yes this!
also, i was a Lit major in the 80s and I remember wondering why so many of the trendy theories that infected the academy then (like "All books are political" or lots of jargon adding up to: "the goal of all books and all art should be Leftist social engineering") sounded suspiciously like Leninism and Maoism....
Now I realize t…
also, i was a Lit major in the 80s and I remember wondering why so many of the trendy theories that infected the academy then (like "All books are political" or lots of jargon adding up to: "the goal of all books and all art should be Leftist social engineering") sounded suspiciously like Leninism and Maoism....
Now I realize that this style of thought was migrating from Marxism to American academia (smuggled in through the humanities) where after a few decades it escaped the lab and now infects the entire culture.
It is, or was at least, called "The Long March through the Institutions" and was a consciously and purposefully developed concept.
It developed during the early 1950s in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, when marxist intellectuals realised the working class wanted nothing to do with communism, neither theortical or in practice (hardly surprising). The workers wanted fair pay, the weekends off, enough for a pension, and when they didn't work they wanted to be left alone - not Hectored on the class struggle or stuff like that.
So the plan became, roughly, to further the careers of generally like-minded academics, with an eye to teachers and budding politicians and union members especially, so as to slowly - generationally - move the "Normal" more and more to the left. This included european academics in the humanities moving to the US and making contact with US radicals in the Civil Rights-movements and media/entertaintment industry.
While that may cause despair initially, consider this, seeing as you are a Lit major: a story isn't over until the telling stops, and all the tools of the academic left are just that - tools. Anyone can learn to use them.
Tools of course also depend upon the needs and volition of the user, ie the knife i use to carve up my lunch could be used in a much more sinister fashion by someone more homicidally inclined.
I dont know if this makes me smart or stupid, but i studied Lit and read Lit because...I love Lit. My point being my interests are and were storytelling, esthetics, the beauty of a well-turned phrase, the individual talent and skill of authors etc...but other people for whatever reasons (personal social career etc) looked at these same works and felt the need to utilize them for political sloganeering and ideological campaigning (expressing their devotion to the religion known as Leftism)...
My feeling has always been: if you want to be a politician or a social worker etc, great go ahead, but pls let art and artists maintain their own independence and integrity.
Yet that naivety is what lets you keep the two apart. I choose to read it not as childish in the sense of inexperienced, but innocent - the optimism a child can have because it has not yet been taught "That's not possible".
In me, that optimism turned to berserker rage at a young age, and it simmers eternally, occasionally bursting forth no matter what I do. Which is why I always keep a pile of timbers and spare axehandles. Literally.
I think when it comes to words, many who opt for being in the spotlight of politics use words on instinct, rather than with innate skill and passion: witness Obama with and without prompter/script, and compare him to Reagan or Clinton. It's embarassing. Reagan I have no doubt you could have woke up 0230 and told him "Mr President we need you to speak to the nation in five minutes, Castro is invading Florida" and he'd have jumped to it.
The best are those who combine skill, passion and spirit and accept that language is a tool and an art, in the way a river is - you may use it, utilise it, draw power from it and even dam it - but you never own it, and you are never its master.
"The best are those who combine skill, passion and spirit and accept that language is a tool and an art, in the way a river is - you may use it, utilise it, draw power from it and even dam it - but you never own it, and you are never its master."
Aha, is that kind of stuff in the Tao Te Ching? Asian religions and belief systems never held much fascination for me, excepting the mythological side, I'm afraid. Not my cup of tea if you pardon the lame attempt at a joke.
Well, it's past bedtime where I am (2300) so I have to sign off. Time to sleep, perhcance to dream, as some poet said.
"The utmost man uses the heart like a mirror; he does not escort things as they go or welcome them as they come, he responds and does not store." Zhuangzhi
yes this!
also, i was a Lit major in the 80s and I remember wondering why so many of the trendy theories that infected the academy then (like "All books are political" or lots of jargon adding up to: "the goal of all books and all art should be Leftist social engineering") sounded suspiciously like Leninism and Maoism....
Now I realize that this style of thought was migrating from Marxism to American academia (smuggled in through the humanities) where after a few decades it escaped the lab and now infects the entire culture.
