Author: Ophelia Benson

• Saul Bellow

  Had no wish to be part of the ‘Hart, Schaffner and Marx’ of American letters.

  April 6, 2005

• An Appreciation of Saul Bellow

  He closed the gap between Thomas Mann and Damon Runyon.

  April 6, 2005

• New York Times Bellow Feature Page

  Links to reviews, interviews, articles, excerpts, from 1943 to today.

  April 6, 2005

• Saul Bellow

  The Guardian obit.

  April 6, 2005

• Saul Bellow

  The Chicago Sun-Times obit.

  April 6, 2005

• Ted Honderich

  Force-fed religion in childhood, could see that nothing in religion could possibly be true.

  April 6, 2005

• Philosophy is Gaining Popularity in Schools

  Students find the subject interesting, ‘which makes a change.’

  April 6, 2005

• David Aaronovitch on Received Wisdom on the Left

  Orthodoxy as stifling as anything imposed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

  April 6, 2005

• From Party of Ideas to Party of Theocracy

  Paul Krugman on why so few scientists are Republicans these days.

  April 6, 2005

• We’ll Run Out of Straw, at This Rate

  A little wisdom from Foucault. ‘Truth and Power.’

  Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint. And it includes regular effects of power…’Truth’ is to be understood as a system of ordered procedures for the production, regulation, distribution, circulation and operation of statements. ‘Truth’ is linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces and which extend it.

  That’s a pretty glaring bit of rhetorical sleight of hand. It’s fairly obvious that he’s talking about truth-claims, not truth itself. There’s a big (and important) difference! Obviously truth-claims can be (and often are) power-moves. The same is not in the least obvious in the case of truth itself; in fact it’s not, not to put too fine a point on it, true. Obviously Foucault, not being a fool, must have been well aware of that…but, who knows, maybe he was more intent on persuasion than on scrupulous argument. In fact maybe he was simply acting out his own point – his own truth-claim. An ‘argument’ or rhetorical claim that relies on a brazen equivocation like that is certainly one form of constraint – and a particularly obnoxious one because not explicit, not obvious, not avowed, not out in the open where it can be resisted or at least noted. It takes one to know one, as the saying goes.

  Richard Wolin quotes from ‘Nietzsche, Genealogy, History’ on page 42 of his The Seduction of Unreason:

  The historical analysis of this rancorous will to knowledge reveals that all knowledge rests upon injustice; that there is no right, not even in the act of knowing, to truth or a foundation for truth; and that the instinct for knowledge is malicious (something murderous, opposed to the happiness of mankind.)

  That is, as Wolin points out, an astonishing thing to say.

  And then there’s Philip Blond. I’ve transcribed a little of the Night Waves discussion, so I’ll quote you a bit. I’ve also googled Philip Blond (and been slightly staggered to find my own mention of him here as the fourth item – now I suppose this mention will be in there too, which makes me feel dizzy). I found this bizarre-looking book on ‘post-secular’ philosophy, listing the most predictable possible trendy names – you can say them in your sleep: Kierkegaard Nietzsche Heidegger Levinas Marion Wittgenstein Derrida Freud Lacan Kristeva Irigary Baudrillard, along with three wrinkly non-trendies. All those dragooned into Blond’s ridiculous project.

  I say ridiculous because the things he says on Night Waves are truly ridiculous – the strawest of straw men. Get this:

  Philip Dodd: Maybe it’s time to call science’s bluff…[to Blond] Do you think science is overly revered at present?

  Philip Blond: I think almost undoubtedly yes. I mean of course in some limited or partial sense science is true, but it by no means is the exclusive or sole model of what truth is. Indeed I would argue that something other than science has to be true if science itself is to be true. Science is wrong in our culture or has become unhinged it seems to me in two ways. First of all in contemporary culture science has converted its harmonic with truth into an absolutism, into a kind of quasi-fundamentalism. Such that it claims to be the sole exhaustive universal model of truth. Secondly, in doing so, it has drained all other accounts, all broader or richer accounts of truth of any value. The absolutization of science has resulted in the relativisation of morality, ethics, aesthetics, anything else you’d care to name.

