A Letter on Open Debate and Our Right as Cultural Icons to Your Perpetual Admiration
Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial. Illiberal radicals who are fighting for equality are now insisting that we, the cultural elite, demand it as well.
We cannot allow this to happen. Such political commitments to equality are onerous and intolerant. Worse, they infringe on our rights.
We are Cultural Icons. We have created Great Works of Art and penned Authoritative Articles. We have offices in Ivy League schools. We have won numerous prizes and medals and we carry little Cultural Icon cards in our pockets. We drive public opinion, and have become entitled to tell you what you should think.
That power has endowed us with certain inalienable rights.
One of them is the right to the perpetual admiration of our followers and admirers. Because we drive public opinion, it shall never turn against us. As such, we are immune from any consequences for opinions that we have that may be perceived as unpopular or insensitive.
We’re just ahead of our time.
If, for example, the author of a beloved series of children’s books involving Muggles doesn’t know the difference between sex and gender, you are free to disagree with her. You may even voice your disagreement. We allow that this is free speech. However, you may not withhold your continued admiration for her or, heaven forbid, unfollow her on Twitter. And you are definitely not allowed to band together with others and collectively stop purchasing her beloved books and providing her the royalties that she so justly deserves.
Allow us to explain.
You are what we secretly think of as “cultural consumers.” We create Culture. You consume it, in the quantities and varieties that we find best.
Cultural consumers are free to criticize Icons for their perceived shortcomings. They will soon see that the Icon was right, all along, but in the meantime, they can still take to Twitter and rant to their dozens of followers. That is free speech!
Free speech is the bastion of democracy. It is the lifeblood of liberal society. With free speech, we can share ideas and grow together.
With free speech, you can call out someone for not leashing their dog in Central Park. If they disagree, they can voice their disagreement about the value of leash laws. This will strike up a debate! With robust and caustic counter-speech, this disagreement can be put to rest with both sides learning about the pros and cons of their stance.
With free speech, you can politely ask that a Costco shopper wear a mask to prevent the spread of a virus. Rather than feeling threatened, he or she is likely to engage in a debate about their freedom to not wear a mask. You may learn something, and even make a friend while learning it!
Consumers of culture are encouraged to engage in this kind of free speech. They can speak their part, voice their disagreement, and then sit back down knowing that they have made a difference in the world.
Bear in mind, though, that Cultural Icons like us are entitled to engage in expensive speech. With our Cultural Icon debit card, which we also carry, we get to buy expensive speech in The New York Times or Harper’s Magazine. We don’t pay with money, of course. We pay with our status as Cultural Icons and the positive reception that our work is entitled to receive from you, the consumer. These legacy publications will publish anything we send them, no matter how poorly-researched or incoherent it is.
Just ask David Brooks.
Need we remind you, though: You do not have this power of purchasing expensive speech. As mere consumers and peasants in the cultural world, your rights are limited to the free version. You may use these rights to voice your misguided disagreements with us, but going any further is simply beyond the pale.
It goes without saying that it is out of the question to demand that we be held accountable or even (gasp!) lose a book deal for using our expensive speech to spread lies, demean other people, or fight against equal rights. That would mean yelling and ostracizing us for making insensitive comments, as if public opinion could ever turn against us.
This stifling atmosphere is not good for us Cultural Icons. The way to defeat bad ideas is to debate them. The peasantry has its free speech rights for this very reason. But consumers of culture seem to have lost their way. How else could they claim that we, the Cultural Icons that they so admire, are the ones with bad ideas? Worse, they have begun to join together and demand accountability through collective action in a way that we can actually hear. It threatens our reputation, our coveted status as Icons, our way of life, and our entitlement to tell you what to think.
There is no other word for it: This is censorship.
