anti-motivation

Hey all. So I decided that I needed to kickstart myself on my thesis again...obviously as EVERYONE who knows me can attest. Jen tried valiantly to provide rational ideas on how to motivate myself to finish. And of course they won't work for me...since I'm rarely rational. So what I came up with is to read a recent biography of George Washington that I picked up at the bookstore awhile back. I thought that if I just started reading about the man's life and accomplishments I would become more passionate about finishing up my research and writing. And reading another scholar's ideas about GW might give me a spark on my own work. So went the theory....
And then I started reading the preface of Joseph Ellis' His Excellency: George Washington. (that's like the author's introduction for those of you who don't actually own a book) The author, who was a college professor before a little trouble lying about his military background got him "extended leave", discussed the current image of GW in college academia. He notes that the current culturally obsessed academic climate makes him at best irrelevant, at worst some kind of villainous figure. And the bad part is I know this is to a large extent true. The study of important men in history is not at all in vogue with historians now. Scholars see Washington as "complicitous in creating a nation that was imperialistic, racist, elitist, and patriarchal." Which is bad enough when you're writing a master's thesis on the man. But here was the truly damning, depressing statement. "While there are some important exceptions to the rule, the reigning orthodoxy in the academy (academia) regards Washington as either a taboo or an inappropriate subject, and any aspiring doctoral candidate (I'll assume MA candidate too) who declares an interest in, say, Washington's career as commander in chief, or president, has inadvertently confessed intellectual bankruptcy.(my highlights)
Umm...wow....well that kind of backfired, huh? So much for getting my motivation this way. Well, back to the old drawing board I suppose. later!