OPW: The Ethics of Belief
2007-10-19 11:54:03
Since I’ve been writing about ignorance, I thought a quote on a similar topic was in order. This quotation is from W. K. Clifford, an atheist philosopher and mathematician, who argued that faithis both irrational and immoral. You can read the (almost) full text of “The Ethics
of Belief” online, if you’re interested. It was Clifford’s work that spurred William James to write “The Will to Believe,” which was previously on “Other People’s Words.” Though I now find Clifford’s strident tone off-putting, there was a time this quote was very important to me.
No simplicity of mind, no obscurity of station, can escape the duty of questioning all that we believe.
It is true that this duty is a hard one, and the doubt which comes out of it is often a very bitter thing. It leaves us bare and powerless where we thought were safe and strong. To know all about anything is to know how to deal with it under all circumstances. We feel mu
Distinguishing Among the Ignorant
2007-10-18 12:32:48
My recent piece entitled “Ignorance is Dangerous” was essentially an angry condemnation of ignorance and the ignorant. In that piece, however, I failed to adequately distinguish between many types of possible ignorance and levels of it, which is essentially my aim here.
The first distinction that must be made is one that is, at best, implicit in “Ignorance in Dangerous.” I think there are two distinct types of—which is to say causes of—ignorance. The essential distinction that must be made is between willful and necessary ignorance.
Willful ignorance is when someone actively chooses to be ignorant about a given topic. I am willfully ignorant of Star Trek, the details of Perez Hilton’s latest celebrity feuds, and the machinations of conspiracy theorists. Other may willfully choose to be ignorant about economics, politics, history, science, religion, or lemon cakes. Regardless of the topic, willful ignorances is a choice.
Necessary ignorance is q
A New Environmentalism?
2007-10-17 12:01:46
As you probably know by now, Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize last week, sharing the medal and the money with the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change. This seems to have triggered some new press for consideration of the idea of what it means to be an environmentalist.
Though few dispute the idea that concern about global warming and other environmental ills is a great good, I’ve encountered increasing hostility for the methods used to provoke it. Perhaps this isn’t truly new, but until last week, I’d never heard such criticism formulated very thoroughly or exactly.
Salon, an online newsmagazine, recently published an except from Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, a recent release from Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus. The excerpt condemns the prototypical environmental narrative that humans are bad and sinful creatures who have wronged the planet and “Nature.”
This is the method that was used by
Ignorance is Dangerous
2007-10-16 12:56:02
I’m tired of it. Just plain tired. Ignorance is not now, nor has it ever been, bliss. Bliss—extreme happiness, perhaps spiritual in nature—is not caused by ignorance of the world around you.
If discovering the message of Jesus is bliss, than ignorance clearly is not. For it is only through knowledge—becoming aware that Jesus died for your sins—that one can enter into a state of joyfully heightened awareness.
Lest this get too biblical, we should be clear that this is true of many things other than religion. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a person say, “I wish I knew less about that.” But though no one will overtly say this, they often tacitly imply it. I can’t even count the number of people I’ve met who say they dislike politics and so let someone else tell them how to vote. Some just don’t vote. I understand why people can be turned off by politics—it frequently looks like a playground game that’s ne
Review: American Blackout
2007-10-15 14:05:49
I had an inkling that I was in for trouble when I saw the provocative title of this 2006 film. I decided to give it a look anyway. I was rather certain I wouldn’t like it when I saw that this documentary was made by an outfit which calls itself the Guerrilla News Network, which is a website littered with radical and unfounded conspiracies. Still, I watched the “documentary,” only to have my worst fears confirmed.
American
Blackout could have been—and based on the title, I hoped it would be—an interesting and hard-hitting look at the very troubling possibility of systematic disenfranchisement of black Americans in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. I wanted to see a film that looked deeply at these claims and determined if they had any merit.
