This is an extremely long read, and meanders its way through quite a few different topics. I didn't know much of anything about Steve Salaita before I started reading it (and still don't), but I...
This is an extremely long read, and meanders its way through quite a few different topics. I didn't know much of anything about Steve Salaita before I started reading it (and still don't), but I still found it really interesting. I think it's worth reading the whole thing, but I just wanted to highlight this paragraph in particular, which really stood out to me as insightful:
The situation provided an occasion to confront the nagging trauma of infamy. Lots of people washed out of the news cycle can tell you that the upshot of recognition is disposability. Consumers want heroes, but heroism is contingent on the hero’s willingness or ability to emblematize an audience’s psychic and libidinal needs. In other words, adoration stipulates obedience, which produces a tenuous codependency. Conditions of support supersede the subject’s control (and sometimes the subject’s knowledge). The great paradox of public life is that leadership requires conformity.
This is an extremely long read, and meanders its way through quite a few different topics. I didn't know much of anything about Steve Salaita before I started reading it (and still don't), but I still found it really interesting. I think it's worth reading the whole thing, but I just wanted to highlight this paragraph in particular, which really stood out to me as insightful: