The mockery is getting old, in the sense that one can shoot fish in a barrel for only so long before the fun is spent. Roger Shattuck, some many years ago, now, banned certain vocabulary from his seminars, e.g., "decentering," "deconstructing," etc. He said that it wasn't as though the words or concepts were in themselves unworthy of use or discussion, but that their incessant use debased them, and became a pantomime of actual thought. Or, as one professor of mine once said, "Is there an idea actually in there?"

Labels: moderation: safe