University of Virginia Library

Childish Arrogance

In the words of Marx and Engels,
which those who disrupted Richard Kliendienst's
speech on Thursday night might be
more inclined to accept, "the free development
of all is dependent on the free
development of each." It's a basic principle of
Western thought, one that is accepted by all
but the extreme fringes of the right and the
left. Those fringes are imbued with a childish
arrogance which leads them to believe that
they, and only they, possess truth and
righteousness. Therefore, others may speak
only at their pleasure.

There is no place for such thinking in a
university community. Perhaps the finest role
that a university can play in society is that of
a forum where no idea is suppressed. Those
who attempt to suppress anyone, therefore,
are robbing a university of its most precious
asset.

We have no quarrel with those who despise
what Richard Kleindienst stands for. But
when they use such tactics as we witnessed
Thursday night, we come to the parting of
ways. The methods are not only wrong, they
are counterproductive. Mr. Kliendienst's
speech was poorly chosen, written, and
delivered. No one in the audience needed the
storm-troopers of the Left to tell them that.
But most people left the hall feeling that, if
what the hecklers were yelling was true, there
was only one group in the country more
dangerous than the Justice Department. And
that was the group that, through constant
harassment, tried to keep Mr. Kleindienst
from being heard.