PERMIT ME TO RANT, PART ONE: AMAIRICUN EDGYKAYSHUN AND THE STYLE ...
Ok, I confess. It's Saturday morning and I'm in the slow-burn mode of livid and frustrated. I even debated whether or not to indulge in a rant this morning, or to blog about something timely and transhumanist, but I figured everyone would understand if I allowed myself some unbridled ranting time.
My rant concerns the ever plummeting standards of Amairicun edgykayshun and the nitwit doctors of edubabble in the teachers' colleges and their compliant lap-poodles in the federal government, and the more-or-less stupid people coming out of teachers' colleges with "certificates" to teach this or that "subject" in an Amairicun skool. And this will be a two-part rant, so bear with me. Those of you who want the usual fare offered here can tune back in on Monday.
And a caveat: for those of you in the edgykayshun system who are good teachers and professors, who struggle on a daily basis to actually teach to the real and quickly-vanishing academic standards that used to exist in this country, I doff my hat, for yours - as you know all too well - is a daily act of defiance, of subversion, of a tightrope walk of balancing the mandated nonsense of government with the real pedagogy of handing down for future generations the vast inheritance of human knowledge and western culture. All of you know who you are, and each of you, I know, bears your scars from a system designed to do nothing less than lobotomize the future of the great stinking sinking garbage barge that modern American culture has become (my thanks to a friend's friend for that observation about American culture).
What provoked this slow-burn-livid-and-frustrated mood were two events that spelled out the laziness and shoddy standards of America as nothing else could. One was occasioned by an encounter with the Modern Language Association's "style manual" for "referencing and citing" materials. This encounter occurred in a book I was reading for research for a book I am currently writing. The other occasion was, two days later, an exchange with an individual on Facebook who had run into the same "system" in a composition class. He informed me his professor forced him and her other students to use the MLA's citation "system."
I will pull no punches: this "system" of referencing is for the intellectually lazy, vapid person. It is the system required in almost all education and certification programs, and hence, American teachers themselves, unless exposed to the older standard, think they're properly referencing sources, when all they're really doing is pointing a finger in "the general direction." This is modern American "scholarship", and it has invaded every aspect of academic publication now, from the hard sciences to the liberal arts.
To put it in language an MLA advocate or recent graduate of an Amaircun teechur's collage can undurstand: it's crap.
Hold on Farrell, what the heck are you talking about? This past week I was reading a book on UFOs by a lady with an American PhD. I will withhold the title of the book, and the lady's name. I ran across this "reference" in "accepted" MLA style:
"As to flying, the atmosphere has no more than nuisance value to unconventional craft, which unlike aircraft, use the atmosphere neither for support or locomotion. Unconventional craft don't fly. They are vectored (accelerated in a direction) along trajectories (paths in space). (Hill 1995)"
Turning to the bibliography in the back of the book, one discovers that the reference is to former NASA scientist Paul R. Hill, and his book, Unconventional Flying Objects: A Scientific Analysis, published by Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc. of Charlotesville, Virginia, in 1995.
That's the reference. That's all there is to it. A four hundred and twenty-nine page book is cited, with absolutely no indicator given to the reader from what page the quotation comes from, and in what context it occurs. This is what the Modern Language Association, and so many colleges of education in the United States, and hence, American teachers, say and think is adequate academic citation. And in addition, you'll note that the "citation" is given as a parenthetical "reference" in the main text itself.
Now, if you're a footnote-manic(Freud 1907, Jung 1956) with obsessive-compulsive reference mania (Rogers, Wilkins, Lambert and Wackadoodle 1961), like me(Freud 1914, Jung 1919, Frost and Gook, 1970), you might end up (Farrel, 2006) with a text that might(Farrell 2008) look like this (Ferrell 1947) or this (Farrel 1908) but that would really be closer to another famous study (Feral 1413). (Failures to comply to the MLA should result in those people so refusing being put in a re-education center [Wyoming vs. Farell, Ferrell, Farrell, Ferell, Feral, Farel, et al 2001].) All this would be cited with not a single page reference in the whole motley MLA parade! (By the way, the Rogers, Wilkins, Lambert and Wackadoodle 1961 study was a 3,301 page tome commissioned by the Rockefailure Brothers' Sinking Fund for Edubabble.)
There. Wasn't that a lovely main text? Wouldn't it be so nice to read page after page of this MLA clarity and detailed accuracy (and by the way, if you want to read page after page of parenthetical commentary [within other parenthetical commentary{with references}] you can always read any edgykayshunal profeshunal journal [where they do it all the time{See Teechurs Are The Fuchure 2014}].)
This is "the standard" now in Amaircun edgykayshun.
No, seriously.
It is!
