...but, apparently, I will live out my days in a world where Margaret Mead - Margaret Mead - is remembered by seemingly intelligent people as something other than one of the biggest frauds and dupes of a century rich in frauds and dupes:
For me, experiencing stuff like this is like what it would be for a liberal to live in a world where the Nazis won.
Except that the music is trashier.
Comments (21)
"...what it would be for a liberal to live in a world where the Nazis won."
Uh, Steve, what would it be like for a conservative to live in a world where the Nazis won?
Posted by Kevin | October 8, 2008 11:06 PM
Margaret Mead. A coworker of mine holds a degree in anthropology, and can expatiate at length on how Mead made it all up to legitimate a bunch of sordid liberationist fantasies. Living in a world in which Mead is regarded as an intellectual authority is rather like living in a world in which it remains necessary to argue that Communism was a Bad Thing: absurd. Absurdity is the atmosphere of our (post?)modernity.
Posted by Maximos | October 8, 2008 11:18 PM
In this case, the Wikipedia article on Mead (see esp. the section on "The Mead-Freeman controversy") seems to me to present a balanced & responsible view.
Posted by Keith DeRose | October 8, 2008 11:44 PM
Not that its anything like a feather in your cap, Steve (indeed you might find it cause for alarm), but I don't think I've disagreed with even a single thing you've posted on WWWtW, including this.
Well done.
Posted by Michael Bauman | October 9, 2008 12:05 AM
"Uh, Steve, what would it be like for a conservative to live in a world where the Nazis won?"
That video. :-)
Posted by Francis Beckwith | October 9, 2008 1:59 AM
They used to drown kittens. Can we drown these people?
Posted by Grumpy Old Man | October 9, 2008 8:14 AM
I got to 37 seconds before crying uncle. How'd you do?
Posted by Scott W. | October 9, 2008 8:27 AM
58 seconds, actually. Why gut it out, adding to the aggregate total of human suffering?
Posted by Maximos | October 9, 2008 8:29 AM
"That video. :-)"
Good one. We all agree though, that the shopping mall Maoism depicted in this video would give way to something more muscular and menacing should we ever enter a period of steep economic decline, social turmoil and intense geopolitical strife. Since that scenario doesn’t seem even remotely possible, I’m gonna party like its 1939 and as the movie starlet says; "vote for myself".
Posted by Kevin | October 9, 2008 9:41 AM
Steve,
I want to echo Keith DeRose's comment about Mead. I first encountered her by way of Roger Kimball, who dismissed her as a fraud in one of his essays (thankfully, I never had to read her in college). Given my respect for Roger, I thought that was that. But later, I found myself talking to a smart guy who I respected and he claimed that Mead's work, while coming under criticism, had never definitively been discredited. I subsequently did some research and the Wikipedia entry on the "Mead-Freeman" controversy I think does present a fair appraisal of the validity of her work. And unless I'm missing something, it is far from a clear-cut case that she was one of "the biggest frauds and dupes" of the 20th Century.
In much the same way as you brilliantly dissected the myths surrounding the Tuskeegee syphilis experiments, I'd like to assign (with no pay!) you the task of detailing for WWWtW readers, the problems with Mead's work. I would be grateful.
Posted by Jeff Singer | October 9, 2008 11:40 AM
After I heard the statistic that for every 10 babies found to have Down-Syndrome in the womb 9 are aborted, I threw out my high-school history education and just conceded victory to the the Nazis.
Posted by Steve | October 9, 2008 12:29 PM
Seemingly intelligent people...they're actors...they're acting...
Posted by Mark Windsor | October 9, 2008 5:48 PM
I watched the _whole thing_. Right down to the little girl at the end. (I wanted to see everything they said about Margaret Mead in the name of scholarship.)
Ewwwwww. (And by the way, WWZS? What would Zippy say about voting as a national religious liturgy?)
What do I get as a prize for being that tough?
Posted by Lydia | October 9, 2008 10:05 PM
Jeff - with great respect: the problem with Margaret Mead is not just what Derek Freeman had to say about her. He was, at best, an imperfect spokesman for the truth.
The real problem is what the people of Samoa have to say about her & her nonsense.
She was the archetypal academic fraud, pushing ideology in the guise of scholarship.
To say nothing of the cape, and the crook, and the cult.
Brrr...
Posted by steve burton | October 11, 2008 3:17 PM
The real problem is what the people of Samoa have to say about her & her nonsense.
Absolutely. Which any (honest) anthropologist will tell you, if pressed.
Posted by Maximos | October 11, 2008 3:44 PM
Posted by Zippy | October 11, 2008 5:42 PM
Almost, thou hast persuaded me to vote--for John McCain.
Posted by thebyronicman | October 12, 2008 2:14 PM
Hey, it is OK to prefer Latin to English (though really Latin is for reactionary reprobates; but at least they are attending Mass).
</irony>
Posted by Zippy | October 12, 2008 3:34 PM
Hehe...Actually, I should have checked the translation--"Almost thou persuadest..." KJV: Good enough for Jesus, good enough for me.
Posted by thebyronicman | October 13, 2008 11:43 AM
"Latin is for reactionary reprobates."
OK, slur for slur. It's for you, Zippy. :)
While we're on the topic, I recommend translating the Latin poets. Anyone who has tried and succeeded will attest to the strength it lends to their skill in writing English. Maybe that skill isn't for you, Zippy. Still,I keep my hopes up high in my prayers for Maximos.
BTW our stalwart hero and leader of the cause Richard Weaver, in a chapter titled "The Power of the Word" recommended translating the classics for all journalists.
And, hey, if it's good for the journalist, it's good for the blogger.
Dum lingua est, spes est.
Posted by KW | October 13, 2008 1:28 PM
Heck Byronic, I can barely keep my prose comprehensible, let alone literate. I do appreciate the recognition as a reactionary reprobate despite the inherent encumbrances though. :-)
Posted by Zippy | October 13, 2008 1:36 PM