This past Friday I attended a talk by Cornel West. He is one of the few true public intellectuals left in this country - Bill Moyers being another fine example. I was struck by two aspects of his talk. First, he tapped into what I have long believed: that racism is a deep structural problem in this society, embedded in systems of economics, politics, cultural formation of mainstream values and in the judicial system. The civil rights movement only dealt with the surface. West used the lens of race and the theory of racism to expose larger patterns of injustice and nondemocratic impulses that are uncritically presumed NOT to exist in our more cherished institutions, including the U.S. political system and the church.
West also talked about the different between an intelligent person (someone who is smart) and the intellectual (a person who engages in critical examination of the world and of oneself). We are sorely missing intellectuals in this country. We put far too much weight in the value of intelligence which does not require, as a precondition, any higher order moral reasoning or critical reflection. It only requires cleverness. I am talking to you Karl Rove!
The picture below is for my kids. They should know who I hang with on the grand moral compass that directs us in life.
3 comments:
Hmmm. I wondered who's this blog was that linked to mine (yeah for stats tracker).. then I realized.. shall I leave it anonymous, or can I post a link to yours from my blog?
Love ya,
The contagious blogging niece...
So I take it you are happy you ended up going to se Cornel talk ;) Nice picture, by the way. You should frame it and keep it in your office. On that note, I have heard from an informed source that you have not yet hung the awesome pictures Graham and I gave you for Christmas. That's very sad.
Woohoo! Another blog to read obsessively. :)
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