The Ethics of Controversy Again

...I have maintained that these are the only long-range reliable bulwarks against Communist totalitarianism, especially in Europe and Asia...

...then, can MacIver continue to charge Eastman with advocating indoctrination...

...It is even less warranted since, whatever Eastman may have meant, he certainly repudiated alumni control...

...when asked for the grounds of the charge, replied: "Why, he said he wanted to do something about the President's foreign policy...

...And without being smug or self-righteous, it must exemplify a respect for the truth and the moral decencies...

...This is necessary not only for the sake of the discovery and publication of the truth but because one of the chief social functions of the academy in a free society is to throw objective light on great issues of public concern...

...To make flagrant charges without adequate evidence is peculiarly reprehensible in a scholar, since it betrays the very basis of scholarliness...

...It is incumbent on faculty members to eschew unfounded allegations or misrepresentations...

...Unable to find any spokesman for this except among some religious and right-wing extremist groups —and among the latter, the notorious but now almost forgotten Zoll and Hart who concerned themselves primarily with the lower schools—he cast Buckley in the role of a scourge of American higher education...

...Science, of course, is not politics...

...There is direct misrepresentation...

...What would we think of a man who charged another with planning to assassinate the President and...

...Power, not truth, is the goal of political struggle...

...I mean that, no matter what side it takes, the proper function of liberal intelligence is to defend and test its commitments by methods and values that transcend the loyalties of a particular party, sect or class...

...Now one can do a thousand things about ideas and practices one considers wrong, including shouting from the housetops and in the Render's Digest about them as Eastman has been doing, with belter rhetoric than logic...

...When techniques of controversy which are impermissible even in desperate political struggles enter the academy, they tend, if unchecked, to undermine a great sustaining force of a free society...

...Looking around to find supporters for Buckley's position, he observed that the overwhelming majority of reactions to Buckley's book in academic or literate circles were hostile...

...In his book Academic Freedom in Our Time, MacIver wrote: "The type of alumni control [of college faculties] advocated by Mr...

...Relieving as Eastman does land as I do not) that a department at Yale or elsewhere is doing a bad job...

...Eastman's letter in The New Leader cited his actual words, which conclusively establish that he does not advocate alumni control, that he is not in favor of any kind of alumni control, and that he is in emphatic disagreement with Buckley on the nature of academic freedom...

...The evidence is plain that MacIver has resorted to a series of brazen non sequiturs to avoid acknowledging what will be obvious to any reader who examines the texts, namely, that he misrepresented Max Eastman's position...

...But since Eastman also wrote that "I want to do something about it," MacIver concluded, by a wild jump, that this can only mean that he advocates alumni control of our colleges—despite Eastman's specific and express disavowal of such control...

...I have no hypothesis to account for MacIver's persistence in repeating, in the face of the clearest evidence, that Eastman agrees with Buckley about alumni control and indoctrination...

...To say, therefore, as MacIver does, that Eastman really believes in alumni control of universities because some alumni are found on the hoards of trustees of some universities has as much warrant as saying that he believes in military control of universities because some generals are on some boards of trustees...

...The Ethics of Controversy Again A warning to liberals that not all things are permissible —even in a good cause By Sidney Hook The hallmark of a truly liberal civilization, as of a truly liberal mind, is willingness not merely to tolerate, but to encourage, bold and independent criticism of regnant doctrines...

...I devoted almost a chapter to a vigorous critique of William F. Buckley's God and Man at Yale...

...In his book on Academic Freedom Today, MacIver set out to paint the blackest picture he could of the state of academic freedom in the United States...

...He chanced upon Eastman's review...

...In his book, MacIver wrote: "Let us listen to Max Eastman upholding the new definition of academic freedom," and then quoted the initial sentences of Eastman's review of God and Man...

...or consists exclusively of partisans of one point of view, it is perfectly natural for the administration to suggest desirable changes...

...In the other two, MacIver argued that, because Eastman believes individualism is dying and socialism is creeping, he might at most be considered "a theoretical, if misguided, defender of academic freedom...

...How can anyone who believes in fair debate by able men of both sides be seriously or honestly charged with belief in indoctrination...

...MacIver's reply in the December 5 New Leader to Eastman's charge that MacIver had grossly misrepresented his position on academic freedom...

...provided he had also said in his book that Eastman disagreed with Buckley's statements on alumni control and the desirability of indoctrination...

...He could have said that despite Eastman's disavowal of Buckley's ideas on academic freedom...

...But since I have written on "The Ethics of Controversy" and criticized their frequent abuse by some conservatives, it seems to me only elementary justice to expose and protest violations of the ethics of controversy by liberals who speak eloquently in behalf of free inquiry and the responsibilities of objective scholarship...

...Instead of acknowledging his mistake, MacIver insisted that he reported Eastman correctly...

...As the history of science shows, great progress is often made by learning that some notions are clearly false...

...Eastman's criticism, which followed immediately, MacIver did not mention at all...

...Not only does he drag up all sorts of cases going back to the darkest days of Bilbo to fill in the picture: he cites incidents involving elementary schools and high schools, although, according to his definition of academic freedom, it concerns only colleges and universities...

...The most flagrant instance I have encountered is Dr...

...I discuss this incident in detail because of its general significance...

...If it cannot always shine by its wisdom, it must always shine by its example...

...But this is completely gratuitous...

...To say that one wants to do something about changing people's ideas is not to say that one wants to destroy academic freedom...

...Eastman's proposals might lead to the same thing (unlikely...

...It must work for the common or public good, even when it supports a particular side or group, by a method of inquiry which, because it falsifies no data and resorts to no sophism, strengthens the hope that even when men are deeply at odds with each other in a free society they can be persuaded by intelligence rather than by the brass bands of propaganda or implied threats of coercion...

...He says that because Eastman hopes something will be done to redress the balance in the near future, this means that administrations will do it the way Buckley wants it done, since some alumni are on the boards of some colleges, at least some colleges in the East...

...Everybody gains where individuals are more loyal to the methods by which truths are won than to any specific result attained in the quest for truth...

...As painful as it is to observe, I am sorry to add that there is something worse than this tortured and indirect misrepresentation...

...As readers of my Heresy, Yes—Conspiracy, No will remember...

...But the administration is not the board of trustees and the board of trustees is not the alumni, and MacIver certainly knows this...

...Too many liberals, alas, have caught an infection from McCarthy...

...I recall these items to indicate that my observations below do not at all flow from sympathy with the social and economic views of Eastman and Buckley, or from lack of sympathy with the social doctrines of Robert MacIver, whose books in the past I have favorably reviewed...

...It is additional evidence that his book was written with bias to defend a view dogmatically assumed to be true independently of inquiry...

...Whether or not I am mistaken about how MacIver originally came to do Eastman a gross injustice, the fact of the injustice is compounded by his refusal to retract his original characterization...

...Not only have I defended the principles of a mixed welfare economy and democratic socialism broadly conceived...

...In his book, MacIver could have charged Eastman with inconsistency in believing in academic freedom and agreeing with Hayek, von Mises and Buckley about free enterprise (though there really is no inconsistency...

...When I reviewed MacIver's book in the Times...

...No reader would dream of inferring from this and other passages in MacIver's book that Eastman disagrees in any way with Buckley on the question of academic freedom...

...But I can very well surmise how he originally came to believe it...

...But there is a permissible analogy between the life-processes of scientific inquiry and the political and social controversies of a free society...

...And the implication is that Eastman agrees with Buckley on this point...

...We used to criticize McCarthy because in fighting Communism he was infected with some of the methods Communists used in controversy...

...In another rejoinder to Eastman, this one in the New York Times of January 1, MacIver himself quotes Eastman to the effect that the administration at Yale should do something to see that the debate is fairly conducted by adequate representatives of both sides...

...Eastman couples this with the most resolute opposition to any kind of indoctrination, not only about man and economics but about God—another theme on which he differs strongly with Buckley, despite their common admiration for Adam Smith...

...But the issue is larger than MacIver and Eastman, and larger than the validity of a particular thesis of a particular book, ft poses many questions, among them whether liberal intelligence is to play an independent role in American culture or whether it is to become merely an instrument of political faction...

...This is precisely the logic by which MacIver accuses Eastman of advocating something which Eastman manifestly denies...

