Jonathan Haidt: Moral Psychology Liberal vs. Conservative

This TED talk by Jonathan Haidt looks at the differences between liberals and conservatives, but he also explains how groups function and react to moral imperatives.



h/t Leon

Critical appreciation

I found DFW's syllabus for an English literature class he taught at Pomona College. I don't know if you've ever written a syllabus before, but this one is a work of art. If one of your jobs as a grad student has been or is to grade these sorts of papers (your salary is pennies per paper, but you are oh so grateful for the financial assist), you'll appreciate his hard-ass approach to the English language and what constitutes a "done" paper. Here are some of the highlights:

BASIC COURSE SPIEL: The goals of this section of E67 are to survey certain important forms of modern literature - short stories, novels, poems- and to introduce you to some techniques for achieving a critical appreciation of literary art. "Critical appreciation" means having smart, sophisticated reasons for liking whatever literature you like, and being able to articulate those reasons for other people, especially in writing. Vital for critical appreciation is the ability to "interpret" a piece of literature, which basically means coming up with a cogent, interesting account of what a piece of lit means, what to do to/for the reader, what technical choices the author's made in order to try to achieve the effect she wants, and so on.* As you can probably anticipate, the whole thing gets very complicated and abstract and hard, which is one reason why entire college departments are devoted to studying and interpreting literature.

CLASS FORMAT: English 67 is seminar. By way of elucidation, please look at the following gloss from Prof. David Foster Wallace's E67 syllabus for Fall '05: "This is a discussion-based course; it is not a lecture course. What we learn will be driven primarily by the questions, comments, ideas, and energies that you bring to our discussions. In other words we will learn about texts by actively engaging them and each other in our regular meetings."

---------------
*Here's a somewhat sexier riff on "interpretation" from Professor David Foster Wallace's syllabus for one of his past E67s:

We will also, of course, pay great attention to our own acts of interpretation. Are we decrypting, translating, or paraphrasing the texts we read? Demystifying them? Remystifying them? Are we trailing them as literary detectives, or trying them in a readerly court? Are we bathing them in acids to reduce them to their constituent parts? What is at stake for us in reading works of imaginative literature, and what social- and solitary functions does it perform?

(end of page 1)

COURSE RULES & PROCEDURES pps 2 & 3

(2) You are required to do every last iota of the reading and writing assigned, exactly in the format requested, and it needs to be totally done by the time class starts. There is no such thing as "falling a little behind" in the course reading; either you've done your homework or you haven't. Chronic lack of preparation (which is easy to spot) will lower your grade by one whole number.

(3) Even in a seminar course, it seems a little silly to require participation. Some students who are cripplingly shy, or who can't always formulate their best thoughts and questions in the rapid back-and-forth of a group discussion, are nevertheless good, serious students. On the other hand, as Prof. (DFW) has pointed out supra, our class can't really function if there isn't student participation -- it will become just me giving a half-assed, ad-lib lecture for 90 minutes, which (trust me) will be horrible in all kinds of ways.

(7) Part of your grade for written work will have to do with your document's presentation. "Presentation" has to do with evidence of care, of adult competence in written English, and of compassion for your reader.

(end of pps 2 -3)

English 67, Section 02, Spring '05

Caveat Emptor Page

(4) Your instructor has high standards for the written work you turn in. Take another look at Course Rules and Procedures Items 4 and 7 on page 3 of the syllabus. I know that many professors say this kind of hard-ass stuff at the beginning of the term but don't actually mean it or enforce it as the course wears on. I, however, do mean it, and I will enforce it--feel free to verify this with students who've taken other classes with me. If you want to improve your academic writing and are willing to put extra time and effort into it, I am a good teacher to have. But if you're used to whipping off papers the night before they're due, running them quickly through the computer's Spellchecker, handing them in full of high-school errors and sentences that make no sense, and having the professor accept them "because the ideas are good" or something, please be informed that I draw no distinction between the quality of one's ideas and the quality of those ideas' verbal expression, and that I will not accept sloppy, rough-draftish, or semiliterate college writing. Again, I am absolutely not kidding. If you won't or can't devote significant time and attention to your written work, I urge you to drop E67-02 and save us both a lot of grief.

