Stalinism Revisited

[Mark Graber]

I accept Marc Stern's explanation of his use of "Stalinist" as well
within the bounds of reason (though I confess to being unpersuaded by
Eugene's defense of Professor Duncan).  Still, the incident in
questions suggests to me why "Stalinist" is not a very helpful lapel.
 We would probably reject both a policy which had children minutely
scrutinizing their schools for constitutional errors and one which
prevented children from reporting any constitutional violation, no
matter how eggregious.  I rather suspect that some members on this
list think that school teachers are already being scrutinized too
closely and need more breathing room.  Others think school teachers
are getting away with too much.  Most probably think too much
scrutiny in some areas, too little in others.  Arguments as to why we
should move in one direction or the other are useful, but while there
may be totalitarian positions at the extremes, claiming any effort to
move in a particular direction is totalitarian does not strike me as
at all helpful to the argument.

Mark A. Graber
mgraber at bss2.umd.edu