Academic disabilities

The academic conferences, in my humble opinion, must represents occasions where experts and professionals from various domains are gathering together to share the results of their researches and analyse it using the tools of the critical thinking.

But, when the topics are connected to more or less recent histories, where the place of built and manipulated memories is playing the a very - if not the only - important role, these conferences are opportunities to display historical frustrations and precarious identities. The critical thinking is the last resort used for understanding and reading the realities.

The conferences with historical and political topics, addressing unsolved issues as the Balkans and the Caucasus are a good example in this direction. And I will randomly mention a couple of situations I observed in my last academic peregrinations: Hungarians claiming their right over Transylvania; Romanians claiming their predominance over Transylvania; representatives from the former Yugoslav countries fighting over who killed more and finding as well explanations and excuses for doing so; Armenians and Turks harshly fighting if it was or not an Armenian genocide; Armenians and Azeris accusing each other of aggressions. The pathetic discourses, and the passionate perspectives are killing any hope for critical appreciation. What matters is to claim that you - and only you - have and tell the truth and to deconstruct - and nullify - the point of view of the other.

What for so many hours spent in libraries and so many efforts to write presentations introduced as academic prodigies, when the basic level of the approach is not going too far of the usual information you could find in the "yellow media"?