In light of this week's post about a certain person who shall remain unnamed (lest he receive any more publicity), I thought I'd mention that when I started this blog last year, I made it a point not to turn it into a personal online venting ground. Rather, it was meant be a way of keeping in touch with people back home while I was in Nepal and NE India. It has since become a place where I share interesting things about the places I visit, the languages I come into contact with, and language in general.
In this blog, I try to be as positive as possible, even after spending 3 hours standing on a train or 10 hours on a bus suppressing the urge to throw up because of food poisoning. My little outburst this week was actually many weeks coming, having read some of the idiotic comments this person had been making on Twitter and in articles featured on The Age. The final straw was when he launched a ludicrously personal attack on a colleague who had written a rather lengthy criticism of him. (While I disagreed with some of the original criticisms, the reply was quite disproportionate.) The comment that this person posted on this blog was also equally idiotic, and never even addressed the discrepancy I had tried to point out.
In fact, his style of argument reminded me of a religious fanatic who, in the absence of any good evidence, has to resort to making assumptions about the personal character of the people they're arguing with to make a point. I suppose I got off easy - if I had been any more vehement in my criticism, no doubt he would have called me a 'chronic under-achiever' (as he did my colleague) or something to that effect.
Now the thing is, why did I even bother addressing this person, when most people would probably just sit back and wait for him to disappear into obscurity. My friend who's working out here in Assam even asked me how and why I was able to devote so much time and energy to maintaining a blog. I said there was a point to all of this, beyond the simple narcissistic pleasure of broadcasting one's thoughts.
Recently, my friend Lauren (who has a personal blog lozguistics and also maintains the linguistics-related blog Superlinguo) attended a writing workshop at the University of Melbourne. The main point of the workshop seemed to be to encourage academics to write for a more general audience. There are a number of reasons to do, including the potential for a career change. I suppose one reason I see the need for this is that, at least in Australia, research at universities is largely funded by the government and taxpayers want to see what their money is getting them. Of course this doesn't mean that all research should, or needs to, have immediate recognisable and tangible benefits - knowledge itself is a worthy pursuit. However, as purse strings tighten in a world dominated by a GFC, it is becoming increasingly important for researchers to be able to 'justify' the value of their research in order to remain being funded, whether it's by producing results or by simply creating interest in the general public.
I certainly don't think my little blog comes anywhere to doing this but it's my small way of sharing the knowledge I have with others. Keeping a blog is also good writing practice for me, since I'm also not a great writer and often struggle to write in a concise and engaging manner.
Finally, returning to he-who-shall-not-be-named, I think part of my frustration with him has also been that there are people in my department who are so much more qualified to comment on the things that he has been talking about. The lesson here is not to wait for people like him to come and 'steal' the limelight with their misinformation (based largely on personal views), but to find ways to engage the public with the knowledge that we do have.
(Incidentally, I was told that if you google 'his' name, my post appears on the first page of results!)
In this blog, I try to be as positive as possible, even after spending 3 hours standing on a train or 10 hours on a bus suppressing the urge to throw up because of food poisoning. My little outburst this week was actually many weeks coming, having read some of the idiotic comments this person had been making on Twitter and in articles featured on The Age. The final straw was when he launched a ludicrously personal attack on a colleague who had written a rather lengthy criticism of him. (While I disagreed with some of the original criticisms, the reply was quite disproportionate.) The comment that this person posted on this blog was also equally idiotic, and never even addressed the discrepancy I had tried to point out.
In fact, his style of argument reminded me of a religious fanatic who, in the absence of any good evidence, has to resort to making assumptions about the personal character of the people they're arguing with to make a point. I suppose I got off easy - if I had been any more vehement in my criticism, no doubt he would have called me a 'chronic under-achiever' (as he did my colleague) or something to that effect.
Now the thing is, why did I even bother addressing this person, when most people would probably just sit back and wait for him to disappear into obscurity. My friend who's working out here in Assam even asked me how and why I was able to devote so much time and energy to maintaining a blog. I said there was a point to all of this, beyond the simple narcissistic pleasure of broadcasting one's thoughts.
Recently, my friend Lauren (who has a personal blog lozguistics and also maintains the linguistics-related blog Superlinguo) attended a writing workshop at the University of Melbourne. The main point of the workshop seemed to be to encourage academics to write for a more general audience. There are a number of reasons to do, including the potential for a career change. I suppose one reason I see the need for this is that, at least in Australia, research at universities is largely funded by the government and taxpayers want to see what their money is getting them. Of course this doesn't mean that all research should, or needs to, have immediate recognisable and tangible benefits - knowledge itself is a worthy pursuit. However, as purse strings tighten in a world dominated by a GFC, it is becoming increasingly important for researchers to be able to 'justify' the value of their research in order to remain being funded, whether it's by producing results or by simply creating interest in the general public.
I certainly don't think my little blog comes anywhere to doing this but it's my small way of sharing the knowledge I have with others. Keeping a blog is also good writing practice for me, since I'm also not a great writer and often struggle to write in a concise and engaging manner.
Finally, returning to he-who-shall-not-be-named, I think part of my frustration with him has also been that there are people in my department who are so much more qualified to comment on the things that he has been talking about. The lesson here is not to wait for people like him to come and 'steal' the limelight with their misinformation (based largely on personal views), but to find ways to engage the public with the knowledge that we do have.
(Incidentally, I was told that if you google 'his' name, my post appears on the first page of results!)
Good post, Mozzie... and I've been toying with the idea of starting blogging myself. I think we've all got something different to offer to the conversation... but do I have the motivation to do it? If it's worth doing, it's worth doing properly - I dun wanna make a half-arsed attempt.
ReplyDeleteThere's no use being stuck in your little ivory tower, even if some people don't like it when you do venture out!
ReplyDelete