With the recent bloodbath in Tucson, we are left to consider once again how coarse and offensive much of our political rhetoric has become. We must consider the climate that has been created by people in this culture--some of them, unfortunately, political office holders themselves.
In recent years, I've become much more cynical about the role (or lack thereof) of reasoned discourse in our society. It's all about looking good and giving people a certain feeling. Since Obama was elected, those feelings have certainly included irrational anger, directed toward our Muslim, Nazi, Socialist President. The whole effort has been disgusting, and, in my view, more toxic than anything we've heard in the last few decades. Although there is not a direct causal link between this toxic discourse and the Tucson shootings, all of us have a responsibility to do what we can to create a climate in which people do not succumb to demagoguery and act out their perverse beliefs. (Shootings at abortion clinics are another sad example.)
Mario Cuomo's most famous statement is "You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose." Mr. Obama seems to have taken that idea to heart, perhaps to a fault. Now more than ever, we need a poet who can govern--someone who can, with his or her passionate and inspiring rhetoric--take us to a new place, with a new understanding of what public service is all about, what it means to be fully human, and what our highest ideals should be. Barack Obama has a unique opportunity to be that person, and I hope that he can summon his considerable rhetorical skills to make this a nation of which we can all be proud. Unfortunately, however, this week is going to be a national week of mourning. Tucson is a symptom of our collective sickness.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Narcissism and social media
I continue to think about an essay in Time magazine regarding Facebook--Mark Zuckerberg was Time's "Person of the Year" for 2010. In this essay, Richard Stengel argues that "All social media involve a mixture of narcissism and voyeurism."
The statement may be true, but it's also a little depressing. It suggests that if we have any interest in social media, it's either because we are obsessed with ourselves, or obsessed with snooping into other people's lives. Either way, it doesn't sound real healthy.
As this relates to those silly people who keep blogs (ContentiousIntrovert comes to mind), the "narcissism" part is haunting. Are blogs just a way for people to stroke their own ego and pretend that what they are thinking is somehow important and worth noting?
On the one hand, like lots of other people, I simply want to know that at some level, I'm heard, and I'm recognized. On the other hand, I am keenly aware that it's presumptuous to think that I have something to say that's worth hearing in the first place. This tension is also evident in my world with respect to "marketing"--I recognize the need to promote who you are and what you do, but I am, in the end, uncomfortable telling the world about it. So, I have a blog that I seldom mention; I've written a textbook that I seldom promote; and I accomplish things, often modest, that give me a little glow inside but stay largely internalized. It's as if I want the world to see me, but at the same time I hate asking to be seen. Go figure. It's a conundrum that has lurked in the back of my mind for basically my entire life--which, now that it's 2011, seems like a pretty long time.
The statement may be true, but it's also a little depressing. It suggests that if we have any interest in social media, it's either because we are obsessed with ourselves, or obsessed with snooping into other people's lives. Either way, it doesn't sound real healthy.
As this relates to those silly people who keep blogs (ContentiousIntrovert comes to mind), the "narcissism" part is haunting. Are blogs just a way for people to stroke their own ego and pretend that what they are thinking is somehow important and worth noting?
On the one hand, like lots of other people, I simply want to know that at some level, I'm heard, and I'm recognized. On the other hand, I am keenly aware that it's presumptuous to think that I have something to say that's worth hearing in the first place. This tension is also evident in my world with respect to "marketing"--I recognize the need to promote who you are and what you do, but I am, in the end, uncomfortable telling the world about it. So, I have a blog that I seldom mention; I've written a textbook that I seldom promote; and I accomplish things, often modest, that give me a little glow inside but stay largely internalized. It's as if I want the world to see me, but at the same time I hate asking to be seen. Go figure. It's a conundrum that has lurked in the back of my mind for basically my entire life--which, now that it's 2011, seems like a pretty long time.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Crunch time at the shop
It's the end of November, which, in the academic world, means it's crunch time. Time to feel the burn, and the stress. Time to look in the mirror and see if you can do it. Time to suck it up and get things done. The crunch applies to faculty and students alike, but the problem is particularly acute for those twenty-somethings who have been thrust into higher education, often with limits to their motivation and their skill set. And sometimes, it's not a pretty sight.
Now that I've been an educator for nearly four decades, I've seen amazingly bright and competent students and amazingly dull and overwhelmed ones. As I occasionally tell my students, Western Civilization is not a piece of cake: one must learn to manage an incredible array of demands, skills, and tasks, with a heavy emphasis on being productive. And as I also tell them, there are indeed other options, including a simple life of hunting and gathering on some remote island in the south seas, where things like algebra, philosophy, and research methods are largely irrelevant. But, since the south seas option is not on their mental radar, they try to plug along and survive in the modern and fairly neurotic world of 2010.
