[FRIAM] curiosities ...

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OK. That makes sense. It's possible I simply can't see far/deep enough to get past the *extant* right wing extremism I see all around the world, including federal troops on the streets of Olympia to kidnap "woke" protesters as well as what's happening in Poland, Turkey, Russia, etc. It's possible that this real and current right wing violence is the last throes of whatever power the right wingers might wield.

I doubt that. But it's possible.

And given that, turning back to "woke" vs. "leftist" for a minute, that your (radical) affect at a university would no longer be tolerated *might* be a sign of some sort of cultural homogeny ... a whack-a-mole game where the nail sticking up gets hammered back down. And if that turns out to be true, I'm definitely on your side. But I don't think it's true. The evidence I see argues for the death of the university, not any kind of "woke tyranny". All over the map, schools have been suffering. The virus has accelerated it. Brilliant youngsters are rejecting college for a whole constellation of reasons. But re: your personal affect, have you considered Heterodox? https://heterodoxacademy.org/ They seem affine to your sentiments.

As for "woke" people in other contexts, it seems like you're objecting to a symptom of population density more than anything else. As people squeeze together, we need appropriate social norms ... norms that reduce and avoid the flare ups that come from our slowly evolving biology bathed in rapidly evolving culture. E.g. Renee' argues that, despite my belief we should "grow up, not out", she and I couldn't live in an apartment/condo for the last 20 or so years because we play our music too loud, too often ... our neighbors' biology would flare up and they'd find ways to remove us. So we live in a house where our neighbors can escape the nuisance that is us with pillows and such. You (like us) have been privileged to live in sparsely populated places, where your *behavior* can be largely tolerated. 

If you simply follow the sparsely populated regions as they shrink, you'll be fine. But if you want to "grow up, not out", which is necessary for most of us if we want a healthy planet without severe population control, then you'll have to *conform*. Line from a country song: "If a man can't piss in his own front yard, he lives too close to town." This isn't tyranny. It's density. It's social intelligence. Context is Queen. Know where you are and know what you can get away with given your context. The days of stomping around saying whatever the hell we want, doing whatever we want, killing others because they cheat at cards, etc. ... those days are over. You can either adapt or spend the rest of your life isolated and frustrated.

On 8/5/20 3:42 PM, Prof David West wrote:
> Glen,
> 
> A round about way to address your blown mind about my — apparent — lack of concern about the threat from the right.
> 
> Although I try very hard to avoid it, my views at the general are inevitably colored by my experiences at the personal.
> 
> I (quite literally) took up arms against the government fifty years ago. My reasons then, and my continuing perspective, has consequences. Two contrasting examples: 1) empathy for others who feel that the feds are an oppressive and unreasonable force in their lives and may have seen Trump as a countervailing force; 2) antipathy  with regard current protests/protesters who are, ultimately and in my studied opinion, advocating changes that would enhance and increase governmental control.
> 
> My first ten years as an academic, obtaining tenure and the rank of full professor, was at a very conservative Catholic university. It was not my day job (which was graduate software development) but I taught undergraduate cultural anthropology there for six years. That course in particular, but other opportunities to teach inter-disciplinary honors courses, afforded an opportunity to "offend" my colleagues and the prevailing Catholic orthodoxy on  a regular basis. I did not shy from those opportunities. My publications, my syllabi, my public comments aroused the ire of many colleagues, but I was never threatened, was never concerned with regard my job or my professional status.  In contrast, I could not teach the exact same material today in almost any public university without being crucified and fired. The facts did not change, but the prevailing orthodoxy did.
> 
> I used to worry — a lot — about the possibility of a theocracy arising in the US. Trump pretty much destroyed that possibility by 1) wresting control of the Republican party from the religious-right; and 2) exposing the idiocy and hypocrisy of the "religious" in a way from which they will, IMO, never recover.
> 
> Now I worry about a politically correct secular-ocracy that makes the government — *_necessarily_* *representing a minority of the populace* — the ultimate arbitrator of thought and behavior for all.
> 
> So, I am not concerned about the "right" because I see them as an already defeated non-entity; cowards and isolationists, with no possibility of obtaining the power, discipline, or will necessary to impose themselves on me. I fear the exact opposite with regard the "left."
> 
> If Biden is elected in the fall, the armed crazies that everyone seems to be so concerned about will melt away to their remote enclaves and inbred sanctuaries and nothing much else will happen. "/Trump as existential threat to democracy"/ will fade away as just another collective hysteria like "stranger danger" and recovered memories of satanic child abuse cults.
> 
> Personally I will feel increasingly oppressed and controlled by a government (mostly an enabled bureaucracy) that I abhor.
> 
> If Trump wins (still a probability in my mind) I believe we will see armed insurrection and violence in the streets. This will be suppressed by inauguration day and we will have four years of weekly impeachment trials and daily Supreme Court cases while COVID and economic decline quietly decimates the population.
> 
> davew
> 
> End note: When Humphrey was defeated he took a position as professor at Macalester, where I was a student, until he could run for and win his Senate seat again. I organized a beautiful May Day, Maoist "Save the Children," protest blocking his office with barbed wire barricades.  Lots of local media attention but the only "accolades" I received were from right wing crazies who hated Humphrey as a liberal, not as a enabler of continuation in Vietnam.

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