[iDC] iDC Digest, Vol 77, Issue 18

[Patrick Crogan]

hi all
Clearly some different contexts for this discussion. But I'd have to say from where I am I don't see any of the complacency or expectation of inherent value or any other 'ivory tower' thinking in my experience of humanities-type teaching, research, conferences etc. Nor have I for a long time. Maybe it still lives on at Oxbridge but I don't know about that... So I don't really get Sean's "It's our fault we're not as famous or valued as Dawkins" argument. 

I agree, though, with his concluding moves, we are of course in a battle against a set of nihilisms concretised in neoliberal, petrochemical and 'pure war ' (to cite Virilio) logics/logistics. Banal? yes, exactly, it is an every day thing. 'We' are permanently at war (haven't you noticed?) in financial, political as well as global geo-strategic 'theatres'. It is naive or cynical (like Zizek's cynical ideology) to not think from this position imho.