On Eason Jordan, "That Moron Ward Churchill," and talking smack

Professor Michael Drout of Wormtalk and Slugspeak has an interesting take on the Eason Jordan and Ward Churchill affairs, and I think he's onto something. One of the many positive consequences of the rise of the blogosphere has been the gradual piercing of the echo chamber in which the members of various professions have too often added their voices to the general sound and fury, without fear that any dissenting voice would answer back. Professor Drout explores one of the ways in which the echo chamber gets created in the first place -- through the collegial silence that attends the theatrical posturing of "professionals" like Jordan and Churchill. It's a silence, as Drout points out, that passes for acquiescence and assent, and it is arises, in part, from impulses of professional courtesy and politeness. It's an understandably human phenomenon, in other words. But, like many things which are understandably human, it has taken on rather monstrous proportions and resulted in an orthodoxy which is at times stifling to free speech, free inquiry, and the -- also understandably human -- search for truth.

[Professor Drout knows his own profession much better than I do, of course, but I can't help wondering whether he's being generous to his colleagues by ascribing their silence to politeness rather than to actual assent. I wonder if he is generally imputing his own good intentions to others who don't necessarily deserve his generosity. ]