Term "Liberal" Suffers Catachresis

I am writing to identify publicly a disturbing trend I have noticed ever since I set foot on this campus: the predominance of false liberalism.

The best way to explain what I mean by “false liberalism” is to give an example. Last week, Miss Dorothy Lam hung up in the lobby of Blaisdell, where I live, two posters advertising a pro-war “Free Iraq” barbecue on that Friday. As Friday drew nearer, people began to put graffiti on one of the posters. By Thursday night, several anonymous messages were scrawled on the poster. One note read, “This is sick.” Another, “Please boycott this event. It will offend many people on campus.” By Friday morning, both posters were nowhere to be found, and I can only assume that someone decided to tear them down.

The people who took it upon themselves to deface and eventually remove these posters no doubt did so due to some deeply held liberal belief of theirs that war against Iraq is wrong. While I am inclined to agree, this is beside the point. One of the most fundamental tenets of liberalism is the idea that we as a society should learn to accept both people and their ideas. This is not to say that we must necessarily agree with those ideas, but that we should acknowledge them and give them a fair chance. The problem is, this rather open philosophy is misunderstood by many and is frequently perverted so that self-proclaimed “liberals” are quick to accept people of all identities and equally quick to contemptuously denounce any non-liberal ideas. This results in extreme hypocrisy. Since when has it been okay to limit non-hateful speech because it might offend people? When I spoke to others about the poster incident, they weren’t in the least concerned; in fact, they took on an almost apologetic tone, not for Miss Lam, but for the vandals. This is what I mean by “false liberalism”: the subconscious notion that it is necessary to conform to liberal ideals only when it is convenient to do so. I can only imagine what would have happened if someone had written all over or removed the “Peace for Iraq” sign outside Frank – there would have been an uproar.

I suggest that those people guilty of the poster vandalism or of false liberalism in general either start acting like real liberals or else reclassify their political views.

Sincerely,

Daniel Kleinman ’06