No room for debate: academia’s one-sided conversation; Podcast on the fall of the Iron Curtain, 30 years later
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News & Commentary
No room for debate: academia’s one-sided conversation
By Tyler Bonin • November 6, 2019
Gibson Bakery near Oberlin University, the subject of a political correctness squabble and defamation lawsuit against the university ([link removed] )
Oberlin University is paying the price of political correctness. The university complied with a court order to post a $36 million bond after an Ohio court ruled against the university in a defamation lawsuit brought by Gibson’s Bakery. The case arose from an incident in 2016 when the owner, who is a frequent target of student shoplifters, tackled an African-American male, who was subsequently arrested. The community accused the owner, who is white, of racial profiling, and the university sided with the protesters. During a visit to the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, Oberlin University President Carmen Twillie Ambar said, “You can have two different lived experiences, and both those things can be true.” This sentiment has pervaded academia, where such things as personal narrative and the theory of intersectionality have become the impetus for modern activism. Lived experience has ousted reason. Empiricism has given way to the concept that one’s experience and identity solely inform truth. If truth, then, is based on your exclusive perspective, what sense does it make to engage with a narrative that differs from your own? This shift has had a profoundly negative impact on public discourse, yet also assures us that the answer to a change in education lies in education itself.
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Acton Line podcast: Liberation theology drives the Amazon synod; Remembering the Berlin Wall
November 6, 2019
Soldiers climb over a toppled portion of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 ([link removed] )
On this episode, Acton's Samuel Gregg joins the podcast to break down liberation theology, a Marxist movement that began in the 20th century and took root in the Catholic Church in Latin America. October 27 marked the close of the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, a summit organized to foster conversation on ministry and ecological concerns in the Amazon region. But the synod also revealed how, as Gregg says, "liberation theology never really went away." On the second segment, we take a look at what life was like behind the Iron Curtain. This Saturday, November 9, marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Tom O'Boyle, past correspondent for the Wall Street Journal who covered the events that led up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, comes on to the show to share stories of what he witnessed while he was there.
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Bernie Sanders: ‘Thank God’ for capitalism ([link removed] )
Senator Bernie Sanders rarely expresses thanks to the divine, much less for the system of global capitalism. When the democratic socialist combines both sentiments, as he did this weekend, it is worth reporting.
Persecution in North Korea: Learning from Pastor Han’s faithful witness ([link removed] )
Struggling under the weight of communism, North Korea is increasingly known as a land of poverty and hardship. Economic and religious life are closely connected, making the preservation of both absolutely essential if society is to flourish. In a new short film from Voice of the Martyrs, we get a small glimpse of this reality through the story of Pastor Han Chung Ryeol, a Chinese missionary who shared the Gospel with at least 1,000 North Koreans before being assassinated by their government.
Alejandro Chafuen in Forbes: State-owned enterprises and trade ([link removed] )
Alejandro Chafuen, Acton’s Managing Director, International, published a piece in Forbes yesterday on the place of state-owned enterprises in international trade. The question also extends to industries that, even if not owned by the state, are significantly influenced by government interests, regulation, and so on. Oil is a prime example of this, but there are many other instances, more recently including the data and tech industry.
Benjamin Franklin’s advice on the Chicago schools strike ([link removed] )
Their last remaining dispute in the Chicago schools strike could be resolved if both sides understood a basic economic concept taught by one of the nation’s Founding Fathers. Although the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union announced a tentative agreement last Wednesday evening, the Second City’s 300,000-plus students still began their eleventh day outside the classroom Thursday, because the CTU added a new demand Wednesday night. They want the city to pay union members for every day they went on strike.
The UK election is about far more than Brexit ([link removed] )
The real contest in the upcoming British general election is freedom – political and economic. Yes, on one level it is a Brexit-centered election, with the Prime Minister seeking to deliver on the 2016 referendum result. However, underlying this issue is the desire for both political and economic freedom.
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