The Difficulty of Being Right When Everyone Else Is So… Left

On a campus such as this, there is a tendency to be quite unreasonably left politically. Political extremities tend to breed political polarity of an equal and opposite nature. Thus, those that hold to an opposite viewpoint tend to think themselves as the proprietors of real truth. My
purpose for writing this article is not to point out that Brown is liberal leaning. That would be painfully obvious. It is not my intent to proselytize the left and bring them to the right. Rather, I would like to point out the fallacy of setting oneself on any polar extreme—right or left. Every year, at least one freshman tries to make his mark by writing a BDH ‘Letter to the Editor’ that is shockingly antiliberal. The thing of it is, rarely are they able to aptly etch their true opinions in the allotted 100 to 300 words. This year’s first freshman letter came from Sean Quigley. It discussed the police brutality protests on campus. Mr. Quigley attempted to make the point that watching the protest was like watching sheep blindly following the leader toward the slaughter-house.

Regardless of whether you agree with that assessment of things, the fact is, Quigley completely failed to make that point at all. All he managed to do was make an awful lot of people really angry. What struck me, though, was the number of people who rallied around the new freshman. He was getting pats on the back from all over the place. He was effectively shielded from criticism. And, because of that support, he likely feels quite impervious to any criticism.

On a campus such as Brown’s, it is easy to position oneself unreasonably to the left. Likewise, it is as easy to position oneself unreasonably to the right. And, in fact, the attraction of positioning one’s self on either side of anything is popular as it can gain a person a bit of a reputation. As a case-study, consider Ann Coulter She continually makes known her incredibly polarized views because she makes an awful lot of money doing just that. She has achieved what is the real world’s version of high school popularity. No one likes her, but everyone wants to achieve what she has achieved (as an entrepreneur, I mean).

What is difficult is espousing what is unpopular in a manner conducive to good discussion. It is difficult to write in a manner that stirs emotion but does not start fires. It is difficult to find the humility within oneself to admit when one has been bested or when an argument must be revisited. It is difficult to make specific and focused criticisms such that those who disagree are forced to provide well-reasoned, articulate refutations, rather than just a simple statement of the antithesis (e.g. If I say gay marriage is wrong, the refutation is simply, gay marriage is right).

So what is the real difficulty of being right on a campus where everyone is so extremely left? It is simply that the political atmosphere on a campus like this, drives students to camp on the extremes; the overzealousness of ambitious, passionate people (both liberals and conservatives) compels inarticulate, unproductive across-the-aisle yelling; thus, it is quite difficult to give well-reasoned, intelligent arguments discussing unpopular belief. But this is exactly what needs to be done. To those writers who are compelled to challenge the atmosphere this community, I cannot put stress enough how little you accomplish by writing inarticulate, unintelligent, and shock-oriented editorials. That is easy to do, but accomplishes little more than to further balkanize the political parties. I think instead, that you should show your true colors. Let everyone know why you’re a Brown student, and write something articulate, convincing, and content oriented.