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[mzamon1]

I am insulted ,as I am sure  hundreds - nay thousands of others are- We all are hard working Ph D students, and many of us are also working full time, and some like me are  persons of a certain age--
 I am not pleased that The Chronicle saw fit to print
Mary

[scheherazade]

Um, link?

[scheherazade]

Never mind: http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2008/07/2008070201c.htm

I admit, I was curious to see what the author could possibly have said that was so horrifying as to insult "hundreds - nay thousands" of people.  After reading the article, I'm failing to dredge up any outrage, and I have no idea why anyone would be personally insulted by the article.

Well, unless you do hard drugs or are a frequent binge drinker.  Then I understand the article could really tick you off.

[eumaios]

I am insulted ,as I am sure  hundreds - nay thousands of others are- We all are hard working Ph D students, and many of us are also working full time, and some like me are  persons of a certain age--
 I am not pleased that The Chronicle saw fit to print
Mary

Mary, you seem tense. Here, take a hit of this....

So the author smokes some dope. What does that have to do with being hard-working? Or with being "of a certain age"? I've known some happy, productive graybeards who had a fondness for the illegal weed.

I admit, I was curious to see what the author could possibly have said that was so horrifying as to insult "hundreds - nay thousands" of people.  After reading the article, I'm failing to dredge up any outrage, and I have no idea why anyone would be personally insulted by the article.

Well, unless you do hard drugs or are a frequent binge drinker.  Then I understand the article could really tick you off.

Exactly right, scheherazade. Personally, I'm offended by the author's tone. What entitles him to adopt an attitude of smug superiority toward people who prefer other drugs? Who is he that he should look down his patrician nose at hard-drinking coke fiends or winos or junkies? They're just as good as pot smokers, and sometimes more amusing at parties. It's blatant elitism. We'll need to have a long discussion to figure out whether to blame the author's faults on racism, sexism, or classism. Or bad dope.

Okay. Silliness over. Seriously, I finished the piece feeling that this might have been a timely article in, oh, 1978.

[scheherazade]

I would agree with you, eumaios, but I'm currently propped up in a washing machine after a few pitchers and shots, and the words on the screen are a little incoherent.

[cccooollliiinnn]

My biggest complaint about the article is that the anonymous author didn't get high enough to come up with the too-cool-not-to-use stoner-friendly, academically-friendly, and parenthetically-friendly title: "P(ot)h(ea)D."

Seriously though, it was an interesting and fun light read this morning.

[pyshnov]

The author said that "cannabis-smoking culture" is "encouraging inwardness and creativity". The problem is that creatitvity comes from suppressing inwardness. The creativity of which the author speaks, can only lead one back to cannabis-smoking culture, i.e. to taking an illusion as truth. That is exactly what is accepted as psychology/sociology today, and that is what hard science begins to accept.

[wvsom24901]

It's a little pathetic when someone is able to delude himself into believing that any substance makes him more creative.

[hollow_man]

It's a little pathetic when someone is able to delude himself into believing that any substance makes him more creative.

LOL.

In my experience, stepping back from the subject matter and giving your mind time to work--even at a subconscious level--is valuable.  I usually do this by sleeping on a problem.  I suppose pot might be a way of giving the mind a break.  But I agree that no substance makes us more creative.

On the whole, the column is more proof that CHE will print anything!

[123_abc]

Come on.  It is the Chronicle of HIGHer Education, right?

One thing the writer doesn't mention that merits mentioning is that using alcohol to unwind can and does lead to bad decisions.  I've seen lots of academic relationships dissolve because of things said or done while drunk.  I've seen lots of people get stoned and be boring; I've yet to see people get stoned and then hook up with a colleague. 

[larryc]

For the busy, a summary of the article: "Pot solves all the problems that pot causes in my life."

[husqvarna]

Raves are still going on?  I thought that was a 90's thing.

[montreal_at_heart]

I'll buy the "pot = creativity" argument, at least some of the time.

That psychologist with the long name (Czisksenmihalyi?) wrote an excellent pop psych book on the "flow" of creativity. In it he interviews dozens of high-level types: Nobel prize winners, leading scientists, and authors alike.

What he comes up with is that creative breakthroughs in many a field follow a general trajectory: long periods of knowledge absorption and experimentation, followed by a break doing something else, followed by the breakthrough. I believe there is some psych research about the effect of "background processing" in the brain. Pot may be the author's way of getting away from his subject just long enough to let the brain do that. How many times have you faced a seemingly unsurmountable problem in academic work, slept on it and then come in the next day to solve in in an hour? It makes a bit of sense, whether it's pot or sleep.
 

[sugaree]

For the busy, a summary of the article: "Pot solves all the problems that pot causes in my life."

Then it must be true, because that is just a twist on the wisdom of one Homer Simpson - "to alcohol (or, in this case pot) - the cause of and solution to all of life's problems."

Did anyone else think of that Facts of Life episode when Molly Ringwald thought her research paper was so brilliant when she wrote it, high and then later had to read the jibberish she produced? Just me then? Y'all need some more pot-smoking TV breaks.

[litcrittr82]

I promise not to take the article too seriously; but as a humanities student, I cringe each time I see a fellow humanist going out of her/his way to reinforce the stereotype of the aloof grad. student.  The image of 4 pothead grad. students huddled up in a dark, smokey room toking up and watching indy flicks and spilling bromides is a tough one for me to stomach.  IMO and experience, humanities grad. students need to stop impersonating Shelley and get out more.  When toking, weed smokers are solipsistic, lethargic, trite, and no fun. 

Booze, on the other hand, is a social drug.  The humanities are about humans.  Get out and enjoy the world, I say.