online archive
12:15PM
JUL 24 2007
Postmodernism, politics, economics and academia
A new issue of Axess is out, including an editorial on postmodernism at the end of the road; and Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom on how contrarianism has a proud intellectual heritage, but in its postmodern flowering it merely became juvenile, complacently smashing up the entire interlocking crossword puzzle of human knowledge; Richard Wolin on how theoretical cultural movements from structuralism onwards generated a cynicism about reason and democracy which was once a hallmark of reactionary thought, but which became the stock-in-trade of the postmodern left; and today’s social scientists reject the positivist idea that it is possible to explain a shared reality. But relativist sociology renders its own discipline redundant. Christofer Edling argues for a return to positivism as the only serious way of coming to grips with the major issues of our times.
Joseph Raz (Oxford): Human Rights without Foundations. Randy Barnett reviews of Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (And How We the People Can Correct It) by Sanford Levinson. From TNR, Rawls Fatigue: Linda Hirshman on liberals' misplaced love of John Rawls. From Telos, an article on Carl Schmitt and Nuremberg. A review of Religions, Reasons and Gods: Essays in Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion by John Clayton.
Thomas Cusack (Berlin), Torben Iversen (Harvard) and David Soskice (Duke): Economic Interests and the Origins of Electoral Systems. Suzanne Berger (MIT): Historic Imbalances and Great Debates: Do the Economists See It Coming? Who wants to be a cultural billionaire? Economist Tyler Cowen aims to help us live richer lives, and maybe get our kids to do their chores (and more).
From Inside Higher Ed, better than expected, worse than it seems: Gary Orfield, Erica Frankenberg and Liliana M. Garces write that colleges and their students will suffer because of the Supreme Court’s desegregation decision; and Faith and Fairness: After legal victory in religious discrimination case, former Broward Community College instructor has more to prove. The Alice Ottley School closes and merges with a co-ed school as part of a societal shift away from girls-only institutions. As it becomes a reality, pupils and advocates of single-sex education feel that independence is not the only thing that the school is losing. From The New Yorker, Nicholas Lemann on the Supreme Court and integrated schools. Say What? A slur at Roger Williams University leads to a lesson in accountability. Bucks for Brains: Kid gives teacher an apple, teacher gives kid $50.
12:15PM
JUL 24 2007
Conservatives, liberals and the end of the world
From CRB, Harry Jaffa on the American Founding as the best regime; a review of Nations, Markets, and War: Modern History and the American Civil War by Nicholas Onuf and Peter S. Onuf; and what should liberal democracies expect, and what do they have the right to demand, from their immigrants and from their citizens. Frank Furedi reviews Walter Laqueur’s The Last Days of Europe and Al Gore’s The Assault on Reason. What's the greatest challenge facing American conservatives today? Liberalism? That would be relatively easy to defeat. No, it's capitalism. The Myth of Bryan Caplan's Seriousness: Libertarians gather to hear the case against letting the ignorant, irrational masses decide the direction of society.
From Taki's Top Drawer, Confederates and Catholics, Unite! At the Christians United for Israel Summit, Joe Lieberman embraces the Christian nation, Jewish journalists get expelled, and attendees fret about the Iranian president's "12th Imam". The Paranoid Style: The far right has always been given to the paranoia of conspiracy theories. Here's a rundown on the two that xenophobes are currently obsessed with: the North American Union and the Plan de Aztlan. A review of Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon by P.D. Smith.
A review of Have a Nice Doomsday: Why Millions of Americans are Looking Forward to the End of the World by Nicholas Guyatt. A review of The World Without Us by Alan Weisman (and more). A review of The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity and the Renewal of Civilization by Thomas Homer-Dixon (and more). A review of Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual by Clive Doucet. From Dissent, why aren't U.S. cities burning? Michael B. Katz investigates; and it’s time to put an end to the arguments about the meaning of the Second Amendment and come to terms with the social and political realities of the twenty-first century. Guns kill; it’s what they’re meant to do. In the Heart of Freedom, in Chains: Elite hypocrisy, gangsta culture, and failure in black America.
A review of Camelot and the Cultural Revolution: How the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Shattered American Liberalism by James Piereson. Was the Culture War ever as important to Republican victories as Democrats think? Mark A. Smith investigates. Fear and Loathing in Middle America: A review of Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War by Joe Bageant. The fruits of freedom: John Lloyd reviews Freedom’s Power: The True Force of Liberalism by Paul Starr and Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: The New Liberal Menace in America by Stephen Marshall. Are we making progress? For every progressive step forward in politics there is a regressive step back in some shape or form.
