[xmca] In Class, Marines Learn Cultural Cost Of Conflict : NPR >

[Gregory Allan Thompson <gathomps@uchicago.edu>]

I had been following some of the debates in the anthropology
journal about anthropologists working with the military, so
this link is much appreciated.

Interesting though the piece was, more interesting were the
posts that were on the bottom of the page, and which, I would
argue, suggests that critical thinking may be a shared ideal
of (extreme) right and left. Below is the last in a line of
heated back and forth between "RK Halley (Kathh)" and "TT
(TT1a)". Prior to this, TT had posted some incredibly
ignorant, simple minded, naive, and deeply offensive
statements about Muslims being by definition hell bent on
conquering the world and destroying all non-Muslims and Halley
responded with some of the history of Christianity and the US.
Here is TT's response: 


"Halley, no, I was just trying to be kind, your comparisons
are asinine, truly idiotic. Too many fools in the West have
been brainwashed by liberal twist pushing multiculturalism and
anti-Christian history and you apparently have bought into it
hook line and sinker. At some point you need to move beyond
the trite notions you have and learn some real history. I
won't change your views on this little forum. Don't be a fool
all of your life. Try to think for yourself. You can't see it
but you are repeating idiotic things."


Can we take some solace that the notion of "critical thinking"
is held up as an ideal? (even if it is so poorly put into
practice!). Something to build on? 

To put it in terms of Hegelian (or Marxian) language vis a vis
the development of thought in cultural historical time, in a
society in which critical thinking is a far ranging ideal,
doesn't the logic of such a society contain in it the
contradiction of ignorance? Certainly there will be poor
execution of critical thinking in any moment of development,
but over the long duree, isn't there reason for hope? (and
"hope for 'reason'"?!)

And, maybe more importantly, how does one respond to TT?

-greg


>
>Message: 3
>Date: Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:54:00 -0300
>From: David Preiss <ddpreiss@me.com>
>Subject: [xmca] In Class, Marines Learn Cultural Cost Of
Conflict :
>	NPR
>To: Activity eXtended Mind Culture <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>Message-ID: <FE3B350E-04FE-40B4-8C86-49B37EFBEB26@me.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
>
>More on the State of the Union:
>http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122362543
>
>
>
>David Preiss
>  http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/
>

---------------------------------------
Greg Thompson
Ph.D. Candidate
The Department of Comparative Human Development
The University of Chicago
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