There were, in the early-going, hints at this. They mention the possibility that Florida’s electioneers had, in 2000, intentionally asked for a list of “criminals” that would create a number of
The Serenity Prayer
2007-10-23 12:34:46
When you look around at the world, it’s easy to be angry. There are socio-political problems all over: Darfur, Myanmar, Iraq, China, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Somalia… the list could go on and on. There are also the scourges of poverty and hunger that never seem to leave us. And the more mundane but pervasive problems of theft, violence, and murder. And this is not even to mention the lower-key but no less troubling problems of racism, (hetero-)sexism, ageism, religious intolerance, general carelessness, ignorance, and outright selfishness. In short, “man’s inhumanity to man.”
And though I don’t think anger at these things is bad—after all, these are ugly things—I’m not really convinced it’s wise to spend your life angry at forces you cannot control. Any single man or woman, despite their dedication, power, and time available, cannot end any single force listed above. Even the American president—arguably the most powerful
Read more: Serenity
, Prayer
Retroview: Tacky the Penguin
2007-10-22 11:58:24
Lacking anything terribly interesting to review, I’ve decided to write a retroview of a book I liked when I was young, Tacky the Penguin
.
Rereading it today, I’m sorry that I didn’t notice it sooner. Helen Lester’s Tacky the Penguin is a rather unabashed reappropriation of the major idea in The Ugly Duckling. Sure, Tacky’s just an odd duck—figuratively, not literally—when the ugly duckling’s really a swan, but the moral is very much the same. Both attempt to say that what’s inside is far more important than what’s outside, and both do it relatively well.
Before we get too far into the comparison, we need a quick plot synopsis. Tacky the Penguin lives with a small group of other penguins, tellingly named Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect (remember that there’s no irony in books for five-year-olds). While the other penguins wear false collars and solid-colored bow ties, Tacky wears a flowered Hawaiian shirt and a
OPW: “They’ll” by Cheryl Denise
2007-10-26 10:54:09
On today’s “Other People’s Words,” a poem by Cheryl
Denise
about the feeling that society desires conformity above all else. And about maybe leaving it behind.
“They’ll”
take your soul
and put it in a suit,
fit you in boxes
under labels,
make you look like the Joneses.
They’ll tell you go a little blonder,
suggest sky-blue
tinted contact lenses,
conceal that birthmark
under your chin.
They’ll urge you to have babies
get fulfilled.
They’ll say marriage is easy,
flowers from Thornhills
are all you need
to keep it together.
They’ll push you to go ahead,
borrow a few more grand,
build a dream house.
Your boys need Nikes,
your girls cheerleading,
and all you need is your job
9 to 5 in the same place.
They’ll order you never to cry
in Southern States,
and never, ever dance
in the rain.
They’ll repeat all the things
your preschool teacher said
in that squeaky too tight voice.
And when you slowly
let them go,
crack y
Dispatches: The Evolution Party
2007-10-25 12:15:23
Our roving correspondent Steve Finch has finally gotten back to us with another story. He asked us to file this under “Wouldn’t it be scary if…”
Elkhart, Indiana — The rise of the Evolution
Party
and it’s unconventional platform has left at least a few unsettled and scratching their heads. The leader of the small political party is Albert Hillman, an Indiana man running for both mayor of Elkhart and President of the United States.
Mr. Hillman is in his mid-forties, and says he’s been a Republican his whole life. He said that after seeing how “unconservative” George W. Bush has been since elected, he’s convinced the party no longer represents any of his views. “I liked the small-government view of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, but the Republicans don’t represent that anymore. Frankly, I’m not sure what they represent.”
But if the party left Mr. Hillman behind, many critic think he’s completel
Read more: Dispatches
Considering the “FairTax”
2007-10-24 12:32:44
Until recently, I wasn’t aware that “progressive” had an opposite. Surely, many Democrats would prefer that Republican or conservative were seen as opposites of progressive, but they’re not. “Regressive,” I now know, actually is the opposite of progressive, at least in taxes. (And in hindsight, I feel dumb for not having thought of that.)
This is a distinction I didn’t know would ever matter, and perhaps it never will. Nonetheless, it’s useful as at least a few presidential candidates—mostly Republicans, and none of the frontrunners—are promoting wholesale tax reform, like the “FairTax.”
Before we go too far, a brief introduction. In the simplest terms, taxes can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. Income tax in America is progressive, in that the more you earn, the more you (theoretically) pay—both in pure cash value and in proportion to income.
