litcritter bashing and the academic factory

Steve Perry sperry at usinternet.com
Wed Oct 27 05:07:59 PDT 1999


kelley did protest:


>while i agree with
>ange's characterization which, at least in my
>experience, is the standard
>stuff of training in the social sciences, the academy >can't really be
>characterized as a factory in which its workers
>mindlessly conform, as
>absent contradictions, fissures, ruptures, than we can >or would want to
>characterize any other factory and its workers.

Right. One size does not fit all. But that hardly diminishes the point. As some principled soul on the list--i forget who--said a while back in reproach to one of my periodic efforts at shooing the pomo lemmings toward the sea, "hey, lighten up, they've got to talk this nonsense to get jobs." and it's true, isn't it? witness those academics who came out of the woodwork to whisper their thanks to sokal and bricmont for *fashionable nonsense*-- they sounded like '50s reds (or pre-stonewall gays) who'd been too frightened to venture out of the closet.



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