Everything, however, is not what it seems.
According to a recent article from University of Auckland magazine Ingenio, democracies around
the world are in serious freefall. It cites findings released this past February in the Democracy
Index (produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit) which paint a grim picture. Nations may be
going to the polls in greater numbers, but democratic institutions and egalitarian ideals are in
retreat. Dr Stephen Hoadley, recently retired associate professor of Political Studies at UoA,
goes on in the article to point out that modern democracy is a “brilliant invention,” but that we,
the people, need to keep it alive by, among other things, “exercising freedom of speech” and
“engaging in debates.”
Truer words could not be spoken.
But does the University of Auckland hierarchy recognise these things are needed to preserve
and promote the democratic ethos?
Let’s consider the University’s Draft Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom Policy which
is currently open to submissions from its staff and students. It is, you may be relieved to know, a
brief read. Unfortunately its brevity doesn’t quell legitimate concerns about its content.
Two points are worth highlighting.
Firstly, the draft policy describes the University as being the “critic” and “conscience” of society,
but instead, it should be academics with this role. Universities should strive for institutional
neutrality where diversity of thought can occur within its community allowing academics to take
their own stance on issues. So, why is this lack of impartiality so troubling?
The introduction to the draft policy also states that the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi shape
the University’s culture and are “central to its mission.” Many of us might think this is fairly unremarkable given how pervasive such Treaty references have become in NZ organisations
over the past few decades. I’ve no doubt even my kids’ sports clubs make mention of Te Tiriti in
their charters. I recognise the honorable intentions which many Kiwis have towards race
relations in this country and I share that aspiration. Yet the wording of the UoA draft policy goes
beyond this and has serious implications for free speech, especially when we consider it in the
context of the “Listener Seven” controversy.
If you didn’t follow the story at the time, an attempt to blend mātauranga Māori content –
traditional Māori knowledge and practises – with the NCEA Science curriculum in 2021
provoked a small but determined reaction from seven UoA professors who signed their names
to a public letter of protest in The Listener magazine. While these dissenters were willing to
concede that mātauranga Māori offered some useful insights when it came to improving things
like ecological management, they were deeply concerned that certain activists within academia
– assisted in their aims by university administrators – were radically attempting to rewrite the
definition of science in this country. The Seven argued that the natural sciences operated on
very different foundations to mātauranga Māori, and if people wanted to study either, they
could already do so – as separate disciplines. But to combine them would undermine the
fundamental tenets of the natural sciences and create “misunderstandings of science.”
Furthermore, they believed the move was designed to discredit and undermine scientific
achievements by portraying the whole modern scientific enterprise as “Eurocentric”, “colonial”
and “racist” in nature. The universal applicability of the scientific method was, they argued,
explicitly being challenged by a relativistic and reductive approach which spoke of
“Western/Pakeha epistemologies” and portrayed modern science as a villain.
The Listener Seven were immediately accused of being everything from colonial apologists to
social Darwinists. After all, wasn’t the proposed curriculum simply just acknowledging that
indigenous beliefs might have some usefulness in the modern world? The answer was an
emphatic “no.”
Ocean Mercier, associate professor at the University of Auckland, and a key proponent of the
proposed curriculum disabused people of this more charitable interpretation in her response to
the Seven. “I think if there is one thing this particular incident reminds us of is that there is need
to decolonise first, to decolonise the science systems before we can create a safe space for
mātauranga and indigenous knowledge,” and adding “this is a reminder that this space is not
completely safe.”
Mercier was by no means alone in her views. The Seven were excoriated by colleagues,
journalists and students alike. Many fellow academics, though equally disturbed by the
proposed curriculum, remained silent for fear of receiving the same treatment. One of the Seven resigned his role as dean. Three others faced calls for their expulsion from the Royal
Society. Prominent figures in the University who knew better and could have publicly lent support to the Seven instead wilted in the face of a vindictive and highly vocal pile-on. The time-
honoured tradition of academic freedom may not have been down, but it was certainly on the ropes.
