Re: Amerind an offensive term (was: Early Amerind assimilation

Gerold Firl (geroldf@sdd.hp.com)
13 Aug 1996 20:03:38 GMT

In article <320F73D6.167E@nas.nasa.gov>, Stephen Barnard <barnard@nas.nasa.gov> writes:

|> Joel and Lynn Gazis-Sax wrote:

|> > Mr. Barnard is feebly
|> > trying to turn his right to be offensive if he pleases into a dictatorship
|> > of one where no one can criticize him at all.

|> There is something very peculiar going on in this newsgroup. Several times in
|> the period of about one week, I've been either misquoted, assigned a false
|> attribution, or (as in this case) accused of something that I am obviously not
|> guilty of (bringing up the term "politically incorrect".) Is this the way that
|> anthropologists normally act?

My anthro professors tended to be extremely well-balanced individuals,
able to view the world from a variety of perspectives, and that is how
I expect those who study anthropology to be. However, there is also a
peculiar type of crackpot who is attracted to anthro, often a very
alienated individual who feels lost and alone, an outsider looking in,
lonely in the crowd. They are often demonstrably unhinged, holding
wildly contradictory views simultaneously, and unable to follow a
logical train of thought or engage in rational discussion.

It's similar to the phenomenon often seen in psychology departments,
where many of the students study psych because they want to understand
themselves and their problems. These anthro crackpots are probably
searching for some way to fit in, some social role in which they can
feel comfortable, some clique where they can belong and experience the
friendship and comradery they need. It's just too bad that so many of
them fall back on the same disfunctional models of confrontation and
aggression which screwed them up in the first place. That outsider
perspective can be very useful.

-- 

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Disclaimer claims dat de claims claimed in dis are de claims of meself,

me, and me alone, so sue us god. I won't tell Bill & Dave if you won't.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=----   Gerold Firl @ ..hplabs!hp-sdd!geroldf