Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

["Eckert, Robert G SPC MIL USA FORSCOM" <robert.g.eckert AT us.army.mil>]

List

Hemingway recommended combat for writers.

KBR pays $200,000 a year to fuel truck drivers.

  CPL Eckert
  Ft. Riley, KS

----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Beurskens <pbeurskens AT SOUTHEASTMN.EDU>
Date: Monday, October 13, 2008 16:23
Subject: Re: [percy-l] College Essays
To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" 
<percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>


> Gee, I keep thinking of becoming a truck driver instead of a college
> English teacher--more time to think and write.  The Persig quote only
> adds to my existential stewing about the problem of teaching.  Cormac
> McCarthy says teaching writing is a racket.  I think Percy would 
> agree.
> 
> I sometimes feel like Will Barrett in The Last Gentleman, down in the
> department store basement.  As long as I don't have much contact with
> the outside world, I am fine. Take out the telescope, though, and 
> it is
> hard to stay settled.  Am I reading that character right?
> 
> Pete 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Eckert, 
> Robert G
> SPC MIL USA FORSCOM
> Sent: Monday, October 13, 2008 3:35 PM
> To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
> Subject: Re: [percy-l] College Essays
> 
> List
> 
> This exchange has made me think of Pirsig in ZMM:
> 
> "The school was what could euphemistically be called a "teaching
> college." At a teaching college you teach and you teach and you teach
> with no time for research, no time for contemplation, no time for
> participation in outside affairs. Just teach and teach and teach until
> your mind grows dull and your creativity vanishes and you become an
> automaton saying the same dull things over and over to endless 
> waves of
> innocent students who cannot understand why you are so dull, lose
> respect and fan this disrespect out into the community. The reason you
> teach and you teach and you teach is that this is a very clever 
> way of
> running a college on the cheap while giving a false appearance of
> genuine education." (Part II, Ch 13)
> 
> Bob Eckert
> 
> 
> PS
> 
> Cash, or gold? 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Wade Riddick <
> Date: Saturday, October 11, 2008 16:04
> Subject: Re: [percy-l] College Essays
> To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
> <
> 
> 
> > >Peter and Rhonda,
> > >
> > >I too sympathize. I normally stagger my assignments, but I messed up
> > >with my cut and past job on my syllabi. All four classes turned in
> > >their work this week!
> > 
> > If I could chime in my two cents, the decline in reading and 
> > writing that's
> > occurred in American society across the last fifty years has had a 
> > verydeep and detrimental effect on our collective capacity for 
> > independent,critical thought.  As life and our understanding of it 
> > grows increasingly
> > complex, it's all-the-more crucial that we hone our analytical 
> > skills; I
> > don't know how we do that if it's not writing and grading essays and
> > tossing around ideas in seminars.  Instead of investing in the 
> > developmentof these faculties, a variety of political choices has 
> > made teaching this
> > sort of reflection more expensive and out-of-reach for the average 
> > citizen.
> > If you or your students doubt the benefits, then let me simply say 
> > this.  I
> > doubt I would be alive today if I didn't have a degree in English and
> > graduate classes in microeconomics and statistics under my belt.  The
> > amount of bullshit that masquerades for scientific truth in 
> > medicine today
> > is truly staggering - and deadly.  I didn't just encounter potentially
> > fatal misinformation from one doctor; I got it from almost every 
> > corner.
> > For example, I brought in research published in scientific 
> > journals linking
> > gut bacteria loss to autoimmunity and one gastroenterologist told 
> > me he
> > didn't "believe" it - as if personal "belief" is supposed to be a 
> > measureof scientific proof1 - and then he referred me to the local 
> > doctor who had
> > first pointed me to the theory saying, "She has a good reputation with
> > problem cases like yours."
> > 
> > I understood instantly from game theory that he was relying on a
> > reputational effect as a cognitive short-cut for his decision-
> > making.  But
> > he didn't need to.  All he had to do was stay current with the 
> > literatureonce he got out of medical school - you know, do what 
> > he's required to do
> > by law.  He believed Dr. Cave could help me because she had a 
