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Intellectual Nihilism in the 21st Century
 

offline PModVancouver from Vancouver (Canada) on 2002-04-03 17:44 [#00156495]
Points: 13 Status: Lurker





PARADISE PIRATES
Intellectual Nihilism In The 21st Century




MIT's Ted Selker recently commented on the BBC, "If we spend
our time
flitting from one thing to another on the web, we can get
into a
habit of not concentrating..."

Considering the fact that today web surfing is the
equivalent of
television channel surfing, ubiquitous, the comment brought
to mind a
long-time friend of mine who is a columnist for ~New York
Press~.
Last year this friend wrote an article entitled "God Bless
Our Attack
Dog," referring to the efforts of former NYC Mayor Giuliani
regarding
New York's terrorist event. Having heard my friend lay
democrat-tinged critique at the feet of Giuliani with
abandon on many
other occasions, I was rather shocked. Of course I
appreciated the
Mayor's efforts, but I also had not somehow contracted
amnesia and
forgotten Giuliani's rather convenient grasp of The
American
Constitution. A potent example found in the former public
servant's
(never call him that to his face) recent information coup
in which
he successfully sequestered, J. Edgar Hoover style, "public
records"
detailing his mayoral exploits into the private hands of
one of his
many Go Rudy orgs. I responded to my friend's article with
one of my
own entitled "Patriot Games," published on the ~MARS
Magazine~
website, in which I pointed out to my friend and others the
Reality
Distortion Field deployed by the formidable politician. I
never heard
from my friend again. No refutation. No discourse. Nothing.
The tacit
message, a deafening and resonating silence, echoing
through the
mouths of radio, print, television and internet journalists
across
the U.S. Tow the line, or be knocked off-line.

This anecdote typifies the faint whiff of something I had
become
aware some time ago, but only now can assert as tangible
and
widespread American phenomenon. The practice of
intellectual
nihilism. Somehow, a historically thoughtful person had
allowed
zeitgeist politi


 


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