It's the prevailing "standard" in the "sciences," be they soft, or hard. And how convenient, too. Without page references, it takes longer to track citations down. So much time (in the case of Paul R. Hill's 430 page book), that most simply won't bother to do it. What a golden opportunity to make up quotations, to fudge a number here or there... to create references that don't really exist. To manufacture data and studies at the highest academic levels. Sound familiar?
Simply put, the MLA's "system" is unum magnus fumantemque testa tauri cacas.
Adding insult to injury, two days after I read the above "referenced" book by an Amaricun PhD I received a message on Facebook from a frustrated American student who informed me his composition teacher insisted on this method for citations, and she informed him that it was the standard. She's right, it's the bureaucratically-enforced standard, but it is not the standard for citations. It's the standard for an intellectually lazy, academically fraudulent, and pathetically incompetent and vapid educational culture. It's exactly the sort of "standard" one would want to enforce on students in order to send them the subtle message, "you're stupid, you're not capable of anything more." It's exactly the sort of "standard" a lazy and stupid person would enforce on a smart one. It's exactly the sort of "standard" one would expect to be shoved into a failing system in order to dumb it down even more. It's exactly the sort of "standard" one would expect to be imposed on a vapid and incompetent system to prepare students to regurgitate pre-selected answers on standardized computerized tests. It's the standard for Amairicuh.
Yes, the system you see in my books is the system I learned in a public high school in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, from Mrs. Joan Connors in her English Composition classes, in my junior year. It is the system that used to, and still does, prevail in many universities in one form or another. It stuck with me from high school, though I once had an irate English teacher write me to tell me I had misused one of the old-style standard abbreviations. It was a picky, fussy matter. A nuance. Hardly worth bothering over. But she was right. And bless her for it, and bless her for bothering about it, because she knew that the old system still existed, and how to use it, and how important the littlest details are. One hopes that teacher was and is defying the system like so many others, and teaching that old" and "archaic" system to her students, for it is the product of a long academic tradition that worked and still works, no matter what the subject matter is. And none of the modern American substitutes for that system encapsulate that detail. In short, academically, the AP and MLA style manuals are shoddy and academically substandard.
Period.
End of discussion.
So before all you products of and believers in the irrational edubabblers' MLA and AP style manual fads write me and tell me what a dinosaur I am, and how I need to accept change and get with the program: save your breath, and your ink. I am, and intend to remain, in this respect, a dinosaur.
And herewith a plea to Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand(and for that matter, the rest of the world): please don't allow your universities and schools to tie their tow-lines to this stinking sinking American academic garbage barge. Use the system that works, in all its archaic, detailed, fussy traditional glory. It works, and that's why scholars in all disciplines have been using some form of it for...oh, say a couple of centuries now.
...By the way, there's more bad news coming from the Amairicun edubabblers, but that has to wait until tomorrow.
See you on the flip side.
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I’ve lurked and enjoyed here for quite some time but simply had to become a member to post a comment on this wonderful rant.
True, all true! However, as one who has written several books on aspects of French history, the current MLA standards for citations are FAR above the nonexistant ones of the vast majority of French history published in the last century and a half.
The academic thinking goes something like this, “Footnotes?! You expect me to cite MY sources with footnotes? Do you think I am going to give YOU my secrets so easily? Non, non, monsieur/madame! You will have to find my sources yourself! Ha Ha! Et bonne chance!”
There is also the collective cover of that classic collectivist CYA concept of solidarité at work, in which academics collectively resist proper citiations because of all the drudgery actually having to perpare them would entail.
So, like almost everything else that goes wrong in the two countries, the French do not cite at all out of spite (but are perfectly capable of doing it if they wanted to), whereas the Americans do it poorly from ignorance.
I’ve thought that exact same thing about MLA citations: who would ever check them without knowing the page number and how quick and easy that makes falsifying things.
Having been educated in New Zealand, the first time I encountered plough spelt ‘plow’ was in the AP Stylebook in an American college journalism class. I had to look it up in a dictionary to be sure it meant what I thought it meant. It seemed to me that the AP “style” book is a collection of common spelling mistakes and grammar errors that have been codified as “the norm”.
“Education is dangerous. It is enough if they can count up to one hundred.
At best an education which produces useful coolies for us is admissible. Every educated person is a future enemy.”
Martin Bormann, quoted in “The Trial of the Germans: An Account of the Twenty-Two Defendants Before the International Military Tribunal” – Page 101 by Eugene Davidson – History – 1997.
RANT-RANT-RANT, yep there’s nothing like a good ol’ “dummy spit” to get the blood flowing.
Ah yes, edgemakachon, well I think it was the good Dr. Farrell who once said ” we only know what we can read or dig up”, and I think he also said that “we just haven’t dug down deep enough”.