This is What Democracy Looks Like

This movie was one of my source materials when I was writing a play about domestic terrorism- even though the movie isn't really about that. I realize it has it's own agenda, but it provides a narrative of the 1999 WTO in Seattle that you didn't get on the MSM and you wouldn't get unless you were there or you actively seek out this sort of thing. This narrative is one about hope and power and unity and I find it incredibly sad that it was lost in post 9/11. It is my own belief that what happened in Seattle that year - environmentalists and labor united, workers across the world united in solidarity to oppose globalization made a few businessmen and politicians nervous - duh? But it was precisely this solidarity the Bush Administration started driving a wedge through once it took office, by pushing on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Then the Bush Administration's response to 9/11 very conveniently took care of the rest - isolating people in this country, squandering the good will towards the U.S. in the aftermath of such a tragedy, creating an ongoing narrative of war and fear. It is a different time now and these sorts of tactics aren't necessarily as effective (and some things are downright hokey and quaint). I watch this movie often because it reminds me of what is possible and it still informs my work.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Some Will Rob You with a Six Gun, Some With A Fountain Pen

To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we (will then) be taxed in our meat and our drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they (will) be happy. - Thomas Jefferson

The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few and the Republic is destroyed ... I feel at the moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. - Abraham Lincoln

Real, Unreal, Surreal: DFW on the 2000 McCain Campaign

I'm almost finished reading David Foster Wallace's book McCain's Promise. I bought it Friday, first because it was the only book left at the bookstore that was on my list and two because it seems relevant to this election in several ways (ways that probably occurred to the publisher who reprinted DFW's original Rolling Stone and electronic version in bound copy and released in what looks like April or May of 2008): DFW's analysis of the packaging of McCain (who at the time - 2000 - was the rebel/maverick of his party (not that I agree with that assessment, especially when you look at McCain's political career in total) versus the idea of packaging a political candidate and how the "real" gets lost in the decision to sell the package, and the idea that this analysis reads like the playbook for the Obama campaign - as if they picked up the book by luck or whatever and said to themselves, hey this might work for us too! Now don't get all down on my because I said that about Obama, I'm just saying there are parallels w/r/t Foster's writing about a candidate's ability to capitalize or exploit the voting public's or the potential voting public's hidden desire to be hopeful and treated with respect. And finally: Foster's attempts to understand why the Young Vote (18 - 35 year olds) never materializes or when it does only reflects the extreme left or right and how when you don't vote, those extreme votes count double (which everyone should have gotten from civics class either in jr. high or highschool), and how not voting actually serves the Establishment (either Democratic or Republican or both together) who actually take into account and find it desirable for people not to vote (which also makes sense) and build certain strategies around it. Remember what frenzy there was about all the Young Voters turning out in 2004 - which of course didn't materialize - to a collective sigh of relief from both parties. Because that big of a turn out could really change things (why a third party might even gain traction if everyone, not just Young Voters - everyone voted) - in ways that we're not entirely sure of, with results those whose interest is merely to preserve power are not too comfortable with. I mean, that's one lesson that can be taken away from 1968, eh?

At any rate, I highly recommend this book - good luck trying to buy it though. Most of DFW's work is out of stock - reportedly even at Amazon. You can find the original article here.

You can also register to vote by going to Rock the Vote
https://secure5.ctsg.com/rtv/ovr/index.asp?pid=99 or Vote for Change or Project Vote.

Ben Bernanke: We Have Lost Control

You need to be spanked silly Ben Bernanke along with the entire of the Bush Administration. You have spread your "weaving spiders come not here" Bohemian Grove mentality all over this world. I hope you can get back to your long, uninterrupted nights of running naked through the trees and engaging in ritualistic sex acts soon. You nasty, nasty boy.

This is little video makes me giggle like a 15 year old girl. Watch it on full screen, for total awesomeness. (h/t Dooce)



Spank. Spank. Spank you some more silly.


You know how sometimes the truth has a crazy fire around it and it makes you all tingly inside the moment before your head just freakin' explodes and your legs give way beneath you? This isn't quite like that. But it comes close.

Are You Blogging?

You may find yourself linking to a cat picture without writing any narrative for it. Are you worried that you didn't tell us how we should feel about the kitty?

You posted a cookie ad you found on Craigslist.

You posted a link to a stamp by Thorsten Van Elten and that is all you freakin' had the time for.

You maintain a concept ships and experimental aircraft art blog.

You publish photos and links to news articles without writing any commentary for it. Don't you have any opinions? I don't agree with this review by the way, I don' think the monologue is too long. The Black Hole story pretty much sealed the deal that I will be heading to Los Alamos.

The main misconception regarding the definition of blogs comes from people that associate blogs with their content. More specifically from people that associate blogs with the content from one particular type of blog: personal blogs.

In other words, those people think that blogs are online diaries where people share their opinions, ramblings and personal events.

Wrong!

That is just one of the things that you could do with a blog.

********

In September of 2000 there are thousands of weblogs: topic-oriented weblogs, alternative viewpoints, astute examinations of the human condition as reflected by mainstream media, short-form journals, links to the weird, and free-form notebooks of ideas. Traditional weblogs perform a valuable filtering service and provide tools for more critical evaluation of the information available on the web. Free-style blogs are nothing less than an outbreak of self-expression. Each is evidence of a staggering shift from an age of carefully controlled information provided by sanctioned authorities (and artists), to an unprecedented opportunity for individual expression on a worldwide scale. Each kind of weblog empowers individuals on many levels

To be continued.

