"The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency' in which we live is not the exception but the rule...There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism. And just as such a document is not free of barbarism, barbarism taints also the manner in which it was transmitted from one owner to another. A historical materialist therefore dissociates himself from it as far as possible. He regards it as his task to brush history against the grain."
Walter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History."

Useless Sociology & other disciplines

Mike Harris's reprehensible attack on the social sciences and humanities this week (see Adrian's separate message) calls for (as far as I know) only three responses from those who take intellectual culture seriously. The first is to redefine ourselves so that we can be seen to be economically profitable (a bit like German assimmilated Jews trying to be more German than the Germans); the second is to pretend that nothing has happened, and hope that Harris will, sooner or later, go away; the third is to see ourselves, together, as being under attack from a government which is philistine, anti-intellectual, and hitch ourselves to major international campaigns such as PEN, Index on Censorship, Amnesty International. The first and second responses are clearly fruitless and bear with them a resignation to a disaster which is seen to be inevitable. Only the third offers any hope for success. All social scientists and all humanitarians must see the great traditions of international thought as now being challenged. However twinged we might have been by post-modern or ideological guilt, we must now know that the barbarians are at the gates and that the great cries of power in the drama of knowledge are now "All power to machines!" "Let the Cybermen Rule!"

It is we who are under attack. Let us act accordingly, but together. The classicist, the philosopher, the encyclopedist, the deconstructionist, the theologian, the computer graphic designer, the political theorist, the ideological cartographer, and, God bless him! the sociologist, are now together in the same trenches. Especially at York. We are all that is wrong with Ontario. We must defend our infamy, by leading the way in a struggle for ideas beyond economic or political trendiness. As Bakhtin showed us in his interpretation of Rabelais, our own sense of ultimate victory is an essential element in our laughter against their foolishness. So, let us keep laughing together. Ha...ha...ha...harris............