SNP’s word of the day: Obscurant
Word: Obscurant
Meaning: As an adjective, it can mean a few things, including simply something (like smoke, or clouds) that obscures something else. As a noun, more importantly, it means an opposer of intellectual progress, political reform and/or enlightenment.
Usage: “The essential element in the black art of obscurantism is not that it wants to darken individual understanding, but that it wants to blacken our picture of the world, and darken our idea of existence.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
You should know it because: What’s a-changing? The times, they are. And who doesn’t want them to change? Obscurants, who are creakingly rising in opposition to the opposition, i.e. the Occupy Movement. Over the weekend I had the misfortune of reading a Margaret Wente column telling Occupiers, essentially, that it’s their own fault for getting sociology degrees and wanting to do meaningful, world-changing work when they should have settled for just a job. Of course, she ignores the hard facts, which are that these jobs are disappearing fast: the construction sector lost 27 percent of its jobs between 2007 and 2010; manufacturing lost 17 percent; and so it goes. Also, there was that whole tricky issue of 2008’s GLOBAL FINANCIAL MELTDOWN, but I guess we should all just get over that and look for McJobs so we can feed our children industrialized dog food.
Wente so regularly and predictably attacks intellectuals and reformists in her columns, and with so little in the way of research or reporting, that a trained monkey (or an unemployed sociologist!) could write them. In this case, she got all her info about—and “quotes” from—the liberal-artsy Occupiers she mocks in her article by Googling, which is just so whatever. An arts grad herself, circa 1981, it is almost impossible she’s as anti-liberal, anti-humanities as she seems. No, maybe she’s just firmly status quo and obscurantist; if the system ain’t broke for her and her upper–middle class, upper–middle aged friends, well, nobody else should try to fix it.
This is a common way to feel, especially in an age of political upheaval. Look at the likeliest Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, who appears to be running on a platform to change… as little as possible. And obscurantism has a historical precedent dating way back to the Enlightenment, when aristocrats deemed “the people” as intellectually unworthy of knowing the facts about how they’re governed, and sought to curb the spread of knowledge in order to prevent political and pro-secular change. If you’re frustrated with people like Wente, a) stop reading her truth-obscuring columns (I will too, I swear) and b) take smug comfort in knowing it was the Enlightenment that prevailed.
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[caption id="attachment_63773" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Illustration by Lewis Mirrett"] [/caption]
Word: Obscurant
Meaning: As an adjective, it can mean a few things, including simply something (like smoke, or clouds) that obscures something else. As a noun, more importantly, it means an opposer of intellectual progress, political reform and/or enlightenment.
Usage: “The essential element in the black art of obscurantism is not that it wants to darken individual understanding, but that it wants to blacken our picture of the world, and darken our idea of existence.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
You should know it because: What's a-changing? The times, they are. And who doesn't want them to change? Obscurants, who are creakingly rising in opposition to the opposition, i.e. the Occupy Movement. Over the weekend I had the misfortune of reading a Margaret Wente column telling Occupiers, essentially, that it's their own fault for getting sociology degrees and wanting to do meaningful, world-changing work when they should have settled for just a job. Of course, she ignores the hard facts, which are that these jobs are disappearing fast: the construction sector lost 27 percent of its jobs between 2007 and 2010; manufacturing lost 17 percent; and so it goes. Also, there was that whole tricky issue of 2008's GLOBAL FINANCIAL MELTDOWN, but I guess we should all just get over that and look for McJobs so we can feed our children industrialized dog food.
Wente so regularly and predictably attacks intellectuals and reformists in her columns, and with so little in the way of research or reporting, that a trained monkey (or an unemployed sociologist!) could write them. In this case, she got all her info about—and “quotes” from—the liberal-artsy Occupiers she mocks in her article by Googling, which is just so whatever. An arts grad herself, circa 1981, it is almost impossible she's as anti-liberal, anti-humanities as she seems. No, maybe she's just firmly status quo and obscurantist; if the system ain't broke for her and her upper–middle class, upper–middle aged friends, well, nobody else should try to fix it.
This is a common way to feel, especially in an age of political upheaval. Look at the likeliest Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, who appears to be running on a platform to change... as little as possible. And obscurantism has a historical precedent dating way back to the Enlightenment, when aristocrats deemed “the people” as intellectually unworthy of knowing the facts about how they're governed, and sought to curb the spread of knowledge in order to prevent political and pro-secular change. If you're frustrated with people like Wente, a) stop reading her truth-obscuring columns (I will too, I swear) and b) take smug comfort in knowing it was the Enlightenment that prevailed.){kind=link}