Pseudo – intellectual posturing..
[From Weekender in February 2006]
Last year October, Guyana Chronicle writer Ruel Johnson referred to SASOD's efforts at organising a gay and lesbian film festival as 'pseudo-intellectual posturing'. That condemnation was interesting, since at the time SASOD did attempt to open up and also ground the discussions around gay and lesbian issues to people who do not read the letter columns of the newspapers. How do you feel about the level of intellectual stimulation in Guyana? How do you feel about having your own intellect stimulated (as opposed to other parts of your being/body)? Do you feel that there is enough objective conversations in Guyana? Do you view intellectual pursuits as 'elitist'? Or that they are beyond you? Do you feel that now you have finished school/University, you need a rest from thinking or being innovative?
Guyana's dysfunction has resulted in a paucity of places for any kind of intellectual pursuit – rum shops aside. This however, provides an opportunity to create places to exercise the mind. It is important we practise or devise ways in which we could challenge ourselves and others with ideas on anything – politics, governance, sex, cooking, diet, religion – since social development would be impossible without being able to adapt new ideas which would enable our progress. It is not easy though, not only because pseudo-intellectual posturing would not get you into hunk\beauty of the week of columns, but because thinking when you are not required to is very hard and the apathy when you do try to think could stifle any fledgling efforts.
A friend struggled unsuccessfully to get me to read widely- books, essays , all sorts of things. Apart from the fact that I had to use the dictionary at least two times while reading each email he sent, I drew the line at one of the books he recommended which has the following paragraph “..As a result, gender is not to culture as sex is to nature; gender is also the discursive/cultural means by which "sexed nature" or "a natural sex" is produced and established as "prediscursive," prior to culture, a politically neutral surface on which culture acts.”
Some friends decided to create an informal book club. The intention was that the periodic meeting would encourage members to read, not necessarily Harry Potter or John Grisham or Mills and Boons. While recognising that reading for reading sake is noble, the incentive of having the deadline of the meeting has motivated to read some books which we would not have. I read Kafka's Metamorphosis the night before the meeting. Instead of watching the Friday night one hour TV shows. I did contemplate reading the copious notes – there was no film to watch- except that those were longer than the book itself. Much like studying at last minute for an English Lit, exam. The book however turned out to be interesting, like the book for last month – 100 Years of Solitude.
The discussion for this book was also good – characterisation, style, manipulation of time , and of course the sex in the book. Let me shamelessly encourage you to either form your clubs/groups or participate in our next meeting which will be held 2pm at Tower Hotel Spectrum on Saturday 18th Feb. The books up for discussion are Herman Hesse's Siddharta and Irshad Manji's 'Trouble with Islam Today' .
Today (Sunday 12 Feb), another initiative, the Vigyani Sangh would be started to encourage Hindus to be proactive in applying Hindu philosophy to various social issues. This started off after all the letters in the newspapers about Creation, Evolution, God and Godlessness and a couple of Hindu people decided to do some reading and writing and present some ideas for discussion. All are welcome to the Cummings Lodge Mandir today, starting at 2pm to contribute and participate.
During the 2003 gay rights debate, the Guyana Youth and Student Movment (GYSM) invited a couple of us to 'discuss' our views which opposed the discrimination against gay and lesbian people. The resulting three hour quarrel resulted in a feeling that it was important for young people especially to discuss issues and a year later a group formed to do that.Unfortunately, the commitment to research and discussion lost out to the commitments to jobs and family.
Perhaps it is true that only idle elite have the time to engage in aimless intellectual wanderings. First world countries and some progressive third world ones could afford 'think tanks'. Walter Rodney's Grounding with his brothers (and sisters?) represented one model for the kind of thinking and discussion which we would have to do in Guyana to raise the level of intellect in our society. And even when condemned for pseudo-intellectual posturing, take heed of Mevlana Rumi “Start a huge foolish project, like Noah, It makes no difference what people think of you”.
