If you're an INTELLECTUAL and you Love IT, Clap your hands !

     

Publish and Perish 
 
Perhaps I’ve said too much.
Oh no, I haven’t said enough.
 
“Teachers need to see themselves
first of all as intellectual…even apart
from immediately practical applications.” 
(from David  Abernathy’s link
        “What is College For?)
 
                     ****
The heart of thinking is drawing distinctions.
The heart of academics  arguing them out.
The heart of liberal art:  relating them.
 
Actually, sharing this distinction
 
HAP  /      / Ways of Talking About HAP
 
is, I’m thinking, necessary but not sufficient.
to an ongoing overall harmony between
 
             SACS    and   Creativity
 
(1 . Regulatory Quality-Control Finished Product
    issues on the one hand and on the other
     2. Originating, Generating, Emergent
           phenomena issues on the others )
 
Making sure the left hand don’t know what the
the  right hand is doing and vice versa or at least
blocking  interference of either hand’s  business
by the other is crucial, know  what I mean?
 
I want to emphasize that whenever we pride
ourselves upon finding a newer, stricter way
of thought or exposition whenever we start
insisting too hard upon “operationalism”
or symbolic logic or any of these very essential
systems of tramlines, we lose something of the
very ability to think new thoughts.
    
And equally, of course,  whenever we rebel
against the sterile rigidity of formal thought
and exposition and let our ideas run wild, we
likewise lose. 
 
 As I see it, the advances in scientific thought
 come from combination of loose and strict
thinking, and this combination is the most
precious tool of science.  (Gregory Bateson)
 
2 hands clapping.
Not just one.
 
   But even if we share these distinctions
 
    HAP /  Ways of Talking About Hap
    SACS /  Creativity  
    Professionalism / Amateur Standing
    Product / Process
 
and manage to maintain their distinct values
(so as to relate & complement),  we’ll still be
arguing for our side of the I’ll, maybe reaching
across when it seems to serve our  aims, goals,
purposes and measurable or immeasurable
outcomes…
 
So that what it comes down to  (IT, I said) is
whether we can keep IT and our Selves  in Play.
Sustainable Converse-Action Across the Curriculum.
Know what I mean?  
 
Need we argue?  I’m always just asking for it.
Or what’s a college for?
 
xxxooo, Sam