Propaganda, Patriotism, and the War on TerrorOn college campuses across the nation, efforts are being made to silence professors who encourage students to probe the history of U.S. foreign policy in an effort to understand the September 11 attacks. Recent articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education report that students have complained to deans about professors critical of U.S. foreign policy, and boards of trustees, deans and college presidents have drafted resolutions and issued public statements condemning their opinions. Professors have been silenced, received large amounts of hate mail, and, on some campuses, death threats. In one case, an administrator publicly invited a professor “for a walk.” Historically, such attacks on free speech have increased dramatically in times of national crisis – precisely when a full range of opinions is sorely needed. They are especially troubling on higher education campuses that are supposed to be strongholds of people who champion independent thought. The nature of the arguments offered against these dissenting voices is very troubling; the same goes for their political effects. The topics are divided into two groups. First, professors are accused of showing no interest in the feelings of others: they lack taste and judgment; they are insensitive, self-indulgent, and offend others at a time when emotions are raw. By being so inattentive to the emotional sensitivities of their students, dissenting teachers violate the trust students place in them. Now is not the time for criticism, but for emotional nourishment, reassurance and national solidarity. Second, professors are accused of offering excuses for the attacks. Their examination of the role the United States may have played in creating the conditions that make terrorist acts more likely amounts to a justification of the acts themselves. There is an emotional tyranny at play here, and its effect is to impede the processes of understanding that alone can help us in our ongoing debate about how to deal with terrorism. What do I mean by tyranny? First, we are told that only feelings are appropriate now. It is too early, indeed, it is in bad taste, to begin to understand our role in the complex factors that led these people to commit atrocious acts. But understanding is crucial to wise action, and action, as we see in the news every morning, is certainly taken on our behalf. While we are asked only to hear, the administration and its allies in Congress rush to pass laws that threaten our civil liberties at home and engage in a massive war effort that could foster greater resentment abroad..