Hi Bee,
To answer your question, yes I did indeed considered the potential positive impact of answering this student’s questions. That said, I believed that there was a greater good to be gained from responding the way I did–and it’s not extra time for me.
You see, if I was simply trying to save time for me, I could have simply ignored the request, or told the student “No time. Sorry.” That would have saved a lot of time–after all, I’m not under any obligation to explain my refusal to the interview.
The truth is that I probably spent more time responding to the student (and posting it on my blog, thereby inviting further discussions like this one) than I would have if I simply obliged the student’s request. So it’s not out of some overblown sense of self-importance that I did what I did.
Then why? Because I felt that it was more important for the student to consider the ethics behind the relationship between activism and academia, and possibly get the professor to do the same, than to hear whatever that I might say in an interview. I think that would result in greater good for both activism and academia.
In short, it is precisely because I view myself as “a cog in a greater machine” that I chose to respond the way I did. If I thought I was so important, I would have gladly been interviewed.
Oh, and I also do not respond to all media requests. I evaluate each media requests or student interview requests individually, rather than taking every possible venue to push myself.
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