Wednesday, 2/26/97
A dose of reality on Western culture
Arguments of deconstructionists fueled by white middle class’s
guilt and need to be in intellectual vogue; curriculum needs to
address humanity in general, not agendas of ethnicities, genders,
sexual orientations
By John Foxworthy
have six problems with Vy Nguyen’s article (Feb. 21) on
deconstructing the male Western cultural hegemony (a.k.a.
postmodernism). Nguyen’s perception is a product of the popular
Pyrrhonism of postmodernism.
First of all, postmodernism is largely (but NOT entirely) in
debt to Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. Both are white,
European males. Somehow, their origins have been eradicated, as
many literary and social theorists contend, with the horrible
European tradition in American academia. One may argue that
Foucault is gay but remember, he is a European, white male.
Second, there have been several societies in world history other
than European ones which have had wealthy upper-class male elites
defining truth, reason, rationalism, objectivity and various other
epistemological and methodological concepts to further and sustain
their cultural and therefore political power. Male bias prevails in
world history, not just Eurocentric history. Elites from the
Islamic Near East to Japan also instituted cultural hegemony. Just
looking at nearly every historical period shows this, even today.
In Saudi Arabia, a ruling aristocratic and patriarchal family
defines all philosophical concepts. You therefore have to be
careful when selecting works of literature to present to a
class.
Third, the social institutions of Western Europe are the same
exact culture that ALLOW Vy Nguyen to speak and promote democracy
in the name of race, sex, class and sexual orientation. Free speech
and human rights are taken for granted in this country when
compared relatively to other countries. Think about it: Racism in
Mexico is double compared to what people of Mexican descent face in
the United States. A close African American friend of mine, who is
in the military, was stationed in Japan when he saw a comic book in
a regular everyday newsstand depicting Africans as monkeys. In
Pakistan, stoning homosexuals is a nonchalant communal gathering
event. Erase Western countries on the global map and count how many
countries do NOT actively stone, burn and kill homosexuals. Western
countries LEAD the way for non-heterosexual rights. Out of all the
raping, killing and oppression that exist in world history (as
oppose to solely European history), occidentals have LED the way
for awareness and acceptances of women and non-Western whites. This
does not excuse what happened in history or even today, but
Nguyen’s narrative is only telling part of the story.
Fourth, Nguyen confuses cosmetic diversity with intellectual
diversity. A person’s ethnicity, class, sex or sexual orientation
is NOT always indicative of their politics. The bisexual economist
John Maynard Keynes did NOT create gay supply and demand curves,
nor is there such a thing as an African lesbian calculus book. Math
and science, as imperfect disciplines as they are, provide us with
the means of understanding the universals of nature’s language. I
know that Nguyen has been indoctrinated to no longer trust
objectivity and reason and to rely on lazy narratives, which
require much less work than citing and triple-checking a hundred
sources. Postmodern deconstructionism, when compared with other
ideological movements, is definitely NOT rigorous and relies on the
subjective bias of personal emotions and feelings which will never
produce a Chaucer or Confucius.
My fifth disconfirmation is the obvious methodological errors.
Just the fact that other cultures do NOT use English as a language
creates barriers of translation and comprehension. There are
linguistic limits to Nguyen’s distorted coterie. Admittedly, Nguyen
also realizes you cannot ignore the dead white European
heterosexual males of Milton, Chaucer and Shakespeare. What I am
afraid of is that Nguyen is increasingly more interested in WHO is
writing the literature as opposed to WHAT the person is writing.
This immature armchair intellectualism leads to denunciations
rather than refutations.
Of course, you have to look at who wrote the piece, but the
premises of the piece are more important so that you can dismantle
the legs of the European (and non-European) work that it is
standing on. You can’t sit there vituperating a piece of literature
just because it was written by a rich European dead white
heterosexual male. I am skeptical of your emotional, tautological
hiccups that reveal more about your personalization of the topic
than the topic itself.
The last and final dilemma I have is the political reality of
the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement (LGBT). Gather
all the ethnic and women organizations (or victim organizations?)
from Kerckoff Hall in a room and discuss LGBT. Homophobia would
emerge and Vy Nguyen will get a serious dose of reality. The
(victim?) organizations will never gather all at once to storm
Murphy or Bunche Hall SOLELY for the rights of gays, lesbians and
bisexuals.
Keep dreaming, Nguyen. Come on. Life is NOT as simple as
European and colonial or male and female or being for affirmative
racism or against it. Liberal vs. conservative arguments are
pointless, passe and have a limited cognition. Most people are in
the gray area in between, which is commonly called moderate. Better
yet, be independent, like the writer of this paper is trying to
be.
Enough of the overly ideological, unscientific women and gay
studies and the overpoliticized multiculturalism. How about a sex
studies department for ALL sexes and orientations to study? Allow
men to feel comfortable rather than guilty and allow straights to
maybe even know what causes heterosexuality. Add the subjects of
WORLD history and COMPARATIVE literature, and absolutely add a
science like physiology.
Above all, I ask of Vy Nguyen to see if you can abandon or
improve your own beliefs, so that maybe you will realize that
postmodern deconstruction is the great white bourgeois guilt trip
of American academia.
Foxworthy is a fourth-year economics/ international studies
student.