Okay. I get it. You're not a midget, you're just "vertically challenged." You're not a "bastard," you're just a mono-parental child. Or something... In the age of political correctness, many have realized that being PC has it's limits. Many, but apparently not all...
I've been working on this idea for a while, mostly because nothing irks me more than reading letters to the editors by people who are full of opinion but devoid of reason. I've picked apart many letters half-heartedly, but I was waiting for that one letter that just jumped out at me, that screamed "pick me! pick me! I'm stupid and unimformed!" And then well, this one just fell into my lap...(follow link for full version. I have edited it for length. I have not changed the meaning in any way or changed his words).
Taylor was unfair to deaf and blind people Published: Monday, March 26, 2007
Re: "Philosopher Taylor wins largest prize for bridging modern life, spirituality" (Gazette, March 15).
In a prepared speech ... Charles Taylor stated: "It is equally true that the culture of humanities and social sciences has often been surprisingly blind and deaf to the spiritual."
Clearly blind and deaf people can communicate and they can understand philosophical arguments. It is not because people are blind or deaf that they refuse to listen to his point of view.
I don't think that Taylor intended to denigrate deaf and blind people, but his use of such a negative metaphor only serves to perpetuate harmful stereotypes.
Random Idiot
I've been working on this idea for a while, mostly because nothing irks me more than reading letters to the editors by people who are full of opinion but devoid of reason. I've picked apart many letters half-heartedly, but I was waiting for that one letter that just jumped out at me, that screamed "pick me! pick me! I'm stupid and unimformed!" And then well, this one just fell into my lap...(follow link for full version. I have edited it for length. I have not changed the meaning in any way or changed his words).
Taylor was unfair to deaf and blind people Published: Monday, March 26, 2007
Re: "Philosopher Taylor wins largest prize for bridging modern life, spirituality" (Gazette, March 15).
In a prepared speech ... Charles Taylor stated: "It is equally true that the culture of humanities and social sciences has often been surprisingly blind and deaf to the spiritual."
Clearly blind and deaf people can communicate and they can understand philosophical arguments. It is not because people are blind or deaf that they refuse to listen to his point of view.
I don't think that Taylor intended to denigrate deaf and blind people, but his use of such a negative metaphor only serves to perpetuate harmful stereotypes.
Random Idiot
Department of Psychology McGill University
Alright, so what's the issue? Well, for starters, Random Idiot has the audacity to suggest that blind or deaf people can communicate the same way we can... puh-lease! Okay, no, I'll be serious, or kind of...
So this guy takes issue with Taylor's use of the words "blind and deaf" as somehow being, albeit unintentionally, insulting to blind and deaf people. Taylor means to portray that the humanities and social sciences are often ignorant to the spiritual element of their studies. See how I fit ignorant in there? "Blind and deaf" is used as a synonym for ignorant. Obviously this means Taylor is calling blind and deaf people ignorant. Right? Wrong. To be ingnorant is to be unlearned in something. To be uninformed. I am uninformed when it comes to quantum physics. I am ignorant. It doesn't mean I'm stupid, well, unless I have aspirations as a nuclear physist (I don't). I won't take it as far as to say that blind and deaf people are unlearned in seeing and hearing (though technically... they are), but more to the point, what Taylor is getting at is that the humanities and social sciences are being "willfully" blind and deaf, and that, like being willfully ignorant, is a problem. To be ignorant is fine, to chose to be so is stupid, and I think the blind and deaf people might take issue with Random Idiot suggesting their conditions are in any way a choice.
