The poor little professor
Reader comment on item: [Hamid Dabashi:] Columbia University's Hysterical Professor

Submitted by Arlinda DeAngelis (United States), Dec 1, 2004 at 20:15

The best defense is a good offense. Any and all criticism to Dabashi is met with a calculated defense bashing the opponent with ad hominen attacks of racism and charges that said criticism is a threat to his academic freedom, if not to Dabashi's very life. I am sorry to say the poor little professor is a bozo unworthy of an American academic who is supposed to be the epitome of free expression.

While I am unfamiliar with the works of Schanzer and/or Luria, I am familiar with the scholarly texts and lectures of Dr. Pipes. I am an unbashed fan of this gifted man and his works. It would seem to me that anyone, and I mean anyone, who would debate Dr. Pipes had better know what the heck he's talking about, because Dr. Pipes always does.

He is a measured and logical debater given to understatement but he is so powerful in his commentary that he can make people uncomfortable enough to have to think. If this is Dabashi's problem, what is he doing in a university. I thought the life of a university professor was all about logic and thoughtful exchange. Apparently not. Perhaps Dabashi prefers the excitement of a vaccum.

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