[csaa-forum] Windschuttling

[Christian McCrea]

(I wanted to call this post "Its All Just a Little Case of History
Defeated", but I think
that's been taken.)

Not only does It take more effort to take a clown seriously than to throw a pie
at him, but you're wasting your time altering the course of debate.
The first point
of reference for The Keith Windschuttle Argument for my money is to refer to him
as a "right-wing commentator", which is entirely more to the point
that historian
(often disproven), academic (rarely truthful) or any of the other
terms given to the
poor boy. In context, I find his Windschuttling of Negri unremarkable
and generally
more antagonistic and mean-spirited than informed or opinionated. I
think it should
mark the declining standards of the Australian, the editorial board of
which a collective
hammer should be applied to, more than speak about the input of a 
right-wing commentator, of whom we can expect such right-wing comments. 

>> We must *absolutely not* argue in prejudicial, over-the-top ways,
relying on ad
>> hominem attacks.

Oh, Ben! The left has been clamouring for the room to argue clearly
for about 15 years
now. All these ad hominem attacks on K.Wizzle and his homies are not
new, they are
signs of a community under stress. If when people like me criticize a
war, we are rebutted
with "Freedom Is On The March". We lose if we resort to prejudicial
name-calling, and
we lose if we continue with "yeah, but..." while this insane
omnipresent assault on the "left-wing bias of the universities".

I don't think ad hominem attacks help anyone. But there needs to be a
cultivation of articulate, clear and entertaining speakers on the left
side of politics - which I'm sure would
suit everybody and is easy enough to wish for. The underlying intent of Danny's 
comment is not "Let's Burn Down Windschuttle's House and Make a Crime
Scene of His
Family" but "Kick Out The Jams".

Windschuttle's gestures are painfully obvious. His critics, unless
they are being personal,
are rarely so. 

The last 5 years of our/my media lives have largely been transformed
by neuro-linguistic programming going mainstream, the recapitulation
of linguistic articles goes way beyond
enabling governments to restrict movement around information, or the
cutting apart of the
reality-based community (Gershom Schloem's seperation of the Shekinah, anyone?),
but requires a rapid reassessment of interactions with the public
sphere on every level. Again, its easy to say we need to rearticulate
useful and just truths, but since we're in the
Age of the Panapathanogenic Boor, a reliance on wit, timing may just
raise the level of debate... which we can all agree is currently
infantile beyond imagining. Its all just a little
case of History Defeated at the moment, where easy resolutions are
taken up as obvious
solutions, and a problem (the Academy) can be diagnosed in the shadow
of one man's experience with personal, crushing dissapointment.

Or as Jon Stewart sagely said to Hannity and Colmes on FOX News -
"guys, you have
thousands of nuclear weapons, all the major countries, two wars, the
white house,
the senate, the house - all the judges - everything! Just let us have
music and education,
we're happy there, seriously! We're not going to threaten you for a
good 30 years! Not
until your short-sighted economics cause the economy to collapse...
you kids go on and play, come and get us when you're ready to play
with the adults."

-Christian McCrea