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Volume CXXXIII, Number 10 |
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Straw dummies
An unusually blunt speaker came to campus this week. Kevin Danaher is the director of public education for Global Exchange, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco that has a lot to say about a lot of left-wing causes. Danaher intended to speak Wednesday about globalization and the negative effects on the world's poor that Global Exchange considers sufficient cause to rethink the value of globalization itself. But, like most occupants of lecterns and pulpits these days, Danaher couldn't resist speaking at length about the events of September 11. As one might expect, he was critical of the military efforts underway in Afghanistan.
Once he got around to discussing the problems of globalization, Danaher was in fine form. There are plenty of government, economics, philosophy, and history courses that deal in large or small part with this issue, but Danaher is on the front lines, as it were, and Bowdoin students had an unusual opportunity to hear their readings speak. Kresge was mostly full of students taking advantage of that. Amateur videotapes of linguist and leftist handyman Noam Chomsky were on sale outside the auditorium; audience members made plans to travel to a demonstration at the Bush family home in Kennebunkport. The political vibe of the evening was far, far left, but it was more than a boilerplate recitation of progressive political causes. Skeptics and sympathizers agreed that Danaher was, if nothing else, earnest: he was aiming to convince his audience of things, not just playing devil's advocate. It's a safe option, in many of our classes, to do the opposite of what Danaher did, and try on intellectual arguments gingerly, qualifying contributions with "It could be argued that…" or "One could say…". And it's a rare occasion when we hear arguments from people who really believe in them. It is a mistake, when such speakers come to Bowdoin or simply raise their hands to speak in class, to dismiss them as blindly following the lines of argument we think we've already read enough about.
It so happens that there are two campus publications, recently revived this semester, that offer students the opportunity to go out on a limb and argue forcefully for the host of issues that Danaher spoke about. His talk was arranged by the publishers of The Disorient; those who disagree with him may find common cause at The Patriot's offices. These publications have the opportunity to play a huge part in any debates about globalization that occur here. (They, and The Orient, also have the opportunity to print articles about pretty much anything else they want. Such are the joys of a free press.) The campus looks forward to hearing from The Disorient, The Patriot and any other student publications that may arise, as we heard from Kevin Danaher, more than devil's advocacy.
-JMF