Welcome to The Eternally Radical Idea!

A safe space for “unsafe” topics — like freedom of speech, academic freedom, “Free Speech Culture” — and both the “Coddling” and “Canceling of the American Mind”!

This is my new blog to discuss the latest threats to the First Amendment and academic freedom; what a “free speech culture” means and how to sustain it; my books, “Unlearning Liberty” and “The Coddling of the American Mind.” It’s also a space for occasional digressions into my recommended books and music. 

I will also be talking about my own idiosyncratic view on the philosophy of free speech, which I have dubbed the “Lab in the Looking Glass” or the “pure informational theory” of freedom of speech.

My big news

On October 17, my next book, “The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Destroys Institutions and Threatens Us All—But There Is a Solution,” hits shelves. I co-authored it with Gen-Z journalist Rikki Schlott, and it includes a foreword from “Coddling” co-author Jonathan Haidt. The book is a deep dive into Cancel Culture (and, yes, we do capitalize it, as we mean something very specific!), explaining what it is, its scale and ramifications, and how it harms even those who believe they have no risk of ever being canceled.

In “Canceling” we set out to prove that:

• Cancel Culture is a real threat to both free speech and academic freedom — on a historic scale.

• Cancel Culture should be seen as part of a strategy that is used by left, right, and center to “win arguments without winning arguments.”

• Thanks in no small part to social media, this lazy ad hominem way of arguing is everywhere today. And it has no hope of bringing us anywhere closer to the truth, and usually pulls us further away while wasting copious amounts of time and cognitive energy.

• We can defeat Cancel Culture in higher education, K-12, and in corporate America. It’s crucial that we do so in order to refocus on arguing toward truth by actually addressing each other's arguments and chipping away at falsity.

Stay tuned for a lot more about “Canceling.”

So why is this blog named ‘The Eternally Radical Idea’ anyway?

What do you call an idea that has a clear track record of promoting innovation, human flourishing, prosperity, and progress, but is nonetheless rejected by members of every generation?

I would call that idea “radical.” And because it’s always so staunchly opposed by so many, I would call that idea “eternally radical.” So freedom of speech itself is the eternally radical idea.

Human beings are natural-born censors. Throughout millennia, the authorities, state and religious alike, have handled dissenters through ostracization or banishment. At other times, it’s arrest, torture, beheadings, burning at the stake, crucifixion, or drinking hemlock.

Left to right: Jesus Christ crucified by the Romans, Socrates forced to drink hemlock for corrupting the youth of Athens, Giordano Bruni burned alive by the Church for heresy

Mere toleration of dissenters is surely a radical idea. But the eternally radical idea goes a step further: Rather than merely not jailing or killing dissenters, how about we listen to them? Argue with them? And even consider the possibility that we, our society, and all our received wisdom might be wrong?

Free speech, although many of us are lucky enough to have grown up in a time in which its value was largely taken for granted, is a deeply counterintuitive idea from the point of view of most of human history. It will be opposed by the forces of conformity, and it rubs up against the censorial inclinations of human nature from now until the end of human civilization. That’s why it must be fought for and explained with each new generation. 

But free speech has one powerful fact on its side: It works really well. With it, you have a fighting chance to know the world as it really is, to innovate, to grow, to learn, and to progress. Without it, don’t expect to get to the truth. Deprived of the power to engage in counterfactuals, devil’s advocacy, and thought experimentation, popular ideas turn ever more into dogmas viciously defended. 

And often overlooked freedom of speech has been a tool for peaceful resolution of conflict throughout human history. A bright-line distinction between speech and violence was one of the greatest innovations for the peaceful resolution of a conflict ever invented. Oddly, particularly on college campuses, students have rediscovered the very ancient, very bad idea that because words can hurt, words should be treated like violence. But that is a massive step backward into the creed wars of the past, and it can only lead to a violent downward spiral as we return to the more “classic” ways of handling conflict, from Socrates to Charlie Hebdo.

In other words, we have a choice: free speech or decay. 

SHOT FOR THE ROAD

At the end of every post, I hope to leave you with a parting shot. This week, please check out my explanation of why Harvard absolutely earned its score of negative 10.69 (which we mercifully rounded up to zero) and came in dead last in FIRE’s 2024 College Free Speech Rankings: