Category Archives: Neutrality and Complicity

The Contradictions of Institutional Neutrality

Posted on by under activism, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement

Coming Attractions in My Jihad Against Institutional Neutrality

Over the last year or so, I’ve written about two dozen posts here critiquing institutional neutrality, and given maybe a half dozen conference presentations on the subject. But in some ways, the criticisms I’ve made so far are peripheral to the fundamental problem with the doctrine. The fundamental problem is that it’s self-contradictory and self-subversive. This latter problem is so obvious, and so obviously fatal to the doctrine, that stating it threatens to trivialize the whole discussion about institutional neutrality: if the doctrine is self-contradictory, why discuss it? Good question. In any case, I might as well articulate the objection, if only to put it out there. Continue reading →

Those “Drowned Out” Zionists

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, Fatwas, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

Joshua Leifer’s “Conflictedly Connected” Liberal Zionist Center

The well-regarded left Zionist writer Joshua Leifer has a much fawned-over piece in Ha’aretz that’s been adopted in some quarters as the expression of profound wisdom. In it he argues that there’s a “conflictedly connected” Zionist quasi-left “majority” that’s been “drowned out” by the extremist voices of the “ultra-hawkish right” and the “anti-Zionist left.” If only this “conflictedly connected” majority could be liberated from the shackles placed on it by these twin extremists, the Golden Mean would prevail, and virtue would flourish on the topic of Israel and Palestine. Continue reading →

Institutional Neutrality Meets Viewpoint Diversity

Posted on by under Neutrality and Complicity

“Viewpoint diversity” is the view that institutions of higher education ought to cultivate a wide range of perspectives on campus to ensure that inquiry on campus proceeds in an open and lively way. It may sound to some like a truism, but it’s meant as more than a truism. If taken in the latter way, it is by definition and intention a controversial doctrine. Continue reading →

The Immigrant Trust Tour: Tensions in Clifton

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense, Neutrality and Complicity

Readers of this blog may remember my earlier posts on the campaign for an Immigrant Trust Act (ITA) resolution in Clifton, New Jersey (Nov 5 and Nov 18). As mentioned in the latter post, I attended the November 5 meeting, but had to miss the November 12 one due to a scheduling issue. This is a guest post by my friend Jeff Hoey of Clifton, describing the November 12 meeting. Here is a link to the (tendentious, editorializing) Clifton Times piece Jeff mentions. Continue reading →

Anarchy in Baltimore!

Posted on by under anarchism, ethics, General announcements, libertarianism, liberty and the left, Neutrality and Complicity, political philosophy

EDITED to change the order of presenters:

The Molinari Society will be holding its mostly-annual Eastern Symposium in conjunction with the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in Baltimore, 7-10 January 2026.

Our symposium comprises two back-to-back sessions on Wednesday afternoon (both in the same room, we hope!). Here’s the schedule info:

Molinari Society symposium: Topics in Radical Liberalism

Session 1:
G2D. Wednesday, 7 December, 2:00-3:50 p.m., Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, 700 Aliceanna St., Baltimore MD 21202.

chair: Roderick T. Long (Auburn University)

speakers:
Irfan Khawaja (Independent Scholar), “Academia’s Complicit Executioners: A Critique of the Kalven Committee Report”
Zachary Woodman (Western Michigan University), “Extended Cognition as Property Acquisition”

Session 2:
G3D. Wednesday, 7 December, 4:00-5:50 p.m., Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, 700 Aliceanna St., Baltimore MD 21202.

chair: Roderick T. Long (Auburn University)

speakers:
Cory Massimino (Center for a Stateless Society), “A Liberal Socialism Must Also Be Left Market Anarchist”
Jason Lee Byas (Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics) “Distributed Justice: Can We Make Sense of Justice Outside the State?”

“When the World Breaks”

Posted on by under Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement

Veterans Day at Peddie

Peddie is a well-known elite prep school in New Jersey, located in Hightstown, a small town just east of Princeton. According to Niche, it’s ranked #2 out of 126 in a listing of the Best Private High Schools in New Jersey, and #2 of 112 of the Best College Prep Private Schools in New Jersey. It also ranks first out of 139 of the Most Diverse Private High Schools in New Jersey. I’m at least vaguely familiar with the place, having been there a few times, having interviewed Peddie students applying for admissions to Princeton, and having grown up myself (for better or worse) in the elite Jersey prep school milieu. In short, within its rarefied circles, Peddie is a trend-setter. Continue reading →

The Immigrant Trust Tour: West Orange (v2)

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense, Neutrality and Complicity

Here’s the version of the statement I gave at West Orange Town Council tonight. I posted a different version here a few days ago, but found that I had to pare it down to make it fit the five minute time limit. Though the Council responded to public comments, they made no attempt to respond to mine. (Correction: I must have left too early to hear it, but Council member Joyce Rudin responded positively to my statement.)

Hi, my name is Irfan Khawaja. I’m here to speak in support of your passing a resolution in favor of the Immigrant Trust Act. I know that West Orange has previously discussed and rejected a resolution, but I don’t find your reasons convincing.  Continue reading →

The Immigrant Trust Tour: October Update

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

To the best of my knowledge, the municipal-level campaign to persuade the New Jersey state legislature to pass the Immigrant Trust Act started last December in Madison, New Jersey, an affluent college town in a relatively conservative part of the state. By March, about a dozen municipalities had followed suit. 

Things quieted down in the months after that, but with the impetus of a constant drumbeat of ICE raids, things started up again in June with the campaign for a resolution in Princeton, which eventually passed in August. Whether it’s correlation or causality or both, the movement has heated up since then and gone statewide. About twenty municipalities and two counties have at this point passed pro-ITA resolutions, and plenty of county commissions and town councils across the state are facing demands to pass more. Continue reading →