tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68246282024-02-02T14:28:18.064-05:00Liberal to Left Musings: Politics, Religion, Ethics, Justice, HumorPeriodic commentary on current events, politics, religion, public policy, ethics, and justice, with some humor and satire.Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.comBlogger406125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-56003194658015360792014-07-21T11:23:00.000-04:002014-07-21T12:18:34.126-04:00Musings on Death and RemembranceWe all need somewhere or something in whose presence we can remember departed friends and loved ones.<br />
<br />
A grave is ideal. We can go there and reflect on our relationship to the departed. I often did this on my way to visit my Mother in the nursing home. I would stop by the cemetery, only a few hundred yards from her, and stand by my Dad's grave and remember how much he loved me, how much I loved him, and how much I missed him.<br />
<br />
Now when I go that site, I can remember both Mother and Daddy. She joined him in 2005.<br />
<br />
I had the same experience visiting the grave of Eloise, my first wife. <br />
<br />
<br />
Cremation means the ashes can come to us and be a focal point of reminiscence.<br />
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Tears flow in either case, and we feel better afterwards.Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-30563935897409430622014-07-21T11:02:00.002-04:002014-07-21T11:02:42.837-04:00Certainly We Need More of ThisA typo in the NYT in a reader response indicated that if we reduced unneeded military expense, we could have more of this: <br />
<br />
"clean elegy" research." Who could disagree with that? Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-68169911999657022902013-09-15T15:52:00.001-04:002013-09-15T15:52:15.678-04:00Babies and Animals Don't Talk like AdultsI hate seeing babies and animals talk on TV. The first 99,999 times maybe it was cute, but now it looks like a cheap substitute for creativity.Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-23020773832904642612013-09-15T15:48:00.002-04:002013-09-15T15:48:25.603-04:00McCain and GrahamIs everybody getting as sick of John McCain and his puppet Lindsay Graham as I am? If so, say "Amen."Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-68280987943580516512013-09-15T15:33:00.001-04:002013-09-15T15:46:05.540-04:00Only One A+ TV Commercial<br />
Commercials are a necessary evil if we are to have free TV. Necessary but still an evil. There is one exception that is valuable in and of itself -- the Alka Seltzer ad starrimg Ralph: <br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFKifpMtlNs">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFKifpMtlNs</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Rating an A and coming in second is the Holiday Inn Express series on staying smart:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jo_x7ecIFg">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jo_x7ecIFg</a><br />
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Beyond that it's mostly a wasteland.Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-5409436248644131672013-09-05T22:14:00.001-04:002013-09-09T15:35:06.036-04:00Syria: All Options Bad, Well Maybe NotSometimes the choice is between better and worse. In Syria the choice is between bad and less bad.<br />
This is why even Jim Wallis could not come up with much. His suggestions about how to proceed are weak. He makes a good case against military intervention, but his positive suggestions rely on moral suasion, international cooperation, and the like. Well and good, but will anything come of it? Not much is my guess.<br />
<br />
Go to this address and scroll down to see the article by Jim Wallis:<br />
<a href="http://go.sojo.net/site/MessageViewer?em_id=32721.0&dlv_id=40041">http://go.sojo.net/site/MessageViewer?em_id=32721.0&dlv_id=40041</a><br />
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My problem is trying to avoid despair and to find the least bad option. I do not know what that is yet. Like Wallis, I am wary of military intervention for the reasons he cites. My hunch is that in time the choices may become clearer. Meanwhile, the best we can do is muddle through.<br />
<br />
I don't see how a military strike can be avoided at this point. I hope for the best and fear the worst.<br />
<br />
PS Good news today (9/9/2013): Russia has urged that Syrian chemical weapons be put under international control and Syria has responded positively. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/">The Washington Post</a> tells the story:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/john-kerry-in-london-campaigns-for-world-to-support-military-strike-against-syria/2013/09/09/e8ad7a72-193d-11e3-80ac-96205cacb45a_story.html">Syria ‘welcomes’ Russia proposal on chemical arms</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="byline">
Will Englund, Debbi Wilgoren and Karen DeYoung <span class="timestamp processed" id="ts_06843732946635694_1378746170926">12:49 PM ET</span></div>
The statement provides the first indication that a diplomatic solution to the international standoff may be possible.<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/"> http://www.washingtonpost.com/</a> </blockquote>
Sometimes the news is good. Let us rejoice. Or, maybe as Fareed Zakaria suggests on CNN, it is just a Russian ploy to reduce support for Obama's threat to attack Syria. Time will tell.Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-34521439619732436682013-08-26T11:49:00.000-04:002013-08-26T11:50:07.856-04:00Reinhold Niebuhr and Biblical MythReinhold Niebuhr believed that certain central myths of Scripture should be taken "seriously but not literally, e. g., Creation, Incarnation, and Last Things. "Seriously" means that these myths convey truths and meanings essential to "biblical faith." Who determines what these truths and meanings are? Reinhold Niebuhr, of course. So RN uses these myths as a vehicle for transmitting his view of essential biblical truths. He is no different from any other theologian. Theology is the expression of religious belief. <i>The Nature and Destiny of Man, 2 vol.</i> is the best source for Niebuhr's thought<br />
<br />
Rudolf Bultmann thought that myth meant (1) prescientific cosmology, e. g., three-story universe, miracles, etc. and (2) use of spatial metaphors for transcendence. God is up in heaven means that God is transcendent to people and earth. He thought he had to find the religious meanning in the myth taken in non-supernatural terms,<br />
<br />
RN thought that RB reduced biblical myth to Heidegger's philosophy of existence, specifically human existence. RB therefore lost something essential to biblical truth, according to RN.<br />
<br />
This is for my friend Ben Jordan and others who are interested.Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-85261722045195773442013-08-03T18:09:00.002-04:002013-08-16T16:14:33.199-04:00Windows 8--Love and HateI have a new computer with Windows 8. It was not love at first sight. It is much different from previous iterations of Windows. The first reaction was dislike approaching something akin to hatred.<br />
<br />
The major change is the elimination of the START button. Instead you get a panel of installed programs and features. One choice is DESKTOP. That location is the familiar one, and you can proceed much as usual. But other surprises await.<br />
<br />
Another innovation is the touch feature. Mostly you can click or touch, but sometimes you can only touch and swipe. This is a modernistic feature familiar to users of smart phones, etc. My dumb cell phone only makes telephone calls. <br />
<br />