I mean what we do without “spell check” for instance, who knows what is in for our kids in the future.
It took me 50 years to “wake up”, 50 years, and I did it by reading books by authors who shunned the main stream academia play book.
I just hope that fellas like Michael Cremo, Richard Hoagland, Jim Marrs, Bruce Rux and Dr. Farrell will someday be recognized for the road to the truth books which while now shunned, will be taught in the halls of the true education.
Dr. Farrell,
I was thrilled to read your blog this morning. I’ve been stewing over this matter for a few months now and it was very cathartic to find out how strongly you feel on not only the issue of citation, but academia in general. I’m a 35 year old Canadian who has moved to Chicago to study acoustics and audio engineering and though my school is a technical college we are required to take several english and humanities courses. I was excited by the idea to write research papers again now that I am a little older (I finished University almost 15 years ago) so as to implement the kind of academic integrity that I have since come to admire in your work and the work of other doctorate scholars. It was quite a shock to me that I was stonewalled not only with regard to having as much specificity in my citation as I did using Chicago style, (which is conspicuously absent in its namesake city) but also in the content of what I was allowed to research. I was denied approval for writing about acoustic levitation, (a subject for which there is a great deal of on-going research) and coupled harmonic oscillators (a fascinating subject that I became aware of through your works). Both of these topics fit nicely into the scope of acoustic science, yet seemed too obscure and not relevant enough for my faculty to sign off on.
I’m sadly coming to realize that the nature of the education system as a whole has slowly morphed from a frontier of exploration into a mechanism of intellectual censorship.
For me, the silver lining is that through the caliber and integrity I find in your work I know that these subjects are perhaps better suited to be explored outside the confines of “higher education” and I look forward to a time when I can pursue research in similar interests to your own and be as thorough as the importance of the subject matter should warrant. Thank you for your blog today.
Sincerely,
Robert
Thank YOU for your comments Robert. And you’re entirely correct: such style manuals are a means of censorship and not the open communication of ideas. They are designed to stop the flow of information and thought. And sadly, you’re correct about the modern Amairicun university/higher edgykayshunal system, it’s a system designed to STIFLE curiosity and independent creative, critical thinking.
Joseph,
I appreciate your rant.
However, the MLA style manual requires that in-text citations include the author name AND page number, NOT the year of publication. It seems you were misinformed concerning your example of an “accepted” MLA style text (reference to Hill 1995). That text does not follow MLA guidelines as it includes the year of publication not the page number.
I am not a proponent of the MLA style but do feel it necessary to point out that the example you used in your rant is something other than MLA style. It you would like to check my claim visit http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/ .
Once there, one can read, “MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author’s last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author’s name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:
Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (263).
Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth 263).
We all know that Wordsworth did not write in the year 263. Your thoughts on this matter are appreciated.
Best,
A.T.
Well then I am mistaken. You have bested me. Let’s all use MLA. I promise, I’ll start now. Maybe this style manual is AP. For a dinosaur like me using footnote, op. cit., ibid. and all that old fashioned stuff, it’s hard to keep the modern B.S. sorted out.
…and Purdue… my father went there. He’d be ashamed they’re using this crap.
As for the Wordsworth, I take it your point is meant to illustrate even more what I am trying to get at: what is being cited? Where? Whose edition? When and where published and so on. Without a handy-dandy bibliography to flip back and forth to, it’s hard to tell, and as a citation, once again it strikes me as horrendously inadequate. If that’s your point, I once again freely admit, I am a dinosaur. I have not learned these systems. I refuse, and I refuse to use them.
I appreciate your response.
As with MLA, APA requires page numbers for all in-text citations as well (see previously mentioned website as desired). To clarify, I do not intend to justify the existence, quality, or lack thereof, of any referencing style. It’s just that some of us (myself included) have to play by an institutions rules to have our voice heard in academia. I suppose you’re the lucky one in having the patience, skill, integrity, and tenacity to write and publish outside of such systems.
As a former public school teacher of 10 years, I agree with many of your critiques of the system. As you’ve kindly noted, there are still many within this system sticking it out for the betterment of today’s youth and tomorrow’s adults.
Keep up the good work.
A.T.
Well frankly I don’t know how you guys do it without going nuts. Daily acts of subversion… maybe like teaching the pre-corrupted Turabian when the camera is pointing another way or the local teechurs’ union is distracted? I freely admit I was a subversive in the system (when I was in it), and never allowed AP or MLA or whatever this lady was using in her “citations”.
