There are many possible answers to questions, including those we haven't conceived of yet. They depend on many conditions, ergo answers other than mine are legitimate [this is unlike Butch's credo].
What I object to is that atrocious attitude by which anybody's is a great expert, absolutely certain of his "knowledge", provided one has read a few books...
Much of what Butch says is obviously self-aggrandisement induced half-baked stuff, who is seriously self-deluded, when it comes to any serious in-depth knowledge about anything.
Much as I admire his need and drive to educate himself and much as I would commend him to anybody doubting s/he can do it, like he did, obviously, read a lot - I would also have to warn them of the pitfalls of un-systematic mode of study...
We are limited, in a variety of ways, from languages we speak, to our experiences, our previous education, schools of thought we belong to, our own intellectual limitations, our leanings/interests and so on.
When you read what Butch and his ilk are writing, it is obvious that he has no doubts he is the greatest mind on Earth and his attitude is that he has nothing to learn from anybody. He asks no Qs, he only gives answers with absoluteness about them, regardless of the area debated...
What steady, structured, systematic and serious study does to one [with any sense] is that it teaches one some humility: as you study more and as you get to know more it gives you an idea of just how much you don't know...
Not so with Butch, regardless of just how patchy and full of holes his "knowledge" is, as I have seen many times!
But he is a part of an atmosphere in the UK that generally doesn't really hold intellectuals in high regard and people like him would rather drag everybody down, as that is much easier than the other way round...
Make of it what you will, but when I was coaching in this country and volunteering in schools [and so on, this forum included] - the general atmosphere is really bad - by comparison to the Continent, where most people aspire to at least become "bourgeois", as in "educated" and transcend their present limitations via some heavy intellectual effort. In the Anglo-American world I see very little respect for that which is the most difficult thing on Earth. And he is just echoing the general "feeling", which I abhor!
Being critical is one thing but what he and his ilk are doing has nothing to do with that...
Imagining things is one thing but showing real potential for change within the merely exiting, through its own contradictions, is quite another thing altogether and he and his lot just aren't doing it!!
Humanism, in this context, would first need to be properly described/understood and then - and that would be SOME task - overcome in a critical effort, by an immanent critique, not just spat at, in such a silly and disrespectful manner.
I suspect we are very far away from that. I suspect Butch and his lot are very far away from that level of cognitive ability/intellectual competence or at the very least informed-ness which would [MAYBE] qualify them for such a short-hand, short-cut [meaning: without any serious proof] dismissiv-ness of the most arrogant kind...
Methodologically speaking, one can only try to do something like that if one has some serious godly characteristics... But such a serious requirement for out-of-hand dismissiveness will never stop Butch and his ilk, sadly....
