Ed Erwin and Cancellation
Ed Erwin and Cancellation
Professor Ed Erwin was a valued member of the philosophy department at the University of Miami for many years. He was generally regarded as a person of high integrity and warm generosity. After he came to my defense, he told me of the change in his life in the department: colleagues cold-shouldered him and refused to listen to him, students stopped enrolling in his seminars or requesting his supervision, or even saying hello to him in the hallway. He took all this stoically, though it obviously hurt him. He was vilified on the internet. He was partially cancelled. This went on for years. Nothing was done about it by the chairman or other colleagues. Obviously, nobody cared. When he died, a memorial party for him was held at a local bar. I attended, along with many friends of his, all praising his personal qualities. Not one faculty member attended. Nor did any graduate students that I can recall (there was an open invitation). This is what he got for standing up for his principles.[1] It still strikes me as one of the vilest aspects of the evil of cancellation. Yet no one talks about this. It makes me sick to my stomach even to mention it. Ed should be celebrated not reviled.
[1] It should be noted that Ed and I were not really friends before the incident occurred, though we certainly became friends afterwards.
As an observer of the philosophical community from way on the outside, allow me a few observations.
Just a guess. Those pursuing philsophy seem more dogmatic than ever, more interested in certainty than ever and they work in cmmunities increasingly normative, perhaps like they are making Rabbinic decsions and not just involved in inquiry.
Like you take Descartes for instance, he passed his meditations to his readers and solicited replies and though they got testy, they were gentlemen about it.
It seems like many philosophers and those who inhabit that neighborhood take it personally, like they are Balzac writing J’accuse in the Dreyfuss affair.
This is weird and might offer context to the cancellation of your colleague and friend.
Just a guess. There must be counterexamples, but still.
Who knows: naked self-interest, indifference, cowardice, malice, stupidity–take your pick. I have been appalled at the behavior of people I considered close friends.