Remarkably, more than a year after this saga had played out a leading AUT researcher and
lecturer in mātauranga Māori, Georgina Tuari Stewart writing in E Tangata, admitted that she
herself was not prepared to say whether mātauranga Māori and the natural sciences were
indeed compatible, let alone similar. There was, she warned, “a danger in rushing to a final and
definitive answer on whether Māori knowledge is a science,” but that this “disjunction was an
opportunity for learning.” In other words, educators still needed to debate the matter. Such
candour came too late for the Seven who’d already been labelled anachronistic, racist and
bigoted by many of their learned peers.
The second concern to note about the University draft policy document concerns clause 14.
Here restrictions may apply when the speech of visitors to the University “involve the
advancement of theories or propositions which fall below scholarly standards to such an extent
as to be detrimental to the University’s character and its performance of the functions
characteristic of a university.”
Considering that Te Tiriti principles are “central to its mission”, does this mean that Te Tiriti and
mātauranga Māori also inform UoA’s “character”? And would the Listener Seven, or dissenters
like them, therefore still fall foul of the University’s speech code should a re-run of the
controversy of 2021 somehow occur and the current draft policy end up being ratified?
The subjective wording in the draft policy as it stands would appear to leave the University
significant discretion to disinvite or ban outright any visiting speaker it deems unworthy. Those
sceptical of decolonisation may well be blacklisted.
Moreover, determining which “scholarly standards” to apply depends very much on the subject
area, the type of event a visitor might be speaking at, and the purpose of the speech. For
instance, scientists will not usually engage in questions concerning metaphysics. Theologians or
philosophers on the other hand are almost certainly going to be preoccupied with just those
sorts of questions. How exactly then would even just a relatively straightforward
interdisciplinary lecture on, say, ‘metaphor in medicine’ be assessed according to such criteria?
What then does the University of Auckland policy tell us more broadly about the culture of free
speech, debate and inquiry in this country?
The censorial approach we see eroding academic freedom and civil liberties often reflects the
insecurity of would-be-censors. They know deep down that certain kinds of claims or beliefs
they hold will not withstand intellectual scrutiny when presented to some audiences,
particularly audiences equipped with critical thinking skills, specialist knowledge and expertise.
Yet often an individual can’t bear to part with a dearly held idea or belief because of their own
deep emotional or psychological attachment to such thinking, even if the error is obvious. This is
especially difficult when an idea or belief is considered fundamental to one’s identity and status.
Ironically, failure to receive the desired approval can often make the desire for approval greater.
The trouble is that it also makes us spiteful.
The basic life lesson we need to revive in our homes, our schools and on our university
campuses may seem harsh. But it can be expressed quite simply.
If you’re unwilling to allow your ideas to be tested, and if you only want affirmation rather than
risking an honest response, stop pushing for intellectual recognition from institutions
traditionally shaped by a culture of free speech, reason, standards of evidence and debate. Seek
affirmation from someone or something other than a university. Try a social club.
Academic excellence demands humility, a recognition of our shortcomings and awareness that
we have only begun to scratch the surface of all that there is to know. As Socrates was fond of
pointing out, the wise have a responsibility to question everything, but especially those things
we’ve been warned not to question.
Free speech culture in universities requires a society that is brave enough to submit its most
sacred, dearly held knowledge claims to the rigorous testing ground we call academic inquiry,
the scientific method, and peer review. Without courage, we resort to a herd mentality and
mob rule – even if it more often these days occurs online. Without intellectual honesty, we end
up ostracising the dissenter by ignoring their attempts at reasoned debate, straw-manning their
arguments, and reducing them to distorted caricatures – much like happened to the Listener
Seven.
Aside from wanting control or fearing our ideas might be exposed as inadequate, there are
obviously instances where we censor out of a genuine concern to protect the powerless and
vulnerable. I don’t let my kids watch certain shows on TV for instance. But if we are talking
about universities then we are talking about censoring on behalf of other adults.
