From the Gene Callahan Blog, the astounding success of the Hoppe Petition (1,300+ signatures) prompts this observation about the student whose comments set off this witch trial:
“Mr. Knight is judged too harshly, for he believes what he believes precisely because he has come to adulthood in a culture which worships freedom from insult, a world that is populated with sheep who actually pay the Wolf, the State, to keep watch over them. Mr. Knight did the only thing he knows how to do, the thing he has seemingly been taught is acceptable to do his entire life: to use authority to force others to shut up. He actually believes that he shouldn’t have to hear ideas of which he disapproves. There are several problems with this, not the least of which is the evidence confronting us that the University has failed abysmally to provide Mr. Knight with anything approaching an education or even a correct understanding of what it means to BE educated. Unfortunately, Mr. Knight fails especially to understand that his chosen method of redress is a totalitarian nightmare.”
