Ginny – Page 41 – Chicago Boyz

Instinctive Lout, Instinctive Hero

December 3, 2008December 3, 2008 by Ginny

British drunkenness is not a pleasant story. I can remember years ago reading for some class or other of gin and the 18^th century. Hogarth portrays a world little different from the ghetto of the crack whores a decade or two ago. Alcohol may seem fun, but it doesn’t always look all that good.

One of the numerous reasons I got fed up with running a business in the notorious strip across from our local university were the tiresome drunks. Wedged between bars, our copy shop gave us a front row seat on well, on a guy pissing on the window with such glazed over eyes that his only reason was probably the most primitive nature called. The night guy complained to me the next day- he’d tried to place himself between the window and the young girls working with him; he knew animals he’d just gotten his PhD. in ag and he knew the world he’d just returned from a Peace Corps tour in Africa; he wasn’t shocked but he was angry. Thirteen years of locking up late at night and walking out into the cool night air to see two drunks “helping” an equally drunken girl into a car, of seeing evidence that many had relieved themselves in the bushes and in the gutter around us didn’t make me sad to sell. Yes, drunken man is not noble man; he does show us how vulgar and selfish our instincts can be and why it is a good thing they are restrained. Then there was the guy whose intentions were clearly dishonorable toward another of my workers as she moved toward her car; since he was falling down, tangled in the pants he was trying to get off, she found him less threatening than disgusting. Man can be loutish. (And if drunks dominate here, I don’t remember the druggies on the Drag in Austin being any prizes, either.)

What England did in the Victorian years is Himmelfarb territory and it is a remarkable century in terms of restraint and duty and productivity. For instance, the number of crimes that were punished by hanging went down, but the police became respected and so were women. (The few crimes more punished at the end of the century than the beginning were against women.) Those gin-soaked mothers became the hands that rocked the cradle. As both the Chicagoboyz and Dalyrmple note our culture can encourage or discourage. But we also need models. The manliness of firefighters asking for last rites as they went into the burning towers or of the Iraqi man throwing himself on the suicide bomber headed toward his mosque – these are in my head and I’m thankful for them.

But if our species demonstrates an instinctive & eternal vulgarity, an ugly & base self that seeks oblivion in drinks or drugs or mob violence, we also long for consciousness, our heroism instinctive, too.

Kaus critiques the Mumbai responses, but if the tragedy demonstrated failings in law enforcement, it also showed us what man could be. A&L often links to cynical academia, but this time it found virtue. Michael Pollock’s “Heroes at the Taj” concludes:

It is much easier to destroy than to build, yet somehow humanity has managed to build far more than it has ever destroyed. Likewise, in a period of crisis, it is much easier to find faults and failings rather than to celebrate the good deeds. It is now time to commemorate our heroes.

The EU’s New Reluctant President

November 27, 2008November 25, 2008 by Ginny

Helen will have informed commentary on the EU; still, I couldn’t resist putting together a few links about the irrepressible Klaus. He’s the next president in the rotating European Union. It’s hard to see someone of his vitality as “reluctant” but it’s also hard to see him as president of the EU about which he has so many doubts. Sure, during our election, I argued that it is generally a good idea to have someone like the body over which he presides. Still, in sheer entertainment value, Klaus may be a plus.

In The Prague Post, Ondrej Bouda notes what may be a recurring problem:

This Gendered Blog

November 23, 2008 by Ginny

I sometimes mention this blog in class. Not wanting to indicate its politics, I never give them the name and when they ask about its nature, I say something like: “I don’t know why they let me write there. It’s full of guys who’d like a tank in their backyard.” Last week, the two Corps guys in the front row started grinning – “Actually,” one said, “that would be pretty cool.”

Anyway, clearly the guys here “have a pair” as Brad Paisley would say. The only one close to its 91% among Gateway’s examples is Vodkapundit’s 90%. (Maybe gender is defined by tanks & liquor)

Thanks Foster. Science & Ploughboys

November 15, 2008November 15, 2008 by Ginny

I want to thank David Foster for putting up his post and thus allowing me to comment in a rambling manner. I’m one of those people who doesn’t know what I think until I say it – and having a forum is better than daily analysis. (Indeed, given the results from Woody Allen’s intensive time on the couch, Jonathan is probably more justified in charging a fee to posters & commentors than are some highly paid analysts.)

Some comments assume those in the hard sciences, engineering and business are likely to be conservatives/Republicans. Since, of course, I agree on their broad picture, I haven’t nit picked. Their position echoes Horowitz’s opponents, who also assume business & engineering departments are conservative. Liberal arts & social science colleges are more heavily weighted (in some, I’m sure, Nader got more votes than Bush). But I’ve seen studies finding most colleges within universities (business, engineering, hard sciences) lean left – just not as far. Shannon notes that they are more centrist and that is probably true. And, practicing engineers and scientists may well move right. Academia attracts leftish sympathies and peer pressure is a factor.

Nonetheless, the only college likely to be majority Republican is the same that probably would do such projects as those cited by Chel and Anonymous – Ag schools. They are also often geographically separated from the university because of the land-consuming nature of their research. I support funding that research and many who share my general political positions would. I came out of one of the great American institutions – the land grant college – and respect that history.

Adversity and the Presidency

November 11, 2008November 8, 2008 by Ginny

Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Uses of Adversity” reinforces Michael Barone’s argument in Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation’s Future. Gladwell looks at difficulties: poverty, role as outsider, such handicaps as dyslexia. And he, too, concludes that hard makes strong. Gladwell’s rift is inspired by The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs, by Charles Ellis. Gladwell’s focus is on the first seventy pages, which follow the ascent of Sidney Weinberg. Bluffing his way into a janitorial job, Weinberg moves upward to run and enlarge the investment firm. Language can be telling. When the United States moved from governing the plural verb “are” to the singular “is”, Lincoln had won, more surely than with Lee’s signature at Appomattox or the golden spike connecting east with west. Gladwell points to a changed idiom: “Nowadays, we don’t learn from poverty, we escape from poverty.” We valued hard; now, easy is default. Still, our leaders emphasize their trials McCain’s in the Hanoi Hilton; Obama’s alienation as African-American. They expect respect for overcoming difficulties; we give it, in part, I suspect, because we still believe that hard does, indeed, make strong.

[Update: November 11 – if anyone is still reading this far into our column.] The ever helpful A&L Daily links to Jason Zengerle’s lengthy piece on Gladwell, Geek Pop Star. The lengthy portrait discusses his new book, The Outliers. Zengerle credits Gladwell with the uncontroversial observation that success is not merely personal will but happenstate; this writer seems less impressed by the hardening than reducing the losers damaged in the hardening process. Hard can be good – it can also, of course, debilitate. It is not an accident or even a surprise to any observer of human nature that a disproportionate number of quite successful businessmen are dyslexic – nor that a disproportionate number of felons are. )