I tend to forget that the first reaction to every new computer is similar. You spend a lot of time getting rid of all the installed stuff you don't want. But 8 takes more than the usual reshaping to approach toleration rather than throwing the &^%$ thing out the !@#$% window.<br />
<br />
After a week my distaste is weakening but has not disappeared. But I can feel a warm feeling that may yet blossom into appreciation. But accommodation to its demands requires patience. As you know, you do the adapting. It just does what it does do and you can come to terms with it or not. It is a literalist and does exactly what you tell it to do and not what you want it to do. Such is the nature of computers.<br />
<br />
This is a first report. I may yet fall in love with W8. Stay tuned.<br />
<br />
<b>8-16-2013</b><br />
<br />
PS1 I downloaded a free non-Microsoft program that restored the start button.<br />
<br />
PS2 Windows 8.1 due in October will have the traditional start button-- a sign that Microsoft engineers have repented of the error of their ways. Rumor (I just started it) has it that one of them had a dream about New Coke, awoke, and said "OMG, Windows 8.0 is New Coke." Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-23966078311449164472013-02-01T21:06:00.000-05:002013-02-03T16:43:39.126-05:00Why is there a Mexican Immigration Problem? Answer: because of the massive subsidies to grain farmers in the US by the federal government. Go to<i> Google</i>, type in "immigration and corn subsidies," and check it out. The following are typical of what you will find:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.acton.org/pub/commentary/2012/02/29/corn-subsidies-root-us-mexico-immigration-problems">http://www.acton.org/pub/commentary/2012/02/29/corn-subsidies-root-us-mexico-immigration-problems</a><br />
<a href="http://economyincrisis.org/content/illegal-immigration-and-nafta">http://economyincrisis.org/content/illegal-immigration-and-nafta</a><br />
<br />
Remember NAFTA? That's when the big problems began.<br />
<br />
Hmmmm! Why don't we cut off these subsidies? <br />
a. failure of the political process <br />
b. corruption of the political process<br />
c. a and b<br />
d. all of the above<br />
<br />
Too simple? Yes, and some progress is being made, But we are many years too late.<br />
<br />
PS Senator Obama of Illinois voted consistently for corn subsidies. (Iowa and Illinois are the two biggest corn producing states.)<br />
<br />
See also post of October 15, 2009. Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-70604147542369507222013-01-31T11:29:00.000-05:002013-01-31T21:02:52.248-05:00The Second Amendment Is a CurseWhatever its historical merit, the Second Amendment in 2013 is a hindrance that we would be better off without. That every discussion of gun rights has to be mediated through this anachronism is an unmitigated disaster that serves no useful purpose.<br />
<br />
Even if it were repealed, the legislatures of the land could not be counted on to produce laws that would help much. The problem is much deeper. It lies in our culture. In the final analysis, culture governs politics.<br />
<br />
While Newtown may generate helpful changes in laws and practices, the fundamental transformation that is needed awaits the dissolution of our perverse fascination with guns and our fanatical pursuit of individual rights to the neglect of social responsibility. It waits for the willingness to sacrifice a personal pleasure in owning and shooting instruments of mass murder like assault rifles if it would reduce their availability to criminals and mentally and emotionally sick people. <br />
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I do not see any evidence of that basic reordering of ideas, habits, values, and practices yet. I expect that we will continue to be the worst example of child killing with monstrous weapons among the nations we would like to be compared with.<br />
<br />
This is a form of American exceptionalism that we cannot be proud of. How many more Newtowns will it take to produce the <i>kairos</i> that is needed, that right and ripe moment when all the preconditions of redemptive transformation are present? Enough, I expect to break our hearts many more times.<br />
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See also posts of 12/23/2012 and 1/22/2013 Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-52279217587872474062013-01-28T19:49:00.002-05:002013-01-29T21:23:37.135-05:00Letters and Logic: Fallacies GaloreMany decades ago a colleague of mine suggested that students in his logic class look in the letters to the editor section of the paper for examples of sloppy thinking. His advice still works.<br />
<br />
It would take a textbook to cover all the errors in thinking. But read the letters critically, and you should have no trouble finding a treasure of sloppy reasoning.<br />
<br />
A common error is identifying correlation with causation. If a state with the death penalty has a higher murder rate than a state that does not, some take this to mean that the death penalty has no or little deterrent effect. Maybe, but there could many causes that affect the murder rate in a given state besides the presence or absence of the death penalty.<br />
<br />
Perhaps even more widespread is drawing too large a conclusion from too few facts, too big a generalization from too few particulars. If the first ten people you see entering a new town are white, you might conclude that the population is mostly white, whereas they might be the only whites in a village with twelve hundred blacks.<br />
<br />
On and on it goes.<br />
<br />
Thinking is hard work, and few of us do it well. Just take a look at tomorrow's newspaper.Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-86237876749025527022013-01-22T19:43:00.000-05:002013-09-09T13:57:05.927-04:00Our Gun Aberration: Dangerous and Foolish<div id="rpuCopySelection" style="color: black; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">The United States is the country with the highest rate of civilian gun
ownership in the world. (The second highest is Yemen, where the rate is
nevertheless only half that of the U.S.) No civilian population is more
powerfully armed.</span></blockquote>
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<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/23/120423fa_fact_lepore#ixzz2Jbn2vMx7" style="color: #003399;">http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/23/120423fa_fact_lepore#ixzz2Jbn2vMx7</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> We have a thing about guns that sets us apart<span style="font-size: large;">--<span style="font-size: large;">to our shame and disgrace. The fact i<span style="font-size: large;">s </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> that "guns are involved in a much higher
percentage of deaths in the U.S. than just about any other place in the
world. . . a<span style="font-size: large;">nd</span> guns are more likely than any other weapon to be involved
