Roundup Record Tribune & Winnett Times -

Academics like Dr. Ray need to pay attention to their own bigotry

By Roger Koopman

I was immediately attracted to a recent op-ed by Montana Tech ethics and philosophy professor John Ray, who purported to be writing about the need for civic virtue. I can think of no topic more important or less understood. The writings of our nation’s founders were replete with powerful statements linking virtue and personal morality with liberty and self-government. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.”

Ray began on precisely the right note, observing that virtue among the citizenry demands civility, honesty… “and ability to reason and deliberate based on evidence about matters of public concern.” Another way of putting that is rejecting ideological bigotry and dogma, and having honest conversations, that reflect an ability to listen, to respect other people’s opinions, separate fact from fiction and participate in a free and open debate of ideas. That’s the stuff of national unity. That’s the stuff of a free people.

Good start. After all, that is exactly what any good college professor should encourage and practice in the classroom. But what followed was perhaps the most intellectually dishonest treatment of the subject that I have ever read. I’m actually happy about that, because in so doing, Dr. Ray revealed to us why this nation is so filled with animus and division. He provided us with a great insight into the mind of the radical leftist professors that dominate academia. They have no interest in an open debate of competing ideas. They are censors and proselytizers, not educators.

After of few short paragraphs of sanctimonious posturing, the emperor’s clothes slid off, and Ray exposed the actual purpose for his commentary: to viciously and ignorantly slam conservative political people, without any idea of what he was talking about, let alone why some people might happen to think differently than he. It is the classic M.O. of the bigot. Attack the messenger rather than addressing the message. Indeed, do not even acknowledge the message as legitimate or worthy of consideration. By outing the person, you never have to deal with their ideas – or defend your own.

Ray fastidiously avoided using honest words like “Republicans” and “conservatives,” opting instead for lump-together phrases like Legislative majority” and “these same people” -- rhetorical weapons for collective condemnation. The condemned included pro-life folks, Second Amendment advocates and people with traditional Christian values. By association, we are supposed to believe that they are also anti-gay, anti-Indian and anti-public health.

Yet the most disturbing aspect of Ray’s tirade was his fury over what he termed “the incessant braying about freedom,” which he equated to anarchy, arguing the leftist line that, through politics, we need to give up personal freedoms for the public good. In other words, power to a government that knows best—the perfect prescription for tyranny.

This political philosophy professor apparently knows little or nothing about our unique legacy of freedom. In America, freedom is not something that is parsed out or politically dispensed. Give a little here. Take a little there. No, our founders understood that freedom is our birthright, given to us by God, not by generous politicians and intellectual elites. The role of government (to quote the Declaration) is “to secure these rights” which we already have.

I understand that to leftists like Dr. Ray, “civic virtue” entails giving the government the authority to decide our freedoms for us, and the power to pick the pockets of some to fill the pockets of others. But he is wrong. He misses perhaps the most fundamental principle of a free society: that citizens cannot, morally or constitutionally, confer powers on government that they cannot exercise themselves as individuals in society -- theft being an example.

Ray wrapped up by lecturing us on the evils of “stereotypes and biases”, “personal attacks” and the rejecting of others’ ideas “out of hand.” He called for “constructive public deliberation” and lamented our current “wasteland, devoid of civility and reasoning.” This is almost laughable. My simple advice to Dr. Ray: listen to your own words.

Ultimately, Dr. Ray’s definition of civic virtue is thinking like him, and dismissing everyone else. The word for that is hypocrisy, not virtue, and our college students deserve a whole lot better.

Roger Koopman just retired from 8 years on the Public Service Commission, representing southwestern Montana. He also served two terms in the state House of Representatives, and ran a small business for 37 years in Bozeman.