>No, Oxford University didn't ban clapping. Or anything else.
>If you read your own quote, the student union (not the University
authorities) voted to "encourage the use of silent clapping". At student
union events only, not at University meetings, lectures etc.
>That's it. They didn't ban non-silent clapping (which they couldn't have
done anyway).
>I agree it is a little nutso, but let's not blame a
somehow-authoritarian "University" for something some bored
wanna-be-radical students set up for the first week of the year (when
lots of the starry-eyed brand new students go to their first and only SU
meeting and vote for almost anything to show solidarity with their new
colleagues).
Maybe these kids need to be reminded that being convinced to blindly follow a leader to solve a non-existent problem, and inventing "enemies" in the process, and eventually victimizing innocent people is a long-established practice of Communism, Socialism, National Socialism, and other Totalitarian and Authoritarian regimes.
Clapping is not a problem. (Find any reference between, say, 1900 and 2010 that says clapping is a problem.)
Those who clap are not enemies.
And eventually punishing people who clap will follow.
Jim Bell