Flagellating a deceased equine

This Politically Dissident column originally appeared in The Exponent (University of Alabama in Huntsville), Vol. 33, No. 21 (February 21, 2002). Digitized issue: UAH LOUIS archive. Reproduced here courtesy of that archive.

“Tax Me More” Fund donations as of 2002/02/18: $5

Let’s flagellate a deceased equine.

Watching each round of the fight over Sarah Babin’s “At His Feet” column play out, I’ve found the viciousness and the venom to be extraordinarily disappointing. I should point out that I’m not nearly as religious as my wife would like me to be, so my taking this position shouldn’t be construed as coming to the defense of a fellow True Believer. I am a libertarian, though, and that compels me to object when someone practicing her beliefs in peace is attacked for no good reason.

Cara Stein’s letter to the editor seems to be the beginning of the controversy. (I should be gentle here because she and I have to give a group presentation soon in CS 613.) In her letter, she accused the editor of ignorance for publishing “tripe … religious indoctrination.” However, Stein opened her letter with “Universities are supposed to be about sharing new thoughts, philosophies, and ideas …” and made an important omission: a university shares these new ideas in context by contrasting them against old ideas. In Philosophy 101, for instance, students learn about Plato’s Forms or the Epimenides Paradox, both of which come from the ancients. This contrast is vital because we need to see where (and how) we’ve made mistakes in the past and where we’ve been right. More importantly, educated people should be able to advance new ideas, which requires understanding the viewpoints of one’s audience.

In other letters, Eric Jones complained that Babin was labeled a religion columnist even though she was writing strictly about Christianity, and Leslie Crow suggested that Babin ought to write about religion rather than testifying. These are stunning examples of hypocrisy. Geof Morris has the “Opinion Columnist” label, but he doesn’t write about opinion (i.e., meta-opinions, whatever that would be) and hasn’t received any of the ire directed at Babin. Similarly, I have the “Political Columnist” label, but I consistently write my columns from a libertarian perspective with the open aim of encouraging readers to renounce their statism. This puts me closer to the subversive mind control to which the leftist attack dogs have been trying to assign Babin and Jennifer Hill, but, for whatever reason, they haven’t sent the first bark my way. I invite them to pick on someone their own size.

Central to libertarianism is the non-aggression principle: no one has the right to initiate force against others. This means that if someone isn’t hurting anyone except possibly himself, he ought to be left alone. Living in a free society means having to tolerate opinions that we find offensive. (Maybe ACE and The Exponent should co-sponsor a viewing of The People vs. Larry Flynt.) If you don’t like the column, then don’t read it. If you have a better opinion, then start submitting your work. There’s a shortage of quality writers in colleges; just ask the poor souls over in Morton Hall.

As for the complaints about proselytization in the pages of a publicly funded newspaper, we libertarians would say you’re getting what you deserve. Last year, the editor-in-chief was a liberal, and he allowed an abortion clinic to purchase ad space—a decision that many readers didn’t like. This, however, is a necessary consequence of distortions in the free market such as subsidizing a school newspaper: the editor will inevitably make unpopular decisions, but the subsidies remove the consumer’s ability to vote with his wallet.

Vote Libertarian! Sophocleus for governor!