[H&F] "How every detail counts in large amounts"
(Crossposted.)
http://historyandfutility.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/how-every-detail-counts-in-large-amounts/
I owe my co-blogger Jussi Jalonen thanks for the superb job placing last month's massacres in Norway in the context of an increasingly unhinged and conspiracy-minded ideology, Internet-based but spreading, whose protagonists claim that Muslim are taking over Europe (at least) through their superfecundity as enabled by traitorous multiculturalists. I couldn't write the essay; I'm even now trying to avoid despair over the issue.
Everything I've written here about information it's predicated on the beliefs that preserving information matter and that preserving as much detail as possible matters. Yes, that's in part an emotional reaction of mine to my own personal circumstances, but it's something that works very well for me from the perspective of scholarship. Detail does matter; everything counts.
My 2004 post on the non-existence of Eurabia was a product of my idle curiosity and my desire to seek some distraction from graduate school. Later, as I became more aware of what Eurabia was starting to do, I became more concerned, more strident. Breivik's massacre was the sort of thing that I'd expected to eventually happen; I felt guilty, frustrated, despairing that this had happened. If the mass of details describing reality don't register, what's the point of any of it?
Jussi's approach is best. Friend of the blog Jim Belshaw helped with this comment he posted at A Bit More Detail in response to my Eurabia-themed question wondering how you reach people who believe in unfounded things. Selected elements are below.
2. You can’t change people’s minds by direct attack on their views. You have to come at it indirectly.
3. Don’t deal in universals. Eurabia and Muslims have become universals, labels to which other things are attached. Each time you use them as universals, you carry other people’s labels with them. At a purely personal level I try to avoid the use of the world Muslim unless I am speaking about a faith with all its varieties.
4. Recognise diversity. Within Europe each country, and sometimes parts of countries, are different. Australia is different again.
5. Attack intolerance, but do not attack the validity of views on which that intolerance may draw. Precisely, recognise them and address them independently as different issues. Avoid culture wars. Don’t confuse issues.
Thanks, Jim, for the reminder. The details will reappear, here and elsewhere. It'd be an honour if you'd join us all here at History and Futility for the ride.
http://historyandfutility.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/how-every-detail-counts-in-large-amounts/
I owe my co-blogger Jussi Jalonen thanks for the superb job placing last month's massacres in Norway in the context of an increasingly unhinged and conspiracy-minded ideology, Internet-based but spreading, whose protagonists claim that Muslim are taking over Europe (at least) through their superfecundity as enabled by traitorous multiculturalists. I couldn't write the essay; I'm even now trying to avoid despair over the issue.
Everything I've written here about information it's predicated on the beliefs that preserving information matter and that preserving as much detail as possible matters. Yes, that's in part an emotional reaction of mine to my own personal circumstances, but it's something that works very well for me from the perspective of scholarship. Detail does matter; everything counts.
My 2004 post on the non-existence of Eurabia was a product of my idle curiosity and my desire to seek some distraction from graduate school. Later, as I became more aware of what Eurabia was starting to do, I became more concerned, more strident. Breivik's massacre was the sort of thing that I'd expected to eventually happen; I felt guilty, frustrated, despairing that this had happened. If the mass of details describing reality don't register, what's the point of any of it?
Jussi's approach is best. Friend of the blog Jim Belshaw helped with this comment he posted at A Bit More Detail in response to my Eurabia-themed question wondering how you reach people who believe in unfounded things. Selected elements are below.
2. You can’t change people’s minds by direct attack on their views. You have to come at it indirectly.
3. Don’t deal in universals. Eurabia and Muslims have become universals, labels to which other things are attached. Each time you use them as universals, you carry other people’s labels with them. At a purely personal level I try to avoid the use of the world Muslim unless I am speaking about a faith with all its varieties.
4. Recognise diversity. Within Europe each country, and sometimes parts of countries, are different. Australia is different again.
5. Attack intolerance, but do not attack the validity of views on which that intolerance may draw. Precisely, recognise them and address them independently as different issues. Avoid culture wars. Don’t confuse issues.
Thanks, Jim, for the reminder. The details will reappear, here and elsewhere. It'd be an honour if you'd join us all here at History and Futility for the ride.