straw people

Music: Cat Power: The Greatest

Yesterday was an interesting day for email. I heard from a bunch of friends across the country that I've not connected with in a long time. I heard from complete strangers. A little queer theory--if only in name--goes a long way.

The editor of IHE said he was very pleased with the reaction to the post, especially because it seemed to get "some people thinking" and "to prompt several people of very different political perspectives to do some serious thinking." Golly, I hope so; if only a fraction of the work we do does that, it's a good thing!

I do think the "two cultures" stalemate bandied about is a self-fulfilling prophecy that is imposed from the outside-in (it's just as facile a characterization as "men are from Mars, women are from Venus"). Nevertheless, my thanks to those of you who chimed in. Sure, I received more attention for accurately drawing the state of Georgia on a student-made map in seventh grade (those were my fifteen minutes), but it was kind of neat to meet new online folks and have a conversation (email seemed a less heated speakeasy for some).

Now, what is really interesting to note--especially for those of y'all know me--is the way in which the publicity/secrecy dialectic takes place on "the backs of things." A respondent "Publius" (tellingly, an anonymous poster) says:

My point [in criticizing Josh for dismissing students] was to suggest that living in the rarified air of cultural studies, Professor Gunn may need to be alert to the possibility that most students in Bush country and elsewhere are thoughtful members of the second camp ["the traditionalists"].

Elsewhere I've written that powerful drama of publicity in our times has framed the academy as the Final Occult Cabal, and apparently "cultural studies" and "deconstruction" have become the magickal argot of our Craft. One need only claim "queer" or "cultural studies" in public to enrage those who are obviously "not in the know." It's not simply a case of "guilt by association," but truly a case of ignorance. Yes, this is another battle of the ill-named "culture wars," but the battle is over language clubs, not knowledge or issues or meaning or the rest of it.

Another example: in a blog titled "Phi Beta Cons: The Right Take On Higher Ed," David French holds up essay for IHE as "Required Reading for the Skeptic". According to French, my work is an in-your-face example of "radical leftism," "general oddity." Its politics is affiliated with "incomprehensible deconstructionist writing" and the vocal exploits of Ward Churchill! My re-introduction of the liberal-humanist argument for tolerance to my students is a John Galt style "paragraphs-long screed." French asserts this is a marvelous and profound irony, apparently because I discriminate against conservative students in my classes at a "state-university" (viz., even though your tax dollars support such odd, radical left teaching).

What I said was "radical?" Um. Er. Ok.

I recognize this is largely "online" banter that has no bearing on education policy, but even so, I cannot help but worry what has happened to school boards across the country--politicians running for superintendent, and so on--is slowly happening to "higher ed": non-teachers making pronouncements about what is and is not acceptable to "teach," and this largely based on image, spin, and smell, not content (there is content, right?). Oh, Lord, protect us from Bono's canned lectures on world poverty and lesson plans from Bill O'Reilly.