> One of the most embarrassing moments came when they asked me a question about Carl Jung, whom I had quoted in one of my essays. I had included a few lines about how Carl Jung believed this or that.
> “Have you ever actually read any books by Carl Jung?” one of the students asked me.
> “No, I’ve never read a single thing by him,” I answered truthfully.
> “Then how can you possibly have a large quote from him in your essay, base an essay around his teachings and also lead us to believe that you know what you are talking about?”
> It was a really good question and he had a point. The rest of the experience and all of the questions went basically like this: I would say one thing and they would contradict me and accuse me of not really understanding what I was talking about.
This is a big paradox of modern society: most of what people believe is bullshit.
But you can’t go around saying people believe bullshit, because they are people, and worthy of respect.
The best solution is to focus on contributing new knowledge, not destroying the bullshit.
It would have been much more impressive if a student actually addressed the ideas attributed to Jung, or explained why the quote was misleading.
Why would you expect this character, the one who quotes Jung at length without ever having read anything he wrote, to remember and record if and what anyone said to him about Jung?
> “Have you ever actually read any books by Carl Jung?” one of the students asked me.
> “No, I’ve never read a single thing by him,” I answered truthfully.
> “Then how can you possibly have a large quote from him in your essay, base an essay around his teachings and also lead us to believe that you know what you are talking about?”
> It was a really good question and he had a point. The rest of the experience and all of the questions went basically like this: I would say one thing and they would contradict me and accuse me of not really understanding what I was talking about.
This is a big paradox of modern society: most of what people believe is bullshit.
But you can’t go around saying people believe bullshit, because they are people, and worthy of respect.
The best solution is to focus on contributing new knowledge, not destroying the bullshit.
It would have been much more impressive if a student actually addressed the ideas attributed to Jung, or explained why the quote was misleading.