[lbo-talk] How to Deconstruct Almost Anything

ravi ravi at platosbeard.org
Thu Dec 21 20:59:32 PST 2006


At around 22/12/06 12:34 am, Doug Henwood wrote:
> On Dec 21, 2006, at 1:55 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote:
>
>> That thread lasted a few days. The pomo-all-is-text-deconstruction
>> bashing thread has been going on for over ten years.
>
> Actually, I'd thought it had, if not died, gone into a deep sleep. I
> thought the Sokal affair was its last gasp. How wrong I was!
>

You should have known so really, since the Sokal prank proved the very point that observers (philosophers, sociologists, historians) of science make i.e., that the methods of "science" (really scientists) are not unique or distinct from that of humans (speaking a bit casually).


> It's really interesting how so many people can't just shrug, maybe
> giggle lightly, and move on; instead, they get all huffy & puffy
> about something they want to dismiss as trivial or ludicrous. Why is
> that?

Because damnit, its the most threatening attack on all things Good since Plato... I mean, a few obscure intellectuals speculating on some esoteric interpretations or readings of almost equally obscure material threatens the future, life, livelihood and dignity of peasants, labourers, women, minorities, Iraqis, Palestinians, and most importantly tenured fellow ivory tower dwellers. Hence Sokal and Co's effort to publicize their leftist credentials, because you see, they are not fighting for Turf but for Truth and the Truth will feed the peasants, liberate the oppressed, and so on. Not the sort of pedestrian truth that is the opposite of the falsehood of supply-side theories, or White man's burden policies and so on -- for it is not in these journals that one finds the crusaders playing pranks -- but Truth itself, free of humans and their affairs. Once this Truth is set free, as is the wont of the professorial class, the trivial implementation details are left as an exercise to the reader. Or perhaps the graduate students.

--ravi

(I hope I have triggered the frantic Googling for Sokal and South America -- but then again the fanboys ;-) probably have those details memorised).



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