trigger Warnings & Safe Spaces
• Firing
• Disinviting
• Preventing discourse
• Limiting free speech zones

• Chair of M.U. Philosophy Department: “Your
office door is not a free speech zone” (2006)

Marquette suspends McAdams
McAdams sues Marquette
• Prof. McAdams publically blogged critically
about a female graduate student T.A. who
referred to one of her student’s objections to
state sanction of gay marriage as
“homophobic”

• John Ellison, dean of students wrote all 2016 U of
Chicago incoming Freshman a letter which set off a
firestorm of criticism. In it he wrote:
• "Our commitment to academic freedom means that we
do not support so-called trigger warnings, we do not
cancel invited speakers because their topics might
prove controversial and we do not condone the
creation of intellectual safe spaces where individuals
can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with
their own,"

2. Students Censoring Campus
WSJ Poll: 51% students want to limit free speech
A few in 2015 alone:
• Robin Steinberg was disinvited from Harvard Law School
• Rapper Common was disinvited from Kean University
• Suzanne Venker was disinvited from Williams College
• Asra Nomani student attempts to cancel her speech
• UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks participated in an event on his own
campus that student protestors shut down.
• Speakers at USC needed police to intervene to continue an event.
• Angela Davis: petition attempted to prevent her from speaking at Texas Tech.
• Rapper Big Sean faced a student effort to get him disinvited from Princeton.
• Bob McCulloch student effort to disinvite him from speaking at St. Louis U.
• William Ayers: an effort to disinvite him from Dickinson School of Law.
• Harold Koh: student effort to oust him at New York University Law School.

More Student Protests
• Yale: Students demanded removal of two professors in part over professors saying students should
be allowed to choose their own halloween costumes.
• Missouri law studentspassed a speech code that Above the Law called Orwellian.
• Amherst: students called for a speech code so broad that it would’ve sanctioned students for
making an “All Lives Matter” poster.
• At Duke, student activists demanded disciplinary sanctions for students who attend “culturally
insensitive” parties, mandatory implicit-bias training for all professors, and loss of the possibility of
tenure if a faculty member engages in speech “if the discriminatory attitudes behind the speech,”
as determined by an unnamed adjudicator, “could potentially harm the academic achievements of
students of color.”
• At Emory, student activists demanded that student evaluations include a field to report a faculty
member’s micro aggressions to help ensure that there are repercussions or sanctions, and that the
social network Yik Yak be banished from campus.
• Activists at Wesleyan trashed their student newspaper then pushed to get it defunded because
they disagreed with an op-ed that criticized Black Lives Matter.
• Dartmouth University students demanded the expulsion of fraternities that throw parties deemed
racist and the forced a student newspaper to change its name.

May, 2016
• Janet Mock, a black transgender activist and author,
cancelled an upcoming appearance at Brown
University after left-leaning students protested her
decision to speak– not because of her, but because of
the venue: Hillel– the nations largest Jewish student
organization (which supports Israel). The students
urged Mock to speak on campus at some other event,
disconnected from Hillel. Instead, she chose to cancel
her appearance entirely. A spokesperson for Mock
lamented that she "was received with controversy and
resistance rather than open dialogue and discussion."

July 2016
• 300 students at Elon University have signed a
petition asking the school to disinvite a
conservative Pulitzer Prize–winning author,
Kathleen Parker, from speaking on their
campus in October.

What Would Mill Say?
• It is important to hear opinions you think you
disagree with on campus, especially if the
presentation involves a forum for open
discussion, such as Q &A.
• Using free speech to protest and limit free
speech by not listening to eccentric or other
opinions will eventually undermine society

3. Outside Groups Censorship:
Alums and Government
• UC was pressured to adopt extreme speech
restraints for students:
• Univ. Regent Richard Blum, the multi-millionaire
defense contractor who is married to Sen. Dianne
Feinstein of California expressly threatened that
Feinstein would publicly denounce the university
if it failed to adopt far more stringent standards
than the ones it appeared to be considering, and
specifically demanded they be binding and
contain punishments for students found to be in
violation.

4. Professors Self-Censorship
• “About a dozen new teachers of criminal law at multiple institutions
have told me that they are not including rape law in their courses,
arguing that it’s not worth the risk of complaints of discomfort by
students,” Jeannie Suk (Harvard) wrote. “Even seasoned teachers of
criminal law, at law schools across the country, have confided that
they are seriously considering dropping rape law and other topics
related to sex and gender violence. Both men and women teachers
seem frightened of discussion, because they are afraid of injuring
others or being injured themselves.”
• She attributes the fear in part to a sense among the public that
frank discussions of sexual assault equate to a kind of “second
rape,” or public retraumatization.
• Suk says that “more than ever, it is critical that law students
develop the ability to engage productively and analytically in
conversations about sexual assault. …If the topic of sexual assault
were to leave the law-school classroom, it would be a tremendous
loss— above all to victims of sexual assault."
• (Inside Higher Ed., 12/17/14)

5. Religious Freedom
In 2010, Pope Benedict addressed the British Parliament, concerned for
what he saw as the government’s increasing restrictions and pressures
on religion.

