An open letter to the Student Federation at University of Ottowa

Sir or Madam,

I was shocked to read in The Daily Mail

that someone is claiming to control Yoga (just as the Chinese claim ownership of Tibetan Buddhism). Who in the name of Ying and Yang can claim to own a philosophy? Some Person? Some Tribe? Some cult leaders? Some interest groups? Someone looking to create a power base for further extortion of the kind that has already turned the university into a “diversity” with results disastrous to learning and liberty. If individual liberty means anything it means the right to blaspheme in public. And here, you won’t even let a certain word be used. And if you think the robust freedom I advocate is just another word for oppression, you just get rid of it or fool with it. What you hoped would lead to good outcomes might end up surprising you in a nasty way when the power to control you seek is used by someone for some hateful goal.

It is time to re-read Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

 

Cordially,