in mass murder in the U.S."</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://themoderatevoice.com/173136/meme-busting-do-85-of-the-children-who-die-from-gun-violence-live-in-the-us/#Kavtfwt7wHFpwWwj.99" style="color: #003399;">http://themoderatevoice.com/173136/meme-busting-do-85-of-the-children-who-die-from-gun-violence-live-in-the-us/#Kavtfwt7wHFpwWwj.99</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">However we argue about the exact statistics, the <span style="font-size: large;">fact is that our peculiar gun culture<span style="font-size: large;"> is a b<span style="font-size: large;">lot on our<span style="font-size: large;"> national moral character.</span></span></span></span></span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I don't pretend to understand how this came about in our history. I <span style="font-size: large;">do fear that this character<span style="font-size: large;"> defect is not widely or sufficiently recognized</span></span>. The debate about guns is superficial until the deeper issue angers our guts,<span style="font-size: large;"> stirs our hearts, and energizes our minds</span>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Th<span style="font-size: large;">is has <span style="font-size: large;">little</span> to do with owning guns or hunting or sports shooting. It has more to do with our values, habits of mind, attitudes toward violence and our toleration <span style="font-size: large;">and</span> glorification<span style="font-size: large;"> of it in popular culture --movies, TV, video games, and the like.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">The problem is not easily resolved. We cannot even begin to work at it effectively until our fascination with guns and gun viol<span style="font-size: large;">e</span>nce becomes<span style="font-size: large;"> a </span>focus of our moral concern<span style="font-size: large;"> equal to that we have given to </span>slavery, se<span style="font-size: large;">gregation, women's <span style="font-size: large;">rights, work<span style="font-size: large;">ers' rights<span style="font-size: large;">, and</span></span> gay rights.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Better regulation can help, and wise laws and practices ought to be <span style="font-size: large;">en</span>acted. But deeper change awaits <span style="font-size: large;">a <span style="font-size: large;">profound</span> a<span style="font-size: large;">nd lasting</span> cultural horror at the reality <span style="font-size: large;">and exten<span style="font-size: large;">t of <span style="font-size: large;">gun violence in our midst that leads to rep<span style="font-size: large;">entance a<span style="font-size: large;">n</span>d the fruits that follow<span style="font-size: large;">. It is a change deeper than m<span style="font-size: large;">ere laws, though <span style="font-size: large;">law has a role.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">As long as we argue merely about <span style="font-size: large;">the government taking or regulating our guns, more Newtowns are in our future.</span> I see<span style="font-size: large;"> little evidence of the deeper revolution of mind and conscience that is needed.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-65087873467583781822012-12-23T17:27:00.004-05:002012-12-27T11:33:41.582-05:00Newtown: Seeking Wisdom in the Words <b><i> Accept Complexity</i></b><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Marshall Schulman</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span style="font-size: small;"> <b>Amos 5:19</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Words</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;">, words all around, but is there a drop of wisdom to drink? H. Richard Niebuhr claimed that defensiveness is the greatest source of error. There is plenty of that going around. A. N. Whitehead noted that a great source of error is making too large a generalization from too small an insight. Lots of that everywhere. Perhaps a </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">"bits and pieces theory" of truth is the best we can do while devising helpful laws and practices in a spirit of <span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i>bricolage</i>.</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Fallacies abound. Just because <span style="font-size: x-large;">something</span> worked in Australia or Norway doesn't mean it would work here in the same way or that it would be politically possible to begin with. Our history and culture are different.<span style="font-size: x-large;"> Statistical<span style="font-size: x-large;"> cor</span></span>relations become causal connections without regard for context. Absolute<span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">statements <span style="font-size: x-large;">are commonplace<span style="font-size: x-large;">. <span style="font-size: x-large;">Things are said to work or not work<span style="font-size: x-large;">, but they may work to some extent in some times and places but not or as well in others.<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;"><b> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">No general law or practice can <span style="font-size: x-large;">prevent</span> every specific act involving multiple murders.<span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The NRA wants armed guards at e<span style="font-size: x-large;">very school. Sometimes that might save lives. <span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>ut w<span style="font-size: x-large;">hat will prevent<span style="font-size: x-large;"> one of them for unpredictable reasons from slaughtering a <span style="font-size: x-large;">dozen first-graders before he can be stopped? </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"></span></span></span></span></span> Unlikely, yes, but<span style="font-size: x-large;"> h</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">ow likely was</span> <span style="font-size: x-large;">the Newtown massacre?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Better control of g<span style="font-size: x-large;">un possession, <span style="font-size: x-large;">improving the mental health system to locate and render harmless potential killers, making ammunition with mas<span style="font-size: x-large;">s-</span>murder potential hard to get, <span style="font-size: x-large;">having armed guards<span style="font-size: x-large;"> in </span> our schools, and much more-- all of these and many other laws, steps, and practices large and small might help <span style="font-size: x-large;">in some cases</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> but will not likely be effective in all instances, even if they <span style="font-size: x-large;">are possible in a locality or the country as a whole</span>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Taken separately or <span style="font-size: x-large;">together, they are not lik<span style="font-size: x-large;">ely to prevent all future mass murders.<span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span style="font-size: x-large;">I<span style="font-size: x-large;">ndividual</span></span> people <span style="font-size: x-large;">kill wit<span style="font-size: x-large;">h specific w<span style="font-size: x-large;">eapons<span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span>at </span>given times and places <span style="font-size: x-large;">u</span>nder</span> particular<span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span>circumstances <span style="font-size: x-large;">with varying motivations</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>. <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;">S<span style="font-family: Calibri;">ome will get through every net of laws and practices we can devise. The next ho<span style="font-family: Calibri;">rror may be in a crowded church committed by a middle-aged female.<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Are there any commonalities, any recurring patterns and profiles? Yes, of course, and we must look for them and devise remedies accordingly. We need to act on many fronts in many ways <span style="font-size: x-large;">learning from the past<span style="font-size: x-large;"> and using what <span style="font-size: x-large;">experience has taught u<span style="font-size: x-large;">s to ma<span style="font-size: x-large;">ke better what cannot be made perfect. <span style="font-size: x-large;">But we can only do so</span> where <span style="font-size: x-large;">public<span style="font-size: x-large;"> opinion and political<span style="font-size: x-large;"> means make it possible.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Every <span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">measure</span> has an opportunity cost, may </span>have unexpected side effects and cause new and unforeseen problems. <span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>ureaucracy will complicate and frustrate enforcement of well-intended laws. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<big><big><big>The Second Amendment is not the Word of God for all time but an anachronism that we might be better off without, especially given our present Supreme Court. Nevertheless, we could still permit responsible people to have guns for legitimate purposes though not without risking abuse and massacres. There is no fool-proof, risk-free system with or without the Second Amendment.</big></big></big><br />