So we ought to confront head on the claim that some people in our universities aren’t strong
enough to handle certain ideas. Because that is palpable nonsense. They can handle it. They just
don’t feel comfortable doing so. With exposure and the necessary critical thinking skills, they’ll
learn how to better handle it.
We shouldn’t be surprised that there are voices in our society who feel aggrieved at the way
their forebears were treated. Such injuries run deep for some and we ought not to
underestimate the power of inherited memory, whether or not we believe the rest of us have a
duty or even capacity to fix the wrongs of the past. Universities are a natural place in which to
explore these sorts of questions.
At the same time, in our attempts to expose past wrongs, and consider how we address them,
let’s not dispense with the essential tools of critical thinking – free speech, reason, and evidence
– which will in the long run actually help to break cycles of injustice rather than perpetuate
them.
Nick Hanne is the Education Partnerships Manager at the Free Speech Union. This article was sourced HERE
the world are in serious freefall. It cites findings released this past February in the Democracy
Index (produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit) which paint a grim picture. Nations may be
going to the polls in greater numbers, but democratic institutions and egalitarian ideals are in
retreat. Dr Stephen Hoadley, recently retired associate professor of Political Studies at UoA,
goes on in the article to point out that modern democracy is a “brilliant invention,” but that we,
the people, need to keep it alive by, among other things, “exercising freedom of speech” and
“engaging in debates.”
Truer words could not be spoken.
But does the University of Auckland hierarchy recognise these things are needed to preserve
and promote the democratic ethos?
Let’s consider the University’s Draft Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom Policy which
is currently open to submissions from its staff and students. It is, you may be relieved to know, a
brief read. Unfortunately its brevity doesn’t quell legitimate concerns about its content.
Two points are worth highlighting.
Firstly, the draft policy describes the University as being the “critic” and “conscience” of society,
but instead, it should be academics with this role. Universities should strive for institutional
neutrality where diversity of thought can occur within its community allowing academics to take
their own stance on issues. So, why is this lack of impartiality so troubling?
The introduction to the draft policy also states that the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi shape
the University’s culture and are “central to its mission.” Many of us might think this is fairly unremarkable given how pervasive such Treaty references have become in NZ organisations
over the past few decades. I’ve no doubt even my kids’ sports clubs make mention of Te Tiriti in
their charters. I recognise the honorable intentions which many Kiwis have towards race
relations in this country and I share that aspiration. Yet the wording of the UoA draft policy goes
beyond this and has serious implications for free speech, especially when we consider it in the
context of the “Listener Seven” controversy.
If you didn’t follow the story at the time, an attempt to blend mātauranga Māori content –
traditional Māori knowledge and practises – with the NCEA Science curriculum in 2021
provoked a small but determined reaction from seven UoA professors who signed their names
to a public letter of protest in The Listener magazine. While these dissenters were willing to
concede that mātauranga Māori offered some useful insights when it came to improving things
like ecological management, they were deeply concerned that certain activists within academia
– assisted in their aims by university administrators – were radically attempting to rewrite the
definition of science in this country. The Seven argued that the natural sciences operated on
very different foundations to mātauranga Māori, and if people wanted to study either, they
could already do so – as separate disciplines. But to combine them would undermine the
fundamental tenets of the natural sciences and create “misunderstandings of science.”
Furthermore, they believed the move was designed to discredit and undermine scientific
achievements by portraying the whole modern scientific enterprise as “Eurocentric”, “colonial”
and “racist” in nature. The universal applicability of the scientific method was, they argued,
explicitly being challenged by a relativistic and reductive approach which spoke of
“Western/Pakeha epistemologies” and portrayed modern science as a villain.
The Listener Seven were immediately accused of being everything from colonial apologists to
social Darwinists. After all, wasn’t the proposed curriculum simply just acknowledging that
indigenous beliefs might have some usefulness in the modern world? The answer was an
emphatic “no.”
Ocean Mercier, associate professor at the University of Auckland, and a key proponent of the
proposed curriculum disabused people of this more charitable interpretation in her response to
the Seven. “I think if there is one thing this particular incident reminds us of is that there is need
to decolonise first, to decolonise the science systems before we can create a safe space for
mātauranga and indigenous knowledge,” and adding “this is a reminder that this space is not
completely safe.”