A proportional tax is something like conventional sale
Taking the Week Off
2007-10-29 15:05:12
Though I don’t like doing it, I’m taking the week off. I’ll be back next Monday.
While I’m away, how about a few reruns? They’re mostly fiction, and mostly my words, and some certainly could have been better. But the important thing to remember is that if you’ve never seen them, they’re new to you.
iPhones, etc. — Remember when the world was going to end if you didn’t get an iPhone? Neither do I.
Conversations I Don’t Have with my Dog — Thoughts about the nature of life, shared with my dog.
OPW: Happiness — Some words from Mattieu Ricard on the difference between ignorance—which can seem like happiness—and the real thing.
Dispatches: Coalition Against Animal Racism — A (fictional) piece from our sometimes reporter, Steve Finch (also fictional), about the way races are treated across species.
Impressions in the Carpet — Thoughts about the dents that furniture always leaves in the carpet.
Read more: Taking
, Week Off
Review: The Wind that Shakes the Barley
2007-11-05 11:58:05
The first half of Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley
can easily be seen as a justification for terrorism and a condemnation of torture—the obvious reading for an American in a country now more or less obsessed by the topics.
If justifying terrorism seems a hard thing to do, The Wind that Shakes the Barley makes it look easy. From the first scene, the occupying British look roughly like bullying incompetents, and fighting back through “terrorism”—it’s really a matter of perspective—is the only recourse that the boys from County Cork seem to have.
And surely the torture Mr. Loach displays is far worse than anything this country has been known to do. Pulling out fingernails wish rusty pliers is likely far uglier than the results of extraordinary rendition, waterboarding, or psychological deprivation. But the brutality only serves to make the practice’s jarring pointlessness more clear.
Before we go too far considering the cultural
OPW: Woody Allen on What's Good in Life
2007-11-09 10:34:22
Today’s “Other People’s Words” is both short and unconventional. It’s a quote taken from Woody
Allen
’s Manhattan, in which his misanthropic character beings to think about what’s good in life.
Technically, it’s the character Isaac Davis who says the line, but with it written by, directed by, and spoken by Woody Allen
, I think the attribution is fair. Also, I left all the hesitation and stuttering in tact to make it hard to read—well, and to show the halting way in which he comes to the realization.
An idea for a short story, about, um, people in Manhattan who, uh, are constantly creating these real unnecessary neurotic problems for themselves because it keeps them from dealing with more unsolvable terrifying problems about the… the universe.
Um, let's see. Well, it has to be optimistic. Wh—alright—Why is life worth living? It’s a very good question. Um, well, there are certain things, I guess, that make it worthwh
The State of the Unions
2007-11-08 12:33:38
Believe it or not, there was a time and when the rich and greedy — let’s make them monocled as well — captains of industry had something grave to fear in these United State
s beyond the possibility that their indefensible tactics would be caught and stopped by government oversight. There was a time when the people, yes the people, could stand up to their employers and demand better working conditions, better pay, or better practices.
Before I go too far into a mythical and unrealistic vision of the unionized past, three key facts should be made explicit. First, this country was never well-unionized beyond a few enclaves—primarily the public sector and heavy industries. Second, to the extent that unions were ever powerful, they never reached high up the job ladder. And finally, unions never secured unlimited government support, tacit or explicit. Since the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, no doubt the most supportive of all American presidents, laws have been mak
Read more: Unions
The Ron Paul Phenomenon
2007-11-07 10:50:51
For those who don’t know, Ron Paul is a Republican candidate for president. His “netroots” are bigger and stronger than any other Republican candidate, perhaps stronger than any other candidate. Any positive story about Ron Paul that makes it to Digg or Reddit is almost certain to make the front page.
All of this begs the questions: Who is Ron Paul? And why are people supporting him?
In the shortest form, Ron Paul is a conservative libertarian, a former obstetrician, and a Congressman from the state of Texas. He’s the only Republican running against the war and Iraq and he’s for the abolition of about as much government as people want him to kill.