As in a war, some soldiers go through the campaign with flying colors, to a heroes' welcome. But others are wounded in battle, and they limp and stumble to the end. Still others go AWOL, perhaps thinking that if no one sees them, they won't have to deal with things. And some die a quiet academic death, casualties of a system that simply grinds them down and removes their will to survive.
About this time of year, I say a quiet prayer for all of these people. I don't want them to be maimed or shamed or bruised, but I do have to stretch them and challenge them. Unfortunately, some of them can only be stretched a little bit, and despite my desire to see them succeed, I can only do my duty and submit a grade that is appropriate to what they have achieved--which, more often that we like to admit, isn't much. Almost all of them are fine people, but at crunch time, we on the other side of the desk don't always see them at their best.
On that cheery note, a happy holiday season to you all!
Now that I've been an educator for nearly four decades, I've seen amazingly bright and competent students and amazingly dull and overwhelmed ones. As I occasionally tell my students, Western Civilization is not a piece of cake: one must learn to manage an incredible array of demands, skills, and tasks, with a heavy emphasis on being productive. And as I also tell them, there are indeed other options, including a simple life of hunting and gathering on some remote island in the south seas, where things like algebra, philosophy, and research methods are largely irrelevant. But, since the south seas option is not on their mental radar, they try to plug along and survive in the modern and fairly neurotic world of 2010.
As in a war, some soldiers go through the campaign with flying colors, to a heroes' welcome. But others are wounded in battle, and they limp and stumble to the end. Still others go AWOL, perhaps thinking that if no one sees them, they won't have to deal with things. And some die a quiet academic death, casualties of a system that simply grinds them down and removes their will to survive.
About this time of year, I say a quiet prayer for all of these people. I don't want them to be maimed or shamed or bruised, but I do have to stretch them and challenge them. Unfortunately, some of them can only be stretched a little bit, and despite my desire to see them succeed, I can only do my duty and submit a grade that is appropriate to what they have achieved--which, more often that we like to admit, isn't much. Almost all of them are fine people, but at crunch time, we on the other side of the desk don't always see them at their best.
On that cheery note, a happy holiday season to you all!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Technologically-challenged, indeed
I need to spend a solid year just trying to keep up and catch up to technology.
Although the 21st century has not totally passed me by--witness this very blog, written on one of them computer thingies--I constantly feel as if I'm behind the curve. And I'm not keeping up, plain and simple.
• I want to be able to send text messages on our cell phone with ease, and to be able to take photos off the phone and then upload (or download?) them somewhere. And I'd like to be able to send photos on the cell to someone else.
• I want to know how to make my iPod Shuffle work as well as it's supposed to. Although I have 163 songs loaded on it, only the same 30 or 40 seem to play when I go running.
• I'd like to know how to sell stuff on-line, on either eBay or Craig's List. I've got some old baseball cards that I think could fetch a pretty penny.
• I need to be able to take my new video camera--a digital job given to me by my son for my last birthday--and convert those images to DVDs, or put them on our PC, or whatever the hell you do with them.
• I have a digital camera--also a present from son Tony--that mostly sits around. I don't have a clue about how to transport those images to other places.
• I should try to find out what this "4G" phones are all about. I've never used a Blackberry or an iPhone, and I have no idea how.
• I'd like to master the many fine points of Moodle, the platform used at the school where I work, for use in classes. I just stick to the basics.
• I've never tried to edit someone else's writing electronically, with those little windows that pop out when you want to make responses or comments.
• I've never Skyped anyone. I've never used an iPad. And I've never Kindled.
• When all is said and done, I'm Twitter-challenged and have no idea how I would or could use it.
Damn--when you start making this into a list, it really looks pretty pathetic. But I will, slowly but surely (or, "slowly but Shirley," as one of my students once wrote) try to make it into the year 2010. Right now, charitably, it's about 2001 for me, and these days, missing nine years of technology feels like I'm missing a century.
Although the 21st century has not totally passed me by--witness this very blog, written on one of them computer thingies--I constantly feel as if I'm behind the curve. And I'm not keeping up, plain and simple.
• I want to be able to send text messages on our cell phone with ease, and to be able to take photos off the phone and then upload (or download?) them somewhere. And I'd like to be able to send photos on the cell to someone else.
• I want to know how to make my iPod Shuffle work as well as it's supposed to. Although I have 163 songs loaded on it, only the same 30 or 40 seem to play when I go running.
• I'd like to know how to sell stuff on-line, on either eBay or Craig's List. I've got some old baseball cards that I think could fetch a pretty penny.
• I need to be able to take my new video camera--a digital job given to me by my son for my last birthday--and convert those images to DVDs, or put them on our PC, or whatever the hell you do with them.