And yes, I paid a high price for it: constant ostracism by adminisitrators and “colleagues”. Someday I’ll tell you what a blonde Amaircun PhD said to me about the low standards of an Oxford education compared to the rigorous requirements of the University of Oklahoma, and said it in front of the assistant dean (with a PhD in sports medicine or some such…i.e., basically a PhD in “gymn”), who let her do it.
So, you’re kind of right…just mixed up MLA with APA style. To be very clear APA style only requires page numbers for in-text citations when text is directly quoted. That is, you can paraphrase in APA style and not provide page numbers. I find this, as you do, an unacceptable practice.
Thanks for the conversation.
Best,
A.T.
Oh my pleasure. It’s nice to find out from people actually IN this “system” what’s really going on. I hear horror stories. The “non-reference” in the book just pushed my button, so I had to rant.
Please keep exploring, even if it has to be done outside the standard confines! The world needs people like you with honest and independent curiosity and critical thinking. The world even needs thinking people! 😉 🙂
I’d just settle for reading the occasional “ibid.” or “op. cit.” in a FOOTNOTE (NOT and endnote)
It is interesting that when I was kicked out of Catholic school and wound up in Public school it was then I began to read books regularly. You see in Catholic school their libraries are in the lunchroom I went home to eat lunch where as in the Public school they have specific rooms for their libraries. They also had book week when the students could purchase books at the school and they also had Scholastic Books that published paperbacks at dirt cheap prices. That was the mid to late sixties almost fifty years ago not now when paperbacks cost a arm and a leg. It’s 1984 time now unfortunately.
I learned more from a 3 minute Farrell rant then i ever did in school, what about you guyses, lol!
There is also this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhrfhjLd9e4
Good morning, Joseph. Feel free to rant on, my friend … you’re right on target, as usual. Today’s ‘high’ bar is set at a level to accommodate (and perhaps further stupefy) the lowest common denominator … as a means of manipulation and control. Non-conformists not welcome … So thank you, Dr. Farrell, for setting and maintaining such a high bar! Otherwise, don’t let it ruin your day 🙂
Good rant Joseph. Just another example of a decaying society where standards are not even a good footnote.
Good rant Joseph. Just another example of a decaying society where standards are not even a good footnote !
ohhh, Dr. Farrell, as an opera singer I could sing the entire “Ring” cycle about this (and then some) but I don’t want to bore you or anyone else with recurring Leitmotiven-
no-one has had a more miserable public school “edumakayshun” (a correction of your spelling) than I had in NE Ohio-
but when will people (or should I spell that “peep hole”?) wake up and realize the Rockefellers (really nice guys) truly bought the US edumakayshun system in the 19th century-
L. Fletcher Prouty was one of the first to expose the fact that oil is neither a fossil fuel nor is it rare- no fossil has been found under 16k feet but most oil reserves are first found under 20k feet- let alone the really deep oil (the most vast reserves) is abiotic, i.e., can replenish themsemselves just as our bodies replace blood after we donate it to the Red Cross-
over 20 yrs. ago I ordered a coke “without” ice at a bar- until the primate bartender finally understood that “without ice” actually meant “no ice” (he didn’t understand the preposition)……. well, it sort of gave my evening food (drink) for thought…
Larry
I can believe it Larry! I had a good laugh about the entire Ring cycle being possible to cite here… we all have our horror stories about this system. Do your kids a favor: shun a doctor of edubabble today.
We now live in a nation:
where doctors destroy healthcare;
where lawyers destroy justice;
where universities destroy knowledge;
where governments destroy freedom;
where the press destroys information:
where religion destrys morals;
where banks destroy economies.
Well said Robert!
Thanks Robert, very apropos of the sad state of affairs in our country … I think that is Chris Hedges’ wording of a Michael Ellner quote (which used ‘spirituality’ instead of ‘morals’). I have seen other lines added:
where psychiatrists destroy minds;
where scientists destroy truth;
where political correctness destroys tolerance.
Fortunately, with a little effort, one can find some positive alternatives.
Yes Margaret.
I’ve read many of his books but have been disappointed in his 9/11 stance, which is basically a Chomsky left gate.
But, otherwise a stellar writer, thinker & activist.
Margaret—
I have something you can post on your blog that is worth a laugh. It’s on U-Tube and just type in “BUGGERING BANKSTERS.” As soon as I saw it I knew that’s your kind of people. ( Mine too! It’s by some kind of acting Troop?Take a chance, you’ll like it?)
Yes, it’s too bad Chris Hedges croaked so young. I read much of his stuff. I enjoyed watching him battle it out with Establishment Church Representatives! A Voltaire in action!
He was like some say, The prima donna HOUSE ATHEIST! I don’t have the ‘courage’ TO BE A SIC –Official Atheist (I don’t have a ‘fireproof suit’ for after I expire?) but I admire them. I guess I am something like Farrell — an “ATHEOLOGIST?”
