The Bowdoin Orient

Last week in this space, I narrated the experience which led me to conclude that our worship of "the thesis" and its pernicious side-kick, "the thesis sentence," places a bogus priority on rational argument at the expense of accurate observation. As a result, when writing papers students tend to view texts (and I speak specifically of literary texts) as tools for proving their point rather than the soil from which they are to be tilled.

Fellow students, you are living in the shadow of tyranny, the tyranny of the thesis. In our theory obsessed academic environment, a coherent argument is too often prized over thoughtful observation, texts made subordinate to conclusions, and the burden of "proving" something born without question.

In 1715 Hermon Moll, an eminent American cartographer, produced a map showing California separated from the mainland by a body of water he tentatively labeled "Gulf of California or Red Sea." Moll was not alone: the misconception that California was an island persisted for over a hundred years.

On Thursday, November 4 President Bush held his first news conference since winning a second term in office. Reading the transcript of the press conference, I get the feeling that President Bush has a less than favorable opinion of the media.