> On Fri, 5 Feb 1999 10:37:01 -0500 Carl Remick <cremick at rlmnet.com>
> writes:
> >Judith Butler has been named winner of the fourth annual Bad Writing
> >Contest, sponsored by the journal Philosophy and Literature. ( NB, Web
> >link below.)
>
> Philosophy and Literature is published by the National Association of
> "Scholars," a right-wing group that sees itself as an anti-MLA. Their
> mission is to purge campuses of feminism, Marxism, post-structuralism,
> multiculturalism, and just about any other "ism" that threatens to
> overtake the overpriced universities where junior and sis matriculate.
Omigod! I had NO idea! A couple of years back I innocently sumbled onto their email list, Phil-lit, and didn't even know it was associated with a journal at first.
There were a few other lefties on the list as well, but it was mostly a bunch of dull-as-dishwater types who made it easy to skip over posts, unless one was in the mood to have some at-pomposity chuckles. I became a MAJOR irritant, challenging someone's approving citation of Camille Paglia, followed shortly by Rush Limbaugh. That's right, folks, Dutton's crowd is the kind that cares so much about TRUTH that they will mightily defend the Big Fat Idiot himself with nary a hint of irony--post-modern, pre-modern, post-cambrian, you name it without a hint of ANY of it.
They also had this habit of objecting anytime I pointed out anything "political" -- nothing they ever said was "political," natch. It was very like shooting fish in a barrel--not very sporting, but loads of fun. All-in-all, a mightily humorous place to be.
The list moderator at one point was brought to the brink of mental breakdown by my incorrigible habit of saying what *I* thought, instead of what *HE* thought I should think. I was eventually purged from the list, but not till 4 or 5 others were purged before me. They TRIED to keep up an "openminded," "freedom of thought" pretense, but eventually it just became TOO bothersome from them and they just lost it, pure and simple.
Now that I know of its association with NAS, everything makes SO much more sense. Heck, I probably even attacked NAS by name onlist--guess THAT was the landmine that blew everything sky high. <G>
The idea of these guys as defenders of TRUTH and REASON is akin to thinking of Homer Simpson in similar terms. But only when he's thoroughly blotto on Duff.
-- Paul Rosenberg Reason and Democracy rad at gte.net
"Let's put the information BACK into the information age!"