And even though Chomsky is MIT’s house ‘lefty” I still like him. (he helped start me on all this Conspiracy Lunacy, ha, ha!)
Remember when Harry Belafonte called General Powell a HOUSE #$%^%&$ — you know “that” word? I liked that an awful lot – telling it like it is instead of telling like it isn’t! ( or like our non-existent past = telling it like it wasn’t!)
I think it’s —youtube/buggerthebanksters.com
Paul, you dear soul … thank you for the Buggering Banksters video. Yes, I really enjoyed it … takes me back to times when ‘act’ivism was as much social as political. Alas, little of that these days … the PTB finally wore us down with their dismissive, arrogant snubbing of their collective noses at our rights, then demands, to be acknowledged if not served! But it’s good to laugh and enjoy, so thanks for that little uplift 😉
Let me also say how much I enjoy your conversations with Robert. And your “daily dairy”, for each day is like a new gift box, full of surprises, to be opened, carefully examined, and shared.
Re Chris Hedges, he’s still writing and ranting. I like the ‘atheologist’. New atheism? It’s become a religion of its own, ha ha! i guess I would fall in the agnostic atheism camp, if labels help, not believing in a ‘deity’ to worship, appease or humor and therefore no need of a religion and all its trappings. My father worried before his death that his son and daughter turned out to be ‘atheists’, even tho’ we were duly taken to church, baptized, and given all the early indoctrination as required. It just didn’t take. I didn’t want/need another ‘authoritarian’ to run my life.
Thanks for your thoughts and posts … much enjoyed. Stay well, stay curious, stay enthused and joyful.
I’m afraid I made a boo-boo. I mistaken Christopher Hitchens for Chris Hedges. I did read Chris’s Empire of Illusion and Death of the Liberal Class about 4yrs. ago. He has some good points and as I think I can remember ‘war correspondence’ experience’ so I imagine that makes him a bit more realistic. I never continued or furthered my reading him because I felt he was too much swayed by Demon-crats. I’m over all this Roosevelt was for the people kind of thing. Although Social Security was a godsend for many very old people. I think the Demoncats are also over it. (They all kiss the arse of their Corporate Masters and the hell with us!)
No daddy ordering you around anymore.? Even though they may be benevelent. We’ll miss our Fathers. Mine was a gentle sort but Mom wore the pants. I get a kick out of all these big bad guys who when they go home — every is , YES DEAR AND NO DEAR!
So you were baptized? I guess that makes you now an Adopted Child of Jesus. (that’s what I am told. You wont go to LIMBO if you died as a infant. I got news for them — every day is ‘Limbo’ living in the ad?mad Culture we find ourselves submerged in. What still gets to me is Nuns wear a wedding band because they consider themselves married to Jesus. How sweet but it must have been lonely in those convents if one finds De Sade’s writings UN-credible!
Their was something phony about Hitchens but I still liked the guy anyway. Even though he wasn’t as hotsie-totsie as say, a William Buckley at least he was actually British. Hitchens was the type who must have liked a 200 dollar or more bottle of wine. (I am showing my jealousy, ha, ha!) I liked Hitchens because I have a secret pleasure every time somebody bests the Catholic Church in a debate.
I also like Bil Mather for when he’s good he’s very good at it —but he stinks often and with his huge salary I imagine > why pretend ‘HE’S ONE OF US? I guess that’s a necessity when doing Comedy?
I am sad to say I did not ‘coin’ that word ATHEOLOGY. A French fellow long gone who was thought to be one of the purscuers of the present post-modern movement although if he were alive he would say, ‘Don’t include me in that group! He’s a poly-glut (is that how you call them?) wrote much and much of it is so ‘refined’ it’s barely perceptable. A few of his books are amazing but show a very dark side of Eros. He was once a member of the surrealistic group til he broke away and did his own thing. I think he prided himself as somewhat of a theologian but not any kind that we would recognize hence the word ATHEOLOGY!
I take that word to be a genuine expression for if there is no existing god in the Universe there is ‘STILL THE IDEA OF GOD’ in our grey brain matter. Have fun trying to get rid of that concept?
Especially if they got a hold of you before the age of seven. So we may be ‘atheists’ with our INTELLECTS but our instincts whisper a few things differently! Well at least we are stranded in the middle with a good healthy MORAL SENSE. (Kind of like using Ban deodorant commercials, Don’t you wish everyone did?)
I yakked enough for one day. Have a fine evening and keep on posting Maggie!
________________________
p.s.
I don’t know. I just want to keep the idea of CLASS alive for we are told in Amerika everybody loves everybody and there’s no such thing as Stratification. Bullshit! (even though I have No-Class sometimes, ha, ha!)
