The Library Association of Ireland (LAI) recently issued a statement that is either a masterpiece of irony and disingenuousness or which shows the LAI’s complete inability to understand human rights, free speech, liberal democracy and the notion of equality before the law. The LAI statement was in response to The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions’ (IFLA) announcement that Dubai will host the 2024 IFLA World Library and Information Congress.
The United Arab Emirates, as most people know, is not a bastion of liberal democracy or free speech, so outlining the UAE’s lack of human rights is uncontroversial. Criticising an Islamic country for human rights violations is pushing an open door – it’s the equivalent of showing your support for the proverbial mom and apple pie.
The problem goes deeper, though, than a group of poorly educated, clueless ideologues, bedazzled by feel good rhetoric, issuing a statement that will not impact their lives, especially their pockets, in any way. The important issue is the anti-democratic philosophy embedded in the statement which should trouble anyone concerned about the erosion of what, until recently, were commonly accepted standards of human rights in liberal democratic Ireland.
Three quotations from the document are relevant in this regard.
‘The LAI believes that this decision is not in keeping with the spirit of openness, inclusivity and diversity that should be central to any gathering of librarians and in particular the World Library and Information Congress’.
‘The Association worries that restrictions to freedom of expression in [Dubai] will lead to a limited conference programme devoid of content that may be deemed objectionable. When we willingly surrender the ability to discuss all topics of interest to our profession, we abandon any pretence of being committed to intellectual freedom.’
‘The LAI is especially concerned about the impact IFLA’s decision for our LGBTQI+ colleagues and all our librarians who hold the values of equality, diversity, inclusion and human rights dear.’
To anyone reading this statement without the requisite ability to read propaganda, it’s anodyne to the point of meaningless. What’s important about the statement, though, is what Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (or equality) mean in reality and how these ideas impact the commonly accepted understanding of individual rights. To paraphrase the character Inigo Montoya in the film The Princess Bride: ‘You keep using those words, I do not think they mean what you think they do.’ Or a probably more truthful way of rephrasing the sentence would be: ‘the reader does not understand what she thinks she does’. This is because of the deliberate use of the fallacy of equivocation (words having different interpretations depending on the audience or the situation), which underpins the philosophy of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Nothing in the philosophy is as it seems.
What Diversity, Equity and Inclusion means in reality is an attempt to curtail freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of conscience, all propagandised by ‘Be Kind’ feel good language. Essentially, just like the Hate Speech legislation currently passing through the Oireachtas, DEI punishes people for their deeply held beliefs. In fact, the Hate Speech bill is based on the philosophy of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which means that ‘misgendering’ a non-binary or trans person or having a religious belief that is not inclusive of LGBTQI+ rights will be deemed criminal offences by the state; and it doesn’t matter whether those beliefs are based on an overwhelming, multi-disciplined scientific consensus – that biology is real, and you cannot change your sex – or whether they are based on religious, political or philosophical values – they will be sanctioned under the rubric of DEI. That the LAI don’t understand this or that they agree with this situation is a terrible indictment of the standard of education in Ireland, and of the intellectual calibre of the leadership of the library service in Ireland. They are either fools, hoodwinked by rhetoric or they are political operatives pretending to be apolitical – either way, it’s not a good look.
As an aside, it would be interesting, just as a thought experiment, to imagine if any members of the LAI have holidayed in Dubai or flown Emirates or visited a host of countries with less than stellar human rights records – ‘I loved that selfie of you in Havana’. Talk, as they say, is cheap. (A confession. I’ve flown Emirates and also Qatar Airways. Qatar has a worse reputation for human rights than the UAE, but I don’t virtue signal my paper-thin morality).
The irony of the Library Association of Ireland criticising the United Arab Emirates’ attitude to free speech while supporting the curtailment of free speech at home is beyond satire.
If you have one takeaway from this article, it’s this: our institutions are captured by an ideology, and the institutions supposedly invested in defending free speech are the ones who are most determinedly trying to undermine free speech.
Originally from Saggart, County Dublin, DECLAN MANSFIELD is a writer who lives in Perth, Western Australia
