I've been preparing classes for the fall. "Our" literature has almost no viewpoint diversity since 2016. A new book that includes a chapter on a topic I know much about has a bibliography that ignores the history of the topic EXCEPT for articles that relate to decolonization, racism, etc. I had not thought about archives and digitization. Very thought-provoking post.
Great article, thank you, Jonathan. Viewpoint diversity--and diversity of any type-- can be considered in multiple contexts, and the one you describe is an increasingly important one. I love the C.S. Lewis quote about "chronological snobbery". Too much focus on the singular perspectives of the present are, maybe, blinding us to what can be learned about various viewpoints from the past, and provide some ballast against the totalizing ideologies too many people get caught up in.
Thank you for the excellent article, Jonathan. It made me smile seeing a C.S. Lewis quote here after a discussion with a colleague this morning about The Screwtape Letters.
Beyond its ability to advance us toward truth, compromise, agreement, and solution-finding, viewpoint diversity affirms the value of expression, be that as part of a conversation or statement of belief. Thank you for an excellent look at the power of digital archiving of information to support viewpoint diversity.
Bertrand Russel and Lewis seem to agree on the "chronological snobbery" bit. Russel wrote an essay called "On Being Modern-Minded" which makes a similar point. Here is the first paragraph:
Our age is the most parochial since Homer. I speak
not of any geographical parish: the inhabitants of
Mudcombe-in-the-Meer are more aware than at any
former time of what is being done and thought at
Praha, at Gorki, or at Peiping. It is in the chrono-
logical sense that we arc parochial : as the new
names conceal the historic cities of Prague, Nijni-
Novgorod, and Pekin, so new catchwords hide from
us the thoughts and feelings of our ancestors, even
when they differed little from our own. We imagine
ourselves at the apex of intelligence, and cannot
believe that the quaint clothes and cumbrous
phrases of former times can have invested people and
thoughts that are still worthy of our attention. If
Hamlet is to be interesting to a really modern reader,
it must first be translated into the language of Marx
or of Freud, or, better still, into a jargon inconsist-
ently compounded of both. I read some years ago a
contemptuous review of a book by Santayana, men-
tioning an essay on Hamlet “dated, in every sense,
1908” — as if what has been discovered since then
made any earlier appreciation of Shakespeare
irrelevant and comparatively superficial. It did not
occur to the reviewer that his review was “dated, in
every sense, 1936.” Or perhaps this thought did
occur to him, and filled him with satisfaction. He
was writing for the moment, not for all time; next
year he will have adopted the new fashion in
opinions, whatever it may be, and he no doubt
hopes to remain up to date as long as he continues
I agree with the sentiments in the article but resist some of the phrasing; "viewpoint diversity" and the description of a single person as being "not a minority" both seem misguided.
I've been preparing classes for the fall. "Our" literature has almost no viewpoint diversity since 2016. A new book that includes a chapter on a topic I know much about has a bibliography that ignores the history of the topic EXCEPT for articles that relate to decolonization, racism, etc. I had not thought about archives and digitization. Very thought-provoking post.
Great article, thank you, Jonathan. Viewpoint diversity--and diversity of any type-- can be considered in multiple contexts, and the one you describe is an increasingly important one. I love the C.S. Lewis quote about "chronological snobbery". Too much focus on the singular perspectives of the present are, maybe, blinding us to what can be learned about various viewpoints from the past, and provide some ballast against the totalizing ideologies too many people get caught up in.
Thanks again!
Thank you for the excellent article, Jonathan. It made me smile seeing a C.S. Lewis quote here after a discussion with a colleague this morning about The Screwtape Letters.
Beyond its ability to advance us toward truth, compromise, agreement, and solution-finding, viewpoint diversity affirms the value of expression, be that as part of a conversation or statement of belief. Thank you for an excellent look at the power of digital archiving of information to support viewpoint diversity.
Bertrand Russel and Lewis seem to agree on the "chronological snobbery" bit. Russel wrote an essay called "On Being Modern-Minded" which makes a similar point. Here is the first paragraph:
Our age is the most parochial since Homer. I speak
not of any geographical parish: the inhabitants of
Mudcombe-in-the-Meer are more aware than at any
former time of what is being done and thought at
Praha, at Gorki, or at Peiping. It is in the chrono-
logical sense that we arc parochial : as the new
names conceal the historic cities of Prague, Nijni-
Novgorod, and Pekin, so new catchwords hide from
us the thoughts and feelings of our ancestors, even
when they differed little from our own. We imagine
ourselves at the apex of intelligence, and cannot
believe that the quaint clothes and cumbrous
phrases of former times can have invested people and
thoughts that are still worthy of our attention. If
Hamlet is to be interesting to a really modern reader,
it must first be translated into the language of Marx
or of Freud, or, better still, into a jargon inconsist-
ently compounded of both. I read some years ago a
contemptuous review of a book by Santayana, men-
tioning an essay on Hamlet “dated, in every sense,
1908” — as if what has been discovered since then
made any earlier appreciation of Shakespeare
irrelevant and comparatively superficial. It did not
occur to the reviewer that his review was “dated, in
every sense, 1936.” Or perhaps this thought did
occur to him, and filled him with satisfaction. He
was writing for the moment, not for all time; next
year he will have adopted the new fashion in
opinions, whatever it may be, and he no doubt
hopes to remain up to date as long as he continues
to write. Any other ideal for a writer would seem
absurd and old-fashioned to the modern-minded
man.
I agree with the sentiments in the article but resist some of the phrasing; "viewpoint diversity" and the description of a single person as being "not a minority" both seem misguided.