Eric Ringmar has only been blogging since last year, but has already been sacked from his job as a lecturer at the London School of Economics. What did he do wrong?
Nothing, by his account. First I must say parenthetically, for those who take no cognisance of such things, that blogs are no more than diaries that people post up on their own websites, hoping that some desperate wanderer or other in cyberspace might like to read them. For the first few weeks that Ringmar blogged, not many people noticed he was blogging at all. Then he made a suicidal speech at an open day for prospective students and their parents, in which he warned them that LSE ‘teachers will have their minds elsewhere than on undergraduate teaching’ and that in any case courses at the LSE were much the same as at lesser universities.
Like some technophiliac Lucky Jim, he proudly posted up the speech on his blog, where, as a cherry on the cake, he urged prospective students: ‘Whatever you do in life, don’t do a PhD! Or at least do one in the US where you get generous funding and proper PhD-level courses!’
Comments
Michael Halberstam
July 22nd, 2008 11:27pmChrisopher Howse clearly has not read Martin Heidegger or the extant secondary literature. My friend Erik's comment that he never read Heidegger, but only pretended to, is a wry and witty comment on much of the Heidegger industry. Frankly, Heidegger's Being and Time is not worth reading in English, neither in the old, nor the new translation. It is mere ghibberish. Instead, I would recommend Dana Villa's book on Arendt and/or Ruediger Safranski's excellent philosophical Heidegger biography to anyone who would care to understand the importance of Heidegger's work but does not read German and has not studied Greek culture and certain arcane histories of western Philosophy for the better part of his or her life. Not having spoken with my friend Erik in many years, but knowing his voracious appetite for digesting the best thinkers in a whole range of disciplines (and languages), I surmise that this is likely the view that he was expressing -- only he is so much funnier than I am. Incidentally, when one of my former students sought me out last year to ask whether he should go to Germany to study Heidegger, I suggested he would likely be better served by seeking out Heidegger experts at Yale and other U.S. institutions as well as the support that such institutions now offer their graduate students (apparently at least four years of full funding for anyone admitted) -- which opinion he apparently confirmed with a respected scholar in Germany whom I recommended he check with for a second opinion. Whatever his purported offenses against the prevailing mores at L.S.E., this episode shows that Erik cares a lot about students and the truth and has not lost his sense of humor and outrage -- qualities that L.S.E. apparently did not appreciate. Too bad for L.S.E. and its students.
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Erik Ringmar
January 14th, 2008 5:21amHi Chris, thanks for the review. My blog had 97,546 visitors in a year. I think that's pretty good. Btw, I don't advocate letting the world know about your ex girlfriends STD, but I don't think there is a way of stopping people who want to spread such information. The point is, we have to get used to living in a world were nothing much is kept secret for very long. Btw, Taiwan is great. I had roast duck for lunch and the weather is gorgeous. yours, Erik
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Steve Mitchelmore
January 12th, 2008 9:56pm"for those who take no cognisance of such things ... blogs are no more than diaries" Christopher Howse and the person who wrote "By so many, to so few" should do some research. Blogs can be, and are, more than diaries, and many are read by many more each day than will ever witness the ignorance on display here. For example, blogs that review books and discuss literature in general: http://www.britlitblogs.com/
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