University of Virginia Library

To The Editor

Unacceptable
Terminology

I do not know where the
authors of the Student Activities
Committee guidelines for allocation
of student funds obtained their
definition of "propagandizing" as
"any activity whose purpose is to
procure, or prevent, the acceptance
of any social, economic or political
theory as an operating principle of
polity" as contrasted with
"non-partisan analyses, study or
research" (as reported in The
Cavalier Daily editorial of
Thursday, May 13, 1971).

The deficiencies of the
epistemology of pseudo-objectivity
underlying this naive distinction
have been widely noted in the
literature of contemporary political
theory, including Michael
Polanyl's Personal Knowledge and,
if I may say so, my own book
Beyond Ideology.

It is utterly unacceptable in the
University dedicated to critical
thought to proclaim in effect that
activities supporting the political
and economic status quo are
objective or "non-partisan" while
those explicitly supporting change
are "political." It is time to hear
again the voices of Thomas
Jefferson and John Stuart Mill in
defense of freedom of speech and
of the press.