[lbo-talk] The Necrosocial

Eric Beck ersatzdog at gmail.com
Thu Nov 19 11:07:53 PST 2009


On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 10:47 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:


> Oh please. Universities compared to what? Auto plants? McDonald's? The right
> hates universities because they provide some degree of freedom of thought
> and a certain hospitality towards renegades. Yeah, I know how awful they can
> be sometimes. But still a lot of good comes out of them. This sort of
> rhetoric is just overheated and self-indulgent whining.

I just don't get this. Why the comparison? College kids are supposed to be grateful because they don't work in factories or fast-food restaurants? And because the right hates universities, the rest of us should defend them as a model to uphold? What exactly, besides the fevered rhetoric, are you arguing for or against here? I see chastising here but not argument. And I much prefer this kind of "overheated rhetoric," which at least has the benefit of being poetic to the dreary position papers and proceduralism of whiny activists and the ISO.



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