How DENSE of me to forget the french fellow’s name — a certain ‘George Bataille.! (Bataille means “”battle”” in french so along with his very abusive father — I imagine he couldn’t have been anyone else?)
It certainly explains the ‘DEPTHS” he reached?
Oops, me too, Paul, pardon my boo-boo as well. I said ‘daily dairy’ when I meant ‘daily diary’ (ha!) … definitely brings a different image to mind! Yes, baptized, so I guess I’m “saved” – regardless of my beliefs, or lack thereof. Not an ‘authoritarian’ father, but the [patriarchal] religious, political, and societal ones. Yes, I cried when my father died; he was a generous and good man. Re Hitchens, I wonder if he is going to channel his post-mortem experiences ;-] … wouldn’t it be a hoot if he reincarnated as a priest! I liked him too because he challenged dogma and institution. Have a fine evening yourself!
America sure has gone to the dogs!
Yes Robert — I too have nostalgia and pine for the ‘non-existent’ Past!
I am waiting for the day when Archaeologists ‘create’ a new past different than the ‘late night show?”
But I am not holding my breath and don’t forget to shut off the lights on your way out.
________________
Robert , since we seem to be exchanging what books we are reading — I might as well continue the tradition. I just spurged a little bit early this morning (being good to myself – I do that occasionally) and as the good faithful ‘consumer’ we all are obliged to be I bought —“Madness at the Gates’ by a Barry Spector and “Dispelling Wetiko” by Paul Levy.
I just about bought “Rockefeller’s Medicine Man by E Richard Brown” written in 1923 but didn’t. I have to use some restraint for I might buy a dog from the pound in the near future. Boston MBTA lets animals on the subways!
I guess now that I sleep alone AGAIN I have the free time and no distractions to restart my dream-diary/journal, AGAIN! Their something about Archetypal Psychology or manly —it’s the IMAGES that stick in my Mind? (It’s a merry-go-round but when I step off it again I hope to be in a better place?)
I was also looking up what’s new in “Critical Psychology” (more like International psyc?) but didn’t see much. I did see this book that sounded real good called “Psychology and Poverty” but when I looked at the price they were asking I had to laugh —124 dollars. (it must be sold at a University’s Bookstore that JOE is complaining about>)
I thought — How can one be so empathic or compassionate about the poor and honestly ask that kind of money for a book! Evidently the textbook is not meant for THEM to read! It’s probably secretly instilling “something extra in it’s training of social-workers —-A TOP —- all the way down TO there—- PHILOSOPHY !
Sure study poverty from some nice leather sofa in a GIANT room with ancient wooden polished pannels and keep the Vampires in Blk Robes company.
_______________________________
It’s good to let off steam. I first thought — a bit out of character for ‘him- JOE’ but when I further read it’s about a particular ‘style’ in citing or quotation in the Higher Halls of Academia, I realized that’s probably just like him — whoever he is, ha, ha!
By the way – Isn’t that what Ward Churchill got creamed or thrown out for? Plagerizing? I heard he did quote the very minor source in probably his 342 entry that left room for too much interpretation that everyone does now and then.
My,My, My! If that’s what the Standards at Colorado are then they would be no students and probably half the Staff would have to be let go, ha, ha! (I wouldn’t feel too bad for the Staff for there’s probably a ‘FREE Food Pantry” nearby, ha, ha!
Have a good day — this very day = TODAY!
I cant help it I got to add this little beauty since we’re talking about education. On the subway trains riders see many ads advertizing these ‘buncko schools and the Big Ones too! One of them is a School of Photography/Filming. I seen some of their other posters but this one is – I found very funny, compelling and to the point! If that is some of the work they produce there then we have hope? (that is if hollyweird doesn’t get-em first)
Well the poster had this picture of a GOLDFISH looking straight at you with those fish-lips. He was inside a small glass HALF-FILLED with water.
Right next to this small glass of water was a larger typical fish bowl with purple gravel and some plastic plant with bubbles. NOthing unusually about that?
What caught my eye was a little sign in this fish-bowl?
A sign saying ‘FOReCLOSED HOME – FOR SALE!
I almost forgot — I paid full price for those two books. But the Main Library had a book-sale this morning and I found a book I’ve been meaning to read called “An Empire of Their Own — How the Jews Invented Hollywood” by Neal Gabler for a ‘lousy buck! Also one of those Dream Dictionary books by a Tony Crisp. I almost threw it a way when I got home for it’s such a slanted look but will use it to pretify my bookcase! I also bought FOR KICKS believe it or not a ‘boxed’ set of “The Mythic Tarot’ with cards to go along with it.
