Thursday, November 5, 2015

20151105.0627

I have three times previously written in this webspace on this date: 2010, 2013, and 2014. Today, as then, it is one of my cousin's birthdays; it is also a colleague's. Today, as then, problems I speak to--albeit quietly and with little impact--remain. The 2010 issue, that the minimal demands for humanities coursework among non-humanities majors, remains. (And I know some will say that non-humanities majors take more humanities courses than humanities majors take non-humanities. Assuming that it is true--and I have not seen surveys of course catalogs and major plans that support such assertions--it is a problem, as well, but it is not the one I mean to address.) The 2013 comments associating intelligence with the inhuman still seem to be in force, as recent electoral shenanigans suggest. The 2014 comments about increasing stratification and tension seem to have been borne out (although I admit that most if not all times have lamented themselves). What I would add to such a litany eludes me, therefore; I would seem to be saying again only what I have already said, slipping into a middle-aged over-valuation of my earlier adulthood and an advanced-aged failure to recollect the words that have come out of my mouth's online analog.

I might make the case that there is value in reflection. If nothing else, an assessment of whether what was said continues to have value is in order (although I admit to a conflict of interest in the matter, as my field of study focuses on the recapitulation of what has already been said; I would necessarily see value in such an endeavor). Too, there is some use in seeing how things have changed--if they have changed (which seems not to be the case so much with what I have written on this day before)--and I might argue at some length for such a thing. But I do not think I would be convincing in either case; those who believe such things already believe them, and those who do not are not willing to alter their thoughts (obviously; were they, they already would have done so). How to proceed eludes me.

That it does matters little. Work continues; I have grading to which I should attend, and there is no shortage of other tasks for me to perform. Perhaps, since I find myself somewhat stymied here, I ought to turn to them.

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