Rousseau, A Golden Past, & the Academic as Luddite

This was a comment that got out of hand. It is not a great point, but I do think that some of the academic response to – well, everything – is at once more complicated and simpler than sometimes posited here.

Sure, academia is turf building – and this really didn’t happen until faculty moved from teaching 3-5 classes at all levels to only teaching upper level and teaching 1-2 a semester. (And we probably don’t want to get into “Studies” and “Centers”.) You don’t have time to build turf with the old loads. We certainly don’t at our jr college, where everyone but administrators teach 5, all teach mostly freshmen, and even departmental administrators (to departments of 100 in schools of 13,000 students) teach a class or two and have no secretaries. (I will say that we are an unusually hard-working or, perhaps, an unusually hard-worked campus, but we appreciate one another. We have to – nor do we give “walks”: if we are in the hospital, someone covers.)

Research university faculty sometimes loses its ability to communicate with generalists, let alone freshmen. Intense publish or perish standards sometimes led to superficiality and new theories for the sake of “newness.”

I would argue, though, that Schumpeter’s theory, as I understand it, does have remarkable relevance. So does modern criticism’s alienation from the Scottish common sense guys and alignment with Rousseau: they are Luddites who fear change. The word progressive to describe such thinkers is preposterous.

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You never know who is going to show up at the phone bank

George Lutas and the Attorney General for the state of Indiana

A snapshot taken today at the local phone bank in St. John, Indiana. The handsome fellow up front? My son. The guy in the back working hard? Greg Zoeller, the Indiana Attorney General. He came in, sat down, and started calling, a very down to earth fellow and a real mensch. Who knows who’s going to show up tomorrow?

Request for Some Skilz

Every one is familiar with this image:

Circulating recently has been this variant:

This has been implicitly about the election, but the imagery is from some online game. Still, I like it. I was thinking it could be re-done with the motif of our trusty friend the Gadsden Flag.

My request: An image that (1) has the same typeface as the original keep-calm-and-carry-on, with black lettering, saying KEEP CALM AND FINISH HIM (2) put a Gadsden yellow background on it, (3) Put the Gadsden-snake-and-leaves on top where the crown is.

This would be a nice thing to circulate in the final days before the election.

Please contact me at Lexington.chicagoboyz AT gmail.com if you are able to put something together along these lines. All credit will go the creator.

RuiNation

So a few days to go until Election Day; I guess we can call this the final heat. Texas is pretty much a red state stronghold, although there are pockets of blue adherents throughout. Yes, even in my neighborhood, there are a handful of defiant Obama-Biden yard signs visible, although outnumbered at least three to one by Romney-Ryan signs. It amounts to about three or four dozen, all told; I think that most of my neighbors prefer keeping their political preferences this time around strictly to themselves.

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re: What They Teach the Children in Schools Today

The wife and I moved to Ireland a year or so ago.
I found academic work here. So we moved.

Today, the wife is walking the children home from school.
They pass by a lamppost dated “1911.” Douglas, who is 9,
asks “who was king then?”

“Edward VII”, she replies. Douglas thinks for a moment and says,
“George V was his son. And king during the First World toponlinelexapro
War.” “Excellent!” she cheers him on, and “Who were his sons?”
“Edward VIII and George VI.” “Fantastic!” she exclaims, “And
who is George VI father to?”

Douglas yells happily back …
“Our current Queen!!”

There you have it … I name him after an outstanding American …
and he grows up to be a Tory (while living in Ireland!).
Where did I go wrong?

Mr. Innisfree