Why Are Blogs Like This Necessary?

As far as we know, the human brain is the most materially complex region of the Universe, and language is the most complex semiotic system mediated by the brains and bodies of interacting humans.  Systemic Functional Linguistic theory is the most elaborate (and subtle) theory of language, as a unified phenomenon, so far devised.  This complexity makes the theory very difficult to understand deeply, and this difficulty means that it is very difficult to teach accurately.  This, in turn, creates a downward spiral in which misunderstandings are likely to proliferate exponentially as students become teachers.

The difficulty in learning the theory also works against the confidence of honest and intelligent students and academics, which encourages politeness, but diminishes the chances that misinterpretations (especially by academics) will be publicly identified (especially by students), thereby contributing further to the downward spiral towards theoretical incompetence.  

Unfortunately, this lack of confidence induced in honest and intelligent students and academics also creates an eco-social niche in which confident academics can flourish, regardless of whether or not they are theoretically competent.  The flourishing of theoretically incompetent academics in the SFL community is a further contributor to the downward spiral towards widespread theoretical incompetence.

No comments: