Now may Columbia stand/honor'd throughout the land/our Alma Mater grand

[snuggly_llama]

Now and for ay!

O Columbia, Alma Mater, I wasn't sure what to say when you announced that you were inviting the President of Iran to come speak on Campus. I mean, this guy's government puts grandmas in jail, among other odious pasttimes. And worse...he smirksHowever, in true Columbia style, the protestors showed up en masse, providing a valuable

Comments

[snuggly_llama]

I agree that the invitation baffled me. However, then I took into account Bollinger's academic porfolio as a scholar of Constitutional law and free speech. There was only a page in my textbook devoted to this, and I haven't read his book, but from what I can tell Bollinger believes in the "peck of dirt" theory of free speech:
Free speech is necessary to the well-being a free-society, but it isn't always nice. Free speech, by its nature, will also include unpleasant speech (and nonspeech) that will roil peoples' emotions and induce them into modes of expressing their displeasure (rioting, murder, barfights, etc). Under the "peck of dirt" theory, exposing people to unpleasant speech and nonspeech (wearing swastika armbands, etc) will tick them off, but in the long run will inure them, and instead of physcially acting on their emotions with violence, will instead respond with more speech (the antidote to speech you disagree with is always more speech.) That way people will be able to air their diverse (and sometimes extremist and

[rivki8699]

I was pissed by the invitation. I think it's wrong to give a holocause denier (among other sins) a respectible forum to dignify his views and bolster his reputation. And I do think that Bollinger just did it for the publicity, that's certainly the reason Ahmadinejad took the invite.