Unclear on American Campus: What the Foreign Teacher Said

[Ronald Kephart]

At 1:28 PM -0400 6/27/05, Francis M Hult wrote:
>This goes back to an issue I've brought up on the list several times 
>before--how do we go about actually getting noticed where it 
>'counts' (publically, politically, etc.) so that people at large 
>actually heed (or even believe) what we say?

As an anthropologist, I have similar concerns about issues like 
"race," "IQ," "Intelligent Design / Creationism" vs. evolution, and 
so on and on. Frankly, as I am about to turn 60, I don't see things 
getting better any time soon. We have as a culture, I think, always 
valued what I call Willful Ignorance ("ignorance is bliss"). But now, 
in the current climate, we have entered a period of Bellicosely 
Intensified Glorification of Willful IGnorance, or "BIGWIG." People 
like us who actually know a few things about stuff are portrayed as 
pinheaded ivory-tower leftist academics who don't really work for a 
living, and every knuckleheaded opinion about anything is given the 
same weight as one we might develop from years of careful research. 
For a non-linguistic example, see W's flat-out rejection of the 
scientific consensus on global warming.

I've pretty much given up on large-scale change in these areas; I 
just focus on my classes and do what I can. Oh, and play my banjo.

Ron