not finishing painting the house and being dragged on long walks by
the pup. The sad tale of non-scientific academe continues, mostly
gleaning that ideas that just inevitably arise in reflection get
cornered and mystified by an elite needing to claim expertise. There
an SEP entry on the subject if anyone is interested (I only mention
this because it's free and one could burn several hundred quid on
books for the same information). At bottom is the question of how we
can rely on anything anyone says, writes etc. On would think this
might lead to some ideas on our lying politicians, but whatever there
is is tangential. Once one applies the critical criteria it is sadly
obvious most we report is not about truth and mutual understanding.
Last time I looked, social research was into the quadri-hermeneutic on
understanding or the verstehen problematic - what one hears from a
social informant is already her interpretation and elaborations of
that in terms of your own interpretation and theoretical
perspectives. I've played these games to earn a crust, but always
been disappointed My feeling is we live in a mad scheme of things
and that theory is largely therapy for those of us bright enough to
get it. One of the most laughable statements one gets to hear in
academe is that common sense is the ability to see the world as flat.
'Flat Earth' was very much an academic theory - one can actually see
the curvature. And if one deigns to really academic thinking, the
universe may be 'flat' and distance an illusion.
Most academics do little more than what a car mechanic does in
exploiting her skill. The area of operation is just a bit different.
We all have our ways of making sense of what goes on. I'm not
convinced I have heard-read-experienced much that addresses this
across academic disciplines - the problem, as Vam often comments - is
to box off the argument to paper. The system of 'discussion' is now
corrupt beyond measure - conferences are advertised more like holidays
and most journals are unreadable dross.
I believe the real reason for much of this is that the easiest way to
rank a human population is through quasi-abilities in maths and
language and that this is the reason for the failure of universal
education where it has been practiced over the last 80 years.
Whatever our education systems have done, they have not produced
reasonable equality or democracies at peace with themselves. I walk
my dog on a lead not because I want to deprive him of the joy of
pounding off, but because of traffic and consideration of those who do
not appreciate enthusiastic, slobbering Labradors. I fear this is the
guiding metaphor behind education, though less enlightened. The free
space where my dog runs seems unavailable for human practice other
than thought.
We seem to think we can "train" human beings in "essential" skills.
The reason given in answer to the question as to why the kids had to
wear uniform at my grandson's school the other night was it was to
teach for to 'obey rules without question'. O my Lord! Some social
epistemology in that! The teachers struggle to maintain discipline
and out of school many of these kids are little better than louts
(though by no means all of them) who litter our streets and start
'careers with the law'.
I despair at our taken for granted in all this. We need a new
society. I see no answers in academe and believe the issues we need
to confront are practical and to do with "meritocracy" and people who
believe they have worked hard for what they've got feeling
"superior". Those of us given the right 'card' through money and/or
education have a lot to answer for and most of it can be described in
simple terms. We evade this at every turn by boxing off argument into
rationalisation that suits us and 'backfiring' when evidence is put in
contradiction. The religion of this is neo-classical economics, the
uniform of the World Bank and IMF, though we don't even know any of
this, needing only 'look after number one'. This basic issue spawns
all the rest of social thinking. I want to reject it. Simple answers
follow.
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