• I have a digital camera--also a present from son Tony--that mostly sits around. I don't have a clue about how to transport those images to other places.
• I should try to find out what this "4G" phones are all about. I've never used a Blackberry or an iPhone, and I have no idea how.
• I'd like to master the many fine points of Moodle, the platform used at the school where I work, for use in classes. I just stick to the basics.
• I've never tried to edit someone else's writing electronically, with those little windows that pop out when you want to make responses or comments.
• I've never Skyped anyone. I've never used an iPad. And I've never Kindled.
• When all is said and done, I'm Twitter-challenged and have no idea how I would or could use it.
Damn--when you start making this into a list, it really looks pretty pathetic. But I will, slowly but surely (or, "slowly but Shirley," as one of my students once wrote) try to make it into the year 2010. Right now, charitably, it's about 2001 for me, and these days, missing nine years of technology feels like I'm missing a century.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Obama's need for a rhetoric of idealism
I write this from "the lake," which is definitely a Minnesota term. It doesn't matter which of the 15,000 lakes in the state you're at--when you're there, you're simply at "the lake." It's been five years since we've rented a cabin on Woman Lake (near Hackensack and Longville) and it feels good to smell the breeze and gaze out over the shimmering water.
Maybe this lake stuff is putting me in a dreamy, romantic mood, but I'm wondering if our President needs to spend a little more time at the lake--despite the criticism that he's already spending too many days on vacation. What got Mr. Obama national attention in the first place was his "red state/blue state" speech at the '04 DNC--it laid out a vision of America that was not based on Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, good guys and bad guys. Rather, it was based on the ideal that we are all Americans, and we need to pull together with a common vision and an inclusive mindset. It was a type of rhetoric that appealed to our best impulses and our highest ideals--something that is sorely lacking in politics these days.
Take the proposed Islamic cultural center, two blocks from "ground zero" in NYC. Quite rightly, the President has said that there are and should be no legal roadblocks to such a project. On the other hand, he has deferred comment on the wisdom or appropriateness of such a move. And in the process, I think he is erring by omission. This is an occasion to call all of us to our best impulses--our ideals, if you will.
What kind of nation do we want to be? What are our "best practices"? When all is said and done, how do we want to see ourselves? If we want to see ourselves as a nation that values and cherishes freedom, understanding, and tolerance, then we need to celebrate it in this case, not merely grudgingly accept it. For at our best, we can indeed be "better" than the rest of the world--we adhere to a higher standard. And when we don't maintain those highest standards--such as at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo--we diminish the United States in ways that no "terrorist" can.
Mr. Obama needs to get back "on message"--the message that propelled him to the national stage in the first place. At HIS best, he can move people to a common vision, to a set of ideals. It requires a passionate, positive, blunt, and forceful approach--not an equivocal finger in the wind, worrying about the political fallout. Other Presidents (John F. Kennedy certainly comes to mind) distinguished themselves by their ability to articulate lofty ideals. I think we are still ready to hear someone at the top speak that way; indeed, I think we are yearning for it.
Note to Barack: go for it, big guy. Show us a vision for America that plays off of our best impulses, not our deepest prejudices and fears.
Maybe this lake stuff is putting me in a dreamy, romantic mood, but I'm wondering if our President needs to spend a little more time at the lake--despite the criticism that he's already spending too many days on vacation. What got Mr. Obama national attention in the first place was his "red state/blue state" speech at the '04 DNC--it laid out a vision of America that was not based on Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, good guys and bad guys. Rather, it was based on the ideal that we are all Americans, and we need to pull together with a common vision and an inclusive mindset. It was a type of rhetoric that appealed to our best impulses and our highest ideals--something that is sorely lacking in politics these days.
Take the proposed Islamic cultural center, two blocks from "ground zero" in NYC. Quite rightly, the President has said that there are and should be no legal roadblocks to such a project. On the other hand, he has deferred comment on the wisdom or appropriateness of such a move. And in the process, I think he is erring by omission. This is an occasion to call all of us to our best impulses--our ideals, if you will.
What kind of nation do we want to be? What are our "best practices"? When all is said and done, how do we want to see ourselves? If we want to see ourselves as a nation that values and cherishes freedom, understanding, and tolerance, then we need to celebrate it in this case, not merely grudgingly accept it. For at our best, we can indeed be "better" than the rest of the world--we adhere to a higher standard. And when we don't maintain those highest standards--such as at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo--we diminish the United States in ways that no "terrorist" can.
Mr. Obama needs to get back "on message"--the message that propelled him to the national stage in the first place. At HIS best, he can move people to a common vision, to a set of ideals. It requires a passionate, positive, blunt, and forceful approach--not an equivocal finger in the wind, worrying about the political fallout. Other Presidents (John F. Kennedy certainly comes to mind) distinguished themselves by their ability to articulate lofty ideals. I think we are still ready to hear someone at the top speak that way; indeed, I think we are yearning for it.
