Dynamite essay. I've come to conclusion myself that I have absolutely nothing to offer in terms of policy prescriptions or a vision for how society should be run. But then what should heterodox thinkers doooooooooooooo? I mean it's fine for me because I am resigned to being marginal forever and don't need the money. But most Intellectuals want a room of their own and that income of 500 pounds, at least, and the only way to get that is either to get a professorship or to shake the foundations of society a little. If you don't have the professorship, what is there left to do other than decry "the system" to force it to buy you off a bit?
Yes, that’s the part I don’t quite have an answer for. In the short term I think that’s what the Internet is for, or should be-in the long term one might want to rebuild something like the university I suspect either that or we all become wandering sophistic teachers
Except.........money? We can only fill in the gaps left by establishment intellectuals ("orthodox" intellectuals). We can't really compete directly with them because they have so much more institutional power and reach--their ideas will always win. But what exactly are those gaps? They're usually precisely in the amateurish niches left behind by the professionalization of culture: literary criticism, metaphysical philosophy, new age spirituality, and lay sociology / anthropology. Which makes you just inherently seem like an unserious whacko.
Dynamite essay. I've come to conclusion myself that I have absolutely nothing to offer in terms of policy prescriptions or a vision for how society should be run. But then what should heterodox thinkers doooooooooooooo? I mean it's fine for me because I am resigned to being marginal forever and don't need the money. But most Intellectuals want a room of their own and that income of 500 pounds, at least, and the only way to get that is either to get a professorship or to shake the foundations of society a little. If you don't have the professorship, what is there left to do other than decry "the system" to force it to buy you off a bit?
Yes, that’s the part I don’t quite have an answer for. In the short term I think that’s what the Internet is for, or should be-in the long term one might want to rebuild something like the university I suspect either that or we all become wandering sophistic teachers
Except.........money? We can only fill in the gaps left by establishment intellectuals ("orthodox" intellectuals). We can't really compete directly with them because they have so much more institutional power and reach--their ideas will always win. But what exactly are those gaps? They're usually precisely in the amateurish niches left behind by the professionalization of culture: literary criticism, metaphysical philosophy, new age spirituality, and lay sociology / anthropology. Which makes you just inherently seem like an unserious whacko.
As a fellow Neo-, I enjoyed this. Have often wondered why it is I always feel the need to qualify my orientation as ‘That, but not quite.’