An excellent essay in The Point by Campbell Scribner. Titled “Internal Goods,” it uses MacIntyre’s account of rationality, moral reasoning, and the university as a lens for understanding both the tragedy of Jason Arday and the response to it on the part of academics.

Quote:

In colleges of education, one often hears the slogan “all education is political,” which people repeat with the certainty of moral truth. And it is true. But it is also a truism, a phrase that one can utter without fear of contradiction: either others agree and confirm the statement, or they disagree, reveal their political bias and confirm the statement. The mistake is in the circularity. All education may be political, but it does not follow that politics is all education is, that power is the only or even the best criteria through which to evaluate teaching, learning and research. To imply otherwise is merely to beg the question. When students or colleagues inform me that all education is political, I sometimes ask whether all education is not also cultural, spiritual, artistic and moral, and why we never talk about those aspects? I have yet to receive a clear answer.

And:

Context, power, intention and articulated reasons are all important, but they can only be judged by similarly situated peers proceeding on shared norms. This is what accusations of “hounding” or “piling on” in the Arday scandal seem to miss: once one acknowledges that there are meaningful distinctions between academic critics, investigative journalists, opinion columnists and random online trolls, it becomes difficult to see exactly who is being blamed for what, and on what standard we should expect them to act differently in the future.