It just might come in handy for if I read one more article about Cyprus I am going to get into the “ACT’ and ‘read the cards’ and put my own interpretation or ‘FIX.” on it! (first I got to learn how, ha, ha! Maybe I’ll ask some Money Account Manager for financial advice — same difference!)
All your books look very good. I can’t subscribe to the Dispelling Wetiko as I read the original one Columbus and Other Cannibals. I listend to Paul Levy on Red Ice and wasn’t too far in when I stopped listening in disgust The fact that Sting highly recommends it on amazon’s site only confirms it for myself point of view. Your Palm Beach one; howver, has me putting on my must read list(infinite in breath & width).
Also you touched a nerve ob those good old by gone days that never were. I finially realized that those I reverred in the past also had the wool pulled over their eyes. Had it not been for my experiences in the indochina theatre I would have probably been down a simular road. Thanks to that, and the internet and scholars like Dr. Farrell i find myself writing too you. Unfortunately I have been a touch infected by wetiko as I must get back to the Wichita Louisville game. Much closer than I would have imagined.
Where bad calls by officials win games!
In all fairness; it was a good day for the oficial, for, as everyone here knows:
crime that pays; is crime that stays.
The bad call was,
indeed, a crime,
…literally.
Want to bet?
Robert,
Thank you on your feed back of Paul Levy and your disgust with the Red Ice presentation. I trust your observations and said to myself, “Did I buy another useless book, AGAIN?”
I listened to an hour of one of his presentations last night and can see I didn’t waste my money but I see what You Mean? (He’s going about it in a way “Missionaries” or Wounded Healers usually do? I used to like that style but after a while it gets a bit mundane for he’s no Poet.)
I do very much like drumming up the idea of DREAMING UP REALITY —ESPECIALLY as a group phenomena! ( has a lot to do with Bohn’s idea of Implicit and Explicit Reality?)
If your paying attention Robert —Farrell identified his self as DINO the DINOSAUR, HA, HA!
I guess I am one too for when it comes to developmental issues in analytical psychology I PREFER to stick with what’s called Classical Jungian Analysis. (it’s more like a personality ‘taste’ or quirk rather than some God-Given-Law! To each is own.)
When investigating the Shadow and it’s Projections one will never really sic — “”””dispel”””” the confusion or as they say in Alchemy ‘refine the Prima Materia or mass confussa. That’s the Myth of the whole thing.
We think — ops now we know and are going to become INDIVIDUALIZED not realizing only about ‘one in a million’ will and even that guessimate is far too generous for it’s probably never — but we don’t want to prematurely tell a client — forget looking for it? ( it has already found you. Oh my god what a horrible realization, ha, ha!)
I noticed one of his U-tube presentations was in Portland, Oregon. To me Paul Levy has an interesting old-timer-fellow named Arnold Mendel written all over his forehead? This Mendel guy was once a PHYSICIST over at Livermore Lab-(oh no, that place!) who like Farrell changed his Mid-Life Career! Mendel has an Institute in Portland training negotiators. (kind of a GO-gooder peace-keeper) so I wont satirize him but one does really have to watch out for them.)
There’s much I would like to communicate but I don’t want to write a book.
This Paul Levy appears to be using a VERTICAL APPROACH (i call it heirarchal) combined with HOMOGENEOUS space. (throw a little labeling or naming mania in it for good measure) —Everything is one kind of thing but really NON-LOCALIZED space playing tricks?
I say, “Good Luck to him. See ya when you get rid of that ‘raft’ he’s carrying on his back! Who needs it anymore? He already reached where he wants to go but only he can realize that or tell himself IT? I could be cruel and say, ‘He reached his level of incompetence but that wouldn’t be true.
To cut this dialogue short — I often rely on dreams to ‘think for me.’ Not always but dream images of the night sometimes aid or assist our cognitive faculties when we were having difficulties comprehending?
Your ‘DISGUST’ with his presentation was a problem for me because I learned to trust your judgements Robert. So here’s what my dream spoke (figuretively/metaphorically of this minor problem.)
Picture a Hallway in a large business office-space with either no partitions or wall dividers between the desks. Now picture an aisle about 10ft wide leading to the ELEVATOR. The elevator entrance is standard size a little larger than a door. Right? Now YOU enter the elevator and it looks like the standard room where several people can fit in it.
Now look again at the space in the elevator in the next instant or two. THE ELEVATOR just turned into the size of a GIGANTIC SPACE PLATFORM like in some Sci-Fi movie. Now look again and it looks just like an ordinary elevator but then again it is Gigantic.
That is what a WETIKO IS!
(see it is much easier to understand painting pictures and our dreams are quite good Artists. ( I think the technical-term is called IDACTIC THINKING but at a totally unconscious level?)
