The Niall Ferguson Flap
So now historian and conservative commentator Niall Ferguson says, having just said the exact opposite, that "it is obvious that people who do not have children also care about future generations." This observation is part of his "unqualified apology" posted this week to his website. As a childless person I am indeed offended by his remarks, but, you know what, I don't need an apology, nor does the legacy of John Maynard Keynes, the object of Ferguson's musings on the relationship between being gay and not caring about long-term consequences. People say offensive and stupid things all the time. I've seen him in Harvard Square, but I don't know him in the slightest. If he wants to apologize personally to his good friend Andrew Sullivan, that's another matter.
The thing is, he is a public intellectual. So what I want to know is why he said it in the first place. Is he in the habit of saying in public the exact opposite of what is "obvious"? Was he drunk, in the manner of Mel Gibson? Or maybe this is more of a Mitt Romney, 47 percent thing. Do you remember how, at the time, Romney disavowed his comments entirely in the media and then the day after the election repeated them verbatim to fundraisers? He was merely sorry for having been caught expressing his true beliefs.
Most of us from time to time express ourselves poorly or give voice to ill- or partially-formed opinion. But in those cases very, very few of us, I think, make statements 180 degrees away from our intended thoughts. If Ferguson is one of those rare cases, I'd like to hear him explain the thought processes that led him down that mistaken path. This is important, because I bet there are a lot of people who think that what he said was not mistaken at all. Those people could be "set straight," so to speak.
The thing is, he is a public intellectual. So what I want to know is why he said it in the first place. Is he in the habit of saying in public the exact opposite of what is "obvious"? Was he drunk, in the manner of Mel Gibson? Or maybe this is more of a Mitt Romney, 47 percent thing. Do you remember how, at the time, Romney disavowed his comments entirely in the media and then the day after the election repeated them verbatim to fundraisers? He was merely sorry for having been caught expressing his true beliefs.
Most of us from time to time express ourselves poorly or give voice to ill- or partially-formed opinion. But in those cases very, very few of us, I think, make statements 180 degrees away from our intended thoughts. If Ferguson is one of those rare cases, I'd like to hear him explain the thought processes that led him down that mistaken path. This is important, because I bet there are a lot of people who think that what he said was not mistaken at all. Those people could be "set straight," so to speak.
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