<br />
<big><big><big>It would help if the absolutists and dogmatists would just shut up, but they won't, and they threaten to drown out calmer voices with modest proposals that have a chance of helping.</big></big></big><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Finally, and most importantly, a fundamental issue</span> <big><big><big><span style="font-family: Calibri;">is a cultural peculiarity in our society regarding guns rooted in our history.* We value individual freedom in this regard at a terrible cost, whereas an increased measure of social control might promote the common good.</span></big></big></big><br />
<br />
<big><big><big><span style="font-family: Calibri;">An important prerequisite, then, is a change of heart, of ideas, assumptions, attitudes, values, sentiments, and feelings. Change is possible when a given system breaks down in the presence of an attractive alternative. Perhaps the horror of Newtown will be for us a </span><i>kairos--</i>a right and ripe moment when healing can begin. Our deep-rooted individualism and political culture lead me to expect only modest changes for the better in the near future. But we can hope for more.</big></big></big></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<big><big><big>Meanwhile we are on a badly damaged ship on the open seas that must be repaired where we are with what we have--<i>bricolage.</i></big></big></big><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Consider the wise words of Alfred North Whitehead:</span><br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">"Philosophy may not ignore the multifariousness of the world--the fairies dance, and Christ is nailed to a cross."</span></span></b></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>"Seek simplicity--and distrust it."</b></span></span><br />
<br />
_________________________________________________________<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>*</b></span></span><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/23/120423fa_fact_lepore?currentPage=all"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/23/120423fa_fact_lepore?currentPage=all</span></b></span></span></a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Cf. Japan at the oppo<span style="font-size: large;">site end of the individual freedom versus social control value spectrum:</span> </span></b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/a-land-without-guns-how-japan-has-virtually-eliminated-shooting-deaths/260189/"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/a-land-without-guns-how-japan-has-virtually-eliminated-shooting-deaths/260189/ </span></a> </b></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-16966713792260801712012-12-07T14:21:00.002-05:002012-12-07T14:21:43.949-05:00We Need a Speculation TaxTax stock trades to raise money on speculators:<br />
<br />
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67533.html <br />
<br />
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204394804577009823316771852.htmlKenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-62682091726978304732012-12-04T12:23:00.001-05:002013-09-03T20:17:00.359-04:00Forbidden WordsThe following cannot be used henceforth until further notice: <br />
<br />
campaign trail<br />
drill down<br />
balanced approach <br />
the American people (especially forbidden to politicians)<br />
fiscal cliff<br />
mandate<br />
we'll see how it all turns out<br />
Season's Greetings<br />
emotional (especially by TV journalists when something obviously emotional comes on) <br />
exclusive (especially regarding a news report)<br />
Objectify (as in objectify women). Just substitute the definition and leave out this abstraction <br />
<br />Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-5160409163692591382012-12-02T18:29:00.003-05:002012-12-02T18:50:36.418-05:00Oh, NO! Not That. . . . .<h2>
<span style="color: blue;">Jesus just <span style="color: red;">defriended </span> me on Facebook.</span></h2>
Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-82262738623381473442012-11-28T12:55:00.000-05:002012-11-28T21:13:13.555-05:00It's Been One of Those Days -- so Far.I am writing this from my hospital room. When about about to go down some stairs, I glanced at a sign that said, "Be Careful Going Down Stairs."<br />
<br />
The above is not true, but it might have been. The night was full of weird dreams whose details I have mercifully forgotten. Sleep was interrupted by a mild anxiety attack accompanied by the illusion that a stranger was in the room touching me. Awakening two hours later than usual, Gloria and I went to "Eco Park" only to learn that it was the right day but the wrong hours to recycle a broken dehumidifier and leave some outdated medicines. I would have dropped off some unneeded clothes and a collection of old eyeglasses but we couldn't locate the glasses that we had put where we could be sure to find them.<br />
<br />
The telephone company was supposed to come to see if they could find out why my defibrillator and pacemaker will not transmit data to the doctor to indicate whether my heart is in trouble. They haven't even called. Maybe their phones will not work.<br />
<br />
The garage door people are due shortly to reattach the piece that connects the door to the lift chain. <br />
<br />
Stay tuned for updates, unless I fall down the stairs that must be descended so that I can fix my lunch. Hope my heartburn does not return.Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-29272167970020241632012-11-18T19:08:00.000-05:002012-11-18T19:08:00.814-05:00Founding of Israel a Mistake?<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
I repeat an older post because it seems so pertinent at the moment. </h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://johnwilfred.blogspot.com/2010/06/does-israel-have-right-to-exist.html">Does Israel Have a Right to Exist?</a>
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-3580199422403506790" itemprop="description articleBody">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span>Hamas
is condemned because it refuses to accept the right of Israel to exist. A
good case can be made for Hamas on historical and moral grounds. It
may have been a mistake to establish the state of Israel in 1947 by
bringing in thousands of mostly European Jews to a land largely
populated by hostile Arabs and where few Jews had lived until well into
the 19th century. Jewish possession of the land had been lost for more
than a thousand years.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span><br />
</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span>The
result has been constant hostility, hatred, wars, and violent conflict
with no end in sight. It is the source of Muslim hatred of Europe and
America, constant turmoil, and a threat to peace in the entire region.
