16 September 2001
Catharsis
I am annoyed, perplexed, tired, and amazed tonight. And a few other things. All of this DESPITE just seeing Mary Cutrufello play a show that was so damn good it took my mind off all the recent BS for a few hours.
I'm annoyed with quick and dirty authoritative "explanations" of complex subjects that are full of errors and mistakes BECAUSE of subjectively directed (not to mention altogether hasty) research, often caused by inadequate -- if any -- training in the research field.
I'm tired of the related BAD questions in those subject areas, which tend to lead to BAD (because irrelevant) answers.
I'm amazed at the extent to which seemingly bright people are unable to step outside of their own narrow biases to study any matter somewhat objectively, on the SUBJECT MATTER'S terms.
I'm perplexed at the notion of studying 2-3 "sides" of any subject before arriving at some (largely predetermined) conclusion, without any examination or admission of prior assumptions/biases (maybe I should deem that approach the Journalistic Epistemology -- to give a name to something that Andrew has occasionally noted in his fine blog).
I'm disappointed (or maybe amused?) at just how intellectually lazy people will be in an apparent drive to be "authoritative." Or properly Objectivist. Or whatever "ive" or "ism" or "ian" is fashionably (but not TOO fashionably) contrarian.
I'm wondering if some people recognize this tendency in themselves -- this compromise with integrity in order to gain... what, I'm not sure -- and both what motivates it and how they live with it (and if they might explain that last to me, since I could then just bang out a half-ass dissertation, and know how to live with myself afterwards).
Five years ago, I would have gone on a crusade and taken on most, if not all, of it. Today, I'm more mindful of conserving my precious time and intellectual resources. Engaging in flame wars serves little purpose, and I've largely come to the conclusion that very few people are actually interested in LEARNING instead of spouting authoritatively. I focus on the former. The latter are too busily self-absorbed.
[Posted @ 01:47 AM CST]
