tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524070301101240472.post8317782764236930182..comments2023-09-28T08:13:11.489-07:00Comments on Only In It For The Gold: On Being Ahead of One's TimeMichael Tobishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08229460438349093944noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524070301101240472.post-61924459126387274492015-06-16T10:26:23.635-07:002015-06-16T10:26:23.635-07:00Oh don't worry. I'm an old school usenet t...Oh don't worry. I'm an old school usenet type. No need to walk on eggshells around me. I took no offense at all - found it interesting.<br /><br /><br />Michael Tobishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08229460438349093944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524070301101240472.post-89216324159912802712015-06-16T02:16:42.420-07:002015-06-16T02:16:42.420-07:00That comment was meant to be of the "great mi...That comment was meant to be of the "great minds think alike" type, not snarky. Apols if it came across as snarky. I've been out of the internets loop for a long while, seem to have forgotten how to control comment tone.Dan Olnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15937315043120214078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524070301101240472.post-51731966571616951942015-06-10T07:29:34.861-07:002015-06-10T07:29:34.861-07:00Seconding what William says - Sokal was all over t...Seconding what William says - Sokal was all over this stuff a long while back. Beyond the hoax covers it but <a href="http://www.physics.nyu.edu/sokal/afterword_v1a/afterword_v1a_singlefile.html" rel="nofollow">this is a shorter take</a>. There's a lovely quote at the top: "the displacement of the idea that facts and evidence matter by the idea that everything boils down to subjective interests and perspectives is -- second only to American political campaigns -- the most prominent and pernicious manifestation of anti-intellectualism in our time."<br /><br />This is part of a more general critique of postmodernism (and the way its relatively has been co-opted) as a deeply conservative twist away from social reality. Without being able to identify genuine social problems, how are we meant to address them? As Sokal says: "I confess that I'm an unabashed Old Leftist who never quite understood how deconstruction was supposed to help the working class."danhttp://www.coveredinbees.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524070301101240472.post-16003369672805386492015-06-09T12:19:34.114-07:002015-06-09T12:19:34.114-07:00jg, big words wielded by respected academics used ...jg, big words wielded by respected academics used to justify ignorance can get you a lot further than ignorance alone. Witness the various panels of "experts" that the Republicans wheel out to hearings on climate to counter the impact of the people who actually know what they are talking about.<br /><br />That the academy was sufficiently split that this sort of posturing took hold in the 80s and 90s was bad, but seeing it repurposed in defense of illegitimate power as opposed to in opposition to it seemed to surprise many (like LaTour). My claim is that I saw it coming.<br /><br />Judith Curry, to mention an especially salient case, is not explicitly a deconstructionist, and she probably hasn't got any more patience than I for reading the likes of Derrida (which is to say, not enough to read a whole chapter, never mind a book). But her know-nothingism echoes their pseudo-intellectual nihilism in some detail. <br /><br />You may well ask, if nothing is known, why one should have universities at all. State governors in the US <a href="http://wanderingreveries.blogspot.com/2011/04/impeachment-of-gov-ferguson.html" rel="nofollow">have asked themselves this in the past</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sumaia-masoom/scott-walkers-war-on-the-_b_7109164.html" rel="nofollow">are asking it again</a>. <br /><br />I have to say that if the purpose of the university is to cast doubt on the principles of the Enlightenment, I have no answer for them...<br /><br />Anyway, I'm meandering. To answer your question, I'd say that orofessors promoting ignorance have a certain cachet that the general public doing so lack.<br /><br />Michael Tobishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08229460438349093944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524070301101240472.post-65362343031065485702015-06-09T12:06:38.620-07:002015-06-09T12:06:38.620-07:00I hate to ask, but can you help me understand rela...I hate to ask, but can you help me understand relativism. How is relativism different from any force of ignorance? E.g., how is it different from the reinforcement of faith-based reasoning people get in their churches? How is it a tool, that like a gun, can fall into the wrong hands? <br />Thanks, <br />jgjghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00588440067862480858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524070301101240472.post-57619190738474290502015-06-09T09:57:49.016-07:002015-06-09T09:57:49.016-07:00I was saying something like that back in '91. ...I was saying something like that back in '91. *shrug*afemannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524070301101240472.post-20690562069433138002015-06-08T23:19:27.152-07:002015-06-08T23:19:27.152-07:00See-also "Beyond the Hoax", by Alan Soka...See-also "Beyond the Hoax", by Alan Sokal.William M. Connolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05836299130680534926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524070301101240472.post-17826854402112360142015-06-08T19:59:13.234-07:002015-06-08T19:59:13.234-07:00Well, I don't drink beer and I'm not a rac...Well, I don't drink beer and I'm not a racist. Or so I claim, though <a href="http://www.timwise.org/" rel="nofollow">Tim Wise</a> would, no doubt, disagree. But your other characteristics? Guilty as charged.<br /><br />And yet... here I sit agreeing. Go figure.King of the Roadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06841601144107400103noreply@blogger.com