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how strange this thread became. for me at least....
cyn:
1. i didnt say your views were absurd: read what i actually wrote. i was even rather nice about what i said. perhaps there is no point in that. what i said was that you pretense to speak for or about the "general public" or the "average joe" was absurd. and it is.
2. your "theory/practice" or "academic vs. street" knowledge thing made me laugh.
it is always nice to be pigeonholed by your dayjob, isnt it?
and stereotypes sure do simplfy things, dont they?
so i take it that you imagine academic folk have lives that are wholly different from yours, that they have no contact with other folk, that they do not have access to the "authentic" ways of thinking"on the street" that i assume you imagine you have.
this says nothing about academics and quite alot about your viewpoint, cyn: it seems that you do not know any academics as human beings and find the idea of this type of person, whatever that means, kinda intimidating. i dont understand why, but there we are. so you like to think that academics live in special zoos, which it would appear that you are not inclined to visit. fact is that folk who teach or do research go everywhere that you do, cyn: you pass them all the time as you move through the nexus of authenticity that you claim privileged access to---they do most of the same things you do, in more or less the same way you do. they go to the same clubs, talk to parallel communities, are part of these communities--they eat at the same restaurants, go to the same pubs--they live more or less as you do. the only difference really is in how folk think about what they are doing. and even then, academic folk are not of one mind or even of several minds, but are as diverse a population as any other, really, under the veil of credentials.
perhaps this makes you uneasy, so it is better for you to pretend reality is otherwise.
but i have to say that the speed with with you revert to stereotypes and the uses that you make of them in trying to quarantine folk like me in order to valorize yourself really makes me wonder about the valule of anything you say about your travelling experiences, since when one travels, even very slowly, one's prejudices/stereotypes are ven more prominent in shaping information than they would be at home.
but whatever, i am short of time and this does not seem to me to be worth pursuing really. it is just strange and a bit offensive. that's all.
ps: thanks will.....
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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