ciao raggazei

firstly salutations or CIAO to you all [have the Italians recovered sufficiently yet?]

i'll just come on an' out and say it... it appears i have a beef [or fish actually] with academia.
yes, it's true folks. i have an issue with them. today a prof who i really like announced that he is essentially teaching us an 'upper class life style that will be associated with our future positions'. now that is a swell notion... in a nice, pretentious, ego-loving, prideful, sort-of-way. but, being me, i had to vocalize my absolute objection to this horrific notion.
"excuse me, O Hailed Master of Intelligence, what is the point of the academic institution if it seeks to lock itself up in its own hautigness?"
"explain yourself, Ms. Krinsky,"
"well dear Sir, it just seems preposterous that we, as scholars of the Humanities do not seek to fully relate to the humanity that we study and from which we derive our financial living."
"hmmmm,"
"it seems rather like a form of exploitation to me. in addition to which, it also appears absolutely hypocritical to gain admittance thru the pearly gates of higher education and not seek to make some sort of difference to others... and not to accomplish with all our mental depth and knowledge base some level of humane humility, some form of actual empathy towards mankind...we should not seek to simply legitimize, perpetuate, and rationalize social interests...rather the higher we get the more conscious we have to be of becoming more humane, not further removed..."
*quiet from Hindy's ramble*
"You seem to be the product of a very action-oriented ideology, Ms. Krinsky, promise me, wherever you end up... that you won't lose this sentiment."

Now, i'm annoyed. Academics should not be preaching the ultimate achievement of some kind of elitism... no no no no this is a very bad bad counterproductive, counter-everything sort of idea. nay. the smarter we become the more we need to realize that we are obligated to do something with our intelligence. that we can't simply relax in our oak-paneled offices and be content that we are tenured track while the rest of world occurs disconnected from our reality.

knowledge serves no purpose locked away in your ever-expanding head, the only way to make use of it, is if lies stuck beneath your fingernails from constant labours and physical manifestations.

good theme for the upcoming gimmel tammuz. uncannily odd that i came across 'Lubavitch' today in a book i was reading on the train: Language in Time of Revolution by Benjamin Harshav [a nice easy read]. Also a super-great book i'm reading "Ideology" by Terry Eagelton [hilarious in a mathematical nerdistic manner]...

in case you have a 4th of July break [which i don't as i'll be doing some more research in the Rebbe's Library {how absolutely cool is that???}]
here are some things to definitely check out:
1. camp [ i miss those days]
2. the Ohel if you haven't made plans to go yet....we can always use a bit of return.
3. the Macy's fireworks [for political Republican support, or just an appreciation of art]
4. the Graffiti exhibit opening at the BMA [et al, for liberals]
5. the Aston Magna Festival [for everyone who enjoys good music]
6. Shakespeare in the Park [Liev Schriber is MacBeth]
7. and...check this out. http://www.ajws.org/index.cfm?section_id=5&sub_section_id=8&page_id=227 [cuz i'm tempted....so tempted.]