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Posted
the classes were taken at the philosphy department of Evergreen

 

Uh Jim? Fuck you.

 

Saw that one coming Jimbo.

 

I actually think pretty highly of Evergreen, but if I didn't I'd be careful never to mention that unless I'd already mapped out an escape strategy to extricate myself from whatever enclosed space I happened to be in Seattle, Olympia, Bellingham, or Portland. "[Pointing]Look - over there! Someone's being judgmental and intolerant[rapid transition to fleeing...]!

 

10 to 1 says that you could defend female genital mutilation as a practice that the proper application of multi-culturalism (not to mentionthe West's sorry neocolonial legacy, etc) renders off limits to critiques by Westerners and elicit little more than a yawn, but make a single modestly unflattering aside about Evergreen and you'll ignite a pious rage that even a third glass of organic, biodynamically cultivated, fair-trade Pinot can't squelch....

Posted

JayB, I don't see what your charming straw man has to do with anything. My response had nothing to do with cultural relativism or eco-chic posturing, it was rather more visceral. It's no secret that I'm an alum from Evergreen, and Willi Unsoeld was among my faculty. He was as much a philosophy professor as anything.

 

So I just responded to Jim with the first thing that popped into my head.

Posted
JayB, I don't see what your charming straw man has to do with anything. My response had nothing to do with cultural relativism or eco-chic posturing, it was rather more visceral. It's no secret that I'm an alum from Evergreen, and Willi Unsoeld was among my faculty. He was as much a philosophy professor as anything.

 

So I just responded to Jim with the first thing that popped into my head.

 

It was the visceral response that I was noting. I've seen it rear its head before. It's erupted in the middle of more than one dinner party - emerging in a sudden burst of bile and venom, from somewhere deep within the alumnus. The conversational equivalent the little guy in the cafeteria scene in the first "Alien" movie. Truly frightening to behold.

 

Aggies have nothing on 'Greeners.

Posted
the classes were taken at the philosphy department of Evergreen

 

Uh Jim? Fuck you.

 

Saw that one coming Jimbo.

 

I actually think pretty highly of Evergreen, but if I didn't I'd be careful never to mention that unless I'd already mapped out an escape strategy to extricate myself from whatever enclosed space I happened to be in Seattle, Olympia, Bellingham, or Portland. "[Pointing]Look - over there! Someone's being judgmental and intolerant[rapid transition to fleeing...]!

 

10 to 1 says that you could defend female genital mutilation as a practice that the proper application of multi-culturalism (not to mentionthe West's sorry neocolonial legacy, etc) renders off limits to critiques by Westerners and elicit little more than a yawn, but make a single modestly unflattering aside about Evergreen and you'll ignite a pious rage that even a third glass of organic, biodynamically cultivated, fair-trade Pinot can't squelch....

 

Sigh. My east coast roots, humor included, requires the response It-was-a-joke all too often. Jeesh.

Posted
JayB, I don't see what your charming straw man has to do with anything. My response had nothing to do with cultural relativism or eco-chic posturing, it was rather more visceral. It's no secret that I'm an alum from Evergreen, and Willi Unsoeld was among my faculty. He was as much a philosophy professor as anything.

 

So I just responded to Jim with the first thing that popped into my head.

 

wikiedia

Straw dogs were used as ceremonial objects in ancient China. Chapter 5 of the Tao Te Ching begins with the lines "Heaven and Earth are heartless / treating creatures like straw dogs". Su Ch'e comments "Heaven and Earth are not partial. They do not kill living things out of cruelty or give them birth out of kindness. We do the same when we make straw dogs to use in sacrifices. We dress them up and put them on the altar, but not because we love them. And when the ceremony is over, we throw them into the street, but not because we hate them."[1]

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