Cintra Wilson Will You Have My Baby?

I confess, it was pretty riveting when John McCain trotted out Sarah Palin for the first time. Like many people, I thought, "Damn, a hyperconservative, fuckable, Type A, antiabortion, Christian Stepford wife in a 'sexy librarian' costume -- as a vice president? That's a brilliant stroke of horrifyingly cynical pandering to the Christian right. Karl Rove must be behind it."

Spend An Evening with Bob

Robert Wilson
Stanford Presidential Lecture Series
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 @ 7pm
Kresge Auditorium
555 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford University

The lecture will be preceded by a Master Class featuring Aleta Hayes and Michael Ramsaur
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 @ 3:30pm
Department of Drama
Pigott Theatre (Memorial Auditorium)
Stanford University

I'm going to see if I can get some more information on the class. Just to see if it's open to the public.

Robert Wilson Hamlet Machine Chair

Writing the Thesis: Performance Edition

Well, now things are looking up with respect to the thesis. Major breakthroughs inspired by immersing myself in Gonzo last week led to some refining of my methodology. It all became too clear. So now things should zip zip zip along, eh?

I'm also going to be taking some inspiration from Marisa Olson who is writing her dissertation live via webcam this month. She writes from 9 - 5 EST and her site updates every minute. Check it out.

To work without lying, without imitating the work, without hiding, without an easy way out; to go towards the actor, to go towards him fully, with all your being; to go until you forget about yourself, to expect the same from him and to meet him. - Jerzy Grotowski

Five Things: David Foster Wallace

• David Foster Wallace Commencement Speech at Kenyon College.
• Incarnations of Burned Children.
• Charlie Rose Interview with DFW.
• Failure.

• My own plan for the coming fourteen months is to knock on doors and stuff envelopes. Maybe even to wear a button. To try to accrete with others into a demographically significant mass. To try extra hard to exercise patience, politeness, and imagination on those with whom I disagree. Also to floss more.

Losing Your Nerve in the Passing Lane

Fear and Loathing, Campaign 2004: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson sounds off on the fun-hogs in the passing lane by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Presidential politics is a vicious business, even for rich white men, and anybody who gets into it should be prepared to grapple with the meanest of the mean. The White House has never been seized by timid warriors. There are no rules, and the roadside is littered with wreckage. That is why they call it the passing lane. Just ask any candidate who ever ran against George Bush -- Al Gore, Ann Richards, John McCain -- all of them ambushed and vanquished by lies and dirty tricks. And all of them still whining about it.

******

Every GOP administration since 1952 has let the Military-Industrial Complex loot the Treasury and plunge the nation into debt on the excuse of a wartime economic emergency. Richard Nixon comes quickly to mind, along with Ronald Reagan and his ridiculous "trickle-down" theory of U.S. economic policy. If the Rich get Richer, the theory goes, before long their pots will overflow and somehow "trickle down" to the poor, who would rather eat scraps off the Bush family plates than eat nothing at all. Republicans have never approved of democracy, and they never will. It goes back to preindustrial America, when only white male property owners could vote.

******

How the Democrats Can Blow It...in Six Easy Steps by Michael Moore

For years now, nearly every poll has shown that the American people are right in sync with the platform of the Democratic Party. They are pro-environment, pro-women's rights and pro-choice. They don't like war. They want the minimum wage raised, and they want a single-payer universal health-care system. The American public agrees with the Republican Party on only one major issue: They support the death penalty.

So you would think the Democrats would be cleaning up, election after election. Obviously not. The Democrats appear to be professional losers. They are so pathetic in their ability to win elections, they even lose when they win! So when you hear Democrats and liberals and supporters of Barack Obama say they are worried that John McCain has a good chance of winning, they ain't a-kidding. Who would know better than the very people who have handed the Republicans one election after another on a silver platter? Yes, be afraid, be very afraid.

Five Things: John McCain/Sarah Palin Edition

• Postmodern John McCain: the presidential candidate Arizonans know - and loathe.

I've been a writer and editor at New Times for 15 years. For much of that time, I wrote about Arizona politics, which is to say that I wrote about John McCain. It's still odd to see the guy in the spotlight, because for quite a while, I was pretty much the only one covering him.

I never did fall for him in the way reporters fall for politicians, probably because he wasn't much to fall for back in the early 1990s. In those days, McCain was still rehabilitating the image he'd later sell to the national media. He was known then for cavorting in the Bahamas with Charlie Keating, rather than for fighting for campaign finance reform and limited government spending.

