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Re: revisionism

Howdy,

> but it's the term most of us are familiar with for a certain contemporary
> movement within the recovery of the "narrative."

What movement is that?  The only time I hear the term is when it seems that
people feel their sacred cows (whatever they are) to be threatened.  It looks
to me like what happens is this: since humans are storytelling animals, we
construct our identity in terms of stories.  Who we are is the story of our
life, somewhat like the Ents of Middle Earth, whose names are their life story,
and hence too long to use in conversation with non-Ents, "hasty folk".  We take
stories of others up into our identity, as part of our heritage, and they
become part of who we are.  I am a part of this story, I am not a part of that
story.  Then someone comes along and wants to tell a different story, and if
that version contradicts the version we have made part of our identity, we
don't want to hear it; it is threatening, because it changes who we are.  It
implies that there is a part of us that is "wrong", which would make us have to
reevaluate who we are.  This is something most people (in my experience) seem
to find very uncomfortable.  I, personally, find it exhilirating, but I don't
seem to see that characteristic in most people.  So, rather than face the
evidence and evaluate the validity of the claim, people tend to shout
"revisionism" as an avoidance technique.  It in itself doesn't address the
issue.  Revisionist history can be wrong, and it can be right.  Calling it
"revisionist" doesn't help assess its validity.

> yeah, but even that potentially rational plane is set within an authoritative
> tradition.  what makes its plausibility structures any less biased?

Nothing, which is why we need the constant challenge and testing that the
scientific method provides.  It's the best way to weed out the wacky from the
plausible.

IMNSHO, natch.  :-)
-- 
Don Smith                    Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
donaldas at umich_edu                          http://xte.mit.edu/~dasmith/

The Iron Chef in The Matrix:       "I know Kung Pao!"       "Show me."


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