I saw you speak at the Univ of Wisconsin in 2012 (I think) when I was in graduate school, just start in my major in Af Am history. You gave a talk about the meaning of the public and the public square. It was powerful then and even more crucial now. I talk about it all the time since it shapes the way I think about the public sphere to this day. Plus I believe in citing my sources haha!
It's all so layered. When I was a little girl, I was taught, that "if you didn't have something nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all". It was said to me with a lot more flare and color, but the same gist. We've lost even the simplest of decorum, dignity and just sheer manners. I am no fan of Charlie Kirk and I do know the type of man he was, regardless of what the right is trying to story him as now -- and yet, the glee, the laughter, the horribleness of the human spirit that came after this killing, hurt my heart to witness. The public square is a tragic place on several levels. I'm not sure how we go from here... but what a very sad place.
Blessings, Eddie... from the back woods of Council and Carvers Creek, NC... to a kitchen table here in Hampton, VA. Your words and deliberations are a welcome balm to the heated rhetoric and bad faith which abound.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, but the other detriment to the public square is the cowardice and bowing to MAGA and the Neo-Confederates by the very people who traditionally fought for, protected, and nurtured free and robust speech--media companies--because they either fear or are in bed with them. The recent firing of late-night talk show hosts and continued attack on America's universities show that, until people learn to love freedom more than life, the public square will become just another space of white supremacist propaganda. I wonder if enough people have the internal fortitude to boycott the companies funding and bowing to MAGA rather than continue to fund their own oppression.
With deep respect from an admirer, I think when universities started to implement speech codes back in the late 80s/early 90s, we saw the pursuit of the free and open exchange of ideas become constricted. In your comments during the weekly roundup, you called for bringing ideas like those espoused by Charlie Kirk into a public forum to interrogate them. I think that's a wonderful idea. Sadly, we are a long ways from the Areopagus.
I saw you speak at the Univ of Wisconsin in 2012 (I think) when I was in graduate school, just start in my major in Af Am history. You gave a talk about the meaning of the public and the public square. It was powerful then and even more crucial now. I talk about it all the time since it shapes the way I think about the public sphere to this day. Plus I believe in citing my sources haha!
Thank you Eddie, The most reasonable and thoughtful comment on the whole mess!
Thank you
Bourdieu once said that most defences of free speech are really about asserting a particular monopoly of speech.
It's all so layered. When I was a little girl, I was taught, that "if you didn't have something nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all". It was said to me with a lot more flare and color, but the same gist. We've lost even the simplest of decorum, dignity and just sheer manners. I am no fan of Charlie Kirk and I do know the type of man he was, regardless of what the right is trying to story him as now -- and yet, the glee, the laughter, the horribleness of the human spirit that came after this killing, hurt my heart to witness. The public square is a tragic place on several levels. I'm not sure how we go from here... but what a very sad place.
Blessings, Eddie... from the back woods of Council and Carvers Creek, NC... to a kitchen table here in Hampton, VA. Your words and deliberations are a welcome balm to the heated rhetoric and bad faith which abound.
J
I agree with you wholeheartedly, but the other detriment to the public square is the cowardice and bowing to MAGA and the Neo-Confederates by the very people who traditionally fought for, protected, and nurtured free and robust speech--media companies--because they either fear or are in bed with them. The recent firing of late-night talk show hosts and continued attack on America's universities show that, until people learn to love freedom more than life, the public square will become just another space of white supremacist propaganda. I wonder if enough people have the internal fortitude to boycott the companies funding and bowing to MAGA rather than continue to fund their own oppression.
With deep respect from an admirer, I think when universities started to implement speech codes back in the late 80s/early 90s, we saw the pursuit of the free and open exchange of ideas become constricted. In your comments during the weekly roundup, you called for bringing ideas like those espoused by Charlie Kirk into a public forum to interrogate them. I think that's a wonderful idea. Sadly, we are a long ways from the Areopagus.