The notion that Palestine belongs to the Jews on the basis of a divine
promise three thousand years ago is plausible only to those who find it
plausible, including Jewish and Christian fundamentalists. Granted, some
solution was needed for the constant persecution of Jews in many lands
including Europe and America, but in my opinion the formation of a
Jewish state in Palestine was probably not it.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span><br />
</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span> A
distinction needs to be made between accepting the moral right of
Israel to exist and the full acceptance of the fact that Israel does
exist, will exist, and must be dealt with accordingly with all the
implications thereunto appertaining.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span><br />
</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span>For
practical reasons Hamas needs to come to terms with Israel as a
reality, no matter how much they despise the fact. But pragmatism does
not flourish in the presence of deeply rooted ideology and hostility
toward Jews. The refusal of Hamas to accept this inexorable reality
practically, if not theoretically and morally, is fraught with dire
consequence for Jews and Arabs. To contest the full implications of the
actuality of Israel as a Jewish state is futile and will be the source
of continuing bloodshed and hateful agitation on and on. Sending
missiles to explode in the cities of Israel solves nothing and
perpetuates hatred and retaliation. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span><br />
</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span>On
the other hand Israel needs to stop the settlements and withdraw to
their 1967 borders. This swap of land for peace needs to be accompanied
by some plan, probably internationally mediated, for compensating
Palestinian refugees for loss of their homes and livelihood because of
their expulsion from Israel in the years following Jewish statehood.
Israel needs to start treating Arabs in their territory with decency,
and full respect and guarantee them all civil and personal rights that
Jews have.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span><br />
</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span>This
is not likely to happen on either side. This, after all, is the Middle
East where too few are willing to say with Yitzhak Rabin “enough of
blood and tears.” So "two communities of suffering" (Edward Said) will
continue to suffer and bleed and hate until reason or sheer exhaustion
leads to a resolution tolerable to both if not loved or welcomed by
either.</span></span></div>
</div>
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<h2 class="date-header">
<span><br /></span></h2>
Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-74802761575864590332012-11-13T13:10:00.002-05:002012-11-15T16:06:46.621-05:00Update:The Importance of Geography<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Note the following maps of three presidential elections. What stands out?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">2012 Electoral Map</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<img alt="" height="361" src="http://img.wpdigital.net/rf/image_296w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/11/09/Interactivity/Images/USmap-DontMiss.jpg" width="640" /> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">2008 Electoral Map</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><img height="329" id="il_fi" src="http://trainwreckpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/final-electoral-map-prediction-2008.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="500" /> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">1860 Electoral Map</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img height="404" id="il_fi" src="http://presidentelect.org/images/e1860_ecmap.GIF" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="640" /></span> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">What strikes me most in these maps is the continuity of geographical pattern. 2012, 2008, and 1860 are much alike in terms of the states that voted for the Democratic and Republican candidates in these three elections. (<span style="font-size: large;">O</span>f course, in 1860 the parties are reversed, i. e., blue is Rep<span style="font-size: large;">ublican, and red represents Southern Democrat<span style="font-size: large;">s, but the <span style="font-size: large;">regional </span>pattern is <span style="font-size: large;">similar with border states both illustrating and complicating matters</span>.)</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I will retreat from my thesis as brutal facts annihilate another beautiful theory, but I find it interesting to play with.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">As I said to my daughter regarding a similar issue, "It all begins with climate and soil." Cf. Montesquieu <span style="font-size: small;">(</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;">1689 – 1755)</span></span>. Begin with cotton-growing dirt and favorable weather, add the invention of the cotton gin, and, <i>Voila,</i> you have important clues to the Civil War. Anybody likely to read this can spell all this out as well as I can.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Is this all there is to it? Does geography explain it all? Of course not, but it is often an important and fascinating element in the total picture. It reminds us that we are not pure minds contemplating the eternal essences but flesh and blood made from mud (Genesis 2:7) who are very much earth creatures. At the same time we have amazing capacities for inventing technologies and cultures that set us apart. Just don't forget geography, i. e., what we can learn from climate and location.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> ----------------------------------------------------------------------</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">*<span style="font-size: small;">The present-day pattern is evident also in 2004 though the continuity is a less evident than between 08 and 12. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2004/president/2004_elections_electoral_college_map.html">http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2004/president/2004_elections_electoral_college_map.html</a> </span></span></div>
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Friday, May 25, 2012
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<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://johnwilfred.blogspot.com/2012/05/geographical-theory-of-same-sex.html">A Geographical Theory of Same-Sex Marriage</a>
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-6940549035200223949" itemprop="description articleBody">
<span style="font-size: large;">The acceptance of same-sex marriage is coming. With a few exceptions it
is coming and will come geographically: Northeastern states -- including
New York and Maryland, West coast, Upper Midwest, and eventually the
Southwest, and the Southeast. Mississippi or Utah may be last. Of course,
anomalies and deviations from this geographical pattern will occur, but
overall it will generally hold. One could predict more accurately
perhaps by using zip codes -- still a geographical factor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Thursday, May 24, 2012</span></div>
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<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-6432930215468899652" itemprop="description articleBody">
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-7939132170708546197" itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 578px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://johnwilfred.blogspot.com/2004/11/geographical-theory-of-winning-in-2008.html" style="color: #771100; text-decoration: none;">A Geographical Theory of Winning in 2008</a></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Look at the electoral maps of 2000 and 2004. The geographical pattern is
striking, allowing for minor exceptions. The blue Democratic states are
the Northeast, the upper Midwest, and the states bordering the Pacific.
