'An Appalling Report'

[Homo Aestheticus]

M,

Why can´t you understand that people are unequal in charm, beauty, strength, speed and, yes, intelligence.

You have been deeply indoctrinated that they shouldn't be... There is a good deal of truth to the notion that life is a cosmic lottery. This is the core truth that has made inequality so troubling to us in the last century, when fewer people rationalize inequality in terms of God's will.

[Kullervo]

Pink, it's always so obvious when it isn't you writing. Maybe the real reason you are against everyone attending college because they don't look kindly upon plagiarism.

And don't send me a PM about it, either. I will delete it sight unseen.

[karlhenning]

Why can´t you understand that people are unequal in charm, beauty, strength, speed and, yes, intelligence.

Eric, to read your posts, is indeed to understand that people are unequal in charm, beauty, strength, speed and, yes, intelligence.

[PSmith08]

Maybe the real reason you are against everyone attending college because they don't look kindly upon plagiarism.

Well, he's not against everyone attending college, just against anyone who isn't a bronze-chested, oak-limbed intellectual titan attending college. There's some room for debate about how well the current educational system serves people who don't really want to go to college -- and who would be happier learning a trade -- but to hear our man perseverating about one book is like listening to that guy in high school or - gasp! - college who reads the one book and won't stop talking about it.

After a while, you don't.

[Catison]

[Note: This post has been updated (2) as of 8:07 AM Central Daylight Time on 29 October. See below.]

The appalling thing is that people still read the "random musings" of AC Douglas.

Update (7:54 AM Central Daylight Time on 29 October):  Oh gawd, I just checked out his site again.  Some things never change, I guess.  He has yet to give up indulging in Taruskin-esque meandering English, but whereas Taruskin, that academic wordsmith, is worth the dissection, ACD disguises his lack of thought, if he ever had one, behind a wall of silly subordinate clauses, hoping his reader gives up, merely assuming there must be some insightful, pithy comment of value.  Only his ego has excluded reality far enough that he can not, nor will he ever, understand that no one remotely cares what he has to say other than his blogger buddies, participating in a round of unanswered self-love.  Here's to the dream that he will get a clue and close up shop.  Now there's a good fellow.

Update (8:07 AM Central Daylight Time on 29 October):  I can never figure out, is he using the Royal or academic "We"?  Funny, he's neither.

[karlhenning]

The appalling thing is that people still read the "random musings" of AC Douglas.

Do we know for a fact that any do? 

[Catison]

Do we know for a fact that any do? 

See update.

[karlhenning]

Very good.

[Florestan]

Gentlemen, please enlighten me: who's AC Douglas?

[Catison]

Gentlemen, please enlighten me: who's AC Douglas?

Exactly.

Don't say I didn't warn you: http://www.soundsandfury.com/

[karlhenning]

Apart from your commendable thirst for knowledge, Andrei, I don't know if enlighten is quite le mot juste 

[Florestan]

Misguided champions of pop culture have the curious notion that it's somehow a bad thing to "make distinctions between high and popular culture" even though it's blazingly clear that not only are there clear distinctions between the two, but a vast gulf that, in one direction — from pop to high — is all but unbridgeable for the overwhelming majority of those who've not been specially schooled when very young to prepare them to be able to understand and appreciate the complexities of things high cultural, music in particular

Pompous crap, indeed! Curiously enough, it strongly reminds me of the "cultural-context theory" formulated by another high priest of music and culture --- nomina odiosa!.

[Catison]

A laugh riot: http://www.soundsandfury.com/display.htm

Quick, let me change my settings so that I can properly display Sounds and Fury!

[Homo Aestheticus]

Well, he's not against everyone attending college, just against anyone who isn't a bronze-chested, oak-limbed intellectual titan attending college. There's some room for debate about how well the current educational system serves people who don't really want to go to college -- and who would be happier learning a trade -- but to hear our man perseverating about one book is like listening to that guy in high school or - gasp! - college who reads the one book and won't stop talking about it.

After a while, you don't.

Patrick,

I can understand most people dismissing  The Bell Curve  but all I ask is that you give his recent book, Real Education a chance. It is really excellent.

It is broken down into 4 "simple truths":

1. Ability varies.

2. Approximately half of all people are below average in intellectual ability.

3. Too many people are going to college.

4. America´s future depends on how we educate the academically gifted.

To get a preview of his book you can view this 10 minute segment from CSPAN:

http://www.technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DhmTr2EMt66c

[Homo Aestheticus]

Catison,

About half of the time I do not agree with the views of ACD but you have to admit that he's highly articulate and refreshing.

[karlhenning]

It is broken down into 4 "simple truths":

You do well to cast that in scare-quotes.

You don't seem to understand what truth, or a fact, is, Eric.  No. 3 is not a truth, it's an unsupported assertion;  it's front-loaded with preconceptions.

[karlhenning]

I should have thought, too, that America's future depends on how we educate . . . all Americans, not just the academically gifted.

Not all the academically gifted are gifted in the same way.  I am not at all "academically gifted" in the sciences, for instance.

[PSmith08]

You do well to cast that in scare-quotes.

You don't seem to understand what truth, or a fact, is, Eric.  No. 3 is not a truth, it's an unsupported assertion;  it's front-loaded with preconceptions.

Well, I don't think that this post is necessarily probative of the fact that Eric has a hard time understanding what is a "fact [or truth]" and what is a "ideologically motivated, unsupported assertion passing itself off as a fact," largely -- though not entirely -- because that difficulty has been demonstrated over and over again in all of Eric's shifting guises (he would do well to delete his old accounts). Saying something doesn't make it true.

I'm telling you, this is just like that guy freshman year who read one book and wouldn't be quiet about it. Until, of course, you dropped him from your circle.

[greg]

2. Approximately half of all people are below average in intellectual ability.

Is it just me, or does this statement sound a little strange? 

[Joe_Campbell]

Is it just me, or does this statement sound a little strange? 

Greg, I don't know, but that is by far your funniest avatar yet! I majorly lol'd!