  See what I mean? As if scientists said they were the exclusive or sole model of what truth is, or the sole exhaustive universal model of truth! Sheer silly strawmanism, that’s all that is. And yet Mr Strawman got to do most of the talking, and got to interrupt everyone all the time (I think because he was the first one asked to speak he got the idea that he was sort of in charge of the discussion, so felt entitled and perhaps even expected to control and dominate it. Or maybe he just has an inflated idea of his own importance).

  A peculiar confluence, isn’t it, a theologian and Nietzsche and Foucault. But that’s postmodernism for you. Playful.

  April 5, 2005

• The University of Minnesota is Touching

  Yesterday, I was alerted by my wife about some announcements on the state of the University of Minnesota. We are a public institution, you know, which is synonymous with “cash-strapped and struggling to make ends meet” in these days of Republican antipathy to higher education. The university is cutting some substantial programs to save money, which is bad news, but what caught my eye was a related news item in the Star Tribune: the University of Minnesota is being sued for promoting religion.

  As you might guess, my interest was pricked. It seems we are being sued by Wisconsin’s Freedom From Religion Foundation for mingling religion with our health care.

  The lawsuit was filed on Friday, March 25. It charges that the Minnesota Faith Health Consortium, an unincorporated association between Fairview Health Services, Luther Seminary and the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center, which is located on the Riverside Campus, “engages in activities to promote personal faith and/or faith communities within the context of health care.” The “mission” of the consortium is “the alleged relevance of faith as an integral part of health care services.”

  I’m no fan of religion, but I don’t know that this is worth pursuing…I can appreciate that understanding religion is a valid part of medicine, as part of the psychological and social element of care, that bedside manner stuff. I’m also not going to get into it here, because I got a bad feeling as I looked into this MN FaithHealth Consortium at my university, and discovered it was part of a Center for Spirituality and Healing. I got here by looking up some major program cuts, and here I was discovering that we had something called the Center for Spirituality and Healing? Who knew? And strangely, it wasn’t among the programs on the chopping block.

  Browse around there, and you’ll discover that they have several links to something called TTouch. This set off a few warning bells. My fellow skeptics will recall something called Therapeutic Touch, or TT, that was big news a few years back when a grade school kid, Emily Rosa, effectively debunked it and got the results published in a peer-reviewed journal. TT was a bizarre pseudoscientific practice that was getting peddled in nursing schools, in which people would touch or stroke and claim to be able to diagnose disease and even heal people. Rosa showed that they were full of crap, and after a few squalls of fury from some New Agers, I hadn’t heard of it since.

  Now it seems my university has a unit babbling about a new variant, called Tellington TTouch. Read this description: it’s stock pseudoscience.

  The foundation of the TTouch method is based on circular movements of the fingers and hands all over the body. The intent of the TTouch is to activate the function of the cells and awaken cellular intelligence—a little like “turning on the electric lights of the body.” The TTouch is done on the entire body, and each circular TTouch is complete within itself. Therefore it is not necessary to understand anatomy to be successful in speeding up the healing of injuries or ailments, or changing undesirable habits or behavior.

  Look at that gobbledygook. “Cellular intelligence”? Notice the other common signs of quackery: amazing effects, but requiring no understanding of anatomy. Why, you can be stupid and do this!

  As a matter of fact, stupidity may be a prerequisite. Despite requiring no knowledge of anatomy and demanding no prior training, the Center for Spirituality and Healing is offering a 3 day Tellington TTouch seminar…for $750. That’s quite a sum of money to learn how to wiggle one’s fingers in circular motions over people’s bodies.

  And here are the wonderful powers you will acquire with this training:

  TTouch is for you, whether to use on your family or for yourself. If you’re a Massage Therapist, Physical Therapist, Nurse or in the healing arts, you will benefit personally and you will have new ways of helping clients.

  The Tellington TTouch has been used successfully for:

  • Relieving stress
  • Releasing unfounded fears
  • Recovery from stroke
  • Pain relief in neck, back and legs
  • Pain relief from migraines
  • Depression
  • Arthritis

  Perhaps best of all is the general feeling of well-being that so many experience.

  Grandiose claims, demands for money, too-good-to-be-true ease…is there anything to distinguish this from a Nigerian e-mail scam? Yes, a little hilarity. Brace yourself: the discoverer of this amazing ability is an animal trainer. Elsewhere on the site you will discover that:

  The Tellington TTouch can help in cases of:

  Excessive Barking & Chewing

  Leash Pulling

  Jumping Up

  Aggressive Behavior

  Extreme Fear & Shyness

  Resistance to Grooming

  Excitability & Nervousness

  Car Sickness

  Problems Associated With Aging

This gentle method is currently being used by animal owners, trainers, breeders, veterinarians, zoo personnel and shelter workers in several countries.

Not only will you be able to help people recover from strokes with this skill, but you can keep your dog from getting carsick. I hope their webmaster never makes the mistake of mixing up the contents of those two pages above.

I am embarrassed. Why is my university hawking this snake-oil? Why, when money is tight, aren’t we jettisoning this bit of quackery? The University of Colorado experienced something similar in 1994, investigated their nursing school’s promotion of Therapeutic Touch, and despite concluding that TT was bunkum, decided to allow the School of Nursing to continue with it.

The report itself gives us a clue as to the justification for this decision: “TT is potentially a source of considerable income. Training in TT is not complex and arduous and the practice of TT does not require a large investment in equipment or personnel.” Indeed, Quinn’s Healing Touch training brings in a substantial amount of money for the nursing school. A set of three HT videotapes featuring Quinn sells for $675. Healing Touch classes cost $225 each for the first three levels and $325 each for the next two levels.

But training is not the only cash cow associated with TT. Recently, over half a million dollars of public tax money has been spent on Therapeutic Touch research. The National Institutes of Health has given $150,000 in grants, the Department of Health and Human Services has granted $200,000, and most recently the Department of Defense granted $355,000 to the University of Alabama at Birmingham — all for studies of TT. The study at UAB, to be conducted on burn patients, was billed as being the study that would finally settle the question as to the effectiveness of TT.

I suspect something similar is going on here. The Center for Spirituality and Healing brags about bringing in the grant money.

The Center is committed to exploring integrative therapies in the context of rigorous science. Recently achieving the distinction of becoming a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-designated Developmental Center for CAM Research – one of only three in the nation – Center faculty are currently engaged in basic science, clinical trials and health services research.

In a highly competitive field, faculty have been awarded an NIH center grant, individual R01 and R21 grants, and an NIH education/curriculum grant in addition to numerous foundation grants. Additionally, an NIH clinical research fellowship program funded by K-30 and T-32 grants was established in conjunction with Hennepin County Medical Center and Northwestern Health Sciences University, both in Minnesota.

I despise Northwestern Health Sciences University. It’s our regional quack mill, offering training or degrees in acupuncture, oriental medicine, and chiropractic. They’re also flush with cash, judging by all the tchotchkes and spam mail they send me. Associating with them does not make me less grumpy about this.

I’m also not happy to see that our university is milking NCCAM. NCCAM is a ghastly federal boondoggle, a way to redirect money away from legitimate scientific research and into the hands of witchdoctors and shamans and psychic investigators and other charlatans.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) was established in 1998, seven years after the creation of its predecessor, the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM). The OAM had been formed not because of any medical or scientific need, but because Iowa senator Tom Harkin and former Iowa representative Berkeley Bedell believed in implausible health claims as a result of their own experiences. Bedell thought that “Naessens Serum” had cured his prostate cancer and that cow colostrum had cured his Lyme disease. He recommended “alternative medicine” to his friend Harkin, who subsequently came to believe that bee pollen had cured his hay fever.

I think I’m more than embarrassed. I’m a bit disgusted. Why is the University of Minnesota supporting these frauds? Even if the NCCAM is an income stream, it’s dirty money, and shouldn’t we have a little self-respect and dignity?

This article was first published on Pharyngula and appears here by permission.