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-- more on -- Ann Coulter's skewed view of patriotism
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 11:52:28 -0400
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 06:50:21 -0700 From: Vaughan Pratt <pratt () CS Stanford EDU> Subject: Re: Ann Coulter's skewed view of patriotism To: dave () farber net X-Mailer: exmh version 2.6.3 04/04/2003 with nmh-1.0.4X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.8 required=7.5 tests=IN_REP_TO,MSG_ID_ADDED_BY_MTA_2version=2.31 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Filtered-At: eList eXpress <http://www.elistx.com/> Dave, I'm sorry, but Cliff Schecter's clearly well-intentioned effort at dissecting Coulter has all the benefits of spectranalyzing mud -- useful if something good ever shows up in the spectrum but otherwise a pointless academic exercise. That the particular composition of the mud Coulter slings has a pH of 2 going on 1 is beside the point of its being basically just mud. I recently bought her 2002 book "Slander" hoping for some constructive insights into failings of the left. Instead I found a very pure kind of hatred directed to the left that one imagines the Martians in H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" must have felt for earthlings. The benefit of reading Coulter is insight not into the faults of the left but rather into a stereotype of the alien thought processes driving conservative thinking today. A more productive exercise would be to dissect not Coulter but her readership. A better understanding of why her work sells at all might for example help NSF make its case for more funding more effectively in the present heavily conservative climate on Capitol Hill. Two months ago I chaired a subcommittee as part of a committee reviewing an NSF division. The basic conclusion of my subcommittee, and a sentiment also voiced by other subcommittees, was that NSF was doing the best job it could dividing up too little money among too many promising researchers. And that's in computer science --- pity the impoverished historians! The anti-intellectual climate that goes with the conservative territory served by Coulter is eroding America's ability to think straight. This is neither a new nor a permanent phenomenon, but rather comes in waves. Each time the tide of anti-intellectualism rolls in, instead of railing at it like King Canute, those of us seeking the harmony of the universe should be asking how it works, how to live with it, and even how to extract benefit from it until it rolls back out again, which it will do in due course with all the reliability of the moon in its orbit. Until then, we need to understand Coulter's audience, not Coulter. Vaughan Pratt
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- -- more on -- Ann Coulter's skewed view of patriotism Dave Farber (Aug 27)