It is, or was at least, called "The Long March through the Institutions" and was a consciously and purposefully developed concept.
It developed during the early 1950s in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, when marxist intellectuals realised the working class wanted nothing to do with communism, neither theortical or in practice (hardly surprising). The workers wanted fair pay, the weekends off, enough for a pension, and when they didn't work they wanted to be left alone - not Hectored on the class struggle or stuff like that.
So the plan became, roughly, to further the careers of generally like-minded academics, with an eye to teachers and budding politicians and union members especially, so as to slowly - generationally - move the "Normal" more and more to the left. This included european academics in the humanities moving to the US and making contact with US radicals in the Civil Rights-movements and media/entertaintment industry.
While that may cause despair initially, consider this, seeing as you are a Lit major: a story isn't over until the telling stops, and all the tools of the academic left are just that - tools. Anyone can learn to use them.
Tools of course also depend upon the needs and volition of the user, ie the knife i use to carve up my lunch could be used in a much more sinister fashion by someone more homicidally inclined.
I dont know if this makes me smart or stupid, but i studied Lit and read Lit because...I love Lit. My point being my interests are and were storytelling, esthetics, the beauty of a well-turned phrase, the individual talent and skill of authors etc...but other people for whatever reasons (personal social career etc) looked at these same works and felt the need to utilize them for political sloganeering and ideological campaigning (expressing their devotion to the religion known as Leftism)...
My feeling has always been: if you want to be a politician or a social worker etc, great go ahead, but pls let art and artists maintain their own independence and integrity.
Naive, I know!
Yet that naivety is what lets you keep the two apart. I choose to read it not as childish in the sense of inexperienced, but innocent - the optimism a child can have because it has not yet been taught "That's not possible".
In me, that optimism turned to berserker rage at a young age, and it simmers eternally, occasionally bursting forth no matter what I do. Which is why I always keep a pile of timbers and spare axehandles. Literally.
I think when it comes to words, many who opt for being in the spotlight of politics use words on instinct, rather than with innate skill and passion: witness Obama with and without prompter/script, and compare him to Reagan or Clinton. It's embarassing. Reagan I have no doubt you could have woke up 0230 and told him "Mr President we need you to speak to the nation in five minutes, Castro is invading Florida" and he'd have jumped to it.
The best are those who combine skill, passion and spirit and accept that language is a tool and an art, in the way a river is - you may use it, utilise it, draw power from it and even dam it - but you never own it, and you are never its master.
"The best are those who combine skill, passion and spirit and accept that language is a tool and an art, in the way a river is - you may use it, utilise it, draw power from it and even dam it - but you never own it, and you are never its master."
EMBRACE THE TAO!
always good advice ;)
Aha, is that kind of stuff in the Tao Te Ching? Asian religions and belief systems never held much fascination for me, excepting the mythological side, I'm afraid. Not my cup of tea if you pardon the lame attempt at a joke.
Well, it's past bedtime where I am (2300) so I have to sign off. Time to sleep, perhcance to dream, as some poet said.
"The utmost man uses the heart like a mirror; he does not escort things as they go or welcome them as they come, he responds and does not store." Zhuangzhi
Gnite!
You're the best Rikard!
Thank you! I work with what I'm given, if you see what I mean.
Going to go out and hunt for cloudberies today, it's the last week of summer after all.
Exactly. You a Lit major...no way!
LOLOLOL
im going to happily take this as a quality insult ;)
im sorry i forgot what we were doing, am i supposed to be insulting u?
sorry im just awake in LA and is already 90 out!
Hey you had mentioned several months ago that you had experience dealing with hurricanes in your past...;]
Wanted to get your thought process on evacuation. We're down near Sarasota. Forecasting shows a direct hit. Who knows though?
Anyway it's our first serious one.
Funny I'm asking this cuz I always chuckle at folks who get alarmed by earthquakes and tornadoes. But, I have lived in those areas for many years.
ok im gonna have some coffee and think up some insults...be prepared
it's amazing how the quality of the commentary picks up when the author judiciously interacts...from top to bottom.