Note to Barack: go for it, big guy. Show us a vision for America that plays off of our best impulses, not our deepest prejudices and fears.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Inception: Quite a complex conception
Well, the big movie buzz of late has been around the movie "Inception," which has been touted as nothing short of amazing. And, in many ways, it is an amazing attempt to play around with our sense of "reality," and in a visually stimulating way.
Having said that, I can't help but feel a little exasperated at a movie that tries to do so much. As a premise for a film, it's apparently not enough to work with the idea of planting a thought--one thought--in someone's head through dreams. No, in this movie, they are trying to plant thoughts in (a) a dream (b) within a dream (c) within a dream--no small feat! Not only that, but the dreams portrayed are incredibly rich in detail--gosh, these people dream way better than I do! To create dreams for others of such intricacy severely strains my sense of credibility. I can't even begin to think how visuals of such elaborate complexity could ever be planted in someone else's brain.
In short, I'm OK with trying to move us into another realm of consciousness. But I have a hard time suspending my disbelief to a level that defies any sort of realism. It's the same complaint that I have with the TV show "Medium"--Allison DuBois not only dreams about various crimes that have occurred or will occur; she dreams about them in such elaborate detail that it's as if a video camera were in the room. That makes for a sort of clarity that seems unreachable. I'd be happier if Allison had some vague-but-compelling images that she had to interpret. But not to worry--it's all there for her, item-for-item and word-for-word. If a guy in her dreams is wearing a blue shirt and says "I just came from the hardware store with this cordless drill," that's precisely how it plays out in "reality." That woman is just very, very talented!
Dream on, Hollywood.
Having said that, I can't help but feel a little exasperated at a movie that tries to do so much. As a premise for a film, it's apparently not enough to work with the idea of planting a thought--one thought--in someone's head through dreams. No, in this movie, they are trying to plant thoughts in (a) a dream (b) within a dream (c) within a dream--no small feat! Not only that, but the dreams portrayed are incredibly rich in detail--gosh, these people dream way better than I do! To create dreams for others of such intricacy severely strains my sense of credibility. I can't even begin to think how visuals of such elaborate complexity could ever be planted in someone else's brain.
In short, I'm OK with trying to move us into another realm of consciousness. But I have a hard time suspending my disbelief to a level that defies any sort of realism. It's the same complaint that I have with the TV show "Medium"--Allison DuBois not only dreams about various crimes that have occurred or will occur; she dreams about them in such elaborate detail that it's as if a video camera were in the room. That makes for a sort of clarity that seems unreachable. I'd be happier if Allison had some vague-but-compelling images that she had to interpret. But not to worry--it's all there for her, item-for-item and word-for-word. If a guy in her dreams is wearing a blue shirt and says "I just came from the hardware store with this cordless drill," that's precisely how it plays out in "reality." That woman is just very, very talented!
Dream on, Hollywood.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Keeping up with the Joneses (and every other freakin' family)
I'm coming off a "cluster reunion" this past weekend at my alma mater, dear old Macalester College in St. Paul. And quite a cluster it was! Three different class years all put together in the same place. And quite a group of very "accomplished" people! Yikes--I felt like a total schlub. One of my classmates has given $2 million to the college. Another was governor of Wisconsin a few years ago. Another owns a portion of the horse that placed 3rd in this year's Kentucky Derby. Another (my first debate partner in college) is a high-profile D.C. lobbyist who just gave $2500 to the college and spreads thousands of other dollars around for various political causes and campaigns. Suffice it to say that I wasn't in line for any "Most Likely to Succeed" awards!
At times like these, we are forced to examine our own life and take in some basic principles of Buddhist philosophy. Fight off the envy, my man! Be at peace with what you have! Do not find contentment in material goods! Strive for inner goodness! And, find SOMEBODY who you feel at least a little superior to! (There were a couple such people at this event, but it would be pointless and tacky to say anything more.) But, best of all, appreciate that you are still around to attend these events; I regret to say that I can think of several people out of that era who didn't even live close to long enough to celebrate such a milestone.
At times like these, we are forced to examine our own life and take in some basic principles of Buddhist philosophy. Fight off the envy, my man! Be at peace with what you have! Do not find contentment in material goods! Strive for inner goodness! And, find SOMEBODY who you feel at least a little superior to! (There were a couple such people at this event, but it would be pointless and tacky to say anything more.) But, best of all, appreciate that you are still around to attend these events; I regret to say that I can think of several people out of that era who didn't even live close to long enough to celebrate such a milestone.
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