The idea, put forth by certain UNC-Chapel Hill professors upset at li’l ole me, prompted this column in defense.
In researching another column, I came across another academic making the case for academic use of mockery. This academic is not on the same intellectual plane as Aristotle, Juvenal, Democritus, Donne et al., but I have reason to think that she means more than those to the aforementioned professors. I had forgotten that in 2001, Mary Burgan, general secretary of the AAUP, defended her colleagues who were being criticized for their gratuitously offensive remarks right after Sept. 11. One of the things she said was this: “now we are back to our usual habits of analysis, criticism, and scorn.”
Scorn a usual habit? How hostile! etc.
