Discussion: Our ethical responsibility

[Johanna Laakso]

Dear Cornelius, dear colleagues,

> Just stop quoting bullshit authors, stop inviting them with all the nice
> Socrates-Erasmus-Plato-Aristoteles money and give your comment whenever
> asked. But let not spoil your ambition and your love for the issue --

this is more or less exactly what I meant. We cannot, should not and need
not waste our time and energy "converting" ultra-nationalist freaks or
getting involved in the internal political strifes of a certain country. But
as long as (practically) nobody in Western countries is able to follow what
"Western" authors are publishing in Hungarian, as long as their foreign
academic titles can be (mis)used to support pseudo-scientific enterprises in
Hungary, those few who see through this should speak up -- because otherwise
nobody will ask for their comments.

Let me put it this way: If you were a university rector, or a faculty dean
or department head, and "your" lecturer of physics would publish a book
"proving" a visit of an extraterrestrial civilization and appear as a guest
of honour at a UFO conference in some exotic country, wouldn't you consider
it your duty to interfere?

Best
JL
-- 
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Johanna Laakso
Institut für Europäische und Vergleichende Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft
Abteilung für Finno-Ugristik
Universitätscampus AAKH, Spitalgasse 2-4 Hof 7, A-1090 Wien
Tel. +43 1 4277 43019, (VoIP) +43 599664 43019 | Fax +43 1 4277 9430
johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at | http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/



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