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News from nowhere: Iceland's polite dystopia

In late 2007, an Icelandic teenager named Vífill Atlason created a minor international incident when he phoned the White House, told the operator he was the president of Iceland, and managed to set up an appointment to speak with George W. Bush. When the White House figured out what was going on, Atlason was taken away by Icelandic police and questioned for several hours, then told that he would be placed on an American no-fly list. No conversation took place. I, on the other hand, managed to make a lunch date with President Olafur Ragnar Grímsson not long after I arrived in Iceland, simply by bumping into him at an art exhibit and asking.

Read more of this riveting cultural/political piece from Harper’s

Transcendentalism by way of Emersonian Self-Reliance

Please read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay on Self-Reliance
Come to our next seminar with an understanding of Emerson’s key arguments and with a critique of his argumentation.

We might begin with these questions:

How does (and should) a person define his/her place in society? (what does Emerson mean by “society” anyhow?)

What are the two major barriers to self-reliance ? Who is the “aboriginal Self,” the “Trustee”? How does this concept modify the egotism of self-reliance?

What are the implications of self-reliance for business? for religion (prayers, creeds)? for travelling? for art? for property ownership and government?

Philosophy Bites Podcast

David Edmonds is co-author of Wittgenstein’s Poker – this focuses on a ten minute argument between Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein.  His other books – also written with John Eidinow – include Bobby Fischer Goes to War (on the notorious chess match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky) and Rousseau’s Dog, which dissects the famous quarrel between David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.  His day job is making radio documentaries for the BBC.

Nigel Warburton has written a number of books including Philosophy: The Basics, Philosophy: The Classics (some of which is  available as a podcast) , Thinking from A to Z and The Art Question. He is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the Open University. He has also made a number of programmes for BBC Radio 4, writes a weblog called Virtual Philosopher and regularly leads courses on the philosophy of art at Tate Modern.

Here is are links to scores of interviews from these gents. Most are 20-30 minutes. All are valuable (to varying degress of course).

Two Interviews: Two Competing Views on Reagan

View One: Tearing Down the Reagan Myth. Journalist Will Bunch says that the legacy of Ronald Reagan, which is claimed by the right and was so often referred to by Republican presidential candidates in the 2008 election, is not an accurate depiction of Reagan’s presidency.

In his new book, Tear Down This Myth, Bunch argues that the Reagan legacy was created largely by Washington conservatives in the 1990s, who wanted a hero who they could associate with the conservative agenda.

“It’s been very hard for the modern generation of Republicans to develop a leader … who has the kind of charisma that Ronald Reagan has had,” Bunch tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. In the absence of that charisma, Bunch says, the next generation decided to “borrow it” from the past.

The Reagan legacy credits America’s 40th president with winning the Cold War and turning the American economy around in the 1980s. But the truth, says Bunch, is that Reagan was a divisive president with only average approval ratings and “virtually zero support from African Americans.” Furthermore, he says, Reagan’s trickle-down theory of economics didn’t save the American economy, nor was the president responsible for “winning” the Cold War.

Despite his criticisms of Reagan’s presidency, Bunch is not without some kind words for the late president: “Ronald Reagan was very successful in connecting with the American people because of his optimism. … He clearly had a strong belief in himself and a belief in America.” Listen here.

View Two: Reagan as Communicator Extraordinaire. Historian Douglas Brinkley considers Ronald Reagan one of the top five American presidents of the 20th century.

Brinkley, who edited of The Reagan Diaries, says that it was Reagan’s ability to connect with the population at large that distinguished him as a leader. In the book’s introduction, Brinkley writes that Americans could see “something of themselves reflected in [Reagan] — a modern American unashamed of the nation’s majesty and his own pride in time-honored traditions.” Listen here

Warning over 'surveillance state'

The proliferation of CCTV cameras and the growth of the DNA database were two examples of threats to privacy, the Lords constitution committee said.

Those subject to unlawful surveillance should be compensated while the policy of DNA retention should be rethought.

The government said CCTV and DNA were “essential crime fighting tools”.

Surveillance State?

The End of White America?

The Election of Barack Obama is just the most startling manifestation of a larger trend: the gradual erosion of “whiteness” as the touchstone of what it means to be American. If the end of white America is a cultural and demographic inevitability, what will the new mainstream look like-and how will white Americans fit into it? What will it mean to be white when whiteness is no longer the norm? And will a post-white America be less racially divided-or more so?

Read this brilliant piece from The Atlantic

Two Views of Immigration

There are two sides to American immigration: the first is a story of economic benefit and promise; the other is a report of economic harm and despair.

The two “stories” stand in stark contrast with each other. Nevertheless, they define the two prisms by which immigrants are viewed. What is interesting is that the tension between the views is a constant component of our nation’s history. Whether the immigrants came in by a sailing ship in 1790 or 1840, a steamer in 1900, or an airplane in 2004; whether they were German, Irish, Chinese, Japanese, Italians, east European Jews, Cubans, Vietnamese, Koreans, Russians, or Hispanics; the same two perspectives inform the immigration debate.

Read on from two Ball State professors

Zinn on The Other Civil War

Zinn was raised in a working-class family in Brooklyn, and flew bombing missions for the United States in World War II, an experience he now points to in shaping his opposition to war. In 1956, he became a professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, a school for black women, where he soon became involved in the Civil Rights Movement, which he participated in as an adviser to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).  When he was fired in 1963 for insubordination related to his protest work, he moved to Boston University, where he became a leading critic of the Vietnam War.

He is perhaps best known for A People’s History of the United States, which presents American history through the eyes of those he feels are outside of the political and economic establishment.

Here is an autobiographical clip from YouTube

Chapter 10: The Other Civil War with Response Questions

In his autobiography, You Can’t Stay Neutral on a Moving Train, Zinn said, “From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than ‘objectivity’; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble.” RIP.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The SEP is a fine resource for those pursuing truth. From its inception, the SEP was designed so that each entry is maintained and kept up to date by an expert or group of experts in the field. All entries and substantive updates are refereed by the members of a distinguished Editorial Board before they are made public.

Consequently, their dynamic reference work maintains academic standards while evolving and adapting in response to new research.

Def Political Poetry Slam

You are to write, rehearse and offer a perfect performance of a political poem in “slam style”.

1. Watch some poetry slam performances. Simply enter “poetry slam” and/or “def poetry jam” into the YouTube browser.

A former colleague turned me on to Taylor Mali. Take a few moments to watch What Teachers Make and Speak with Conviction.

I also respect the following examples by: Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill and Shane Koyczan

2. Choose a theme and/or a country from our course.
3. Write and revise. Aim for a 3-5 minute piece.
4. Practice, practice, practice. Find your voice, then perfect it.
5. Stand and deliver in class. Speak with passion, conviction and diction. We want to hear you loud and clear. We will have a 90 minute political poetry slam. This is a healthy competition. We will vote on the winners. Prizes will be alloted.

This is the last hurrah for us. Let’s do it right.

Incongruous Paradigms?

Are capitalism and environmentalism incongruous paradigms?
Post a 750 word essay (one page, single-spaced) which begins with a specific, complex and refutable thesis.

Then read  responses of your classmates (at least 3 of them). Then leave an incisive 1 paragraph comment on 3 essays. Commenting is not optional.

Come to class ready for healthy debate.