I would be interested in taking the exam. The main concern I have is that the exam may be skewed in favour of legitimising elite world view and delegitimising external perspectives. Not sure how the examiners plan to deal with this concern.
I really enjoyed reading this. More than the arguments themselves, I appreciate your intention to raise the standard of public discussion.
One thought stayed with me after I finished reading.
Sometimes the most important sentence in an essay is the one the author hesitates to write.
I have a feeling that the strongest part of your thinking may not be the polished words on the page, but the ink that is still quietly waiting in your notebook.
I hope you’ll keep writing with the same courage and eventually say exactly what you truly want to say. Platforms like this need more voices willing to do that.
Thank you for the very sensible post. I would like to comment on so many aspects of your writing, but that would produce a sprawling comment on its own. Having said that, there are a few points that struck me as particularly insightful.
Reason is too often drowned out by vitriolic slur; this is what sold newspapers in Victorian England, and what generates likes and subscribes in our digital age. The ability/willingness of critical interaction with complex issues cannot compete with the rush of dopamine that comes from a 1-minute short that validates one’s superiority over “the other”. I think collectively our species is becoming worse at sustained engagement, but even if we regained our ability to concentrate, I ask where and who is the arbiter of good judgement? As 钟建英acknowledged, who decides what a good answer is?
Your comment on learning/knowing a little history behind history, as well as to challenge the meaning of concepts is sound, but this epistemological thinking is requisite training in most (all?) universities for a social science degree. The issue is about mass, reactionary hysteria that creates a self-perpetuating echo chamber because of extremely sophisticated algorithms. I don’t think many people who have truly trained to operationalise an abstract concept are hosting social media channels with ‘000s or even ‘000,000s of subscribers.
I have a question- I read Chinese and would love to read some of Yan Xuetong’s work. Do you have any recommendations? Also, in terms of Chinese social media, I have access to Little Red Book and WeChat; can you recommend any channels?
Anyway, thanks for a great post; these a lot here to think about.
I would be interested in taking the exam. The main concern I have is that the exam may be skewed in favour of legitimising elite world view and delegitimising external perspectives. Not sure how the examiners plan to deal with this concern.
I really enjoyed reading this. More than the arguments themselves, I appreciate your intention to raise the standard of public discussion.
One thought stayed with me after I finished reading.
Sometimes the most important sentence in an essay is the one the author hesitates to write.
I have a feeling that the strongest part of your thinking may not be the polished words on the page, but the ink that is still quietly waiting in your notebook.
I hope you’ll keep writing with the same courage and eventually say exactly what you truly want to say. Platforms like this need more voices willing to do that.
Keep going.
Thank you for the very sensible post. I would like to comment on so many aspects of your writing, but that would produce a sprawling comment on its own. Having said that, there are a few points that struck me as particularly insightful.
Reason is too often drowned out by vitriolic slur; this is what sold newspapers in Victorian England, and what generates likes and subscribes in our digital age. The ability/willingness of critical interaction with complex issues cannot compete with the rush of dopamine that comes from a 1-minute short that validates one’s superiority over “the other”. I think collectively our species is becoming worse at sustained engagement, but even if we regained our ability to concentrate, I ask where and who is the arbiter of good judgement? As 钟建英acknowledged, who decides what a good answer is?
Your comment on learning/knowing a little history behind history, as well as to challenge the meaning of concepts is sound, but this epistemological thinking is requisite training in most (all?) universities for a social science degree. The issue is about mass, reactionary hysteria that creates a self-perpetuating echo chamber because of extremely sophisticated algorithms. I don’t think many people who have truly trained to operationalise an abstract concept are hosting social media channels with ‘000s or even ‘000,000s of subscribers.
I have a question- I read Chinese and would love to read some of Yan Xuetong’s work. Do you have any recommendations? Also, in terms of Chinese social media, I have access to Little Red Book and WeChat; can you recommend any channels?
Anyway, thanks for a great post; these a lot here to think about.