From: utzoo!decvax!yale-com!glaser Newsgroups: net.college Title: Re: J. Kirkpatrick at U.C. Berkeley - (nf) Article-I.D.: yale-com.925 Posted: Sat Feb 19 01:38:42 1983 Received: Sun Feb 20 09:27:46 1983 References: ucbcad.612 yale-com.924 (this is a continuation of previous message. My apologies; our inews interface flakes out from time to time.) [reasons for NOT heckling:] (2) Even in those cases where heckling is morally defensible, it is tactically inadvisable 98% of the time. Why? consider Johnson's reaction: Frankly, booing someone off the stage (also chanting them off, threatening them off, etc) is repulsive to me, simply because the hecklers are demonstrating that they do NOT want to hear a discussion, they want to be bullies. Any attempt to heckle or prevent "free speech" must be evaluated pragmatically in light of this kind of probable reaction. (3) I do have my days when I consider myself something of a civil libertarian. When in doubt on a free speech issue, I say let them speak. Note that this is a relativistic view; I would feel perfectly right, indeed, morally obliged, to shut up a Hitler. Finally, Zig Mednieks asks, What is it about leftists that makes them blind to reason? I consider myself a leftist. Am I blind to reason? Rob Glaser Yale University (decvax!yale-com!glaser)