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postmodern power plays

“Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.” 

So said G. K. Chesterton, who is one of the most quotable writers in history, though I think C. S. Lewis still holds first place in that category.

I finished reading an excellent quote on education by Chesterton here. This struck me as so relevant that it could have been written this week on our own campus.  

Many liberal arts professors today would tell me that my own view of truth is absolute, dogmatic, and ultimately leads to domination.  Instead, any "truth" should be seen as subjective and relative. Absolute truth claims only serve to subjugate others -- all truth claims, then, are power plays.

Except their own, they think.

I hear often from Christian students how their views are frequently belittled and berated by teachers who would otherwise say truth is relative.  So even the postmodern professor ends up being exclusive, domineering, and power-playing.  They simply do not see the contradiction.

All teaching, according to Chesterton, is based upon some dogma, whether classical or postmodern.  The notion of authority always lies at the base of any truth claims in the classroom.  He saw his clearly in 1910...


"The truth is, that there is nothing in common at all between these
teachers, except that they teach. In short, the only thing they share is
the one thing they profess to dislike; the general idea of authority. It is
quaint that people talk of separating dogma from education. Dogma is
actually the only thing that cannot be separated from education. It is education. A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching."  (G. K. Chesterton, from What’s Wrong with the World, 1910.  Italics added.)

Comments

Nice views on Truth,before i started my degree i never really questioned much. Now towards the end? almost everything. That's the nature of education i guess.

cool blog =]

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