The Tyranny of Opinion: Conformity and the Future of Liberalism

260 Pages·2018·1.69 MB·English

by  Russell Blackford

THE TYRANNY OF OPINION
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM BLOOMSBURY
The Ethics of Climate Change, James Garvey
Personal Responsibility, Alexander Brown
Slow Philosophy, Michelle Boulous Walker
Judged, Ziyad Marar
Dying for Ideas, Costica Bradatan
To Janeen Webb, who has my back.
THE TYRANNY OF OPINION
Conformity and the Future of Liberalism
Russell Blackford
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction and overview
2 Mill on liberty: Morality, paternalism, and harm
3 Freedom of thought and freedom of speech
4 The limits to speaking our minds
5 Conformity and its limits
6 Ideology, propaganda, and outrage
7 You can’t say that! Identity politics and its victims
8 Cyberspace and its discontents
9 What can you do?
10 Call-out culture, conformity, and the future of liberalism
References
Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I have talked about this book with many friends and colleagues, and they’ve
invariably told me that I am brave writing on such a subject. But I’m not all that
brave. Mostly, I’m more buffered than the many decent, socially concerned
people around me who feel intimidated by the current intellectual environment.
My sincere thanks to everyone who has spoken to me over the past three or four
years, sharing perspectives on the sensitive topic of social and political
conformity and the ways in which it is enforced. Needless to say, the particular
opinions expressed herein are my own and should not be attributed to anybody
else, including the people whom I’m about to name specifically.
Kenan Malik encouraged me to write a book on this topic, acted as an
inspiration throughout, and kindly sent me an advance copy of his afterword to
the second edition (still forthcoming at the time) of From Fatwa to Jihad.
Thanks, too, to Laura Moriarty for providing me with an advance copy of her
novel American Heart so I could read it for myself before its publication.
During the planning and writing phases, and beyond, Jenny Blackford
encouraged and helped me in endless ways. Among other things, she put up with
my distracted moods and solitary habits over the months when I worked
intensely at the project for long (and usually odd) hours. I can’t thank her
enough. Jenny’s presence in my life has kept me sane as I’ve wrestled with
complicated issues on which I have passionate, if sometimes ambivalent, views.
Jeremy Stangroom encouraged me from the beginning and was instrumental in
the book’s publication by Bloomsbury. Our exchanges in person and by email
have helped me hone my ideas. Jeremy is also, be it noted, a model of genuine
liberalism.
Jenny and Jeremy read the first draft of the entire manuscript, and each of them
provided me with astute, helpful, detailed feedback. Jenny has also helped with
later drafts. I’ve dedicated this volume to Janeen Webb, who has been a trusted
friend and confidant throughout the process (and always). I doubt that she will
agree with everything herein, but we’ve spoken often on related topics, and she’s
another person who has helped keep me going. You can blame her for that, but
not for the content that follows.
Note: The text that follows discusses social and political situations that are often
volatile. It is intended to be up to date as of the beginning of June 2018. One
significant event that took place shortly after final corrections to the text was the
settlement, announced on 18 June 2018, of litigation by Maajid Nawaz against
the Southern Poverty Law Center (see pages 149–53 in Chapter 7). The
settlement included a public apology to Nawaz and a sum of $3.375 million.
While litigation should never have been necessary in this case, the outcome does
illustrate the ongoing importance of the law for redress when individuals are
harmed by unjustified attacks on their reputations.
1 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW