Richard Stallman answer to me

[michf at post.tau.ac.il]

Quoting "Stan Goodman" <stan.goodman at hashkedim.com>:

> On Monday 06 June 2011 at 09:58:36 (GMT+2) Shachar Shemesh
> <shachar at shemesh.biz> wrote:
>
>> On 06/06/11 03:05, Stan Goodman wrote:
>> > Since they themselves are students or faculty in universities,
>> > it occurs to them to boycott other universities, never considering
>> > that universities are precisely where they are most likely to find
>> > their soul-mates.
>>
>> If, as you said, the Israeli academia were unanimously left wing,
>> then silencing them will not significantly decrease the diversity of
>> thought that the academia is supposed to encourage. It is precisely
>> because Israel is a potential source for dissenting view that anyone
>> calling for an academic boycott on Israel is undermining their own
>> academic legitimacy.
>
> Nowhere have I said that Israeli academics are unanimously left wing.
> Everyone know, however, that many are, and that Ilan Pappe was not alone
> before he took his nonsense to the more "kosher" environment of the UK.
> Nor have I said that the phenomenon is unique to Israel -- the same
> thing can be observed in the US, Canada, and especially almost anyplace
>  in Europe. I have CERTAINLY not intimated that I wish to stifle dissent
> or silence leftists from expressing their ideas, foolish though they may
> be.
>
> I have not understood, on the other hand, why so many evidently
> intelligent people fall for a destructive philosophy. That is a
> relatively new phenomenon; I do not remember it from the time when I was
> at university.
>

There is one big fault in your argument is that you are pushing  
opinions as facts.

Right wing people claim that left wing ideas are foolish and  
destructive and left wing people claim that right wing ideas are  
foolish and destructive. You can't use one or the other to claim that  
the other side is foolish.

The only way to actually know who is right is to run with one opinion  
or the other and see if we are still here to see the results.  
Unfortunately, there is no way to know if the other course of action  
wouldn't have yielded a better result.

And it is not clear what is the relatively new phenomenon, left wing  
ideas or universities (both of which by the way existed in mid-evil  
England, where the king kept them far enough not to cause trouble and  
close enough to keep an eye on. By the way, college heads at the time  
head the right to execute students).

> --
> Stan Goodman
> Qiryat Tiv'on
> Israel
>
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