Full post here.

In your ideological discontent with ‘capitalism,’ do you have to get into bed with some of Slavoj Zizek’s ideas…especially on the 20th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall came down?

Still waiting on the Times to stop the ideological retreat…

Also On This Site:  Adam Kirsch In The New Republic On Slavoj Zizek: The Deadly Jester…Slavoj Zizek In The New Republic: Responding To Adam Kirsch

Full post here.

It’s notable when someone in the Seattle area stands up against “the orthodoxy”.  In this case it’s the Washington teachers’ unions and the unimpressive state of education in Washington.  There are many reasons for this, but excessive bureaucracy is certainly one:

“It reminded me of the same fights that I have had with the educational establishment. They said I wasn’t an expert in education, and that I should be quiet and stop being so negative. I remembered a teacher urging me not to write that second-graders use calculators on math tests.

That is when I really got angry.“

Seattle has some good reasons to promote diversity, namely a diverse population.  Under that banner, though, huddle many people busy ignoring their own self-interest where it can matter most:  the students themselves.    See the Discovering Math debate for a taste of the discussion.

That’s where another Seattle dynamic (somewhat political as well) plays out:  The dissenting opinions and reformers to the orthodoxy are often entrepeneuers, successful business types and business leaders whom Seattle has attracted.  

Sometimes, parents and reformers know a lot about their own disciplines (engineers, for example), but aren’t sympathetic to the problems a teacher reasonably faces.  Some of them are sympathetic  though, and it gets interesting when they are pitted against “the orthodoxy:”  the entrenched interests, union protectionists, and the true-believing bureaucrats who can, as Backstrom notes, become part of the problem.

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I don’t believe education fits under Milton Friedman’s intellectual net, nor would I want it to.  But I like seeing how he comes at the problems of scarcity of resources, students failed by the system, and entrenched educators:

Full post here.

Clearly prizes reward merit, but Shafer is highly skeptical of the Pulitzer.  He argues the process needs to be less insular and largely irrelevant to the public:

“There’s no real science or even fairness behind the picking of winners and losers, with the prizes handed out according to a formula composed of one part log-rolling, two parts merit, three parts “we owe him one,” and four parts random distribution.”

Yes, but these are journalists…you can’t expect them to be “scientists.”  You can expect them to be more responsive to the public though, while taking stock of their accomplishments and giving out prizes amongst themselves:

“One way to make the Pulitzers Page One-worthy would be to transform them into an honest annual inventory of journalism…”

“…I’d give awards to the Worst Editorial Page, the Most Compromised Local Paper, the Most Predictable Critic, and the Most Tractable White House Reporter.”

Ha-ha.

See Also:  From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Via Sound Politics: Why Did The PI Die?… Who Reads The Newspapers?

Remember The Maine!  by malik2moon

Full article here.

He appeals to David Hume’s depth and humor.

“But it is not just that old tunes are being replayed, but that they are being replayed badly. The classic performance was given by David Hume in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, written in the middle of the 18th century. “

and Blackburn’s last paragraph:

“The upshot ought to be not dogmatic atheism, but sceptical irony. Of course, the latter is just as infuriating to those making special claims to authority, perhaps more so. Men and women of God may find it invigorating and bracing to meet disagreement, but even benevolent mockery is mockery. They would find that it is much harder to bear the Olympian gaze of the greatest of British philosophers.”

Recent related posts: Roger Scruton suggests a return to Christian virtue I’m not sure I’d like to see: From The City Journal: Roger Scruton On “Forgiveness And Irony”…and how to get away from creationist/darwinist dualism…From Bloggingheads: Adam Frank And Eliezer Yudkowsky Discuss The Epistemology Of Science

Full article here.

Another class analysis, but at least it’s done with humor and wit, not with the suffocating urgency that some the excessive egalitarians bring to the table (the super-rich are too isolated…tax them into submission!). Even, of course, as excesses of the egalitarians may have helped make it so.  This too, of course, is if all this is a proper analysis.

Tsing Loh uses the recession as a vehicle to critique the presumptions of Generation X, and what Richard Florida has termed the “creative class.” 

“This economic catastrophe is teaching the Xers that their prized self- expression and their embrace of personal choice leads to … the collapse of capitalism.”

and:

“The age of narcissistic creative-class strivers has brought this country cool new neighborhoods and an infinitely better selection of coffees and greens, but it has also brought shameful social stratification and a consumer binge that our children’s children may well be paying off”

That seems a little harsh…it’s not as if anyone is solely responsible for the economic mess either.  I think she’s after narcissism and destructive individualism.

See Also On This Site:  Sandra Tsing Loh On Feminism In The Atlantic: “I Choose My Choice, I Choose My Choice”…From The Atlantic: Richard Florida’s ‘How The Crash Will Reshape America’…Revisiting Larry Summers: What Did He Say Again?

Full post here.

I’m just here from Minsk, snapping some photos of Red Square…maybe meeting a foreign dignitary.

Full post here.

The map itself isn’t so impressive, but it’s an interesting thought.  Someone made a cartogram of many different languages’ point of reference to other languages as ones that seem unintelligible.  

“Mutual incomprehension results from the right mixture of inter-lingual proximity and unintelligibility. In the Middle Ages, for example, when the monks’ knowledge of Greek was waning, they would write in the margin of texts they could not translate, in Latin: “Graecum est, non legitur” (”This is Greek to me, I can’t read it”).”

Full post here.

Perhaps much as the zealots in the global warming debate are are best met and handled by scientific debate…where habits of intellectual curiosity, openness of mind and rational debate provide grounds for discussion…

…so too the NYU university code of conduct is quite enough to provide grounds to allow such youthful political idealism to run it’s course (hard not to laugh at the video).

Apparently, you don’t need to go as far as George Will went in the global warming debate.

…and do you remember Robert Bork’s book?

This is a lot to ask of (S)cience…

See Also:  The Volokh Conspiracy has some good commentary here.

See Also On This Site:  From Slate: Anne Applebaum’s ‘What’s Going On In Greece?’…Freeman Dyson On The Question Of Global Warming…The Weather Channel’s Green Blog: A Little Too Green…The Politics Of Noam Chomsky-The Dangers Of Kantian Transcendental Idealism?