Camille Paglia Still Poking Holes In Feminism

Full article here in Arion.

An interesting article.  Paglia thinks aloud:

…Is feminism intrinsically a movement of the left, or can there be a feminism based on conservative or religious principles?

Susan B. Anthony (wikipedia) was Christian, mind you, and extremely chaste:

“…feminist history has insufficiently acknowledged the degree to which the founders of the woman suffrage movement—that is, the drive to win votes for women—were formed or influenced by religion.”

Agreed…especially when so many feminists have embraced Marxism, pseudo-Marxism and continental philsophy as driving ideas.

..feminist theory has failed to acknowledge how much the emergence of modern feminism owes to capitalism and the industrial revolution”

In reading Paglia, one can see how difficult it is for thoughtful, independent-minded people (men or women) to confront collective anger, ideology, unclear reasoning and groupthink…though I’m not sure her own reasoning is sound.

Speaking for myself, it’s difficult to be sympathetic to a movement that attempts to exclude me by definition and through its actions can threaten many of my freedoms.

Addition: An interesting article from Britain (where socialism is a more powerful force) against feminism’s shortcomings: anti-men bias, the belief that the personal is polical, the consequent state intervention…

Low European Birth Rates In The NY Times: No Babies?

Full article here.

Is there a crisis in Europe?  Maybe, maybe not.  There are low birth-rates, however.  The article suggests one of the reasons in Mediterranean countries is their half-step toward modernization:  More women work and have educational opportunities yet the old Catholic traditions remain in place.  This produces an economic crunch on all parties involved.  

Of course immigration is sometimes offered as a potential solution…though overlooked is the fact that immigration is probably more of a threat to smaller, more stratified European societies that it can be in America.  This might help explain some of the extreme rightist political support lately (where a potentially violent nationalism united with racial identity lurks). 

See Also:  This weekly back-and-forth between Kerry Howley (libertarian) and Kay Hymowitz (social conservative) in the L.A. Times, in which they discuss fertility, the family, American culture, low European birth-rates etc…

On This Site:

-The NY Times On Equal Parenting: When Mom And Dad Share It All

-Kay Hymowitz In The City Journal:  Child-Man In The Promised Land?

The NYC Waterfalls: Another “World Art” Piece Or Something More?

This is the most favorable angle I’ve seen of the one under the Brooklyn Bridge (there are four):

Apparently, a lot of tourists went to see Christo’s “The Gates” so Bloomberg wants to repeat the success.  For him, it’s a pretty pragmatic decision: bringing in money for the city and giving people something to talk about.  It might not hurt his image either.

Here are some of the artist’s thoughts and ideas (he certainly has a lot…too many?).

There are many reasons to be skeptical (you expect more from art, a few government dollars may have been used, they kind of look like scaffolding with water pouring out).

Will they grow on New Yorkers?

James Dobson Criticizes Obama’s Speech

More from CNN here.

Obama made a ‘Call To Renewal’ speech that Dobson responds to.

Of course, Dobson is free to believe as he pleases, and to organize others around those beliefs to try and change the legislative process.

Those who insist we all live according to beliefs for which they can’t always provide a reasonable defense are precisely what the system protects against.  Maybe they’re anti partial-birth abortion Christians and maybe they’re global warming true-believers.  Reasonable people can disagree.

A Goya Tour Of Madrid At The NY Times

Full slide show here.

“Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels.”

See Also:  Goya’s Fight With Cudgels and Goya’s Colossus.  A very good Goya page here.

Some Philosophy Of Science At Bloggingheads

Full video here.

In the comments thread, you’ll find some people wondering at what science can and can’t do.  As to the why questions, science asks them all the time but seems to assert a certain kind of knowledge.  Beyond that…Metaphysics?  Religion? 

You’ve probably seen the Templeton Conversations around, where some interesting thinkers are asked if science makes a belief in God obsolete. 

Victor Davis Hanson In The New Criterion: Haven’t We Heard This Before?

Full article here.

Of course, he’s got some good points:

“As defenders of a unique discipline inextricably linked to the origin of American values and traditions, classicists also need to introduce the Greeks and Romans to a wider public, both to enrich contemporary American society and to bring both an ability to popularize and a much needed pragmatism to what has otherwise become a stultifying and often pedantically narrow field.”

Not much here you won’t find in Allan Bloom (which I think gets some things right and some things very wrong).  Values?  Well, the Greeks and Romans are important I suppose.  Anyways, we’ve gotten away from our intellectual roots:

“In acknowledgment of such frequent controversies and loud revisionism, the compromise is that “Western civilization” continues to metamorphose into something known as “World Civilizations”: India, China, Africa, and the New World merit roughly the same attention in the university core curriculum as the West, inasmuch as they are merely “different,” hardly less influential in the formation of Western and now global civilization.”

Okay, I’ll bite, there do seem to be some departments in universities intellectually adrift, too easily tethered to a set of ideas (certain French philsophers, moral relativism, probably even in response to logical positivism) that thus could be tethered to deeper classical, and Western ideas.  

Though as for the hubris of moral relativism, Hanson’s mixing of current politics and philosophy seems just as, if not more, guilty of hubris.  

Maybe I’ll just read Aristotle on my own…with an open and focused mind, asking questions.  Aren’t other people doing this in universities…without political agendas?

Barack Obama Will Not Accept Public Financing

Video from Obama’s website here.

Obama has led the way in mastering a new system of campaign donations: utilizing the social networking capabilities of the internet…so he may be able to afford his decision.

More on public financing here. 

Earnest yes, but effective?

Boost Moderate Islam? Maybe Not. Steven Cook In Foreign Policy

Full article here.

There are many deep thinkers in Islam but perhaps it’s not likely there will be any public intellectual questioning of Allah in the Arab states anytime soon.

As Steven Cook argues, it still may be more important keep Western politicians and policymakers out of Islamic theological debates as they deal with the Middle East.

Cook argues they should not encourage moderate Islam:

“Not only is it impossible to agree on a working definition of the word “moderate,” but there is scant evidence that extremists really do moderate once they assume power.”

instead…

“…policymakers should focus on identifying those who can contribute pragmatic solutions to the many problems we confront in the region, “moderate” or not.”

Perhaps Arab states could use people demonstrating moral deceny and sacrifice through politics, not merely through religion alone… (though politics is politics, it’s good not to get too idealistic).

by PrasoonRana

George Will On Stephen Colbert: Can The Right Avoid Many Dangers Of Idealism?

Full interview here.  (scroll to last video, link may not last long).

Will is public enough to have a character, but he’s deeper and less foolish than the dread Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O’Reilly.

As he navigates the tricky public-thinking-man-in-America waters, what are his ideas about how to move conservativism ahead?

His new book, ”One Man’s America…” here.  His most recent columns here.

Addition:  Will discusses China, Obama and McCain, and even Hillary Clinton here (~7:00 long)