Lab/Privacy vs. Science

[postingwhore]

It sort of sucks that today is the fourth day in a row when my gel for RFLP analysis has been unusable. Third day in a row in which it has melted, as well, and it's aggravating. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, James doesn't know what I'm doing wrong, and we are nearly out of agarose

Comments

[postingwhore]

I actually made the same remark in class, but someone talked about the damage it would do to said person's reputation and the embarrassment it would bring to his/her descendants. But then there's the whole problem of social construction and the primacy of truth, I think. And if the person really didn't want those things to come to light, they would have been destroyed.

What exactly is your focus as a historian? I'm very interested in certain areas of history myself, but history was never one of my great loves.

[postingwhore]

I was fairly sure you were of the Renaissance variety, but I didn't want to be presumptous :P

I completely agree with you. I think history needs to be preserved so the future can see and try to understand the past. I was actually going to play devil's advocate and defend the other side, but then I realized that what I was going to use as an example was totally different from the issue at hand. :P

Unfortunately, most people are selfish and feel entitled to destroy documents to protect themselves. Including the authors themselves. It's a shame, but it's happened too often through history.

[tinted_glass]

Well, I doubt a biography can ever be complete, as there is no way to fully narrate the extent of someone's life story or have full access to it. There is also the question of whether a(n auto)biographer is telling a life story "accurately" or even near accurately, because so much of a person's narration depends on how the person interprets past events within a contemporary/present social framework. *shrugs*

As for omitting information to save face, :P in everyday narration we are all guilty of this. But I agree with you; in the world of academia there is too much heroification being written, and for what? Woo, teach our children that glorified cookie-cutter content! The publishers are lying through their omissions. :/

[postingwhore]

A biography can't be complete, you're right, but crucial aspects of a person's life (his/her relations) should not be left out because they may be "embarrassing". I agree with the social construction bit. We experience so many problems with that now, especially in glbt history. :|

Yeah, I don't like the mentality that when someone's dead, he/she is untouchable. No bad things should be said about him/her. That just encourages false history.

[descants]

No line. I believe in full disclosure.
Also, and this is only tangentially related, you know what I hate? The gender-neutral Bible. That is the most ridiculous thing ever.

[postingwhore]

I believe in full disclosure as well. I can't say outside context can't be considered - I wouldn't give any sort of disclosure if my parents were still alive after my death, but I do think there should be full disclosure. And the context shouldn't be something ridiculous, either, especially if it's something rooted in social construction and the inability of modern people to think without their modern bias. >:E (I am such a social constructionist, ha.)

There is a gender-neutral Bible? I did not know that.

[descants]

Yeah, I agree you should consider context. Mainly because if you don't, people will apply current moral norms to the historical text, and that sucks and then I'll have to hate them a little in my soul.

And, yes. It changes all the 'he's to 'they's and is ridiculous and historically inaccurate and it makes me angry. And if I am criticizing gender-neutral language, you know it's really stupid.

[postingwhore]

Why would anyone want to do that?