A sinister trend

[fpb]

We are all, I hope, disgusted, and perhaps grimly amused, at the vile conference convened by Iran's criminal President to "discuss" the Holocaust. Not everyone, however, seems to realize that this is only the last, and not even the worst, of a growing tendency by politicians and rich men to simply refuse the assured conclusions of scholarship and

Comments

[goreism]

I wonder if you might divulge the name of the book; I take a sordid interest in this sort of skepticism concerning the Indo-Aryan migration, whether of the sort you just mentioned, or the newer books put out by the likes of Koenraad Elst on the "Out of India" theory.

[patchworkmind]

Everything you point out in this post has concerned me for a while, with the exception of the BJP stuff. (I really did think it was a tiny little crackpot group, nothing more, but then I'm not exactly up on India goings-on.)

These men and women start from the premise that whatever comes from Western culture is ideologically imperialistic and racist and therefore certainly wrong - wrong without need to debate it or to disprove it, wrong because it is the essence of Western culture to be wrong.

I know so damn many academics and others hereabouts in my little relatively backwater area of the U.S. that fit this description exactly. It really is quite frightening.

Our work is cut out for us to curb their efforts.

[goreism]

They were actually the ruling party for nearly six years, until 2004.

[patchworkmind]

They are also prevalent in academe and arts and entertainment. They are also heavily embedded in one major U.S. political party and exploited weaknesses, desperation (and complacency) in some quarters of the other.

[goreism]

... the BJP is prevalent in the entertainment scene?

[fpb]

Well, you certainly can, but if you found this too long, I think you would find some of my longer essays quite scary. But by all means do. How did you come across my stuff anyway?

QUESTION AUTHORITY

[johncwright]

... Because the authorities have the right answers.

J.R. Dunn has some thoughts on the origins of what he called the 'Imperialist' doctrine of interpritive history, what is more informally called 'Blame America First.' I don't know if this is interesting to you, but just in case it might be, I draw it to your attention:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2006/12/seeds_intellectual_destruction.html

[bufo_viridis]

My friends will also think, I imagine, of the crazed popularity of seven-eleven denial, especially in America.

Er, didn't you mean nine-eleven? I'm not sure if there are many people denying the existence of the popular convenience stores, although they may very well believe they're controlled by Judo-Bolsheviks and Masons.

As for the rest, yes... There is a good reading about "Vedan science" promoted by Indian nationalists, in the articles concerned with the Sokal Affair.
I do agree with lots of criticism of Western many-sided imperialism and I appreciate interesting insights which were discovered when not only the findings but also the very methods of social research were questioned. But most of the movement went overboard now, the authority (be it the most innocent and most valid, well-grounded scientifical authority of purely academic character) is questioned for the sake of questioning, and for no other reason at all

[fpb]

seven-eleven - EEEEYYOWCH!! As a rule I would revise that, but this is so fantastic and idiotic a mistake that I will leave it there for anyone to laugh at. It would be rather cowardly to remove it now

[bufo_viridis]

but this is so fantastic and idiotic a mistake...

Oh, don't worry: only recently I worked on largish budget proposal, big lump of cash even by Western standards, and I kept writing "Dr Who" as a name of a translation software (which in fact is called Dr Eye :)
Luckily I caught it in time, that is a day or so before sending the proposal. Anyway I blame f-list: I haven't seen even single episode of the show.

Re:China etc.
I can quite understand the feelings of the previously colonised people etc. even if I don't agree with the contents of their publications. Truly worrying is one hand the extent those feelings are manipulated, which is waht you wrote about above; on the other hand, the extent those feelings are accepted (with their intellectual content) by large group in the West. Self-criticism is the single, qualitative difference which makes Western civilization better than the other ones (IMNSHO, of course). But I'm talking self-hatred here

[johncwright]

Were I you, I'd correct the mistake. I spent several minutes on Google trying to find out what the seven-eleven denial was about. I thought maybe the Southland Corporation was up to something sneaky.