Mercier was by no means alone in her views. The Seven were excoriated by colleagues,
journalists and students alike. Many fellow academics, though equally disturbed by the
proposed curriculum, remained silent for fear of receiving the same treatment. One of the Seven resigned his role as dean. Three others faced calls for their expulsion from the Royal
Society. Prominent figures in the University who knew better and could have publicly lent support to the Seven instead wilted in the face of a vindictive and highly vocal pile-on. The time-
honoured tradition of academic freedom may not have been down, but it was certainly on the ropes.
Remarkably, more than a year after this saga had played out a leading AUT researcher and
lecturer in mātauranga Māori, Georgina Tuari Stewart writing in E Tangata, admitted that she
herself was not prepared to say whether mātauranga Māori and the natural sciences were
indeed compatible, let alone similar. There was, she warned, “a danger in rushing to a final and
definitive answer on whether Māori knowledge is a science,” but that this “disjunction was an
opportunity for learning.” In other words, educators still needed to debate the matter. Such
candour came too late for the Seven who’d already been labelled anachronistic, racist and
bigoted by many of their learned peers.
The second concern to note about the University draft policy document concerns clause 14.
Here restrictions may apply when the speech of visitors to the University “involve the
advancement of theories or propositions which fall below scholarly standards to such an extent
as to be detrimental to the University’s character and its performance of the functions
characteristic of a university.”
Considering that Te Tiriti principles are “central to its mission”, does this mean that Te Tiriti and
mātauranga Māori also inform UoA’s “character”? And would the Listener Seven, or dissenters
like them, therefore still fall foul of the University’s speech code should a re-run of the
controversy of 2021 somehow occur and the current draft policy end up being ratified?
The subjective wording in the draft policy as it stands would appear to leave the University
significant discretion to disinvite or ban outright any visiting speaker it deems unworthy. Those
sceptical of decolonisation may well be blacklisted.
Moreover, determining which “scholarly standards” to apply depends very much on the subject
area, the type of event a visitor might be speaking at, and the purpose of the speech. For
instance, scientists will not usually engage in questions concerning metaphysics. Theologians or
philosophers on the other hand are almost certainly going to be preoccupied with just those
sorts of questions. How exactly then would even just a relatively straightforward
interdisciplinary lecture on, say, ‘metaphor in medicine’ be assessed according to such criteria?
What then does the University of Auckland policy tell us more broadly about the culture of free
speech, debate and inquiry in this country?
The censorial approach we see eroding academic freedom and civil liberties often reflects the
insecurity of would-be-censors. They know deep down that certain kinds of claims or beliefs
they hold will not withstand intellectual scrutiny when presented to some audiences,
particularly audiences equipped with critical thinking skills, specialist knowledge and expertise.
Yet often an individual can’t bear to part with a dearly held idea or belief because of their own
deep emotional or psychological attachment to such thinking, even if the error is obvious. This is
especially difficult when an idea or belief is considered fundamental to one’s identity and status.
Ironically, failure to receive the desired approval can often make the desire for approval greater.
The trouble is that it also makes us spiteful.
The basic life lesson we need to revive in our homes, our schools and on our university
campuses may seem harsh. But it can be expressed quite simply.
If you’re unwilling to allow your ideas to be tested, and if you only want affirmation rather than
risking an honest response, stop pushing for intellectual recognition from institutions
traditionally shaped by a culture of free speech, reason, standards of evidence and debate. Seek
affirmation from someone or something other than a university. Try a social club.
Academic excellence demands humility, a recognition of our shortcomings and awareness that
we have only begun to scratch the surface of all that there is to know. As Socrates was fond of
pointing out, the wise have a responsibility to question everything, but especially those things
we’ve been warned not to question.
