What would it take to bring you to say "I was wrong about [Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, Noam Chomsky, Pope Benedict, Bill Clinton, Alan Greenspan]"? Insert the name of your preferred hero or bugaboo.
Last year I actually was brought to say "I was wrong about Noam Chomsky" - moving away from a stance that goes back at least to 1965. Do not get me wrong - I still reject and despise what he has done to ruin the Linguistic profession worldwide, and still am upset by his insistent poking in politics [his choice of direction is irrelevant, it is simply academics have no business in politics nor politicos in academia]. But Number 1 Son expressed doubt as to my disgnosis and showed me a clip of Chomsky speaking [never seen him in action before]. And I had to agree, he is an ennea-8 pain and not an ennea-3 slimeball.
Disclaimer - not all ennea-8s are pains nor are all ennea-3s slimeballs.- not even as seen by me.
This moved Chomsky from being a plate of kidneys [yecch] to being a serving of liver and bacon.
In the other direction, my former colleague Professor Sjoeboe moved from good if at times abrasive coworker to despicable heap of half-digested kidneys when he sold out his truth at all costs principles to defend the don't rock the boat we don't need no stinking principles establishment.
Would be intriguing to hear other stories or hypotheses [I can't say WHAT it would take to make me change my mind on Obama. COULD happen, though].
04 May 2011, 8:26 am
