The contempt shown toward those who have dedicated their lives to particular fields of inquiry is astounding.
Well the USA has always had a strong cultural streak of anti-intellectualism. I suppose the democratizing aspect of social media results in a even heightened suspicion of any kind of specialized knowledge. The problem with Old Media was the issue of Gatekeepers. Who decides who gets to speak? Old Media was pretty good at excluding the crazies but it also excluded many genuine alternative voices.
The solution provided by New Media is to sell everyone a megaphone with only one volume setting – extra loud. But now we begin to see its liabilities. The truth is, most people* simply have nothing interesting to say. And to get to the good stuff you have to search through a lot of crap. But, online claims assume a cachet they don’t deserve. And NM enables the survival of ideas that should have been allowed to decay decades ago.
Not to be cynical but there is no dumb quite like American dumb, where stupidity is self-authenticating.
* Even I don’t have anything interesting to say most of the time. I know, I know, that’s hard to believe, but folks I’m trying to be humble.
Comment 78
Bruce
This is obviously a tale of the corruption of Rome.
Steefen
The passage of the TF about Jewish messianism and apocalypticism is followed by a passage about the corruption of Rome.
That is nonsense.
And the passage about the corruption of Rome is followed by a passage about a Pauline figure.
More nonsense.
Josephus did NOT introduce Jesus, after writing about Pilate, then speak out of context about the corruption of Rome at a temple of Isis, then follow that up with Paul of early Christianity. In fact, Antiquities of the Jews is NOT about the corruption of Rome and the section of the TF passages is NOT about the corruption of Rome.
The solution provided by New Media is to sell everyone a megaphone with only one volume setting – extra loud. But now we begin to see its liabilities. The truth is, most people* simply have nothing interesting to say. And to get to the good stuff you have to search through a lot of crap. But, online claims assume a cachet they don’t deserve. And NM enables the survival of ideas that should have been allowed to decay decades ago.
Yes, that volume setting is exactly as you describe – all caps.
What’s the point of rational discourse when one can rant without restraint?
Instead of decaying and going the way of all flesh, they have flourished in an environment where all ideas are considered equally valid and where merely asserting something as true makes it so. Abracadabra!
Steefen said
Comment 78
Bruce
This is obviously a tale of the corruption of Rome.
Steefen
The passage of the TF about Jewish messianism and apocalypticism is followed by a passage about the corruption of Rome.
That is nonsense.
Your argument appears to me to be that what the passage can be seen to be from reading it cannot be so for reasons.
Now, to be precise, it is a story of the corruption of the temple hierarchy of Rome’s pagan gods, which clearly does have some relationship to the main theme of Antiquities, in the contrast it offers, and is also the kind of point that a wise author with a Roman patron would be well-advised to only include indirectly, rather than state outright.
And the passage about the corruption of Rome is followed by a passage about a Pauline figure.
More nonsense.
Josephus did NOT introduce Jesus, after writing about Pilate, then speak out of context about the corruption of Rome at a temple of Isis, then follow that up with Paul of early Christianity. In fact, Antiquities of the Jews is NOT about the corruption of Rome and the section of the TF passages is NOT about the corruption of Rome.
Some argue that there are allusions to Paul in some figures in Josephus, but unlike James, there are no clear and direct references to Paul in Antiquities, so using a possible reference to Paul as argued by some does not make for the strongest of arguments by context.
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