All of that’s interesting, and certainly rare among Republicans. But how did Ron Paul raise over $4 million in a single day—more than anyone but Hillary Clinton? After all, most count him as unlikely to get the Republican nod, his support is well under 10% in both the early primary states and across t
Read more: Phenomenon
Technology and Trivia
2007-11-06 12:35:00
It’s not unlike a mosquito constantly buzzing near your ear, this idea that we’re killing ourselves with technology. Everyday, it seems, we hear with disdain about people who don’t know their own phone number, don’t know their friend’s number, don’t know how to drive across town without GPS navigation. These things, we’re told, are proof that civilization and intelligence are in decline. That the younger you are the more likely you are to be helplessly inept and unwise.
David Brooks, a New York Times columnist, recently seemed to address this “outsourcing” of our brains, but I couldn’t tell if he liked the idea or not. He says:
Memory? I've externalized it. I am one of those baby boomers who are making this the "It's on the Tip of My Tongue Decade" But now I no longer need to have a memory, for I have Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia. Now if I need to know some fact about the world, I tap a few keys and reap the blessings
Read more: Technology
, Trivia
“Working to Live” and Other Lies
2007-11-15 11:30:43
You hear the complaint a lot: “too many American live to work when they should really be working to live.” The dichotomy always rang false to me, and I finally figured out why.
The first problem is that this, like most dichotomies, is completely false. To demonstrate this, I’ve compiled a short list of the inane dichotomies created by the rhetoric of modern American politicians. “You’re either with us or against us.” “My opponent is a tax-and-spend liberal while I support tax cuts [but can’t pay for the programs you’re asking for without taking massive loans from China].” “You either support our troops or oppose the war.” “You’re either a patriot or a ‘cut-and-runner.’” “You’re either a liberal or a conservative, a Republican or a Democrat. Come on, pick a side, we’re at war!”
This dichotomy of “living to work” or “working to live” is no
Was Reagan A Racist?
2007-11-14 11:30:01
One presidential candidate is lighting up the New York Times Opinion page with impassioned attacks and defenses. No, it’s not Barack Obama, Ron Paul, Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, Jon Edwards, Rudy Giuliani, Dennis Kucinich, or Mitt Romney. It’s Ronald Reagan
.
The crucial question of the day, if you’re reading the New York Times Opinion pages at least, is whether or not Ronald Reagan was making a veiled appeal to the Southern white electorate in his 1980 campaign.
The claim, made many times by columnists Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert, is that Reagan, by speaking about “state’s rights” when he visited the Neshoba County Fair outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1980, was sending a conscious message to white racists that he was on their side. Because Philadelphia was famously the location of the murder of three civil rights activists in 1964, the choice of location was both an intentional and powerful message by the Gipper that, like Nixon and Gold
Read more: Racist
Professional Human Beings
2007-11-13 13:47:32
I’m not even sure where I first heard the term “Professional Human Beings,” but it’s an idea I can’t seem to shake. I often think that the world needs more Professional Human Beings.
But I should be clear: this is different than needing more “professionals.” Professional Human Beings are people who spend their time being the best people they can be; “professionals” usually spend their time being stiff and condescending.
Inherent in the meaning of being a professional is the idea that you get paid, primarily for your expertise and skill. So, for there to be Professional Human Beings, I suppose I would have to find a way to pay them. Pay them for being the best people they can.
Maybe it would come from my pocket, though that’s unlikely given my current finances. Perhaps it could be a charity soliciting donations, like the Red Cross. Perhaps we could find a single rich man to back it. Perhaps we’d have to just give Professi
Review: Yesterday, Raking Leaves
2007-11-12 12:38:52
I’ve reviewed quite a few movies in the time I’ve been writing reviews here. I’ve also managed to talk about a few books, a few podcasts, a few web-only video projects. But all of that has been, to varying degrees, frustratingly pedestrian. So today, something truly unusual: a review of my time raking leaves yesterday afternoon.
For whatever reason, it seemed to be leaf day in the neighborhood yesterday. On arriving home from breakfast, the neighbors on both sides were using leaf blowers—a toy I neither have nor particularly want. While I was raking my leaves, someone two houses down got out his leaf vacuum and went to town with another toy I’m not sure I’d want.
