Calvin College, a Christian institution of higher learning in Michigan, has announced that a scheduled show on campus by indie rock band New Pornographers has been cancelled for no other reason than the band’s name.
Calvin College’s press release, located here, is surprisingly ballsy, saying:
Regrettably, Calvin College has decided to rescind its invitation to the band . . . After weeks of discussion and consideration, the irony of the band’s name was impossible to explain to many [my italics]. The band’s name, to some, is mistakenly associated with pornography. Consequently, Calvin, to some, was mistakenly associated with pornography . . . We regret the message we have sent to the band and their fans with this cancellation, and any confusion this has caused generally. We have been in contact with the band to explain this regret and the breakdown in our own processes that led us to first invite them and then withdraw that invitation.
I love that the school is essentially admitting that a significant subset of its constituency has turned out to be too stupid to grasp the concept of irony, and that Calvin has called out that constituency for refusing to change its mistaken opinions despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. As a result, the school has found it necessary to apologize to the band and its fans for the influence of those deliberately mistaken many in its decision-making.
Note that there’s no apology at all from Calvin College for inviting the band in the first place to those who still mistakenly associate the band with pornography, and that the school continually points out in the release that those who keep doing so are, in fact, wrong.
There’s a broader — and quite ironic — lesson in here somewhere . . .
A Tale Told by an Idiot 