Wednesday, January 17, 2007
(10:19 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Messiness of the elites
Scott McLemee's column today discusses that book about how messiness can be "good" and "helpful." In general, I'm in favor of everyone finding their own method for their intellectual pursuits, and if this book persuades one teacher to give up on teaching a cookie-cutter "writing process" and requiring all students to go out and buy Trapper Keepers, its existence will have been justifiedAt the same time, it strikes me that messiness is now becoming a commodity for the privileged. Professors, executives, etc. -- they can be messy. Meanwhile, jobs in the service sector become more and more characterized by rigid formalism. It's just like so many other things that in some previous historical era were simply a given for almost everyone -- living "simply," getting physical exercise, eating food grown using natural methods -- but have now been repackaged as expensive luxuries.