The red Republican states are the Southeast, Southwest, lower Midwest,
mountain and plains states. A pre-Civil War map showing free (blue) and
slave (red) states and territories almost exactly matches the electoral
map of 2004.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">While electoral maps of many other years would not be this striking, a
geographical factor is present, except in blowout years like 1936, 1972,
and 1984. Look at it another way. Democrats won the large cities, while
Republicans won the small towns and rural areas, with the suburbs
split. Divisions are also noticeable with regard to income, education,,
religion, race and ethnicity, age, marital status, and gender, but
geography is relevant to many of these as well. Zip code is an important
clue all by itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Since this is a blog and not a book, what can we learn from this?
Geography is a useful clue to many other things -- history, economics,
religion, and culture. The geography of the South, e. g., was conducive
to cotton growing and therefore slavery, which has deeply affected its
entire history. Geographical factors account in part for immigration
patterns and the Protestant domination of the South.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Geography is a component of, if not clue to, how things work out in
other areas with regard to economics, culture, and religion. </span></div>
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Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-91991233496599027382012-09-13T12:01:00.001-04:002012-09-15T18:47:17.259-04:00Muddling Through-- Now More than EverThe best way to unite idealism and realism, on the one hand, with principles and practice, on the other hand, is to embrace a philosophy of "muddling through" (first known use 1864). Especially in matters of national concern and even more so in foreign policy, muddling through appears to be the best approach. Just review your own life to get the individual perspective.<br />
<br />
Muddling through means to do the best you can with what you have at the moment. You do so without forgetting your ideals but embrace a realism which acknowledges that noble ideals are daily crushed by brutal facts. You hold steadily to your principles but compromise them for small gains when the available alternatives are worse. Or you take the least bad when all other options are badder. <br />
<br />
Revising Lucy from <i>Peanuts, </i>this is my old and continuing philosophy.<br />
<br />
For today think Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Israel, Syria, Pakistan, Palestine, Iran, and on and on. Or think about many choice you have to make in your own life where the only available l paths have major consequences you wish to avoid and you have to to muddle though somehow, someway.<br />
<br />
And don't forget that sometimes life is really, really good.Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-37253157891071003172012-08-27T16:37:00.002-04:002012-08-30T20:32:49.147-04:00Why I Struggle over Blog Writing<div style="text-align: justify;">
It finally dawned on me why I have trouble writing some of my blogs: I can't decide whether I want to write an op-ed or a scholarly article.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On the two following items I started out simply to state that Paul Ryan is Joseph Townsend in modern garb. Then the professor in me awakened, and I tried to show some awareness of the serious literature with all its scholarly apparatus.</div>
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<br /></div>
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When I had a real life working for (receiving?) an income, I was both a teacher and a preacher, but now when I'm writing blogs, I can't make up my mind which to be. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sometimes I end up being a messy mixture of both.</div>
Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-16718317448891190182012-08-27T16:22:00.001-04:002012-08-30T20:00:50.605-04:00Paul Ryan and Joseph Townsend: Moral Theory of Poverty Alive and Well<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Joseph Townsend in his <i>Dissertation on the Poor Laws </i>(1786)
said, "Hunger will tame the fiercest animals, it will teach decency and
civility, obedience and subjection, to the most perverse. . . . In
general it is only hunger which can spur and goad the poor to labor."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/townsend/poorlaw.html">http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/townsend/poorlaw.html</a> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Sadly, we have not come as far as one would wish from that dastardly sentiment. George Gilder in our generation asserted </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">that the poor need the spur of poverty in order to succeed. </span>His 1981 bestseller <i>Wealth and Poverty</i> was popular in the Reagan administration<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Republicans, including some of my
relatives and friends, are not far from Townsend and Gilder. The idea is
that the poor are poor or have no work because they are shiftless,
lazy, good for nothing idlers unwilling to put in a hard day's work for
whatever someone is willing to pa</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">y them.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Conservatives
tend to </span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">t</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">hink that the unemployment problem would go away if people were only s</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">u</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">ff</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">i</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">ciently eager to work, make good personal choices, would work at available wage</span><span style="color: #3a3a39; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">s, and go where the jobs are. Their mega-solution tends to be "Personal responsibility." </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-myth-of-the-disappearing-middle-class/2012/03/29/gIQAsXlsjS_story.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-myth-of-the-disappearing-middle-class/2012/03/29/gIQAsXlsjS_story.html</a><br />
<br />
Besides, that's the way the market works; not much the government can do. <br />
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/robert-samuelson-saving-the-middle-class/2012/08/26/0f5be24a-ef9a-11e1-adc6-87dfa8eff430_story.html?hpid=z3">http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/robert-samuelson-saving-the-middle-class/2012/08/26/0f5be24a-ef9a-11e1-adc6-87dfa8eff430_story.html?hpid=z3</a><br />
<br /></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Kar</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">l </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Po</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">l</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">anyi q</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">uo</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">tes L</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">ud</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">wi</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">g </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">von M</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">i</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">ses as say</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">in</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">g </span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">i</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">f wo</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">r</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">kers "</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">d</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">id </span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">n</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">ot </span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">a</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">ct </span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">a</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">s
trade unioni</span><span style="color: #3a3a39; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">s</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">ts</span><span style="color: #3a3a39; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">, </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">b</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">u</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">t reduced their de</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">m</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">and</span><span style="color: #3a3a39; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">s </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">and changed their locations
and