Last year October, Guyana Chronicle writer Ruel Johnson referred to SASOD's efforts at organising a gay and lesbian film festival as 'pseudo-intellectual posturing'. That condemnation was interesting, since at the time SASOD did attempt to open up and also ground the discussions around gay and lesbian issues to people who do not read the letter columns of the newspapers. How do you feel about the level of intellectual stimulation in Guyana? How do you feel about having your own intellect stimulated (as opposed to other parts of your being/body)? Do you feel that there is enough objective conversations in Guyana? Do you view intellectual pursuits as 'elitist'? Or that they are beyond you? Do you feel that now you have finished school/University, you need a rest from thinking or being innovative?
Guyana's dysfunction has resulted in a paucity of places for any kind of intellectual pursuit – rum shops aside. This however, provides an opportunity to create places to exercise the mind. It is important we practise or devise ways in which we could challenge ourselves and others with ideas on anything – politics, governance, sex, cooking, diet, religion – since social development would be impossible without being able to adapt new ideas which would enable our progress. It is not easy though, not only because pseudo-intellectual posturing would not get you into hunk\beauty of the week of columns, but because thinking when you are not required to is very hard and the apathy when you do try to think could stifle any fledgling efforts.
A friend struggled unsuccessfully to get me to read widely- books, essays , all sorts of things. Apart from the fact that I had to use the dictionary at least two times while reading each email he sent, I drew the line at one of the books he recommended which has the following paragraph “..As a result, gender is not to culture as sex is to nature; gender is also the discursive/cultural means by which "sexed nature" or "a natural sex" is produced and established as "prediscursive," prior to culture, a politically neutral surface on which culture acts.”
Some friends decided to create an informal book club. The intention was that the periodic meeting would encourage members to read, not necessarily Harry Potter or John Grisham or Mills and Boons. While recognising that reading for reading sake is noble, the incentive of having the deadline of the meeting has motivated to read some books which we would not have. I read Kafka's Metamorphosis the night before the meeting. Instead of watching the Friday night one hour TV shows. I did contemplate reading the copious notes – there was no film to watch- except that those were longer than the book itself. Much like studying at last minute for an English Lit, exam. The book however turned out to be interesting, like the book for last month – 100 Years of Solitude.
The discussion for this book was also good – characterisation, style, manipulation of time , and of course the sex in the book. Let me shamelessly encourage you to either form your clubs/groups or participate in our next meeting which will be held 2pm at Tower Hotel Spectrum on Saturday 18th Feb. The books up for discussion are Herman Hesse's Siddharta and Irshad Manji's 'Trouble with Islam Today' .
Today (Sunday 12 Feb), another initiative, the Vigyani Sangh would be started to encourage Hindus to be proactive in applying Hindu philosophy to various social issues. This started off after all the letters in the newspapers about Creation, Evolution, God and Godlessness and a couple of Hindu people decided to do some reading and writing and present some ideas for discussion. All are welcome to the Cummings Lodge Mandir today, starting at 2pm to contribute and participate.
During the 2003 gay rights debate, the Guyana Youth and Student Movment (GYSM) invited a couple of us to 'discuss' our views which opposed the discrimination against gay and lesbian people. The resulting three hour quarrel resulted in a feeling that it was important for young people especially to discuss issues and a year later a group formed to do that.Unfortunately, the commitment to research and discussion lost out to the commitments to jobs and family.
Perhaps it is true that only idle elite have the time to engage in aimless intellectual wanderings. First world countries and some progressive third world ones could afford 'think tanks'. Walter Rodney's Grounding with his brothers (and sisters?) represented one model for the kind of thinking and discussion which we would have to do in Guyana to raise the level of intellect in our society. And even when condemned for pseudo-intellectual posturing, take heed of Mevlana Rumi “Start a huge foolish project, like Noah, It makes no difference what people think of you”.
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