Sunday, March 24, 2013

Cutting Across Theoretical and Ideological Boundaries

One of the most important characteristics of a good scholar and writer is the ability to maintain balance and certainty in an intellectual world in which so many theories and methodologies abound, and where being "behind the times" can mean the kiss of death. This is more particular to the academic world but it can also be almost as complicated in the world of blogs, 24-hour news cycles and in the political arena. That is why it is unusual for anyone deeply engrained in those arenas to write good works. Not impossible, and many have done it, but still difficult.


No doubt that the academy is a bubble and most of us who live there are often insulated and isolated from the real problems of every day people. That has probably always been the case, but in today's world too many good people find themselves unable to really write anything that is worth its salt outside the academy because of "overloaded minds" or because they put too much time into staying up with the blogs and posts. More and more we are pressured to write for our own bubble and our small community of likeminded individuals. And I find this a particularly poisonous environment for people who want to write scholarship or even fiction that has meaning or is valuable outside those limited parameters. So much writing is now conjured up within the four walls of an apartment, a classroom, or a cubicle at the library. The more people prepare themselves to be scholars and writers, the more they isolate themselves from the world they once wanted to influence.


Being an intellectual or good fiction writer means transcending borders and pushing against the grain, learning about new landscapes, listening to different people and being challenge to see things differently. Today, unfortunately, it often means staying within an ideological boundary and pushing back against only the enemy. We tolerate little dissension from our ranks. And we have too many litmus tests. I don't mean standards or ground rules but rather fastidious "gotcha" traps used to blunt rather than encourage intellectual conversation.

This is not a conservative or liberal problem but a problem with our society. Yet, the good writers always find a way to cut across ideologies and social norms. It is difficult and that is why literature is littered with writers who were recognized only after they left the scene or whose works--if they were lucky--remain dust-covered decades and centuries after they were published. In history, we are not so kind to such people. We know how to bury our dead deep lest they resurrect and show us how wrong we were.

Yet, if we are to progress beyond the rigid academia, the polarized punditry, and the blogsphere wars, we need to nurture more writers and intellectuals who are willing to push back against even their friends and colleagues when they are destructive, who find it more important to write meaningful material than popular one (to their bubble friends), and who believe that life is more than just about arguing and fighting or trapping people in ideological inconsistencies. We need to use words that do more than simply give us an advantage. Today, going for the jugglar is more important than finding the answers. It is also more attractive to humiliate, marginalize and destroy other people than to try to find common ground. Sometimes the battle is an end-all one and there can be no compromises--hough that is usually rare. Those also have to be fought, but we should still try to fight in a way that victory does not simply leave scarred landscapes.

Ideology and faddish notions is what makes us do that carpet-bombing. In contrast, principles are those intellectual and spiritual parameters that force us to try to convince people that we are right or that what we bring to the table can be better than the alternative. Those men and women whom we admire for their great work were people whose principles always transcended their ideology. That is why they changed in the ways they did and galvanized the people they did. When they, themselves, became too ideological they went the way of the ideologues. They weren't always right or their work wasn't always positive but they were consistent to the point that any work can be.

So, as we seek to become good scholars and writers and we are tempted to be the "movers of ideas" let us not forget that principles--those beliefs which are based on greater intellectual and spiritual depth and which apply to greater numbers of people than ideology or academic theories--are more important to have than great ideas. Let us not be "toss to and fro" by theories, methodologies or "great ideas" which come and go, but rather remain firm in the things we believe are good for the whole.

I am naive enough to believe that there are words to be written that are still meaningful beyond the next conference, the following blog post, and which cannot be undermined no matter how much we reconstruct or analyze them. Those usually involve writing about the lives of people, their struggles, defeats and triumphs. It is usually work that the people themselves can understand and appreciate and which makes them seek to "be better than what they have become". Now, I understand that not all work is specifically about people, sometimes it is about forces and institutions, and sometimes it speaks to tragedy, but the reality is that life doesn't exist without people and people's reaction to their world. My own grounding to this principle has helped me hold on through the winds of theoretical change. I have changed and some of those theories have been extremely helpful, but only because I've maintained my balance and picked and chose those which have enhanced and re-enforced my principles to write about people's struggles to find a place in this world.

After attending the National Associationn of Chicana/o Studies in San Antonio I am optimistic that it is possible to stem the tide of divisiveness, and faddish academic ideology. I saw and spoke to a number of scholars and young people who want to write things that are meaningful and which will have an impact for good. The only thing missing was a few more mentors willing to sit and chat and help these young people. But the struggle to make it on their own can also be helpful. Many of us had to do it on our own, and some of us did okay. Still, good mentors are always welcomed.