> > "reputation"for helping problem patients no one else could deal 
> > with.  What was she
> > using?  Magic?  In his mind, what was her "reputation" supposed to 
> > be based
> > on?
> > 
> > In a competitive marketplace, economically useful information is 
> > supposedto be disseminated.  If a doctor does something better 
> > than you do and
> > you're in competition with him, you're supposed to study what he 
> > does.  How
> > does that information travel?  The only source of new information 
> > for the
> > average doctor these days seems to come from drug company reps who 
> > haveeconomic incentives to skew their spiel.  And if it's not 
> > covered by a
> > patent, they have no incentive to discuss it.
> > 
> > If you haven't been trained to spot subtle lies, you can't get a 
> > clear view
> > of reality and you can't help your patients.  It's like 
> > deconstruction.How do you understand what's not being said?  How 
> > do you understand the gap
> > between what is said and the underlying reality those symbols are 
> > supposedto represent?  How many doctors get the kind of liberal 
> > arts education we
> > did?  For that matter, take a look at the stock market slide and ask
> > yourself how many businessmen could benefit from a few history 
> > classes.
> > Our economy brims with specialists who know very little about reality
> > outside their increasingly narrow field.  They cannot integrate 
> > what they
> > know with information from even closely related fields - even when 
> > livesdepend on it.  The result is a comedy (or tragedy) of 
> > ironies.  You see
> > this when a rheumatologist tells patients to eat foods that make their
> > inflammation worse because he thinks of it as a "nutritional" 
> > problem and
> > that's beneath him.2  You see this "semiotic bubble" when the 
> > executivesrunning A.I.G. and listening to their investment 
> > products division didn't
> > understand the basics of forensic accounting, fraud and Ponzi 
> > schemes (or
> > worse; perhaps they did).
> > 
> > It's easy for the sign to drift away from the signified.  Perhaps 
> > we all
> > need a little shock every once in a while to prick the inflated 
> > bubble and
> > shake loose the light - or, as Albert Gore, Sr., put it, "Defeat 
> > may serve
> > as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out."
> > 
> > Having said that, when I consider the current socioeconomic and
> > technological trends, I can't help but worry that our capacity for
> > independent thought and collective judgment is in decline.  
> > Perhaps this
> > upcoming political realignment will prove me wrong or at least 
> > reset the
> > clock.  I certainly hope so.
> > 
> > If the medical examples don't stir your soul or bother your 
> > students then
> > consider this: I've been in cash for several years now.  Like Warren
> > Buffet, Paul Krugman and a lot of other contemporary critics of our
> > capitalism, I knew our economy was tied together with bubblegum and
> > shoestring and Bush was running short on shoestring.
> > 
> > Wade Riddick
> > 
> > 1.  I think T.S. Kuhn would say it is and I would agree with him; but
> > that's entirely the problem.  We don't train people to understand that
> > their grasp on rationality is essentially a "belief" that we need to
> > constantly question in light of new evidence - particularly in the
> > sciences.  Yet as we need more of this as scientific knowledge 
> > multiplies,we're getting less of this.
> > 
> > 2.  It's not a bad choice economically since it does make the patient
> > sicker which then sends them running back to the rheumatologist 
> > for more
> > medicine.  Of course, it's hard to construe this as good behavior 
> > in the
> > context of the Hippocratic oath.  For another example of bad medicine,
> > consider how many rheumatologists think it's acceptable to 
> > prescribe COX-2
> > inhibitors like celebrex to arthritis patients despite the fact 
> > that it
> > makes autoimmunity worse and degrades the formation of new 
> > collagen in
> > joints.
> > 
> > 
> > --
> > An archive of all list discussion is available at 
> > https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/percy-l/
> > 
> > Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy
> --
> An archive of all list discussion is available at
> https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/percy-l/
> 
> Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy
> --
> An archive of all list discussion is available at 
> https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/percy-l/
> 
> Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy