418. Ian Buruma and the Closing of the American Ear

Jian Ghomeshi, the publication of whose article got the editor of the New York Review of Books fired, agrees with his critics that he was "a world-class prick."  I want to listen to what a world class prick says about his prickhood.  Just as I wanted to hear what a world class pedophile, Humbert Humbert, said about his pedophilia.  I am a grown-up, educated person.

But no, if the moral bullies now riding the crest of feminism have their way, I won't have the chance.  Editors giving me the chance will get fired.  As the editor of the leading feminist journal nearly did for publishing a contrarian article.

What did my open ears hear that might have endangered the cause of sexually harassed and abused women, as good a cause as ever was voiced?  I heard words that showed me how a privileged male thinks, and words that showed me how that very wrong male (as wrong in his eyes as in any) gets wrenched right.  I learned what he does in his shame (curls up in a ball in the dark and contemplates suicide).  I learned how much to trust his words.

Ian Buruma, the fired editor, thought that learning would be good for me, that it would contribute to my, and any educated reader's, always expanding education.  But no, a strong hand covered my ears and a strong arm threw out speakers who might educate me into doubt.

Leaving me one gift: a perfect illustration of Hebraism, the elevation of doing right over seeing clearly.  Buruma paid the price for trying to further Hellenism, elevation of clear-sightedness, in Hebraic times.  It's not often that the meaning of Matthew Arnold's terms is exemplified so clearly.