Response to Zaruba-gateAlexander S. Peak 8 March 2010 With the recent firing of Allen Zaruba, many around the Towson University campus have been wondering what the libertarian position is. After all, the libertarian is not only antiracist but also anticensorship and anti-P.C. While it heartens me to see the vast majority of campus opposing censorship, it is important to realise that this is not technically a free-speech issue— Firing a person is not censorship; censorship is the threat to initiate force against a person in order to discourage someone from saying, dressing, or acting as she otherwise would. If you own a restaurant, for example, and one of your waitresses is saying the word “nigger” around your guests, you will naturally want to fire her. This is not censorship because you are not initiating or even threatening to initiate force—you are merely refusing to keep her in your employ. Nobody has a positive right to a job (i.e., a “right” to initiate force in order to gain or retain employment), and freedom of association demands that employers be free to fire employees for whatever rational or irrational reasons they like—even if we do not like the reason—as long as the firing does not violate contractual obligations. What one may not do is threaten to physically harm the waitress. Now, one may point out that governments do not possess rights, and thus Towson University (a state institution) does not have a right to free association. Well, true; but firing someone is still not technically “censorship.” Had the school threatened to use force against Zaruba or his students, it would be violating his or their right to free speech. But the school has instead simply said that it will stop giving Zaruba money. While the libertarian opposes the emergence of thought police, she also advocates a separation of education and state. Towson University receives a third of “its” money from the state, which in turn receives virtually all of “its” money through violent expropriation (lotteries being one of the few nonviolent means by which states gain revenue). Thus, perhaps the libertarian should be pleased to have one less state employee. If there is one positive aspect to this situation, it is that. Alex Peak served as President of the College Libertarians of Towson, 2004–2006; Membership Chair, 2006–2007; and Vice President, 2007–2008. This article was published in The Towerlight (8 March 2010), p. 5. |
we must consider free association.