And a bit more wisdom from Sirach

And later, in the same chapter:

13:20 The arrogant detest humility;
   so the rich detest the poor.
21 When rich people stumble,
they are supported by friends.
   But when the humble fall,
   their own friends push them away.
22 When the rich slip,
their helpers are many;
   they speak things that shouldn’t be spoken, and people justify them.
The humble slip,
   and people criticize them as well;
   they utter something sensible,
   and no one pays attention.
23 The rich speak, and everyone is silent,
   and what they say is praised
   to the heavens.
   The poor speak, and they say,
   “Who is this?”
   And if the poor stumble,
   others push them down all the more.
24 Wealth is good as long as it’s free of sin;
   the ungodly speak of poverty
   as an evil in and of itself.

And I would argue that wealth rarely, if ever, is free from sin! Especially in twenty-first century United Sates.

A word of advice from Sirach

I make it a point to read through the deuterocanonical books (Apocrypha) once a year or so. Right now I'm in Sirach, and he has some good advice for today:

13:3 Rich people inflict injury,
but then act as if they’re the ones
who have been wronged;
   the poor suffer injury,
   but they’re the ones
   who must apologize.
4 If you are useful to the rich,
they will work with you,
   but if you are in need,
they will abandon you.
5 If you own anything,
they will live with you;
   they will exhaust what you have,
and they won’t suffer.
6 If they need you, they will deceive you
   and smile at you and give you hope;
   they will speak nicely to you and say,
   “What do you need?”
7 They will embarrass you
with their fine foods,
   until they have cleaned you out
   two or three times over.
   In the end they will mock you,
   and after these things,
   they will see you and abandon you
   and shake their heads at you. Sirach 13:3–7 (CEB)

Let those who have ears to hear, hear!

Surveys of previous work

Sometimes, ok, frequently, when I'm reading surveys of previous work in a book, and it goes on for page after page, I think they should have read 2 Maccabees 2:32:

32 From this point then we will begin the narrative, not adding further to what was already said. After all, it would be absurd to prolong the preface but then cut short the history. (CEB)

Look, I get it, if it's a revised dissertation, you need to prove to the committee that you read everything written on your subject from the Jemdet Nasr period until today. Or, at least have read enough previous literature reviews from other dissertations that read literature reviews from other dissertations, ad infinitum.

As an aside, copyeditors know. I can usually find out the chain by chasing errors in citations back to the offending book or article. You might fool the dissertation committee or series editor, but the copyeditor will know. I've chased errors in citations back 20 years or more in some cases. And let's not even start with the padded bibliographies! I had one semirevised dissertation that was over 30 percent padded! OK, back to the matter at hand.

I've noticed a trend over the last 15 years or so: the literature reviews are getting longer; the morsels of insight are getting more tentative; the use of scare quotes is getting more prevalent. And, sadly, the synthesis of all this information, data, if you will, is disappearing—in many cases, totally disappeared.

So, while data is expanding and becoming overwhelming, the information, which is the synthesis of it all, has ceased to exist. We're drowning in data, but can't find the proverbial needle of real information/insight in the haystack of data.

I don't have a solution to it, because the way the system is set up, it encourages this type of baloney slicing, as they call it in STEM. You take your results, and slice them into tiny segments to coax out as many articles as you can.

Publish or perish! Tenure, where it still exists, depends on it! Or, if you are in that ever-growing segment of adjuncts, the possibility of a real job depends on it. And since, as an adjunct, you don't have a whole lot of time, you baloney-slice because of necessity.

All of this to go back to 2 Maccabees advice, don't prolong the preface to cut short the history…

Just an
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For the love of…

Sir. 31:5    Whoever loves gold won’t be declared just,
      and whoever pursues profits
      will be led astray by them.
6 Many have been ruined because of gold,
           and their destruction has met them head-on.
7 It’s a stumbling block for those
      who are possessed by it,
           and it will take
           every senseless person captive. (CEB)

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We Protestants could do worse than reading the deuterocanonical books once in a while. There are some real gems in there…
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