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Dear Academia, I loved you, but I’m leaving you (2014)

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Re: Dear Academia, I loved you, but I’m leaving you (2014)

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if a citation would make it any better. That line of logic makes me think of the opposite pitfall - that it leads to needless hair-shirted puritanism because anything enjoyable can't possibly be a good thing. "We can't use anesthesia in surgery because the lack of suffering is detrimental to character!" By definition it leads to needless suffering. While knowledge and culture may seem boring or useless i…

>anything enjoyable can't possibly be a good thing. I think you're conflating enjoyment, in the sense you enjoy an apple, and enjoyment in the sense you enjoy a painting. It's a really common conflation, mainly because in our society, the dominant culture is enjoyable in the sense an apple is enjoyable. That, for me, is part of the problem. Nobody ever got inspired by eating an apple. Nobody ever learned new forms of…

I think of it in different frameworks personally - than enjoyment - novelty exposure and exploration vs sticking with comfortable and familiar - peripheral to how one receives it (although attitude would influence what and how much is learned).

Theoretically appreciative enjoyment could be empathic in a "rags to riches" sense but that could arguably be making the bitterness more palatable while undermining fundamental aspects say the sense of helplessness - even if it shows both ends and cycle of grudges and oppression. I guess it is like Shakespearean "write to please both the groundlings and the noble patrons" - hard to do, let alone properly but if done right offers the potential to create masterpieces.

Anyway I can see some point to the arguement personally even if I would phrase it radically differently - and it may not be entirely what you wanted.

Re: Dear Academia, I loved you, but I’m leaving you (2014)

#92
post #89
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any evidence allowing you to single out these two countries?

Well no, I don't have 'evidence'. I just report what the expats in question tell me. I'm not singling them out, they just came to my mind due to recent conversations. I'm not trying to make a grander point or anything, and not every remark has to be completely exhaustive and evidenced to be 'allowed' into a casual conversation. If you want me to source every statement I make, you're going to have to pay me, just like…

>I'm not singling them out

But you did it and you did it with the "it's pretty obvious" qualifier.

This casual bias needs to be corrected.

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