Two of the blogs I read regularly have recent entries (one, two) making the tacit argument that reading old books and studying old history gives you the broadest critical perspective on contemporary political affairs. When I say it that clearly it sounds uncontroversial; it’s really remarkable therefore how many people believe that to be relevant one has to be reading the last fifty years. But maybe it’s always been this way. Maybe there have always been equivalents of those students who, today, read only Deleuze and Derrida, finding Plato and Rousseau a big bore.
In this spirit I respond to the meme with which I’ve been tagged by dr, whose pedagogy, involving sending students out with mo’ better questions, is one I can get behind. I’m supposed to post a picture capturing what I want to teach, and title it.
This too shall pass
