I have been cleaning out my books and files. They are excellent, if I do say so myself, and I need to spend much more time with them. Looking at them makes me realize how much more I need to read, but also how much I know. And now that I have almost extirpated Reeducation … More Boiling Down
As we know, authoritarianism is a Bane. Masked authoritarianism is a particularly insidious type of Bane. I have made progress in the construction of my diaphanous screen, but the reason I have become so allergic to academia is that many people in it are primarily interested in destroying the self-respect of others and being supercilious … More On Self-Respect
I I have been ranting and raving against Reeducation in a comments thread for two days now. I have had a couple of small illuminations. I have said virtually everything I have to say. I am tired of the topic. After this recapitulation, I am dropping it, although I do not promise never to mention … More In a Nutshell
Life is so fresh and bright, so present and immediate, when one stands on one’s own authority and lays one’s artificial burdens down. It is easy, like a summer brook. Soon I will again be as I had become before I entered Reeducation. I will be free and innocent like the flowers. This blog is … More Mantra
I expected the first day of graduate school to be like any other school day, since I was beginning the Ph.D. program in the same department from which I had just graduated. But as I entered the building to go teach my class – this having been my first act in graduate school – I … More Diaphanous Screen
I have three students who have been caught with nickel bags and are now court ordered to attend Twelve Step meetings. Two have been adversely affected by it and are now failing my class. I am angry about this for their sakes and for my own reasons. I was assigned to attend Al-Anon when, at … More Nickel Bag
When I first took a job in Louisiana, several white liberals in Berkeley, California, accused me of racism. “You must be truly racist if you can go there. It would be too racist for me.” These people, of course, had never been here. I had never seen them hanging with any nonwhite people in California, … More On Racism in Louisiana
I was tagged for a meme in which one reveals eight random things about oneself, with the additional suggestion that since I am not in my usual location, I may be learning new things about myself. I said that I had already completed a similar meme; that this blog already reveals more about its author … More On Sleeping at Home
Read the post from which this is excerpted, and the comments thread. It is very much like religion, really – it’s all up to her. All she has to do is be obedient, do things right, and she will SHINE. She just has to follow the rules, endure the “struggles,” and remain loyal and faithful, … More On Coercion
I The other reason I so disliked Reeducation, and found it so destructive, was its assumption that one was not an adult, and its expectation that one become an adult for the first time, in a very limited way, under the aegis of Reeducation, and its very negative judgment of actual independence, individuation, freedom. II … More Independence, Individuation
