Human Terrain & Anthropology (merged thread)

[goesh]

I am reminded too of the communist witch hunt of the McCarthy era in which a goodly number of artists refused to cave in to the blackballing and intimidation. More recently, there was the attempt to boycott Israeli scholars and intellectuals in England.

"On the theoretical level, it reverts to a crude "Us" (the West) vs. "Them" (all others) typology where the potential for action is a priori assigned solely to "Us". (Marct)

Well said, Sir! Once I get a theme song and ship, I'm nominating you to be the Captain as you are in the forefront of the charge against ignorance and bullying by people who should know better. Stan will have to salute you then.

[marct]

Hi Goesh,

I am reminded too of the communist witch hunt of the McCarthy era in which a goodly number of artists refused to cave in to the blackballing and intimidation. More recently, there was the attempt to boycott Israeli scholars and intellectuals in England.

Agreed, the mechanism is very similar. I keep getting reminded of the dynamics of the Witchcraft trials in Europe . Anyway, there is a truly excellent book by Gustav Henningsen, The Witches Advocate, that really looks at this dynamic, although his focus is the Basque Trials of 1609-1614. Well worth reading for anyone interested in how thought control has been institutionalized.

"On the theoretical level, it reverts to a crude "Us" (the West) vs. "Them" (all others) typology where the potential for action is a priori assigned solely to "Us". (Marct)

Well said, Sir! Once I get a theme song and ship, I'm nominating you to be the Captain as you are in the forefront of the charge against ignorance and bullying by people who should know better. Stan will have to salute you then.

LOLOL - just, PLEASE, don't use a patter song!

[goesh]

It is more serious than I surmised if the excesses of the witchcraft trials are coming to your mind. Come to think of it, I have come across more than one blog author who went the anonymous route because of their Conservative bent and fear of 'in-house retaliation' by those of the Liberal persuasion, not that peer reviews and issues of tenure and budgeting would ever be impacted by such things. No! I will not be the one to pee on the foundations of the ivory tower in such a manner and say it's true. Hope does float however. It hasn't been that long since I saw where a former Soc. Prof. of mine had signed a petition against the petition to boycott Israeli scholars and said Prof. is a raging Liberal if ever one walked our earth.

I'm sticking with Wagner as a theme by the way, though a couple of Elvis songs have been nominated already.

[Steve Blair]

Agreed, the mechanism is very similar. I keep getting reminded of the dynamics of the Witchcraft trials in Europe . Anyway, there is a truly excellent book by Gustav Henningsen, The Witches Advocate, that really looks at this dynamic, although his focus is the Basque Trials of 1609-1614. Well worth reading for anyone interested in how thought control has been institutionalized.

And in an interesting aside, we have this BBC story about a later period "witchcraft" trial that may be coming back to haunt some people.