12:15PM
JUL 24 2007
Global issues, Europe and American politics
From Open Democracy, Saskia Sassen on globalisation, the state and the democratic deficit. Does the UN still matter? Joseph S. Nye investigates. An article on the power of NGOs: They're big, but how big? A review of Vaccinated: One Man’s Quest to Defeat the World’s Deadliest Diseases by Paul A. Offit. Norman Borlaug on Continuing the Green Revolution: Agricultural biotech has greatly improved human life. But we've still got a long way to go. Gregg Easterbrook on Norman Borlaug, the Greatest Living American—ignored, while he only saved a billion people. William Easterly reviews The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS by Helen Epstein (and more and an interview).
A review of The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Falling Behind and What Can Be Done About It by Paul Collier (and more). Wrong Number: Is it cost effective to treat the world's poor? Martin Wolf reviews How Rich Countries Got Rich...and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor by Erik S. Reinert and Bad Samaritans: Rich Nations, Poor Policies and the Threat to the Developing World by Ha-Joon Chang. Globalisation backlash in rich nations: A popular backlash against globalisation and the leaders of the world’s largest companies is sweeping all rich countries, an FT/Harris poll shows.
From Dissent, Mosque and State: An interview with Seyla Benhabib on Turkey's recent election, the AK Party, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Turkey's election has produced a clear win for the ruling party. But the country remains in the grip of a crisis involving two competing definitions of its very identity. Linguistic follies: An article on the economic consequences of the rise of English. Masochism, madness and murky waters: A review of Surf Nation: In Search of the Fast Lefts and Hollow Rights of Britain and Ireland by Alex Wade. Don't think so much: France is the country that produced the Enlightenment, Descartes's one-liner, "I think, therefore I am," and the solemn pontifications of Jean-Paul Sartre and other celebrity philosophers. But in the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy, thinking has lost its cachet. Flirting and fornicating: In the country of romance, a website is making sex and adultery as easy as buying a croissant.
The girly tapes of the 2008 election make Hillary Rodham Clinton look like Margaret Thatcher, reminding all that America has never been more in need of grown-up women in high places. Too Much Information: While the absence of policy detail in the Republican presidential campaign is remarkable, Democrats go too far in the other direction. The Actor: Fred Thompson bills himself as a true southern conservative and a plain-ol’-folks regular guy. But is he just playing a part? Why the US Military Loves Ron Paul: The anti-war Texas Republican is pulling more campaign contributions from the military than John McCain. That says a lot about the mindset of the troops.
12:15PM
JUL 24 2007
Technology
Wired goes inside the high-tech hunt for a missing Silicon Valley legend. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook is being touted as the new Steve Jobs, and his company as the next Google. The Future of Facebook: CEO Mark Zuckerberg talks about the web giant's plans for expansion and clears up those IPO rumors. A review of The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy as They Do by Clotaire Rapaille. Jaron Lanier on computer evolution: Most software stinks. It should learn from robots and bacteria. For so-called nerds, widely seen as the first group to coalesce online, the Internet has taken its power one step further.
From Springerin, this blogging business nowadays: The blogging movement's claim to empower the "netizen" is being undermined by the commercialization and professionalization of the "blogosphere". This necessitates a rethinking of the concept of citizen journalism. Blogging, a crash course on introspection: The Internet Age gushes on with a profusion of ever-more-personal revelations. Blogging adds to the language? Don't talk shit: The Oxford University Press is carefully monitoring the impact blogging is having on English usage. Early results are less than inspiring.
From Online Journalism Review, an article on hits, page views and other garbage we pass off as audience metrics; and Wanted: Experienced, passionate citizens for hyperlocal sites: Earn $$$ from your home! Jonathan Harris wants to make sense of the infinite world on the Web — so he builds dazzling graphic interfaces that help us visualize the data floating around out there. Here's a look at the Periodic Table of the Internet. Internet domain names the 21st century real estate: These are boom times in an estimated $2 billion industry that involves the buying and selling of domain names. Eat Your Heart Out, Darwin: An article on the evolution of Spam. The Six Stages of E-Mail: It’s so easy. It’s so friendly. It’s a community. Wheeeee! I’ve got mail.
Here is the list of Time magazine's 50 Best Websites 2007. YouTube's Dark Side: How the video-sharing site stifles creativity. There are five dimensions to the way people give and receive gifts online, whether those gifts are information, mp3 files, photos, or illicit file shares. Wizard of Wikipedia: An interview with Richard Farmbrough, a 45-year-old technology project manager living in England — and the man with the most Wiki entries since its launch in 2001. Hello, Kitschy: Internet jokes helped a Japanese ad mascot make it to American malls. Creating a Cute Cat Frenzy: Talking cats have taken over the Web. But are great online fads like this one a dying breed? LOLspeak: What is this LOL bizniz all about?
