BATTLE OF THE UBER EGOS :

REVIEW : of UNCIVIL WARS: The Controversy Over Reparations for Slavery by David Horowitz (ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ, LA Times)

David Horowitz, whose provocative ad against reparations for slavery generated a firestorm on college campuses during the spring of 2001, assures
the readers of "Uncivil Wars," his self-serving account of that controversy, that the book's "subject is not me, nor is it the advertisement that provoked such a reaction." He claims that the subject of his book is an idea: the "dubious idea of reparations" and, in a larger sense, "the intellectual vulgarities of American universities in an age of 'political correctness.'" This is a misleading characterization of "Uncivil Wars," which is, in fact, all about Horowitz and his in-your-face brand of confrontation.

Horowitz is a master in the art of overstatement. He describes professor Charles Ogletree as exhibiting "hostility to America generally and to white Americans in particular." Now I may lack some objectivity with regard to this accusation because Ogletree is my colleague at Harvard Law School, but in all the years I have known him, both as a student and as colleague, I have never heard him express anti-American or anti-white sentiments. Nor does Horowitz quote or cite a single word uttered by Ogletree, beyond his support for reparations, that would justify such a defamatory characterization.

Precisely because "Uncivil Wars" is a book about Horowitz and his style of inciting divisive and emotional reactions, its implications are somewhat limited. He does succeed in demonstrating that many students have thin skins, many faculty members limited vision and many administrators little courage when provoked by insensitive speech--and that such speech must be fully protected. He is naive to expect polite responses to his provocations. Provocateurs should not expect--as he apparently does--civil libertarians to rush to defend the substance of their views. Provocateurs shouldn't whine--as he does--when they succeed in provoking irrational responses.

Now, I'm not David Horowitz's biggest fan and I think Alan Dershowitz is loathsome, but surely I'm not the only one who thinks that Mr. Dershowitz just accidentally described one of his own books, am I?

These guys remind me of the old joke, you're stranded on a desert island with David Horowitz and Alan Dershowitz and you have a gun but only one bullet. who do you shoot? Answer : yourself.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 11, 2002 10:53 PM