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Before this thread crashed into name calling and then silence, there was material worth developing.
Rakesh's point about the ignorance of European 19thC race theory is more or less accurate--when applied to the US. We don't bother with it because we are too busy practicing our own. The particular form race theory took in European history arrives here (in the US) inside other fields: anthropology, archaeology, sociology, and the classics. Also, the culmination of this particular race theory in nazis propaganda is about the only part of the history that is well known.
The primary point that Paglia misses is that the so-called leftist poststructuralists she chides, are about the only group in the US who might know the historical background of a European race theory and its uses in the development of the social sciences. She also fails to distinguish between physical and cultural archaeology and anthropology as does most of the criticism of these fields.
On the other hand Rakesh (in the above) misses the point to the WSJ publishing Paglia. Let's not forget the Right and das kulturmacht. In this parochial battle the point is to discredit, undermine, and destroy any Left or progressive contributions to a general intellectual tradition, and blunt or counter their impact on the public mind and academic life.
Last week it was Paglia (who probably should have known better), then the week before Fukuyama, and long before that Sokal, and then there was Lefkowitz and so on. This is a continual dribble of nonsense that is issued from an ever shifting cadre that often includes the latest crap from the Right think-tanks. The point is to keep controversies going that erode the political Left, the old fashioned liberal humanists of academia, and the more progressive tendencies of science and cultural philosophies.
Paglia may not realize she was made part of what amounts to a rightwing dis-information campaign with a long view. In this context, then the Right is the defender of archaeology and science against the crazy weirdos of the Left poststructuralists. It doesn't have to make sense, except that it positions the Right as the defender of traditional academic values against the onslaught of multicultural fanatics who are mysteriously bent on sullying the good name of archaeology. The more abstract agenda is to keep the Right as somehow in the center with any form of liberal or progressive view as the radical fringe.
Thus the use of Sokal, Fukuyama, Lefkowitz and Paglia is really a neat trick. If the Right can keep the neo-liberal and old liberal wings at the throats of their progressive and radical cousins, then this allows the Right to appear to be the ever more traditional and centerist alternative.
This culture war or dis-information campaign continually shifts the historical spectrum in a relativistic way so as to appear that the intellectual climate in the US is following its traditional path. To the outside observer, we are forever moving Right. To the inside observer who isn't paying attention or has no memory, we are just maintaining the status quo.
This kind of continual and low grade toxicity or cultural war is the way that almost all the progressive traditions of the US have been erased from the public memory and much of the commonly known historical record.
Chuck Grimes