Crisis Magazine: "In the heat of the moment, when the pressure is on, it takes moral courage and practical wisdom to stand up for a minority. Being alert for such moments is perhaps a lot to ask of people who don’t want to spend their lives thinking about such things as a tyranny of the majority. So, I reserve my full contempt for my former colleagues in the academy. The reason that our societies offer executive-tier pay and the protection of tenure to academics—and in particular to philosophers—is so that, in moments like this, they will serve as the conscience of the nation. With the exception of a few brave voices, my beloved discipline of philosophy has failed the test of our times.
"After the fact, once we are able to judge clearly again, we may be surprised to regard all that we’ve agreed to. Many people will wonder what on earth had them so scared. Many will lament the powers transferred to government. Many who are quiet today will admit that they had doubts all along. And as horror stories of vaccine side effects continue to trickle through my social circle, I worry that many more will find a source of sorrow in their decision to be vaccinated.
"But we’re not there yet. Today we have patriotic truckers venting their frustration in the only way they have left. The powerful, including what was once the conservative press, have already formed their counter-narrative. The people who yawned through BLM chaos and a wave of church-burning are now claiming the moral high ground because they have conveniently discovered a few (to date, I have heard of exactly two) extreme voices in a crowd of tens of thousands of peaceful protesters. They think these voices should drown out the ordinary families who just want to be allowed to live their lives. The powerful aren’t yet willing to listen. Maybe the only way to get through to them is to lean on the horn." [Full Article]