The tyranny of trendy ideas

At a faculty lunch several years ago, I was introduced to a suave young man who described his major research interest as “French Marxism.” The claim — framed by his waxed mustache and beret — suggested that the adjective “French” here functioned analogously to the way it might in phrases like “luxury watch” or “craft beer,” rather than, say, “sentential logic” or “quantum physics.” (And we’re obviously talking about French merlot with French fouée, not French fries with French dressing.)