harry poptimer and the tides of snobbery

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i read this us blogger cz
a. he is grebt at getting to the nub of wonk-pol debate crisply and amusingly (not unlike freakytigger)
b. his spelling is TERRIBLE (not unlike barnetape

his comments threads (on say race issues, or health policy, or iraq) are generally between 5-25 comments long. This time the sub opened the hatch WHILE STILL SUBMERGED...

Comments

[mooxyjoo.livejournal.com]

i read quickly through a couple of things in rorty's 'philosophy and social hope' last week before i left the twin cities. i wonder if one of the points he made might not be relevant here.

a. he sketched a model of education-as-socialization-and-individuation, where the socialization is rightly done for the good of all, and done up through the end of high school; the individuation is necessary for the development of a healthy electorate and society, and is done in college.
b. the individuation is mainly done by reading books and talking about them (ha).
c. professors should be able to follow their own projects of individuation so that they can demonstrate them / exemplify them / model them to the students, and as such
d. should be allowed to choose whatever books they want, where one of the uh 'suggestions' - requirements? is that
e. they choose books that are 'classic' enough to be part of common culture so that they will actually have books that they can
f. talk about with grandparents, people who went only to high school, whatever

(i am sure in misremembering i have misrepresented something or other.)

anyway, one thing that struck me about the general shape of the responses in that comment thread was how they hewed so much toward a selfish kind of individuation; how their favored examples did not paint a picture of a very internally individuated group; and how little interest there seemed to be in books that were part of common culture. at best, the common culture on display was heavily dependent on cultural gatekeeping mechanisms / fashionability / the reigning left-geek literary tastes of the past 10 years - and so i'm hesitant to call it 'common culture' even in a restricted sense of 'common'.

i'm not sure how this bears on quality or kind of conversation.

[mooxyjoo.livejournal.com]

e: choose -enough- books that are classic enough, i think it was