No one seems to remember Keating much, anymore. Amazing. McCain and his fellow Arizonan, Democrat Dennis DeConcini, were hauled before the Senate Ethics Committee along with three other senators to explain their actions on behalf of Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan.

• John McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five

They say that if you put five lobsters into a pot and give them a chance to escape, none will be able to do so before you light the fire. Each time a lobster tries to climb over the top, his fellow lobsters will pull him back down. It is the way of lobsters and threatened United States senators.

And, of course, that's the way it is with the Keating Five. You are all battling to save your own hides. So you, McCain, leak to reporters about who did Keating's bidding in pressuring federal regulators to change the rules for Lincoln Savings and Loan.

When the reporters fail to print your tips quickly enough--as in the case of your tip on Michigan Senator Donald Riegle--you call them back and remind them how important it is to get that information in the newspapers.

The story of "the Keating Five" has become a scandal rivaling Teapot Dome and Watergate. The outcome will be decided, not in a courtroom, but probably on national television.

Those who survive will be the sociopaths who can tell a lie with the most sincere, straight face. You are especially adept at this.

• John McCain's Strategic Blunder: Opening the Door to the Keating Five

In the end, the crash of Keating's savings and loan -- which had been shielded by some of his best friends in the United States Senate -- cost billions to the American taxpayer, as mentioned above, and all told the federal government ended up on the hook for close to $125 billion in the fallout of the crisis that befell the underregulated industry in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

But Keating wasn't alone in this scandal. Those no-neck Bush boys, Jeb and Neil, did their part too.

Jeb Bush defaulted on a $4.56 million loan from Broward Federal Savings in Sunrise, Florida. After federal regulators closed the S&L, the office building that Jeb used the $4.56 million to finance was reappraised by the regulators at $500,000, which Bush and his partners paid. The taxpayers had to pay back the remaining 4 million plus dollars. Neil Bush was the most widely targeted member of the Bush family by the press in the S&L scandal. Neil became director of Silverado Savings and Loan at the age of 30 in 1985. Three years later the institution was belly up at a cost of $1.6 billion to tax payers to bail out.

What else did Charles Keating do? Before Keating became known and promptly forgotten for bilking taxpayers out of billions of dollars, he founded the CDL - Citizens for Decency through Law.

The decent people of America [...] are going to wage a holy -- yes -- a holy war against the merchants of obscenity [...] From this day forward I will not rest, and no one connected with CDL will rest, until every pornographer in America is out of business, in jail, or both. - Charles Keating

This group's crusade against pornography and obscenity became so powerful that a Washington Post article claimed in 1993, that CDL's "causes and targets became virtually indistinguishable from those of the Justice Department."

• Sarah Palin, Right and Wrong

McCain and Palin want us to leave their families alone. Yet they want to make rules for our families by eliminating our right to make our own choices over abortion, eliminate our access to family planning education or domestic partner benefits, and our freedom from discrimination.

They want to control what our kids learn in school about sex and about science. In short, through the policies they promote and the judges they support, they want the government to have more control over our private lives than at any time in history.

• Why I Won't Vote for John McCain

People often ask if I was a Prisoner of War with John McCain. My answer is always “No – John McCain was a POW with me.” The reason is I was there for 8 years and John got there 2 ½ years later, so he was a POW for 5 ½ years. And we have our own seniority system, based on time as a POW.

John’s treatment as a POW:

1) Was he tortured for 5 years? No. He was subjected to torture and maltreatment during his first 2 years, from September of 1967 to September of 1969. After September of 1969 the Vietnamese stopped the torture and gave us increased food and rudimentary health care. Several hundred of us were captured much earlier. I got there April 20, 1965 so my bad treatment period lasted 4 1/2 years. President Ho Chi Minh died on September 9, 1969, and the new regime that replaced him and his policies was more pragmatic. They realized we were worth a lot as bargaining chips if we were alive. And they were right because eventually Americans gave up on the war and agreed to trade our POW’s for their country. A damn good trade in my opinion! But my point here is that John allows the media to make him out to be THE hero POW, which he knows is absolutely not true, to further his political goals.

• Michael Moore Dares to Ask: What's So Heroic About Being Shot Down While Bombing Innocent Civilians

John McCain flew 23 bombing missions over North Vietnam in a campaign called Operation Rolling Thunder. During this bombing campaign, which lasted for almost 44 months, U.S. forces flew 307,000 attack sorties, dropping 643,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam (roughly the same tonnage dropped in the Pacific during all of World War II). Though the stated targets were factories, bridges, and power plants, thousands of bombs also fell on homes, schools, and hospitals. In the midst of the campaign, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara estimated that we were killing 1,000 civilians a week. That's more than one 9/11 every single month -- for 44 months.