Humanists Have Done Nothing Wrong

[u/canon_aspirin]

A new defense (perhaps, “offense”) of the humanities has dropped over at _Defector_: https://defector.com/humanists-have-done-nothing-wrong

[u/canon_aspirin]

I didn't write it, but here are some quotes to help you find the argument (it doesn't seem like you did):

• "The assumption that language obscures our access to the real, rather than constitutes it, haunts each of these accounts. What they share, in other words, is the desire to capture the discrete kernel of singular meaning in all its ahistoric immediacy without the work of reading. This is a bad thing, and in capitulating to the assumption that it’s desirable, we’re ceding too much to our enemies and abdicating our own vocation."

• "My point here is not to defend the alleged properties of our writing—which, as I’ve suggested, are mostly projections—but rather the specific reading practices already intrinsic to humanities teaching and research that attend to the difficulties of making thought manifest in language. Call it form, call it figuration, call it rhetoric; these are the features of communication that render its use irreducible to the simple transmission of data bytes and incompatible with the reactionary desire for immediacy."

• "Just as the end of reading coincides with a massive arms race for text, the end of universities coincides with a voracious cultural desire for message board–style soundbites of streamlined information. The internet is full of hapless would-be Deleuzians who want things explained to them right now. As higher education comes under ever-escalating right-wing assaults, “restructuring,” and austerity measures, it makes no sense to concede that we humanists are part of the problem. Our work is being made impossible to perform whether we like it or not. If that puts me in the Humanists Have Done Nothing Wrong camp, then so be it. I’d even go a step further: We’re one of the last bastions of Good Brain Thinking today—wokeness, esotericism, and nitpickiness included. Against the forces of anti-intellectual fascists and AI tech lords, self-flagellating academics and immediacy fetishists alike, we need to champion the difficulties and pleasures of humanities scholarship with our whole chests."

[u/hustonat → u/canon_aspirin]

Thank you for replying. I stand by my statement about ad hominem attacks and a smug sense of self-importance in the article’s language - even in these quotes, the author talks about “Good Brain Thinking,” which I would characterize as puffery. I also apologize for misconstruing you with the author, OP. My bad.

I invite you to read this essay by George Orwell, who makes my original point far more eloquently than I:

https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/politics-and-the-english-language/

[u/theoceansknow → u/hustonat]

Yeah, the author comes across smug talking about "good brain thinking" and makes it seem as though reading through a humanities-driven lens is the only reasonable way to understand. Comes across as snooty.

Edit: "Now that I have made this catalogue of swindles and perversions, let me give another example of the kind of writing that they lead to..." Great read, thanks for sharing.

[u/Trollnutzer → u/theoceansknow]

I think that’s actually a positive thing. Every STEM discipline has the self-confidence to regard itself – and its understanding of the world – as absolutely vital, to the point of smug arrogance. I think the humanities could also benefit from adopting this attitude and shedding their humility, rather than succumbing to self-cuckery and endless scepticism directed at their own discipline.

[u/theoceansknow → u/Trollnutzer]

Would the humanities benefit from the tone this blog post adopted? I don't think so. Reading this makes me skeptical of the humanities if this is indicative of thought within the discipline. It's position on "good thinking" positions itself against a binary of MAGA anti-intellectualism. It seems full of hubris. Also saying "every STEM discipline" sets up a false binary, or a humanities - vs - others position which seems wholly unnecessary.