what's wrong with being pc?
The Dark Lord Matt
matthew.percy at utoronto.ca
Wed Oct 30 15:06:27 CST 1996
On Wed, 30 Oct 1996, Ted Samsel wrote:
>
> I.e. Who died and made the contemporary generation of "well-meaning
> academics" god? This generation is no more right than the past generations
> and is liable to make mistakes as henious as any generation that has
> preceded them. I'm not supporting the status quo, but rather, take the
> view that, quite possibly, everyone is wrong.
>
> I'm in my late 40s, a "white" male, and am amused (as well as concerned)
> by the ways in which "truth" is articulated by the current milieu. As I
> used to ask a lady boss (an historian) "Is history TRUTH or FACTS?"
I think you're question summarizes the whole point of "political
correctness". Obviously, history is both "truth" and "facts" in the
sense that it "happened" and is reflected in historical "fact"... Not to
sound condescending or patronizing, but historical "fact" is merely an
interpretation of a historical "event". (You're not going to find a
history book anywhere that gives you "the whole truth"; just a history
book that gives you an interpretation.) Because we can never "know"
anything with certainty, it would behoove us to recognize that limitations
of our own subjectivity when we speak, especially when we speak with
respect to "otherness" in gender, culture, ethnicity, sexuality.
If you want, I'd be more than happy to debate whether this position
constitutes "moral relativism", but I think it would probably be much
more beneficial to discuss Pynchon while attempting to avoid such
blithely ignorant comments such as Jules' re: African women.
- Matt
> She didn't like that sort of question. At the time, I had just finished
> Carlos Fuentes' TERRA NOSTRA, which gives an interesting take on
> the times of La Conquista and the then present. I have another lady
> boss (an engineer, sad to say) who does not read, is barely 30, and
> can't understand why maps just don't appear de novo from the 'puter.
> (I'm a cartographer and have been doing this for 25-26 years...
> computers have helped, but....)
>
> So into this "brave new world" I slog, waiting for Mason & Dixon, to
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