“Secular” (?)
• A: Impartial, no ‘State church’, neutral
• B: Do not allow public religious expression
(private only)
• More and more, “separation of church and
state” means “no religion in the public square”

Outside Pressures On Schools
• Gordon College (MA) a small Protestant School
• President of Gordon reaffirmed their stance that
homosexual practice is wrong (2015).
• In Response: The City of Salem, Mass., citing the college's
policies about gay people, killed a contract under which
Gordon has operated the city's historic Old Town Hall. And
Gordon's accreditor, the New England Association of
Schools and Colleges, announced it was reviewing whether
Gordon's policies violate NEASC's anti-bias rules, which
explicitly bar discrimination based on sexual orientation. In
September, the agency gave the college one year to prove
that its policies meet NEASC’s standards for
nondiscrimination.

10 religious liberty threats for Christian
higher education
1. Accreditation issues
2. Tax issues
3. Financial issues
4. Donor issues
5. External relations issues
6. Student issues
7. Community issues
8. Recruiting and retention issues
9. Employment issues
10. Doctrinal issues
• http://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/the-top-10-religious-liberty-threats-for-christian-higher-education

6. Intellectual Discussions:
Trans/Radical Feminist Debate
• Issue: “Woman”

Conclusion 1. Be sensitive about
others, but don’t be oversensitive:
• “Some recent campus actions border on the surreal. In
April, at Brandeis University, the Asian American student
association sought to raise awareness of microaggressions
against Asians through an installation on the steps of an
academic hall. The installation gave examples of
microaggressions such as “Aren’t you supposed to be good
at math?” and “I’m colorblind! I don’t see race.” But a
backlash arose among other Asian American students, who
felt that the display itself was a microaggression. The
association removed the installation, and its president
wrote an e-mail to the entire student body apologizing to
anyone who was “triggered or hurt by the content of the
microaggressions.”” (The Atlantic, 2016)

2. Try to Understand Points of View
You Don’t Think You Agree With, and
Listen to Many Voices

3. Value Eccentricity, Experiments In
Living, New Ways of Thinking…
• “As it is useful that while mankind are imperfect there
should be different opinions, so is it that there should be
different experiments of living; that free scope should be
given to varieties of character, short of injury to others;
and that the worth of different modes of life should be
proved practically, when any one thinks fit to try them. It
is desirable, in short, that in things which do not primarily
concern others, individuality should assert itself”
• Homeless Spring Break
• Lived in 1954 Cadillac spring semester Junior Yr
• Lived in mud hut in Zaire for 3 weeks in village

4. Get Comfortable With What You
Believe, With Possibly Being Wrong,
And With Disagreeing with Others
• Kenny Volante: My Marxist, Atheist, Vegan Buddhist Friend

5. Support Others Right to Free
Speech, Thought, and Association

6. Whatever Your Ideas, Try to Avoid
Being Puritanical About them, and Be
As Fair as Possible
• The Hecklers Veto: Puritanical Ideologies
Without Opposition
• As James Kirchick recently wrote, “Twitter,
however, puts the burden of proof on the
defendant, making it very hard to defend oneself
against the 8-word tweet that uses a hot-button
word to slime whoever becomes the target of the
mob’s ire. It’s Salem, with 21st-century
technology. And sooner or later, we will all
become witches.”

7. Civil Discourse Should Be Civil
(Ethics regarding behavior towards others
should apply especially in debate) people.
• Mill: “The liberty of the individual must be thus
far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance
to other”

8. Jesuit Universities Have a Tradition
Which in Many Respects Actually
Enables A Wider Discourse
• UNL: Discounted Religion
• Protestant Seminary: Discounted Atheism
• Jesuit Education at Fordham and Marquette:
Took all points of view seriously, and was very
open to religious and non-religious points of
view.

In Praise of Eccentricity:
Why Authentic Freedom of Speech Benefits All of Us
(according to John Stuart Mill)
2016 LaCroix Lecture, Rockhurst U.
Andy Gustafson, Creighton University
andrewgustafson@creighton.edu

Some Relevant Sources/Articles
• http://www.jameskirchick.com/2015/02/26/rock-paper-scissors-pc-victimology/
• https://www.thenation.com/article/this-professor-was-fired-for-saying-fuck-no-in-class/
• http://archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/29205844.html
• http://www.feministcurrent.com/2015/11/10/why-i-no-longer-hate-terfs/
• http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/not-a-very-pc-thing-to-say.html
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/10195151/Why-has-feminism-become-
obsessed-with-censoring-the-enemy.html
• http://grantland.com/features/a-mysterious-physicist-golf-club-dr-v/
• http://grantland.com/features/what-grantland-got-wrong/
• http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/28/it-s-time-for-gays-to-forgive-chick-fil-a.html
• https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/3eb5c810-da17-33f4-93d7-8cb26335dbe7/ss_in-jim-
cooley%E2%80%99s-open-carry.html
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-24/donnelly-criticising-safe-schools-doesn't-make-you-
homophobic/7272932
• http://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/11/free-speech-is-so-last-century-todays-students-want-the-
right-to-be-comfortable/
• http://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/the-top-10-religious-liberty-threats-for-christian-higher-
education

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