ABANDONMENT OF TRUTH – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:38 A.M. ET:  We look with dismay at the state of our colleges and universities.  They were once devoted, more or less, to the pursuit of truth.  Now the truth has become an annoyance, to be used only when helpful. 

We watched as Rolling Stone Magazine, not one of the great ornaments to journalism, had to retract a story about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia, when it became clear that at least part of the story was fabricated.  Individuals, the university itself, and members of a fraternity had been smeared.  But when the truth came out, many in the movement claiming there is a "rape culture" in American colleges made it clear they didn't care.  Only the movement mattered, the cause.  Who cares if some people got hurt?  The Washington Post even ran a column by one of the activists ridiculing the damage that could be done to a man, or a group, falsely accused of rape.  In fact, their lives are often destroyed.

One brave professor at UVA has written a brilliant article for Weekly Standard, decrying the indifference to truth.  I recommend it.  James W. Ceaser writes: 

But the truth does matter. Even on the level of future policy changes, this problem can only be properly addressed if it is presented in an unbiased way, not in terms of a preconceived framework. The moral dimension of disregarding the truth also cannot be forgotten. Members of the university community have been vilified as gang rapists. Does anyone mind? The University of Virginia has been charged with bearing the full burden of national obloquy. Does anyone care? If the faculty and administration prefer to abdicate to a crowd rather than offer a defense, even in comparative terms, of the university’s reputation, then who will stand up for the place?

The answer is: no one at the university. The task has been taken up by the local newspaper, Charlottesville’s Daily Progress, which has spoken with a clarity and directness unheard on the campus: “The University of Virginia and its reputation were also vandalized by this story.” The president of the university, having initially invoked the pillar of truth in her first reaction to the Rolling Stone article, struck a very different note in her pronouncement on its retraction: “While all of us who care about the University are upset by the Rolling Stone story, I write now with a different message.” Surely the truth merits something more than a dependent clause.

Far from being an end in itself, the truth on our college campuses is now treated as a mere instrument of combat. It is wielded with feigned righteous-ness when it promotes a preferred cause and then abandoned when it produces the opposite result. In the end, this is the sad message that universities now convey.

COMMENT:  Read the whole piece.  It's rare in today's trendy universities that a professor makes sense.

December 14, 2014