Rendering (the fat)
TRENT SPECIFIC
Rendering (the fat)
This university (or at the very least, the Political Studies dept.) is quickly, eagerly and utterly being usurped by the most narcissistic of all present-day ideologies: post-modernism and identity politics. Almost the entire department is espousing a new brand of feel-good-politick which allows students to get in touch with their “inner academic”, whilst exonerating said student from having to deal with pesky issues such as data-gathering, fact, statistics, and history. We discouraged from putting too much stock into history because it is always written by the winners, and (apparently) therefore useless; Statistics are culturally biased, and manipulate otherwise pure mathematics. Therefore, due to the apparent malleability of numbers, we must shy away even from empirical data. We are taught to run from fact in order that we may embrace “truth”
Never, in my wildest imaginations could I have predicted that while attending an institution of higher learning, I would encounter a style of teaching and discussion so infantile that I might have recognized back in some 10th grade “culture” class. How easy it must be to never have to ask a difficult question of oneself - to recognize one’s own bias in such earnest as to not be able to get past it! I can only wish that one day, my ideology and cultural baggage becomes colossally important as to trump my ability to absorb facts so that I might understand “truth” ….what truth to me is, of course. What truth to you might mean is a whole other story.
The long-winded philosophy of Foucault and Merleau-Ponty has provided politics students and professors with a wealth of self-indulgent and self-serving solipsism which inadvertently mirrors the aspects of culture and politics that they claim to despise. They don’t need to look to the future because it’s all about today, and hence, they have no need to look to history -- culture and society is all subjective and we’re now free to examine HOW we examine. We have de-evolved our studies from the “what” to the “how”.
This creates a dangerous precedent because people are getting sicker, poorer, and hungrier…even in our own backyard. Is it really the most ethical way to spend our energies (and government funds) examining our “inner academic” when we could be making an effort to connect to the world which we so eagerly leech off of and try and figure out a way to stop these atrocities from getting worse? Rather than figure out how person A thinks a certain way, why not try and help persons B through Q to get some food in their bellies, and their children to school? Our society is crumbling faster than we want to admit, and the post-modernists are fighting not the crumbling, but the confession of it.
I beg, please expose and reject this Oprah-esque philosophy for what it is: narcissism, greed, elitism, self-serving, hedonism and trouble-free. True, the post-modernist answers may be difficult, but the questions are no more intricate than a Dr. Phil tirade. Some of us don’t have the luxury of taking protracted, comforting, introspective looks at ourselves: we’re too busy trying to pay off our school debts by work at alienating jobs.
Rendering (the fat)
This university (or at the very least, the Political Studies dept.) is quickly, eagerly and utterly being usurped by the most narcissistic of all present-day ideologies: post-modernism and identity politics. Almost the entire department is espousing a new brand of feel-good-politick which allows students to get in touch with their “inner academic”, whilst exonerating said student from having to deal with pesky issues such as data-gathering, fact, statistics, and history. We discouraged from putting too much stock into history because it is always written by the winners, and (apparently) therefore useless; Statistics are culturally biased, and manipulate otherwise pure mathematics. Therefore, due to the apparent malleability of numbers, we must shy away even from empirical data. We are taught to run from fact in order that we may embrace “truth”
Never, in my wildest imaginations could I have predicted that while attending an institution of higher learning, I would encounter a style of teaching and discussion so infantile that I might have recognized back in some 10th grade “culture” class. How easy it must be to never have to ask a difficult question of oneself - to recognize one’s own bias in such earnest as to not be able to get past it! I can only wish that one day, my ideology and cultural baggage becomes colossally important as to trump my ability to absorb facts so that I might understand “truth” ….what truth to me is, of course. What truth to you might mean is a whole other story.
The long-winded philosophy of Foucault and Merleau-Ponty has provided politics students and professors with a wealth of self-indulgent and self-serving solipsism which inadvertently mirrors the aspects of culture and politics that they claim to despise. They don’t need to look to the future because it’s all about today, and hence, they have no need to look to history -- culture and society is all subjective and we’re now free to examine HOW we examine. We have de-evolved our studies from the “what” to the “how”.
This creates a dangerous precedent because people are getting sicker, poorer, and hungrier…even in our own backyard. Is it really the most ethical way to spend our energies (and government funds) examining our “inner academic” when we could be making an effort to connect to the world which we so eagerly leech off of and try and figure out a way to stop these atrocities from getting worse? Rather than figure out how person A thinks a certain way, why not try and help persons B through Q to get some food in their bellies, and their children to school? Our society is crumbling faster than we want to admit, and the post-modernists are fighting not the crumbling, but the confession of it.
I beg, please expose and reject this Oprah-esque philosophy for what it is: narcissism, greed, elitism, self-serving, hedonism and trouble-free. True, the post-modernist answers may be difficult, but the questions are no more intricate than a Dr. Phil tirade. Some of us don’t have the luxury of taking protracted, comforting, introspective looks at ourselves: we’re too busy trying to pay off our school debts by work at alienating jobs.