Last Friday, I had a long discussion with two new PhD colleagues, and let's just say, I got carried away. It has been ages since I had a discussion on economics/political economy with peers, especially those who fall in the heterodox category. They were broadly sympathetic to my points of view but there was vigorous debate on some topics. I found myself enjoying the jousting and threw in some flourishes. In some instances, I said things which I wasn't completely sure off with oodles of conviction. In one instance early in the conversation, I was caught out, but made a graceful recovery. In short, what started out as an earnest intellectual discussion turned into me basking in the glow of an appreciative audience and enjoying the sound of my own voice. It just shows few of us are immune from the desire to impress, especially when you see your audience getting impressed, which encourages you even more. I had thought myself content with my hermetic existence in a small PhD programme with no other heterodox economists. Toiling away at creating knowledge for the sake of knowledge and professional advancement, immune from the need for validation from my peers. It turns out that I am not. I am a reasonably skilled rhetorician and enjoy verbal jousting as well as feeling smart. I am not ashamed of this, simply amused to see it. I also realize that vanity makes one less receptive to alternative points of view, and stands in the way of principled knowledge creation. Of course, its not clear where healthy self-respect turns into vanity, and I suppose most balanced folks oscillate between healthy self respect and pride in one's achievements to mild vanity. At least, I am glad I realized when I was being pompous and made a mental note about it as fodder for a blog.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment