IowaHawk Oldie: Profs Denounce Western Culture, Move to Caves

CNS News ^ | January 19, 1999 | David Burge

[IowaHawk]

Fat, commie and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

[garyhope]

Yes, let's all go live in the dirt and mud and freeze our butts off in the winter. I too am tired of a nice hot shower in the morning, refrigerators, cold beer and wine, telephones, TV, etc. I'm looking forward to walking to California next year from Texas. Think of what I'm doing for "the environment". Aren't I good?

[Dakmar]

That's great. It worries me that the line between satire and reality has become so blurred. Did you ever hear about the prof that set out to write a bunch of this high-falootin nonsense as a joke and was actually taken seriously by his fellow egg-heads? I'll see if I can find anything on that.

[jellybean]

You're a riot, IH!! Love it...

[IowaHawk]

His name was Alan Sokol, a physics professor at NYU. He pulled the greatest practical joke of all time - a deliberately bogus article satirizing Post-modernism that got published in "Social Text," the reigning journal of Deconstructionism.

[IowaHawk]

Danke, JB.

[Dakmar]

"Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" , by Alan Sokal

[Dakmar]

Right, I put the link before I saw your response.

[IowaHawk]

The long, strange, and hilariously true saga of Alan Sokal versus the Post Modernists

[IowaHawk]

Great minds think alike, n'est pas?

[KC_Conspirator]

Fat, commie and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

LOL! I really miss your humor around here IH!

[Dakmar]

I think we are too fast with our search and posts today, LOL. I'll turn it back over to you, being your thread and all.

[muir_redwoods]

This is a self correcting problem. These morons will give up western technology and, presumably, western medicine and die of infections, tooth decay or heart attack. Patience

[Aedammair]

"The 1983 dissertation, entitled "Beyond the (Dis)Integration of Post-Modern Post-Toasties Pair 'o Dimes and Paradigms: Look at How Clever I Am,"

That one got me to snorting a little; ever so delicately, of course.

[Poohbah]

The guy is a self-avowed leftie, but intellectually honest. His main concern is that turning our backs on the scientific method will do much harm to society (he expressed it as concern for the working class) and prevent the sciences from doing anything to solve real-world problems that we face.

[financeprof]

As an academic and a scholar who has published over 25 articles and 3 books in 12 years as a professor at major research universities, I can certify that Prof. Dork--excuse me, Dr. Grok--is all too typical of the many cranks that infest college campuses. There are many, many fine intellects in academia, but this putz and his ilk are legion and exert far too much influence on impressionable young minds. Would that he'll move to Afghanistan. Sounds like the move would improve his living conditions, and we'd be rid of him.

[TheBlackFeather]

Yes, let's all go live in the dirt and mud and freeze our butts off in the winter. I too am tired of a nice hot shower in the morning, refrigerators, cold beer and wine, telephones, TV, etc. I'm looking forward to walking to California next year from Texas. Think of what I'm doing for "the environment". Aren't I good?

Sounds like a buckskinner's dream... Just got back from Rendezvous, and now you have me wondering if I'M losing it.

[FReethesheeples]

I love your satire!

Brilliant, as always!

Mega-kudos.

Had bookmarked some of your previous satires.

Of course, Harvard produced both

Al Gore (Earth In The Balance) and

the Unabomber (Terrorist/ murderer & author of the Unabomber Manifesto),

who are indistinguishable from each other in writing style & CONTENT!

[BigBobber]

He immersed himself in the writings of third world revolutionaries Franz Fanon, Rigoberta Menchu and Maxine Waters.

Very interesting.

[IowaHawk]

How true. It used to be that the PoMo crowd was safely confined in the campus intellectual ghettos - humanities, education, journalism. What's truly alarming is how they've metastasized and spread to the professional schools - law, business, even engineering.