A couple of months ago a recent graduate of Columbia Universityan East
Asian by birth and Marxist by affinitywondered why I was bothering writing
comments to academic blogs like Crooked Timber and Cliopatria. I explained
that I began reading Crooked Timber because it was touted as an important
liberal group blog and I felt obligated to give it about the same thirty
seconds I give each day to slate.com and salon.com. I didnt want to miss
anything important in the world of parliamentary cretinism.
For about a year I would check in on Crooked Timber and say absolutely
nothing. Mostly there was no reason to say anything since the typical blog
entry is something John Holbos Jenny and the Ess-Dog that begins:
"I had a nice night. Before that, I chased two kids around for six hours
(ages 2 and 5). That was ok. Then I went to pick up Indian take-out.
Waiting, I
relaxed. A beer. Watch the Australian tourists talk to each
other."
Holbo is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the National University of
Singapore. I am glad that I dropped out of the New School philosophy
program 39 years ago if this what the discipline leads to.
In February 2005, I finally found something worth posting about. Along with
the rightwing blogosphere and the decent left (Marc Cooper et al),
Crooked Timber opened up an attack on Ward Churchill. Since I was familiar
with his work and got to know him personally (not an easy task), I jumped
in to defend him. As you might imagine, this led to a series of heated
exchanges. Ward should have learned to get along in the academy like John
Holbo and saved himself the trouble of clashing with Republican governors
and Fox-TV.
full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2006/08/19/rotten-timber/
