Author Refuses to Play College Cancelation Kabuki

Mary Eberstadt is an author and essayist and even teaches at the college level. She has had work published in The Wall Street Journal, Time, The Washington Post, National Review, and a host of other outlets. She is also the Panula Chair in Christian Culture at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., and is a senior research fellow at the Faith & Reason Institute. She served under Reagan on the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Staff. And that is just scratching the surface.

Among Eberstadt’s books are Adam and Eve After the Pill and Adam and Eve After the Pill, Revisited; How the West Really Lost God; and recently Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics. She was slated to give a speech at Furman University today about Primal Screams at the invitation of the head of the school’s Tocqueville Program but decided to opt out. In Eberstadt’s words:

The book makes the case that social upheavals since the 1960s have led to compounded fractures on generations and that the implosion of family, real-life community and religion has weakened many people’s sense of identity. It further argues that the rise in mental and emotional problems, increasingly visible on campuses and on the streets, is a result.

Why did she turn down the invitation to speak on that particular college campus today?

In nine short words: Because it’s too dangerous and too futile right now.

I would not have cancelled, to avoid giving the bullies the satisfaction of accomplishing their short term goal, but that’s just me. I wouldn’t be the one standing on that campus, possibly getting a brick thrown at me through an open window from someone standing outside the lecture hall where I spoke.

Why did she turn down the invitation to speak on that particular college campus today?
In nine short words: Because it’s too dangerous and too futile right now.

So true. In the words of the article's author:
"Their goal, after all, is not just to silence you but eliminate you."

Ahead of Eberstadt’s appearance, the usual preemptive strikes began. Posters advertising the event on the Furman campus were removed. The online student newspaper published a piece that applauded [a previous harassment of a speaker] and decried the idea of Catholics being invited to speak as part of the Tocqueville Program. The article accused Eberstadt of perpetuating “dangerous myths.” There were also calls to “interrogate” the Tocqueville Program.
Additionally, there would be no course credit given for attending Eberstadt’s speech by the campus Cultural Life Program unless another faculty interlocuter replaced the one who invited her. Letters calling Ebestadt names and demanding that credit for attending her speech be denied were sent to the Cultural Life Program. These factors, coupled with incidents of violence on college campuses by activists, prompted Eberstadt to cancel her speech. No doubt, the recent circus at Stanford surrounding the appearance of Judge Kyle Duncan also figured into her decision.

We are in a "cold civil war."
Our side doesn't know how to fight mob rule.

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