[lit-ideas] Re: A Genuinely Useful Thought
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:46:01 -0800
Simon wrote:
So, we have at best a group of left wing intellectuals like Ward
Churchill, intellectual in the sense that they've had a career in
universities, allied, according to Horowitz and others, with Radical
Islamics who ply the same circuit.
It's true that Ward Churchill has 'had a career in universities.' Is
he a 'left wing intellectual'? Hard to tell. Nominally, he is; but
perhaps in order to be an 'intellectual' one must have an intellect,
and in this Ward Churchill seems to be conspicuously lacking. He has,
since his 2001 'little Eichmanns' speech (maybe it was an article)
became widely known in 2005, been mostly a polemicist, trading on his
notoriety to get gigs at places foolish enough to think that by
inviting him they're showing their openness, tolerance, and
willingness to sit still for an hour or so of nonsense. He has also,
because of the foregoing, become a punching bag for polemicists of
another stripe, such as David Horowitz. He's such an easy target that
to engage with him seriously is almost embarrassing. Churchill is no
exemplar of liberal or of 'leftist' thought, any more than I'm an
exemplar of an NBA power forward. To take his views as typical or
representative of 'liberal' or 'leftist' thinking is--how can I put
it?--an insult to those who (a) hold liberal views, and (b) think Ward
Churchill is a nut case. So, while I realize that Simon may not have
meant that WC was typical or representative of those who on this list
keep being lumped together as 'leftists,' 'liberals,'
'anti-American-logically-challenged-Islamo-fascist-dupes'--and so on.
So, Simon, please don't accept the view that WC speaks for millions, a
view that, I grant, you might have come by through reading too much
Lit-Ideas.
Tomorrow: David Horowitz and the Giant Frog.
Robert Paul
Reed College
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