On May 8, 2009, at 6:43 PM, raghu wrote:
I think Ravi was objecting to the tyranny of science. Science in the
21'st century has become what the Bible was in the middle ages - the
ultimate arbiter of every important question.
That's approximately my usual lament, but in this case my point is
simpler: Jared Diamond is interested in impressing and maintaining
stature among fellow intellectuals and scientists and in the current
climate that means to pooh-pooh at what is considered romanticising of
other cultures and other such sentimentalities. Similar to Summers on
women: I have the best interests of women at heart, trust me, but it’s
a sad truth of hard science that .... blah blah.
This attitude is not that different, IMO, from that of other leftists
over-eager to distance themselves from any sort of hippie association
lest they be found lacking in heft (an attitude which it seems is only
at best ambiguously present in their man, Karl).
The above is regarding the second point I made in my post.
--ravi
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