There’s something elegant, not to mention green, about a rake. It’s not exactly the fastest way to move leaves or grass clippings, but it’s more peaceful. Something about using a motor to move leaves—either pushing or pulling them—feels wrong to me. And it makes
Read more: Yesterday
On Being an Egomaniac
2007-11-20 15:28:46
I can’t avoid the feeling that writing on this blog is an incredibly egoistic activity. I want to tell you about myself. About my opinions. About a story I dreamt up. All of its about me.
Now I can, and maybe should, concede that this is the nature of writing. That you can fundamentally only write something original based on your own thoughts, knowledge, opinions, and refections. I suppose there is a very real possibility that writing is itself egoistic. And unless one writes very corporate prose to mask that fact, it will always appear that way to the reader.
Even if one endeavors to write in a way that isn’t directly about about themselves, there’s no denying that any attempt at defining the external requires is defining the internal as well. All criticism, for example, is inherently based on the critic’s experiences, preferences, and understandings of culture. Academic writing, as well, is imbued with the prejudices of its authors. Few modern scholars would d
Review: The Bugle (Podcast)
2007-11-19 13:53:28
With the Writers Guild of America still on strike, the absence of late-night commentary on politics has been missed. Though the quality of the commentary was rarely exceptionally high, late night comedians did provide a useful and informative diversion for those less tempted to read the papers (like myself, most of the times).
So while looking for new podcasts—something I do habitually—I noticed a a picture of The Daily Show’s John Oliver, attached to a podcast called The Bugle, which calls itself “An audio newspaper for a visual world.”
Because it’s associated with The (London) Times one of Rupert Murdoch’s many media properties, I was moderately fearful that The Bugle a would suffer from the same awkwardly conservative bent that doomed Fox New’s The 1/2 Hour News Hour to a lukewarm death.
Alas, such concerns were unmerited. The Bugle is a usually delightful, witty, and deadpan satire that has, since I discovered it, softened the blow ca
Read more: Podcast
OPW: “The Necessary Brevity of Pleasures”
2007-11-16 12:14:23
Today’s “Other People’s Words” is a poem about, well, “The Necessary
Brevity of Pleasures.” It’s by Samuel Hazo.
Prolonged, they slacken into pain
or sadness in accordance with the law
of apples.
One apple satisfies.
Two apples cloy.
Three apples
glut.
Call it a tug-of-war between enough and more
than enough, between sufficiency
and greed, between the stay-at-homers
and globe-trotting see-the-worlders.
Like lovers seeking heaven in excess,
the hopelessly insatiable forget
how passion sharpens appetites
that gross indulgence numbs.
Result?
The haves have not
what all the have-nots hav
OPW: Norman Mailer on America
2007-11-23 16:16:37
Norman Mailer died two weeks ago, and so I’m slow on the uptake. But I’d rather quote something interesting and out-of-date that timely and uninteresting. So on today’s “Other People’s Words,” what Norman Mailer told Charlie Rose about his country in 1998.
You know, I think we live in the most exceptional country ever for a writer, because there’s so many aspects of it.
I don’t know about other writers but I know that I’ve had an odd love affair with America
. As if I were married to this incredible woman who I half loved and half hated. And all through my work I’m always thinking of her, “Oh God! There she’s gone and done it again!” It always happens that you’re so disappointed just as you’re begining to get excited about her.
There are many disappointments to living in America because I always think it’ll get better and it doesn’t. It gets worse. The architecture in America, for examp
Read more: Norman
Happy Thursday!
2007-11-21 15:46:02
I’d planned on writing something today, but when, on rising, I was greeted by four inches of accumulated snow my resolve to do so quickly cracked and eventually crumbled. Already somewhat interested in making Thanksgiving (it’s tomorrow in United States) an extended break, I was unable to do any serious thinking.
So, Americans (and perhaps non-Americans too) enjoy tomorrow. I think it’s just fabulous that we in this country have compartmentalized one of most important sentiments in the world to fit onto a single calendar day on which we worry about little other than food and professional football. I consider it a blessing that on the day we named for gratitude our central societal concerns have become gluttony and sloth. This Thursday
is truly a great day to be an American.
Read more: Happy
OPW: I Used to Be but Now I Am
2007-11-30 11:37:41
On today’s “Other People’s Words,” “I Used to Be but Now I Am” by Ted Berrigan. I’m not sure I can pin down what exactly it is that I like about the poem, but I just know that I like it.
I used to be inexorable,
But now I am elusive.
I used to be the future of America,
But now I am America.
I used to be part of the problem,
But now I am the problem.
I used to be part of the solution, if not all of it,
But now I am not that person.
I used to be intense, & useful,
But now I am heavy, & boring.
I used to be sentimental about myself, & therefore ruthless,
But now I am, I think, a sympathetic person, although
easily amused.
I used to be a believer,
But now, alas, I believe.
Dispatches: Lying Well
2007-11-29 14:29:30
Steve Finch has finally gotten around to filing another report. He asked that this one be filed under: “Is every lie a deception?”
HOLLYWOOD — In a town made famous for the lies it tells to both itself and the world, this reporter found something quite expected: a class about lying well. The surprise wasn’t finding a class which aimed to teach students how to lie, but the way it taught to do it.
Joanna Saltin had nurtured quite an interest in “radical honesty”—the ethic of never telling a lie no matter how minor or face-saving—before she broke away from her mentor, moved to Hollywood, and decided to teach Californians the secret to lying well.
Ms. Saltin makes a quick and careful distinction between what she called “lying well” and “lying successfully.” As you may expect, lying successfully is when you convince people to believe an untrue story.
Lying
well is very different, as she explains: “To lie well, you
Read more: Dispatches
Governing is Campaigning
2007-11-28 11:13:16
Mark Halperin, a political writer for Time, got a great deal of flack for a recent column in the New York Times. The column, entitled “How ‘What It Takes’ Took Me Off Course,” consists primarily of Halperin sharing the revelation that there is a difference between the campaigning for president and being president. As he says:
For most of my time covering presidential elections, I shared the view that there was a direct correlation between the skills needed to be a great candidate and a great president. The chaotic and demanding requirements of running for president, I felt, were a perfect test for the toughest job in the world.
But now I think I was wrong. The “campaigner equals leader” formula that inspired me and so many others in the news media is flawed.
He then cites both Clinton and Bush as examples of good campaigners who were, at times, terrible at the “being president” thing.
Understandably, many people, myself included, felt the urge to
The Myth of the Magic Bullet
2007-11-27 15:29:54
I’ve long been seeking one thing—a song, a poem, a quotation, even a book—that once found will magically save all people—save them from their greed, their fear, and their unnecessary antipathy for one another.
One day I met my anti-prophet, who told me this:
I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t exist, it can’t exist, and most certainly won’t. It hasn’t been made, it won’t be made, it can’t be made. Perhaps, having made these proclamations, it is incumbent upon me, the prophet, to provide good reason that such a claim is true.
Don’t forget that people still hate, kill, steal, and rape—literally and figuratively—other people. If a peaceful and harmonious world hasn’t arisen in the 5000 years of Abrahamic religion, in the 5000 years of Buddhist tradition, in the 2000 years of Christian practice, and the 1300 year since the death of Muhammad, religion certainly is not the magic bullet. Pogroms, crusad
Read more: Magic
Review: Helvetica (Documentary)
2007-11-26 13:30:40
Helvetica is a documentary about a typeface with the same name. That typeface is also the one in which this post’s green headline is written. And to simplify the coming discussion, I want to make clear that Helvetica is a documentary and Helvetica is a typeface.
The essential goal of Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica is to examine the history of and opinions regarding Helvetica. For those, like myself, relatively ignorant of type design and history, this is quite interesting and unexpected. Where Helvetica succeeds with a lay audience is that it introduces a previously unknown world that already has a number of strong opinions and arguments. And though chances are good that typophiles will love Helvetica for the same novelty that lay audience find in it, I can’t really speak for them.
From the outset, Helvetica presents no argument against the idea that Helvetica is the most important typeface of the last 50 years. And throughout, we’re constantly reminded of Helvetica&
Read more: Documentary
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