> A Physicist Experiments With Cultural Studies
We have to go beyond this moral idea that it is not 'right' that these things can happen or that the 'standards' are not OK in some parts of the academic world. People who know some bits of good technology and some good scientific tricks should USE them, directly, to gain benefits for themselves; thereby demonstrating directly that these tricks and technologies work. And thereby *bypassing* entirely those stuffy, bureaucratic, self-important and brain-dead people being 'exposed' in this story about the article in 'Social Text'.
Technology and science is a living and utilitarian thing, which must always demonstrate its usefulness directly and materialistically; it is not a thing like ''art'' or ''politics'', in which people's arbitrary opinions count more than the real, objective, self-demonstrating usefulness of a thing. The basics of science and technology is the simple common sense that says that a theory or a bit of technology must be *useful* (else why bother with it). I have some confidence that this will more or less automatically keep groups engaged in science and technology rid of the kind of thing described for the Social Text article.
--- Regards, Menno Rubingh (rubingh@delftnet.nl)