War of Words

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Andrew Ferguson has issues.

Jul 26, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 42 • By ANDREW FERGUSON

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There was a time when an editor might have been able to take the reviewer aside and, drawing on the work of those prickly logical positivists, point out that the sentence “Human beings are born to create meaning” has no content, if only because its opposite, “Human beings are not born to create meaning,” could never be proved not to be true. That would have been an editorial argument (not conversation) worth hearing.

But today? The editor might simply assert he has an issue, the reviewer will respond by reaching out, and the sentence, in all its mesmerizing meaninglessness, will stand.

Andrew Ferguson