Category: Flashback

‘…all but a fraction of his own writing molders unattended in America’s used bookstores. Like the New York Intellectuals with whom he was associated…he is referenced more often than read, a sad fate for a critic who wrote so much, so well and with such wit and insight.’

What if you want to talk about an authentic self instead of an ‘authentic self’?

‘Indian history from the perspective of the Hindutva ideology reintroduces ideas that have long been discarded and are of little relevance to an understanding of the past.’

He has his view and you have yours and they have theirs. So it goes.

‘To concede that no one ever believes something solely because it’s true is not to deny that anything is objectively true.’

‘Ramadan is a cold-blooded Islamist who believes that Islam is the cure for the malaise wrought by liberal values.’

‘We no longer defer to bishops or politicians; scientists are simply facing the same fate.’ Yes but bishops are one thing and scientists are another. We can demand that scientists produce evidence, but what evidence can a bishop offer?

‘…many of the widely accepted claims promulgated by therapists are based on subjective clinical opinions and have been resoundingly disproved by empirical research conducted by psychological scientists.’

It’s important to distinguish between necessary, useful technicality, and jargon or pseudo-mathematics substituting for genuine rigor.

‘Developments take place in a world linked by ideas rather than by race.’

What a coincidence that we’re here and not on that nasty Pluto.

‘The protection built into Theory…is composed of layer on layer of ignorance.’

We need to know what’s out there so that we can change it.

No it’s not just an accident that the character who gets Tom Hanks killed in Saving Private Ryan is both an intellectual and a coward. Spielberg is making a point, a bad point, and we need to pay attention.

‘But the gender-genre books that are based largely on clinical intuition and popular psychology typically lack a basic skepticism toward received wisdom and the willingness to wrestle with an idea to see who wins.’

‘We are in danger of losing our grip on the concepts of truth, evidence, objectivity, disinterested inquiry.’

Investors need to know the truth, but voters don’t. Or not.

Biologists who had done no primary research in human sciences nevertheless issued anathemas on it.

Deniers distort history in order to promote antisemitism and white supremacy.

Militant Islam and militant Christian fundamentalism are indeed related.