Max, there are several old Eratosphere threads in which people clashed. I don't think it would be productive to have a public recap.
I agree that it was courageous to publicly withdraw poems from First Things, in response to that venue’s publication of an article widely deemed (and I personally shared that assessment of it) homophobic, some years ago.
However, there are other kinds of courageous acts, too.
For example, it can also be courageous to continue certain friendships and associations despite intense public disapproval, when one believes that doing so can achieve something more valuable than a disavowal can.
Two examples:
My Chinese-born father-in-law has often spoken about the atrocities he and his family members survived, and sometimes didn’t, in Japanese-occupied Shanghai and environs. He speaks admiringly of the courage of a defeated Chinese general who was universally reviled as a traitor and collaborator by the Shanghainese. But my father-in-law has good reason to believe that this man’s ability to maintain a relationship with the occupation leadership gave him opportunities to persuade the occupiers to change their tactics when dealing with protestors, thus saving many more Shanghainese from being tortured and killed.
It may seem frivolous to cite Harry Potter in this context, but hey—we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t believe that art is important, right? [SPOILER ALERT] In the epilogue to the series, a main character refers to another main character, by then revealed to have been a completely credible operative in the enemy camp, as “the bravest man I ever knew.”
The current situation is not quite so dramatic and high-stakes as those two examples. But to change people’s attitudes, you not only have to speak truth to those whose attitudes and policies you do not share, you have to do so in a way to which they will be receptive. Reputation and friendship—both foundations for trust—increase that receptivity.
Yes, it is unfortunate that the association of respected poets with a venue that many people find objectionable can’t help but appear to endorse and lend credibility to that venue. But I am personally willing to give people I greatly admire—and who appear to have much more to lose than to gain from continuing friendly dealings with the Venue that Shall Not Be Named—the benefit of any doubt about their motives and goals.
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