Privilege versus Provocation
Maybe I'm just old - or getting old - but I have very little time or patience for professional provocateurs. I have in mind here one ex-professor, Ward Churchill, the erstwhile ethnic studies department chair out at the University of Colorado. Some may recall that Churchill penned a choppy little essay titled "On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," the day following the Sep 11th World Trade Center attacks. (you can read the essay here if you must). Using extremely volatile analogies (financiers in the WTC likened to "little Eichmanns" of Nazi notoriaty, etc), Churchill castigated American foreign and financial policy as the cause of the attack - hence, chickens home to roost.
Now, there is much legitimate scholarship out there that suggests the West, as it is historically defined, would do well to reevalute its relationship to the rest of the world. We are, in many instances, only 50 or 60 years downstream from former colonial possessions - or if not colonizers ourselves, then financially supportive of those arrangements. Serious reflection about where humanity is headed and the role of the nation-state within that future is, indeed, critical to a healthy global environment.
However, the professional provocateur's primary weapon of analysis is the Ad-Hominen attack, and, as always, the ad hominen attack provides no meaningful research, no meaningful solutions, and no meaningful options as to a way forward from any point of crisis. In fact, the ad hominen contributes to the chaos, intending to provoke, not professionally analyze. This is the center of gravity for the provocateur.
And as so eloquently stated by the President of the University of Colorado, that center could not hold any longer for Churchill. They fired him. (see the President's comments in this Wall Street Journal article).
The privilege of professorship is the opportunity to professionally influence young minds, to develop and disseminate ideas that will influence society - locally and globally. While the road to a professorship is lengthy, costly, and a goal undertaken individually - there is no 'entitlement' to the lectern, regardless of how hard one has worked to earn it - it remains a privilege. The professional provocateur reveals him/herself in the abuse of that privilege. To sustain a continuous ad hominen world-view, one must bend history, distort words, draw connections where none exist, fabricate - in other words - the necessary data by which to justify the attack of those the provocateur blames for the issue at hand.
Interestingly - Churchill's own defense against his termination is from a page right out of his own play book - it's some one else's fault.
I'm all for free speech - and Ward Churchill continues to enjoy that constitutional right this very minute - he certainly has not lost his right to free speech - he just cannot exercise it in a University of Colorado classroom. He lost that privilege not because his ideas challenged students to think objectively about America and its policies - that would be a good thing. He lost the privilege because he put himself ahead of any legitimate scholarship and resorted to the least sophisticated provocateur tool of all - the ad hominen attack. I'm sure another book is on the way detailing just how it all went down - in fact, his own website is replete with just how the institution did him in - through no fault of his own. I won't cite his site here - you'll have to Google it for yourself!
I have a professor (Ph.D.) who has a sign taped to her office door that reads, "Well behaved women rarely make history." She is, without doubt, an activitist! She contributes her time extensively to a rabbit rescue mission, makes annual trips to Cuba (legally, with State Department credentials) with students to assist Cuban grade-school students, and lectures passionately about Che Guevara! She is, however, most decidedly NOT a provocateur for the sake of provocation. There is a professional approach available to challenging long-standing, flawed, ideas of national identity - she and countless other legitimate professors employ those methods daily - and in so doing, further the cause for a hopeful future. Listen closely to the words of a professional provocateur - you will not hear one syllable of hope cross their lips.
Now, there is much legitimate scholarship out there that suggests the West, as it is historically defined, would do well to reevalute its relationship to the rest of the world. We are, in many instances, only 50 or 60 years downstream from former colonial possessions - or if not colonizers ourselves, then financially supportive of those arrangements. Serious reflection about where humanity is headed and the role of the nation-state within that future is, indeed, critical to a healthy global environment.
However, the professional provocateur's primary weapon of analysis is the Ad-Hominen attack, and, as always, the ad hominen attack provides no meaningful research, no meaningful solutions, and no meaningful options as to a way forward from any point of crisis. In fact, the ad hominen contributes to the chaos, intending to provoke, not professionally analyze. This is the center of gravity for the provocateur.
And as so eloquently stated by the President of the University of Colorado, that center could not hold any longer for Churchill. They fired him. (see the President's comments in this Wall Street Journal article).
The privilege of professorship is the opportunity to professionally influence young minds, to develop and disseminate ideas that will influence society - locally and globally. While the road to a professorship is lengthy, costly, and a goal undertaken individually - there is no 'entitlement' to the lectern, regardless of how hard one has worked to earn it - it remains a privilege. The professional provocateur reveals him/herself in the abuse of that privilege. To sustain a continuous ad hominen world-view, one must bend history, distort words, draw connections where none exist, fabricate - in other words - the necessary data by which to justify the attack of those the provocateur blames for the issue at hand.
Interestingly - Churchill's own defense against his termination is from a page right out of his own play book - it's some one else's fault.
I'm all for free speech - and Ward Churchill continues to enjoy that constitutional right this very minute - he certainly has not lost his right to free speech - he just cannot exercise it in a University of Colorado classroom. He lost that privilege not because his ideas challenged students to think objectively about America and its policies - that would be a good thing. He lost the privilege because he put himself ahead of any legitimate scholarship and resorted to the least sophisticated provocateur tool of all - the ad hominen attack. I'm sure another book is on the way detailing just how it all went down - in fact, his own website is replete with just how the institution did him in - through no fault of his own. I won't cite his site here - you'll have to Google it for yourself!
I have a professor (Ph.D.) who has a sign taped to her office door that reads, "Well behaved women rarely make history." She is, without doubt, an activitist! She contributes her time extensively to a rabbit rescue mission, makes annual trips to Cuba (legally, with State Department credentials) with students to assist Cuban grade-school students, and lectures passionately about Che Guevara! She is, however, most decidedly NOT a provocateur for the sake of provocation. There is a professional approach available to challenging long-standing, flawed, ideas of national identity - she and countless other legitimate professors employ those methods daily - and in so doing, further the cause for a hopeful future. Listen closely to the words of a professional provocateur - you will not hear one syllable of hope cross their lips.
posted by Scott Scofield | 11:04 PM
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