Free speech culture in universities requires a society that is brave enough to submit its most
sacred, dearly held knowledge claims to the rigorous testing ground we call academic inquiry,
the scientific method, and peer review. Without courage, we resort to a herd mentality and
mob rule – even if it more often these days occurs online. Without intellectual honesty, we end
up ostracising the dissenter by ignoring their attempts at reasoned debate, straw-manning their
arguments, and reducing them to distorted caricatures – much like happened to the Listener
Seven.
Aside from wanting control or fearing our ideas might be exposed as inadequate, there are
obviously instances where we censor out of a genuine concern to protect the powerless and
vulnerable. I don’t let my kids watch certain shows on TV for instance. But if we are talking
about universities then we are talking about censoring on behalf of other adults.
So we ought to confront head on the claim that some people in our universities aren’t strong
enough to handle certain ideas. Because that is palpable nonsense. They can handle it. They just
don’t feel comfortable doing so. With exposure and the necessary critical thinking skills, they’ll
learn how to better handle it.
We shouldn’t be surprised that there are voices in our society who feel aggrieved at the way
their forebears were treated. Such injuries run deep for some and we ought not to
underestimate the power of inherited memory, whether or not we believe the rest of us have a
duty or even capacity to fix the wrongs of the past. Universities are a natural place in which to
explore these sorts of questions.
At the same time, in our attempts to expose past wrongs, and consider how we address them,
let’s not dispense with the essential tools of critical thinking – free speech, reason, and evidence
– which will in the long run actually help to break cycles of injustice rather than perpetuate
them.
Nick Hanne is the Education Partnerships Manager at the Free Speech Union. This article was sourced HERE
4 comments:
The Tertiary institutions in New Zealand are required by the Education and Training Act 2020 and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 to uphold academic freedom and freedom of expression so I am guessing that most Universities that gag their academics (and students I guess) by using a 'thugs' veto must be breaking these laws?
The very fact that academia exists is due to the ability to question and critique theory or speech seems to escape the proponents of the 'Draft Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom Policy.'
The Listener 7 were absolutely correct in what they stated. They never once denigrated or set aside Matauranga they only ever questioned its efficacy in relation to modern science and where it may sit.
New Zealand universities are doomed because of this isolational view of what can and cannot be stated relative to and centred around either the TOW, CRT, SJW, Marxist or any other 'non-compliant' viewpoint.
The sooner they have to stand upon their own financially the better because it is clearly apparent they have lost their way in academic endeavours.
If there is a God, this is the time that 'it' helped New Zealand!
What went wrong with the margin settings here? It needs tending to.
“ Yet often an individual can’t bear to part with a dearly held idea or belief because of their own
deep emotional or psychological attachment to such thinking, even if the error is obvious. This is
especially difficult when an idea or belief is considered fundamental to one’s identity and status.”
Leftists have internalised a particular set of views and values as their ‘Club Virtue’ membership badge.
Good people think like this.
Bad people think like that.
Attacking the leftist world view with facts and logic is taken so personally and responded to so viciously because the opponent is trying to deprive the wokester of his/her derived status as a ‘good’ person.
The standard recourse of these triggered tots is argumentum ad hominem.
For the benefit of low watt bulbs this means playing the man not the ball.
The standard response of triggered tots when they have no better comeback.
I accept just two counter-arguments: (1) prove my facts wrong; and/or (2) disprove my argument.
Leftists typically do neither.
If they could, thet soon would.
So clearly they can’t.
Frantz Fanon was a disreputable Commie racemonger.
But even a stopped clock is right twice a day:
“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief.”
Cancel culture, such as that practiced in our tertiary institutions, is simply the way wokesters protect their secular social religion from challengers that will blow it away like the smoke and mirrors it actually consists of.
That’s a great commentary Nick, but sadly I suspect the rock is too far down the hill to be rolled back up. The Long March through the institutions has been remarkably successful. We can however guarantee that such success can only, inevitably, lead to their collapse, as other more suitable organisations meet the real requirements of the society of the times. I suspect that efforts to reform the old structures back to competency will not be rewarded. Better to put our efforts into creating new and useful structures and let the old sink into their own ideological swamps.
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