I recently came across this video of a February 2005 talk given by the great public intellectual and professor at Princeton University Cornel West. The talk is deep and wide ranging and, as to be expected, centers on Socratic energy and democracy.
The references to pudding and Taco Bell amused me and propelled me to include this tidbit here.
Read on.
And greatness has to do with being willing to wrestle with forms of darkness and despair and being willing to die daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, so that at the end of every year, no matter what degree you have, you can say, I have been struggling with my own assumptions and presuppositions in order to become a more decent, compassionate, Other regarding person. By using my mind as well as my heart and soul.
In fact, I'm sure many students here remember that wonderful moment - those many moments - when you leave your classroom and recognize that your worldview rests on pudding. Completely lost your footing across the board...
Nietzsche hit me. Darwin hurts. Toni Morrison shook me up. That's called education...
You don't have to agree with Nietzsche. You don't have to agree with Darwin. You've got to engage them. You don't have to agree with Kafka. If you make it through The Metamorphosis and then just go off and have a taco at Taco Bell something's wrong.
You haven't been shook up.
Where's the intellectual vertigo? Where's the ontological dizziness?
Yeah, that's education! It's about being mixed up, not going with the status quo..I so agree, always hoped my students would feel confident asking questions. I lived through the sixties.
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