occupations according to the requirement</span><span style="color: #3a3a39; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">s </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">o</span><span style="color: #3a3a39; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">f </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">the la</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">b</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">or market</span><span style="color: #3a3a39; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">, </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">t</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">h</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">ey co</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">uld </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">event</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">u</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">ally f</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">i</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">nd work</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">.</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">" Po</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">l</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">anyi's resp</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">o</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">nse is </span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">a</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">p</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">t</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">: "It </span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">i</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">s n</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">o</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">t f</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">o</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">r t</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">h</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">e co</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">m</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">modity to decide whe</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">r</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">e it should </span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">b</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">e offered for </span><span style="color: #3a3a39; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">s</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">a</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">l</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">e</span><span style="color: #3a3a39; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">, </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">to what purpose it </span><span style="color: #3a3a39; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">s</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">hould be </span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">u</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">sed</span><span style="color: #585957; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">, </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">at what price it s</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">h</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">o</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">ul</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">d b</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">e </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">allowed to c</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">h</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">ange </span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">h</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">ands</span><span style="color: #585957; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">, </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">a</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">n</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">d i</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">n </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">w</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">h</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">at manne</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">r </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">it sh</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">o</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">u</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">l</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">d be </span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">c</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">ons</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">u</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">med o</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">r </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">destroyed</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">.</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">" Kar</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">l </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Po</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">lan</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">yi</span><span style="color: #3a3a39; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">, </span><i><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">T</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">h</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">e G</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">r</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">eat Tra</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">n</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">for</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">m</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">a</span><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">tio</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">n, </span></i><span style="color: #050404; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">176.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Witness
the latest "abomination of desolation" -- the offering of Paul Ryan as a
candidate for vice-president. He is at heart a Townsend wolf <i>redvivus</i> though in more politically expedient sheep's garb. He breathes the air exhaled by von Mises, </span></span><span class="kno-fb-ctx" style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="left: -5px; position: relative;">Friedrich Hayek <i>The Road to Serfdom, </i>and (gasp!) Ayn Rand, <i>Atlas Shrugged</i>. See Paul Krugman, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/opinion/krugman-galt-gold-and-god.html?_r=1&hp">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/opinion/krugman-galt-gold-and-god.html?_r=1&hp</a> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Alas, the moral theory of poverty is alive and well. We can only hope that it does not come to reside in the White House.</div>
Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-41664498296713484952012-08-27T11:00:00.000-04:002012-09-17T11:33:01.506-04:00Why the Poor are Poor: Muticaualist Theory Needed<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"><b>The Role of General Theory</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">Economic conditions and cultural patterns* tend to have persisting effects on individuals. Change may be produced by a transformation of values that have economic effects. This I take to be the import of Max Weber's <i>The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. 1904-5</i>. Changes in material and technological conditions--the production and distribution of goods and services --have political, social, and cultural consequences. This I take to be the import of the work of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and their followers. This ancient debate takes new forms but continues old themes on the causes and cures of poverty.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">*For immediate working purposes, let culture mean what humans add to nature, including language, meanings, values, norms, and symbols.</span><br />
<span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">Contemporary theorists bring into play both the values and behavior of the poor and the structural economic forces that shape their lives. The debatable questions have to do with the priority, sequence, and causal relations between them. The players have changed since I investigated the discussion in my <i>The Passion for Equality</i>, 1987, but I am not aware that the terms of the argument are substantially different. The nature, extent, and causes of the "underclass" have received a lot of attention since then.</span><br />
<br />
<span id="btAsinTitle" style="font-size: small;">A good summary of recent research theory can be found in</span><span style="font-size: small;"> the </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f3f3f3; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Godkin</span><span style="font-size: small;"> Lecture at Harvard by William Julius Wilson,"The American Underclass: Inner-City Ghettos and the Norms of Citizenship" <a href="http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/wjwilson.html">http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/wjwilson.html</a><span id="btAsinTitle"><i> </i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span id="btAsinTitle">More recent research is cited by Thomas Edsall<i> in</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span id="btAsinTitle"><i><a href="http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/is-poverty-a-kind-of-robbery/?hp">http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/is-poverty-a-kind-of-robbery/?hp</a> </i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">I have been impressed with Wilson's work:</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.1905px; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1978).<i> </i></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.1905px; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1987),<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.1905px; margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(2009), </span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">He has argued that class is more useful than race in explaining black urban poverty today. He does not deny the destructive behavioral patterns in the ghetto but believes that the primary source lies in the underlying economic structures (loss of good-paying industrial jobs in black neighborhoods, e. g.) that resulted in a high rates of unemployment among black men, which makes them undesirable mates for black women. Today we would need to add the facts about the incarceration of young black males related to our misguided, abhorrent drug policies that magnify the problem. This compounded with the lack of political commitment by either party to sufficiently robust structural changes that would benefit the poor and middles classes across racial lines makes for a discouraging situation with no end in sight.</span><br />
<span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">It is difficult to know much to stress economic and structural factors as determinants of cultural