...But he did not...

...For obvious reasons, one looks to the academy or university to exemplify the ethics of discussion and controversy at their best...

...I thought he had perhaps read only those initial lines and made a jesting reference to a lapse in his research...

...Robert MacIver Two years ago, Professor Hook published two articles in The New Leader which attacked unfair methods of argument used by the extreme Right and prescribed a set of "ground rules" for ethical controversy...

...That is why I wish to discuss an incident which, taken in isolation, may seem to have relevance only to one man's biography...

...My own impression is that it exists and has existed at Yale not only in economics but in all fields...

...He does exactly the same thing, save that he substitutes the word salute for uphold...

...Some controversial techniques may be perfectly legal—in that they fall short of laws against slander, libel, and incitement to violence—but they nonetheless breach the moral presuppositions of a free society, destroying the confidence of free men that the values and institutions they share are more important than the specific policies over which they may differ...

...As New Leader readers know, I have for many years conducted a running debate with Max Eastman on free enterprise, which he mistakenly regards as a sine qua non of a free and open culture...

...MacIver knows perfectly well that the normal procedure is for the administration (president, deans and chairman) to consult with faculty and vice versa on new appointments...

...In fighting McCarthy and his friends, they have descended to some of his methods of falsification...

...MacIver seizes on Eastman's term "administration" and interprets him as urging arbitrary and authoritarian action against the faculty to make them be fair...

...When criticism and controversy are vigorous, there is a better chance to develop wiser policies and to reach truer views about the matters of fact which test policies...

...But in his reply to Eastman's letter in The New Leader, MacIver proves that it was no lapse...

...It must avoid doing today what it denounced McCarthy for doing yesterday...

...This declaration says not only that Eastman is in favor of alumni control, but that he "advocates" it...

...True or false, he could have said much else...

...His reply consisted of five paragraphs, three of which were completely irrelevant to Eastman's charge...

...On the contrary, he said Eastman advocated both alumni control and indoctrination...

...This is one of their functions...

...Here he returns to the subject with an analysis of the exchange of letters between Professor Robert MacIver and author Max Eastman, which appeared in the December 5 New Leader...

...MacIver says that Eastman's ideas "approach" Buckley's, that alumni control would be "the net result" of doing something about the alleged indoctrination...

...By "independent," I do not mean that liberal intelligence can divorce itself from the interests and issues and problems of social life or that it can avoid taking sides on what is right or wrong about the domestic and foreign policies of the United States...

...Not satisfied with this, he tries to prove that there is a widespread movement in the United States—a neiv movement—which is hostile to the very principles of academic freedom...

...MacIver simply couldn't find any reputable educator or intellectual or college administrator who agreed with Buckley...

...Just as no significant agreement is possible in a scientific community which does not recognize certain minimal values (e.g., commitment to truth) and rules of evidence as binding on all inquirers, so the health of a free society depends on the acceptance among controversialists of certain basic values, certain limits beyond which controversy cannot go without transforming fellow citizens with whom we disagree into enemies whom we would destroy...

...Half aware of the absurdity of the inference...

...Since Eastman cheered Buckley's non-conformist intellectual crew-cut and applauded his apotheosis of Adam Smith, MacIver thought he could safely assume that Max Eastman had surrendered convictions about intellectual and academic freedom that were even earlier and stronger than his socialist ones...

...Perhaps an assistant brought it to his notice or excerpted it for him...

...In the Times of January 1, he persists in this shabby trick, now using the word hail for uphold...

...He could have said that Eastman's recommendations operationally are vague (they are...

...They have forgotten that not all things are permissible even in a good cause...

...Eastman does say he believes Yale will correct the situation he deplores by seeing "that the debate should be fairly conducted" and that a free market in ideas about economics be offered to Yale students...

...Buckley would put indoctrination first, with enlightenment a poor second...

...Eastman and Mr...

...Political controversy during the last few years in the United States has reflected antagonisms so strong that at times one would have thought that Americans could no longer respect those with whom they disagreed—indeed, that they were more hostile to each other than to the Communist enemies of free society...

...at Yale in which Eastman summarized Buckley's thesis objectively, before criticizing it...