Ed Batista just spoke from the podium and while trying to demonstrate his connection to an activist of color in the audience he described as a “radical leftist,” Ed made a point of saying that he “has no consistent global philosophy.”
Now of course I am not going to criticize Ed for being whatever he wants. But I couldn’t help but feel how much power Ed had at the podium and how much power he had speaking his values (or lackthereof) from there.
This made me a little uncomfortable. Does this have larger implications? I really don’t think N-TEN should be value-neutral – then it would just be a professional association. This conference grew up from the circuit rider movement, which is/was explicitly progressive. What has happenned to those values?