practices and
values. In my opinion, it works both ways in a complex dynamic of
interactive influences mutually reinforcing, limiting, or taking
precedence over each other in ways that no single theory is likely to get just right. I hold all theories tentatively, skeptical of all claims that "at last we've got it." It is not easy to get the full reality of things in a general theory, no matter how sophisticated and nuanced it is.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Urban poverty, specifically that of the black ghetto in the old industrial cities gets the most attention, but I have always been equally interested in rural poverty, among both blacks and whites, especially in the South, including Appalachia.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">Liberals generally favor basic structural economic factors and social causes. Conservatives tend to</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">(1) have an excessive individualism that minimizes the general socio-economic conditions--lack of
opportunity, and</span><span style="color: #1c1c1b; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">high
rates of unemployment, etc.--where the poor reside. They
ignore the destructive effects of familial, social, and cultural
conditions on children growing up that work against the development of
the personal responsibility that is their overarching moral principle or</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">(2) fall into a defeatist, despairing cultural theory. This approach stresses how behavior, attitudes, and values trap the poor into economic failure over generations. They follow this theme regardless of and independently of how </span><span style="font-size: small;">appalling structural economic factors</span><span style="font-size: small;"> may be productive of the cultural framework thus generated. (See the lecture by William Julius Wilson previously mentioned for an excellent summary of the trajectory of the "culture of poverty" thesis.)</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In short, they may ignore the social conditions that work against the development of individual responsibility, or they may proffer a "culture of poverty" thesis that makes the situation so hopeless that no government action will be effective enough to matter much. A variant is Lawrence Mead who thinks that the poor value work but are defeated
and discouraged by their situation. He argues that personal
responsibility should be enforced by requiring recipients to work in order to receive benefits
("the new paternalism"). See<span class="citation book"> <a class="external text" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0465050697" rel="nofollow"><i>The New Politics of Poverty: The Nonworking Poor in America</i></a> (1993). His work is behind the reform of welfare in the Clinton administration.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Conservatives and liberals, like Heinz products, come in 57 varieties. Many of all persuasions ignore the role of luck or the absence thereof in individual success or failure.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span id="btAsinTitle"><b>The Importance of Individual Stories</b></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Stories are concrete and may capture more of the full reality than abstract theories, although stories can leave out much as well, i. e., not tell the whole story. Here are a few samples:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">From Joseph Loconte:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-loconte-phd/a-poverty-of-imagination_b_1833780.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-loconte-phd/a-poverty-of-imagination_b_1833780.html</a></span> <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;">Consider a homeless man named Walter. . . . who
had just received a supply of new needles, courtesy of the taxpayers of
New York.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Walter admitted to me that he wasn't using the needles himself; he was
selling them on the street for bags of heroin. (Lots of other addicts at
needle-exchange programs do the same.) I asked him if he could picture
his life without drugs. Could he imagine himself clean, employed,
married, maybe a homeowner? I'll never forget his answer: "I'm way past
that," he said. "The best thing I do is getting high ... Just put me on
an island and don't mess with me." </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">From William Julius Wilson:</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f3f3f3; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Godkin</span><span style="font-size: small;"> Lecture, loc. cit. </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;">Curtis .. . . has been working for several years as a dishwasher for
different employers. He now cooks, mops, and washes dishes for $4.85 an
hour. He has held this job since February of 1985 without taking a
single day of vacation. His supervisor has made it crystal clear to him
that he is expendable and that if he takes too much, that is, any
vacation, they will not keep him. On the day of the interview, he had
had a molar pulled and was in great pain, partly due to the fact that
not having any money and having already borrowed cash to pay for the
extraction, he could not buy the prescribed pain-killers. Yet he was
extremely reluctant to call his boss and ask for an evening off. . . .</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;">He has not taken any steps to get further education or training,
mainly because his work schedule and lack of resources make such
planning quasi-impossible. . . . (H)e frequently finds himself without any money: 'Yeah,
like today. I had to get my tooth pulled and I had to go out and rent
money.' When this happens, he borrows small sums, about $20 from friends
and associates: 'I just try to hang in there, whatever I do.' People in
the neighborhood often find themselves out of cash too, and the result
is that illegal activities are fairly routine in this section of Grand
Boulevard: 'Oh, man some of them steal, some of them, uh … It's hard to
say, man, they probably do anything; they can to get a dollar in their
pocket. Robbing, prostitution, drug sale, anything. Oh boy.'. . . Curtis's life as he described it to me was a
real wreck, and he was evidently quite desperate, with no perspective of
improvement in sight.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;"> ABC News report on Appalachian poverty:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=6865077#.UD__QtZlRX8">http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=6865077#.UD__QtZlRX8</a></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;">At the start of his senior year, Shawn Grim, 18, led the state of Kentucky in
touchdowns. The star of his high school football team, the Johnson
Central Golden Eagles, hoped to use his football prowess to win a
scholarship to college.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Grim's family lives in a hollow in Flat Gap, Ky., where thievery and
alcoholism are rampant. He was so eager to break away that he moved out
of the family's trailer.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">"The whole entire hollow is nothing but family, and all of them hate each other, so it's all fighting," he said.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">He wanted to be the first in his family to graduate from high school.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">"I want to go out here and I want to make everybody proud of me," he
said. "And I want to make everybody happy that I'm actually trying
something and doing something with my life, and I don't want to mess
up."
</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;">See<span id="btAsinTitle"> Wes Moore<i>, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates </i>(2010).
This is the story of two young black urban men who turned out quite
differently though sharing many similar personal and social
circumstances.</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span id="btAsinTitle" style="font-size: small;">Such is the complexity of life with its interweaving of
heredity, physical and social environment, personal life history<i>,</i> and personal choice along the way. There is usually more in reality than in any of our interpretations of it.</span><br />
<br />
<span id="btAsinTitle" style="font-size: small;">I am guided by Alfred North Whitehead:</span><br />
<span id="btAsinTitle" style="font-size: small;"> "Seek simplicity and mistrust it."</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">"Philosophy may not ignore the multifariousness of the world--the fairies dance, and Christ is nailed to a cross."</span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></div>
Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-45368200963429060332012-08-05T18:18:00.001-04:002012-08-06T12:40:12.341-04:00The Olympics: Nationality, Race, Color, and EthnicityAt the Olympic Games we have witnessed a dramatic change of color. The first week we saw mainly faces with a European and Asian heritage. Think swimming, diving, and gymnastics. Since Friday and from now on we will see a great many athletes with African and Caribbean ancestry, most notably in the Track and Field Events. This is especially true in running events. Not many black faces last week, with notable exceptions, including the delightful Gabby Douglas, but they will be much in evidence until the closing ceremonies! Interesting and worth pondering.Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824628.post-44665567271344040642012-08-05T18:02:00.001-04:002012-08-05T18:19:48.790-04:00Hoover, Romney, and the Economic-Political EquationSome skeptics doubt Mitt Romney when he claims that his business experience uniquely qualifies him to improve the economy if elected president. Why, just remember Herbert Hoover. He was a successful business man. And we all know what happened to the economy after he became president.<br />
<br />
Does it need to be added that running a company and running a country are two different things? Possessing acumen in the former does not necessarily transfer to the latter. Presidents need political skills that business executives may or may not have.Kenneth Cauthenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132467644375712235noreply@blogger.com0