Time for a Stand Against the 'Politically Correct'

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Our colleague [Thomson Professor of Government] Martin L. Kilson's comment on the National Association of Scholars (The Crimson, 12/11/90) is instructive on two counts.

First, he lets us know what politicization of a university means. It is the presumption that every university attitude or decision is taken for a narrowly partisan purpose--to keep some particular group in power. To the complaint that Harvard is being politicized now, Kilson replies that it has always been. At the same time, he inconsistently reproves the NAS for politicizing the atmosphere and hopes that it will be "kept away" from Harvard.

This open, declared presumption that a university is, and must be, a political organization was once, in the late Sixties, the opinion of a small minority of radical students. Now it is widely heard from the faculty.

Second, we find out what politically correct means. Kilson doesn't use the term, of course, but he gives us to understand that it is okay for certain groups to accuse others of racism or sexism. This is "inclusionary or pluralistic." If others try to defend themselves, however, that is "anxiety."

"Politically correct" is the result, necessarily arbitrary, of politicization. No one need be, or will be, tolerant of diverse opinions if he or she begins by denying the good faith in which they are offered. Instead of true diversity, therefore, we shall have the false, so-called "diversity" in which everyone believes the same, politically correct, thing.

We think it is time to take a stand against these evils. Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr.   Thomson Professor of Government   Stephen A. Thernstrom   Winthrop Professor of History