A Summary of Jonathan Rauch’s Words

774 Words4 Pages
“If you want to believe in intellectual freedom and the progress of knowledge and the advancement of science and all those other good things, then you must swallow hard and accept this: for as thickheaded and wayward an animal as us, the realistic question is how to make the best of prejudice, not how to eradicate it.” Jonathan Rauch wrote this in his article "In Defense of Prejudice: Why Incendiary Speech Must Be Protected" published in Harper’s Magazine in May 1995. Rauch goes on to defend incendiary speech and encourage what he refers to as “intellectual pluralism”⎯an expression of various types of bigotry. He also explains the other side of the spectrum, “intellectual purism.” Purism is described as a society completely lacking all kinds of prejudice, in speech and even in thought. Rauch notes in his article our scientific categorization as Homo sapiens, a tribal species whose natural instinct is to seek out people similar to ourselves. These are the people we identify with, a place where we can comfortably express our beliefs. Rauch says, “Where there is genuine freedom of expression, there will be racist expression.” Some of these groups of people think homosexuality is an illness and can be treated because they just cannot comprehend it. If you cannot comprehend it, then you most likely fear it. A student at the University of Michigan expressed this same response of believing homosexuality is treatable and was punished for “violating the school’s policy against speech that ‘victimizes’ people based on ‘sexual orientation.’” But did he intend to hurt anyone? Or is his belief of homosexuality simply ill advised? The fact of the matter and the reason why this happened is merely based on how well we’re educated. And, the brilliance supporting intellectual pluralism lives in concentrating on dogmas and prejudice and making them publicly constructive by pitting

More about A Summary of Jonathan Rauch’s Words

Open Document