Professorial Gobbledegook
I remember back in the college days, taking courses in Sociology, Psychology, and Political Science. The language was complex and difficult for me to comprehend without reading it over many times. I had never encountered concepts such as "structural functionalism" before and couldn't get much of a grasp on them (OK, so I had the same problem with Algebra). Over time I realized that maybe I wasn't quite so dumb. Maybe, just maybe, there is a cabal of intellectuals which has invented a language that only its members understand and that outside of academia, has no practical application.
One of my favorite comic strips, For Better Or Worse, did an outstanding job yesterday lampooning the language of the psuedo-intellectual academic:
"Now in your last book, Professor Frith, you discuss the psychologicity of self effacement, which, when utilized in a pejorative sense, can preargument. . . "
One of my favorite comic strips, For Better Or Worse, did an outstanding job yesterday lampooning the language of the psuedo-intellectual academic:
"Now in your last book, Professor Frith, you discuss the psychologicity of self effacement, which, when utilized in a pejorative sense, can preargument. . . "
posted by stewdog | 10:38 AM | Permalink
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4 comments
4 Comments:
While we're deconstructing post modern intellectualism... Huh? Take a gander in the nation's premiere law reviews if you want gobbledegook. The abstract terms and concepts are so heavy, I read only for exercise. By the time I'm at footnote 6, I dreaming of doing something relaxing like stage 8 of the Tour de France. Someone give some water.
I'm with you on law reviews. Stewdog spent 2 years as a law review staff memeber, proofreading that gobbledegook. In the end, law review articles are written for other authors of law review articles and have no practical authority or weight in the practice.
Well now you've done it. Forget the bar recommending Stewdog for O'Connor's Supreme Court seat. We conservatives now have to pin all our hope on the dog of wonder.
If that be the case, then you are hope. . less. And Stewdog could NEVER have gotten though the confirmation process.
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