One of the great pleasures of life near a university campus is falling into conversation by chance with a random intellect in another field. This almost never happens here. This afternoon, to enjoy the spring sunshine at the end of a difficult week in which, nevertheless, much of value has been accomplished, I went to … More L’hasard objectif
I Our featured post for this evening is Undine’s, on academic and actual housework: Does Any of This Count?. It is our featured post because I have almost finished cleaning out and reorganizing all of the work related files I have in the house. I have also finished my Federal income tax return, Form 1040 … More On Housework
From Oxford University Press, on Jonathan Wolff, Why Read Marx Today? (OUP, 2003): Jonathan Wolff argues that if we detach Marx the critic of current society from Marx the prophet of some never-to-be-realized worker’s paradise, he remains the most impressive critic we have of liberal, capitalist, bourgeois society. The author shows how Marx’s main ideas … More Karl Marx V
It is the weekend, so we must sing. Here are Junior Wells, Mike Bloomfield, and Dr. John on Stop Breaking Down. I have seen Junior Wells and Dr. John in person, but never this young. Junior Wells says, “I don’t think you really love me, I think you just like the way my music sounds.” … More From the Top
Julian, who identifies himself as a white, gay, Jewish man, posted a comment at The Primary Contradiction which could stand as a post of its own, so I am making it one. It is about selves, identities, categories, and power, and it is worth reading and thinking about. I have bolded the sentences and phrases … More On the Self-Determined Life
“This article criticizes the writings of a person of color. In particular, it identifies and criticizes several forms of racism in the writer’s work. As a Euro-American, cannot condone any criticism of any aspect of any work by any person of color, for any reason. It is not for me to say so if that … More Return of the Nice White Lady
The pervasiveness of agonism, that is, ritualized adversativeness, in contemporary western academic discourse is the source of both obfuscation of knowledge and personal suffering in academia. Framing academic discourse as a metaphorical battle leads to a variety of negative consequences, many of which have ethical as well as personal dimensions. Among these consequences is a … More Acad-agonists
The Primary Contradiction and various commentators are suffering from self-doubt. It is always worth remembering that self-doubt, at least of the variety being described, is a result of oppression. In my para-Christian education self-doubt and humility were virtues, and they may be instructive indeed for the arrogant and the entitled. In other situations they are … More Labyrinth of a Faun
From the new Feminist Reprise, now freed from both Blogger and WordPress, a key quotation of Joanna Russ: As Christine Delphy [the French feminist sociologist] says, first comes the fact of exploitation; then come various kinds of oppression to keep the exploited weak, miserable (and busy), and hence exploitable. Then (both logically and chronologically) comes … More Joanna Russ, Christine Delphy
What I dislike about the academic advice which has been forced upon me over the years is that it was advice to lead the life this man describes. I have also been instructed to say no a lot – no to the more creative, interesting, or challenging research, teaching, and service assignments and projects because … More Alguien se levanta…
coldhearted scientist وداد 