On Nov 3, 2009, at 2:46 PM, Chuck Grimes wrote:
> Doug thinks I enjoy pissing on Michaels. I did at first. But I've
> changed my mind.
Glad to hear it. Maybe it's the result of having a kid who looks for the good side of everything, but my outlook on life has changed in the last few years. My initial instinct used to be, "What's wrong with this?" I'm not like that anymore (except for Stanley Aronowitz) - or at least I try not to be. In the Michaels thread I was really struck by how many people wanted to zero in on how he's wrong - mining his book for odious quotes, for example - rather than listening to what was interesting, or productive in his argument. The wild vehemence of the reaction reminded me of something that Scott McLemee once said about getting shrunk. You zero in on the stuff that makes you feel most uncomfortable.
Doug