The Cult of Indulgance
For the past two weeks, in my capacity as editor of my college newspaper, I have been traveling in a strange and unfamiliar world, one of intrigue and occasional fury. I have published a two-part critical essay on Skidmore's cultish obsession with community "dialogues," a staple of our school's diversity and peer mediation programs. And the blowback has been considerable. Part I is here, and Part II here.
I post this here because I know many of you here share my concerns over the dissolution of rigorous education into a froth of pseudo-activism and "consciousness-raising." I'll just supplement the links above with a few reflective remarks (Skidmore is on spring break now, so if the controversy develops, it won't be until after this week.)
The reactions to the essay have been, relative to the Skidmore bubble, quite extraordinary, which is not to say sober or considered. Against my judgments on the distinctly postmodern flavor of the institution of "dialogue," many are lashing out in the only language they know, i.e. in terms of power dynamics and Hollywood Marxism. Some people, proving my point about how dialogue cultivates a hyperemotional irrationalism, have come into the news room, crying. Others have congratulated me for making things "interesting" again. Still others have called me, in print and in person, everything from a bigot to a sexist to a neo-nazi.
But most conspicuous is the astounding lack of responses from those who claim my analysis to be radically off-base, out of touch, or simply wrong. Every since publishing the first piece I have been quite nearly begging for Letters to the Editor; today I received the first one that expressed anything beside ad hominems or vague disapproval. I see it as a sad confirmation of my argument, that my college's impulse for debate and deliberation has been made null and void by our culture of pity.
It is also telling that certain faculty have gotten in touch to support my efforts, while student government has been throwing me glances with a sufficiently hairy eyeball.
All part of the job, I suppose. Anyway, I thought a few of you might be interested to see what this kind of thing looks like from the inside of a vaguely but pervasively "liberal" school. Be sure to scroll through some of the comment sections in each piece to get an idea of the bile I now slip on while walking the hallways.
Part I:
http://www.skidmorenews.com/op-ed/i-friendly-fire-i-live-and-let-dialogue-part-i-1.2805684
Part II:
http://www.skidmorenews.com/op-ed/i-friendly-fire-i-live-and-let-dialogue-part-ii-1.2810516
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Re: The Cult of Indulgance
What, pray tell, is Fight Club?
And welcome to Ricochet, Brendan. I've just read your articles. Both excellent, though I find myself wishing for more background.
Also, we have a new vision for the College Feed, which I'd be eager to get your feedback on since you're an editor-in-chief of a college paper: In addition to the College Feed being a place for commentary and items of interest, we think it would be useful to excerpt some of the day to day Leftist insanity that is to be found in college papers. If you come across items in your school paper that you think might make for teaching tools, I hope you'll link to them here on the College Feed.
Re: The Cult of Indulgance
What you write here isn't just symptomatic of life on campus. This mentality describes the mentality of the people I live among in San Francisco.
Re: The Cult of Indulgance
Ms. Ellis,
Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words about my articles.
You're certainly correct; it occurs to me now that I did not supply enough background information above. Allow me to paint with broad strokes:
For the better part of a decade Skidmore has made great strides in building its 'diversity' street cred, through instituting some decent initiatives...and some other, rather batty ones.
To give an example of the former: we have a VP of Diversity Affairs on student government, sensitive to any concerns of the student body pertaining to matters of multicultural representation.
As for the battier side of things, we have a "Bias Response Group" which tracks down and 'corrects' incidents of bigotry via restorative justice (the student body also get emails with PDFs of every offense; photos of graffiti, descriptions of slurs, etc.) I could list more of these sorts of things, some reasonable and others, in my view, rubbish.
Re: The Cult of Indulgance
"Dialogue," then, is one of these outgrowths of the diversity/inclusive/anti-bias initiative. It is a forum in which issues like race relations or gender issues can be discussed – I use the dialoguers' terms here – with open attitudes, within a welcoming community. As I describe in the articles, the key here is an embrace of personal narratives, lest ye be judged.
Of course, now the format is used as a general tool for student government (SGA) and college administration to "address" students' concerns over a botched campus event or the school's drug policy.
"Fight Club" is Skidmore's peer mediation/conflict resolution club, and does the lion's share of this extradiversity dialogue organizing.
So the context of my oped essay is that in the midst of all this groping for the "we-community" my campus is actively villainizing good old fashion inquiry and argument, and thereby diluting our potential for academic rigor and intellectual pluralism. This trendy approach is articulated most baldly by American postmodernist Richard Rorty, but also guys like Lyotard and Marcuse.
My fear is that Enlightenment has given way fully to Indulgance, where narratives rule and critical thought shrivels.
yours,
brendan
Edited on March 13, 2012 at 3:54amApr '11
Re: The Cult of Indulgance
Not an accident, this displacement, but a strategy. Great essays and the responses you elicited are like found Orwellian art.