whoar.co.nz

News, Opinion, Humour

News / Opinion / Humour
  • Home
  • Ethical Advertising
  • Tips, stories & whistleblowing

‘Beware the Rise of the Pseudo-Intellectual: Tom Wolfe’s Boston University Commencement Address’.. 

29/8/2015 By Leave a Comment

‘We live in an age in which ideas – important ideas – are worn like articles of fashion’.

Few things bypass our culture’s codified shell of cynicism more elegantly and powerfully than the commencement address — that singular mode of intravenous wisdom-delivery wherein an elder steps onto a stage and plugs straight into what Oscar Wilde called the “temperament of receptivity,” so elusive in all hearts and doubly so in the young.

History’s greatest commencement addresses — masterworks like Joseph Brodsky’s “Speech at the Stadium” and David Foster Wallace’s “This Is Water” — deliver not vacant platitudes but hard-earned life-tested insight into the beliefs behaviors and habits of mind that embolden us to live good rewarding, noble lives.

That is what celebrated writer Tom Wolfe (b. March 2, 1931) delivered when he took the podium at Boston University in 2000 with a magnificent address.

(cont..)

Source: Beware the Rise of the Pseudo-Intellectual: Tom Wolfe’s Boston University Commencement Address | Brain Pickings

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Google

Welcome

WHOAR
Follow @vegandogs50

Recent comments

  • John W on ask a lawyer – online – and for free..
  • Daniel Graham on ask a lawyer – online – and for free..
  • editor on would you like some microplastics with that bottled water..?
  • John W on would you like some microplastics with that bottled water..?
  • Anonymous on “..The iwi power rankings: who are the most powerful iwi in 2013?..”
  • editor on ‘why a meat tax is a good idea’…
  • Kevin Trye on ‘why a meat tax is a good idea’…
  • editor on ‘bernie may run again’..
  • editor on ‘are hydrogen cars the future?’.. 
  • John W on ‘berlusconi’s ties to sicilian mafia’..

Articles by Category

cancer sugar john key climate change mueller clinton cannabis bernie sanders interview poverty trump alcohol brexit tpp inequality john oliver stephen colbert new zealand green party corruption obama donald trump kim dotcom andrew little op-ed hillary clinton bill maher medicinal cannabis jeremy corbyn samantha bee

Older articles

‘u.s. government is ignoring u.f.o. sightings’..

trump tweet-fired tillerson..

another trump-skittle falls…

interview: ‘100 years of u.s. meddling and regime change’..

’eminem attacks nra’.. (+op-ed: trump caves in to nra..)

gene-editing..

‘how to persuade people’..

interview: joaquin phoenix.. 

‘why people like to listen to music during sex’.. 

‘mueller has trump & co. pinned down’..

kicking smartphone-addiction..(+op-ed..)

doomsday food-kits..

‘millennials are turning to astrology’.. 

feminist-fiction..

russian-oligarchs buy off british-tories..

‘caesar bloody caesar’..

review: Samsung Galaxy S9.. 

‘pedigree dogs’ lives are full of pain’.. 

‘does blockchain offer hype or hope?’..

kate bush playlist..

hedy lamarr: ‘genius’..

‘how lsd makes music profoundly awesome’.. 

‘a new generation of women is coming to power’.. (+op-ed: well done..!..that mark richardson..!..eh..?..)

‘how to appear normal at social events’..

‘why you should invest your time as wisely as your money’..

‘former colonies don’t need britain after brexit’.. 

‘the man who always gives an orgasm’..

study: ‘larger waistline can increase anxiety in middle-aged women’..

‘socialite with a 700-square-foot closet’..

pharma-bro ‘martin shkreli sentenced to seven years in prison’..

Archives

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2018 · WordPress · Log in