Have a good day you all and JOE watch out for Fred Flintstone for if he sees you he might CHAIN YOU UP and put you to work as in —- quarry— ha, ha!
Keep on digging Joe even if it looks like a RANT?
I am at it again — Paralysis by Analysis but after all Farrell’s article is about Explicitness so I might as well fine-pick the remaining meat off that bone?
When I was speaking about Idactic Thinking AND the ‘Totally Unconscious I double-talked?
Anything that is totally UNCONSCIOUS no-one would ever know about. Something like the Great NOTHINGNESS at the beginning of the Universe and even that is a something — A linguistic connotation or sign!
What I should have said which would make more sense is a ‘flicker’ or image that has not escaped our ‘vision>?” (I put that arrow instead of a question mark BEFORE the double empathsis marks. Joe, is that in any ‘reference’ book? I heard the question mark always goes before the quotation mark? I also would like to put a . (period) after the question mark but that’s my style and I wont do it for proper form’s sake, ha, ha!)
NO – to correct my mis-statement in easy terms the ‘image’ is now a ‘CONSCIOUS’ content.
I need to get away from this computer. It’s supposed to be 62 degrees out today. I think I’ll go on a pic-nic today?
Go out and get some fresh air instead of hanging around this “Joint’ all day! Ha, ha!
Paul,
Remember no one has the “right” answers. Indeed, the answer maybe, in the questions asked.
As far as Levy goes? It’s like this. You & I are on a journey. we have taken different roads and arrived at a brief moment at croosroads/together. So my mind’s eye is going along a different track, than “your”. Although we share a common language, it is, at best a stone age tool. That said also picture a Noam Chomsky. Very good/”I think democracy in the West would be a good idea”./ but compared to Dr. Farrell?(Sorry Dr.)
So Levy compared to Jack D. Forbes? No contest.
Getting back to your analyses. GREAT! But you & I are sort of together and apart. You can strenghten my worldview point, and I yours. But the haevy lifting? We’re on our own. Still, a ladder has been provided by others upon whose shoulders: we can carry “weight”; we can “see” farther out/within; you get the idea. At points in/on these “ladders” you are farther along than I; at others, I maybe be further along.
But it is NOT the destination, my friend Paul.
It IS The journey.
Or, as the Rolling Stones put it:
“Just as every cop is a criminal,
and all you sinners saints,
as heads is tails, just call me Lucifer,
’cause I’m in need of some restraint”
(Rolling Stones musical group: album; Beggars’ Banquet: song, “Sympathy for the Devil”, seventh verse. 1968, Jagger and Richards, Decca Records)
The theme of inversion of purpose is quite evident as the last 150 years has progressed in this country. And, while profit is usually the primary mechanism driving the outward movement in this direction, there are forces behind that, as readers here will doubtless know.
Having worked in “higher ed” for nearly 2 decades, I went from the opinion that it was the pinnacle of learning to seeing that it was actually the stagnant backwater of thought. And, while the school I work is still small enough that students can actually interact with professors and really learn something, the vast majority are indeed toeing the line of lamestream dictatesor “properganda,” as per Edward Bernays.
I could say that we have gone from Higher Ed to Mr. Ed. (And yes, I am old enough to know that theme song by heart – “A horse is horse, of course, of course . . . .)
(Television show, “Mr. Ed,” Filmways, 1961 later CBS, based on short stories about a talking horse by Walter R. Brooks. Starring Alan Young and gelding horse Bamboo Harvester, voiced by Alan Lane. – The theme song was written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, based on a theme by German composer Emile Waldteufel, (forest devil) which, interestingly enough, was also rumored to have Satanic messages. – courtesy Wikipedia)
And Joseph, since when do you need our permission to rant? Your website, your agenda. Go for it.
What reference book or style guide do you recommend for proper citations?
Good question… A few years ago I was a mentor for a PhD student and told him to get Turabian. Well, the latest edition, which he purchased, impressed me as a farrago of what appeared to be borrowings from AP and MLA “style manuals”. Gone were the ibids., op. cits., q.v.s, cf.s. No p. or pp. Just a string of numbers, all confusing to the reader of course. So I literally had to re-create the older template for him.
And while we’re at it, what’s up with endnotes? I admit, I’ve used them on one occasion, when I thought footnotes would detract from the main text. But otherwise, with computers, why not use footnotes? Saves all that back-and-forth flipping of pages for those of us who like to know where quotations and citations are from.
…*Sigh* I know… I’m a dinosaur.
I agree.
When I had to type “papers” years ago on TYPEWRITERS, footnotes were practically the end of the world. At that time I would have killed for the ability to use endnotes, but was denied it.
But as you say, with computers, footnotes are easy as pie. No reason at all not to use them.