Bye bye boycott

Cross posted at Political Arguments.

The Republic of Letters has regained its composure. (Via Crooked Timber.) The allegations against Bar-Ilan and Haifa, if true, are troublesome, but a university boycott is anathema to all the values of a Academia. David Hirsh's comments are right on target.

A boycott is a tokenistic gesture which does more harm than good. | The need for hard work, building links with Palestinian and Israeli academics, is less glamorous but much more important.

The statements of boycott supporters troubling. Here's Sue Blackwell,

The struggle goes on. This is the end of the beginning. | We are not surprised. We saw people who did not come to earlier meetings there and we knew what the outcome would be. | We won the moral argument. They just won the vote.

So democracy only valid when you win? Mobilization only acceptable when it's in your favor?

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Perhaps I'm a little touchy about the matter. Back in law school I got people "who did not come to earlier meetings" to pack a National Law Students Association assembly and rescind a resolution calling for a boycott of the 1997 referendum. The resolution had been passed at the last minute in a sparsely attended Association meeting. When it was overturned, the supporters of the referendum boycott cried foul.

Earlier this year, a like-thinking mob (from the same student organizations) paralized the University of Puerto Rico for a month. They'd won a strike vote at the last minute in a sparsely attended student assembly. After a few weeks of pointless protests a new student assembly was called and the strike vote overturned. But respect the will of the student body? Feh! They were the student body, and if the students didn't know it, too bad for them. Fortunately student sentiment ran strong against the strike, and classes were resumed.

To curtail, condemn or even regret greater participation while claiming to defend democracy is bad faith at its worst.

In any case, cheers to Chris Bertram, et al.