The Liberal-Only Arts: a Response to Ryszard Legutko’s Talk at Colby

by Greg Katz

“Have you heard anything about Ryszard Legutko?” a fellow student asked me yesterday. “He is coming to speak tomorrow, and Middlebury students are protesting his talk on their campus later this week.” I had never heard of this person and was definitely not aware
that he was coming to campus. A quick search in my email inbox revealed the event listed only under the “Academic Events” section of the daily ColbyNow email. As a government major, currently taking three classes within the department, I was perplexed at how I was
unaware that a member of the European Parliament was coming to speak on campus the next day, and why no one was talking about it?

It was not until the morning of the event, April 16, that it was mentioned in one of my government classes. Perhaps this was to do with his controversial reputation, or that he is already being protested at a fellow NESCAC college? Legutko is a Polish philosopher and politician, who grew up under a communist regime, and now serves as co-chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists. Legutko is also the head of the Polish Law and Justice Delegation to the European Parliament. He came to campus to speak about his newest book, The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies, in which he argues that there is a striking resemblance
between communism and liberal democracy.

In his lecture, Legutko claimed that over the last few decades, liberal developments are comparable to those of communism, and that the modern concept of ideological correctness is similar to what he experienced in his childhood. Legutko is clearly suspicious of liberal democracy and its motivations. He does not believe government
should be involved in all aspects of our individual lives, an ideology not often heard at Colby. He said that liberals have been able to
convince people that they are open and accepting, but that this attitude is “the biggest hoax.”

Legutko’s remarks made me think a lot about our campus culture at Colby, and its highly politicized nature. Colby is without a doubt an overwhelmingly liberal campus that prides itself on acceptance and diversity, but just how accepting are we? What about diversity of thought? Just 16 students showed up to hear Legutko speak. I do not think this is necessarily because these are the only students that wanted to come, but rather that many were unaware of Legutko’s campus visit, just as I had been. I thought about how, for other speakers that came, emails were sent out, announcements were made, and discussions were had in my classes. Why was there such a lack of these for this event?

This parallels a campus-wide sentiment, as well as the larger liberal
community’s sentiment that Legutko identified — that there is “no room for compromise with critics.” People are not willing to engage with ideas outside of their own. Political theorist, John Stuart Mill,
identified open discussion as pivotal when determining truth. Mill believed that it’s necessary to engage with those outside of your ideology to form your own opinions and to justify them. I worry that many students at Colby do not often enough encounter such scenarios, and are quick to refrain from entertaining them, as evidenced by the low attendance levels at the Legutko lecture.

There are also examples of Colby professors who have been outspoken on the topic of censored speech and opinions. One professor has gone on a mainstream media outlet to discuss his belief that colleges have the right to make “value judgements,” when it comes to considering guest speakers for campus events. Legutko
suggested that a tendency to stifle free speech is a trait that both contemporary liberalism and communism share.

I’ve experienced another instance firsthand, when, following President Trump’s election, a professor told my class that a supporter of Trump and the rhetoric behind the “Make America Great Again” message, had no place on our campus. While this professor later apologized for this wildly inappropriate remark, I often revisit this
instance, thinking about how such a statement and other anti-conservative rhetoric on campus makes some students, specifically conservative students, feel.

Maybe this unaccepting view of non-liberals is a common attitude across campus? This exact notion, the rejection of ideas outside of the liberal sphere that Legutko worries about when comparing liberal democracy to communism, is also one that I worry about when looking at Colby’s community. Colby has convinced itself that it is accepting and inclusive, welcoming diverse thoughts and beliefs, but on an increasingly ideologically homogeneous campus, are all views really welcome here?