Why I Didn't Go To Harvard
Besides the fact I don't actually remember going to highschool (I set a non-attendance record that may still stand) I didn't go to Harvard because I would have had LOTS of problems with professors like Kenneth Maxwell, who spoke in Missoula last night. Maxwell is a visiting prof at Harvard's Rockeffeller Center for Latin American Studies (no irony there!), a former Fellow on the Council on Foreign Affairs and author of numerous articles in it's mouthpiece ,Foreign Affairs magazine, and books such as the one he was trying to push last night, Naked Tropics-Essays on Empire and Other Rogues. I didn't buy one.
He comes on with an affected humbleness (British accent doesn't help) and criticizes government for not listening to academia in regards to foreign policy and the media for dumbing down the discourse. He then proceeds to dumb down the discourse in a classicly academic, obfuscatory manner. His discussion, titled What the Turn to the Left Means for America, never touched on meaning per se. Instead he de-constructed " left"in simple economic terms (patronage, populism and petro-states) and never mentioned Porto Allegro, the landless peasant movement, the worker occupied factory movement , or the Bolivarian Missions. (He scoffed at the appropriation of Bolivar as a revolutionary symbol because of his euro-centric views) Each Latin leader was given an appellation (Chavez- caudillo, Kirchner- Peronist, Lula - unionist, Humalla- fascist, Bachelet- social-democrat, Garcia- opportunist, etc) and summarily dismissed. End trade sanctions with Cuba? End funding for Plan Colombia? End FTAA process? The man introduced as a daring interlocutor between scholar and public policy said not a word.
Anyone who read the article about Chavez in Foreign Affairs would not have been surprised at this treatment but I say if it takes a "cuadillo" to initiate a constitutional referendum which distributes more wealth and power to the societies least privileged and deepens democratic structures and civil society, please, give US a caudillo! So is there a "Red Wave in Latin America"? Don't ask "expert" Kenneth Maxwell. You will just get a long winded, if erudite and perfunctory, dodge, duck and hedge.
posted by troutsky @ 8:22 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Accompanying Troutsky to this event, I would like to add that Maxwell reminded one of a diplomat that talks a lot, throws in a lot of statistics, but says nothing. He was especially anecdotal, but all of his anecdotes pertained to meetings with George Kennan or the like. He even told a doozie of a story about former NY Senator Moynihan and the later's hard-nosed questioning always asking those testifying to "complexify" simple pronouncements.
Well, when I got up and asked Profesor Maxwell to "complexify" a couple of his simple pontifications he diplomatically refused. When I asked him to "complexify" his calling of Chavez a "caudillo," he said "caudillos, afterall, can be elected democratically. Peron was elected, so was Hitler. Of course, I'm not comparing anyone to Hitler, but it's possible for a caudillo to be elected." Wow! That's complex!:)
For Maxwell, it wouldn't have sufficed to say that judgment as to whether or not Chavez is a caudillo should be reserved, or perhaps dismissed after a basic review of the political situation in Venezuela.
I also asked Maxwell to "complexify" an initial comment he made saying that coups no longer happen in Latin America. I referred to the April, 2002 coup in Venezuela. What I should have encouraged him to complexify was that perhaps coups are no longer derived in Latin America, but instead along the Beltway.
What I should have encouraged him to complexify was that perhaps coups are no longer derived in Latin America, but instead along the Beltway.
Well, that's not exactly new either.
Based on Troutsky and Che Bob's report, I think the appropriate appellation for Prof. Maxwell would be "putz".
not surprising. intellectuals tend to be twats
I to avoided anything akin to Harvard for similar reasons, though, my grades wouldn't have been good enough anyway.
Institutions of higher learning are, mostly, a joke; I'm learning all kinds of interesting things about computers, but if I want history, philosophy or theology, I'll stick with the library or a used book store.
Blanchet is far from a social democrat, and Chavez a "caudillo"? Sadly that is not a new one here in the US. I here "Chavez as a Dictator" constantly. I remember laughing out loud when John Bolton responded to Chavez calling Bush the devil by saying its great to see Chavez expressing freedom of speech and that he wished the Venezulan people had the same rights. America truly needs a crash course on the world.
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