September 22, 2015

Another explosion in Humanities. Discussing the Taoist ko’an, “He who feels punctured must have been a bubble,” I aver that Lao Tse implies that we will not be disquieted by external things if we are whole and certain within ourselves, that to take offense is the signal that something is uncertain within ourselves, that the “offender” has merely–sometimes accidentally-found the point at which we are a bubble. My native American activist recites her well-rehearsed litany of white misunderstandings of native peoples and then says she is forced and expected to correct these mistakes when others make them. I say that I agree absolutely, but Lao Tse would pity her for being at the mercy of external forces. She bursts into tears, gathers up her things, dramatically leaves the room. I murmur, “Thus proving the point” as she disappears. It’s surprisingly difficult in a university to show people who are having emotional reactions that they are having emotional reactions. One’s own prejudice is pure reason. After I spent five minutes explaining why we would not be having class on Thursday, the girl who was most vehement in her condemnation of my exam came up and said, “I will not be in class on Thursday. It’s Yom Kippur.”

“I just now cancelled the Thursday class.”

 Dumbfounded, “You did??????”

 Kid behind her, sharing my incredulity, “He just spent the last five minutes explaining that.”

 She had, almost incredibly, again been surfing the Internet during class. But WHY did I do so badly on this terrible exam?

Getting tired of this. What are they teaching them in high school? So far as I can see, to blame everyone but themselves for their own failings; not to bother with the concepts of dedication or concentration; that the least effort must be taken as sufficient, that lack of application must not be noted for the following ten pseudo-psychological reasons----. How do they justify these things in their own hearts? Maybe they don’t even bother to think about them. Bring me my bow of burning gold-----