Think before you speak or speak...
Published: Mon, 06/15/15
Sir Tim Hunt is a nobel prize winning scientist who has recently resigned as honorary professor of Life Sciences at University College London. His resignation was pretty much forced on him when he made statements at a conference in South Korea about his experiences as a Scientist working in laboratories. He said three things which were considered so unacceptable that resignation was his only option. His statements were, in case you missed the story, that he had sometimes found working with female colleagues in the lab difficult because: Sometimes he fell in love with them. Sometimes female colleagues fell in love with him. Occasionally female colleagues cried when criticised. Was there an issue of integrity in that Professor Hunt might have been lying about these situations actually occurring? No one suggested that was the case. Was there a danger that a particular person might have their reputation damaged by the professor’s
statements? No one was specifically identified by name or implication. So no question of dishonesty or defamation so what was the crime? Being politically incorrect basically, and for this a Nobel prize winning scientist has to resign from a prestigious post at an internationally renowned university.
Does anyone else find this highly disturbing? Don’t we want scientists to make clear and accurate observations of their experiences and then record and report what they discover honestly? Isn’t that pretty much the job description of a scientist? I guess you could argue that some things do not need to be said at all. However if Professor Hunt was asked a question along the lines of ‘what did you find most challenging in your career as a research scientist?’ and this was his honest answer then what do you expect? Personally I expect Nobel prize winning scientists to give straight answers to straight questions and this should be an example to all of us. Except when, according to current standards of gender equality his comments were ‘offensive’? Well, what about the tobacco industry? Perhaps suggesting health risks from smoking is offensive to smokers and shareholders in tobacco companies? If so then scientists should keep their
research to themselves. Then rather than having smoking bans, health warnings and high taxes tobacco smoking would still be promoted as a perfectly healthy pass time as indeed it used to be when I was a child. How many other things are being kept quiet because it just isn’t worth the hassle of speaking out? Not if scientists value their careers and pensions.
I won’t be surprised if some one unsubscribes from this list because they are offended by my defending a person they see as a sexist old buffoon like Tim Hunt. Well that is okay. I don’t go out of my way to be offensive for the sake of it but I do believe in freedom of speech. However, there isn’t really much point in legal protection for freedom of speech if political correctness means that we have to think before we speak rather than saying what we genuinely think. Lying and defamation are obviously wrong but even the truth is always going to offend someone.
So what does this have to do with Stav? Stav is a training method for seeing reality. That is a big claim and a big challenge. It is never easy seeing the world as it really is and knowing ourselves as we really are. We have all kinds of filters in place which limit our ability to see. We never learn how to turn off all of them and some filters we are better off leaving in place. But a good start is to challenge the filters we voluntarily put in place through political correctness. Professor Hunt’s resignation should tell us a lot about the world we currently live in and the chains we willingly put on our thinking. Want to be genuinely free? Well begin with your own mind. Start by challenging in your own mind the things you are not ‘supposed’ to think about.
Ivar can generally be relied upon to be politically incorrect because he believes in speaking his mind. This is one of the many reasons I am proud to call him my teacher. Here is an example of his thinking, I don’t think it is offensive, or if it is, ask yourself why you find it so. http://www.stavheimbu.org/teachings100829.html
Ivar will be teaching at the Stavcamp in Somerset in July, you will learn stuff you will not discover anywhere else. However, if you can’t make it in person but would still like to support the event and receive a DVD of the talks and training sessions you can do so. Either way, details and booking at http://www.stavcamp.org
regards
Graham
PS Venetia has been preparing and freezing the main meals and baking cakes ready for the camp. We are in for a treat as far as the catering is concerned as well as the teaching and training.