William Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel of the US Air Force who now writes for TomDispatch and other publications. In his latest piece for Truthout he explains the concept of “zombie education.” True education, Astore writes, is transformative and soul-enriching. “It opens alternative paths to living that don’t begin and end at the workplace. It measures personal fulfillment in ways that aren’t restricted to take-home pay… It’s about becoming a savvier citizen whose appreciation of, and dedication to, democracy is keener and more heartfelt.” Zombie education, on the other hand, is narrowly focused on individual profit or vocational training. “Students are…
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A creative response to Monopoly
Brian Van Slyke is a worker-owner at the Toolbox for Education and Social Activism (TESA), which creates educational resources on social change and cooperative movements. One of his coolest projects is a radical re-doing of the board game “Monopoly,” which has given generations of kids great fun while teaching them all the wrong values. The version of capitalism presented in Monopoly–grab all the wealth, make others pay, and leave them in financial ruin–is in fact a massive social problem, one of the greatest problems confronting humanity. Enter Brian Van Slyke, who wanted to create a fun game that could get…
The true costs of cell phones
A recent study by James Roberts, professor of marketing at Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business, claims that “cell phone and instant messaging addictions are driven by materialism and impulsiveness and can be compared to consumption pathologies like compulsive buying and credit card misuse.” The study, which was published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions, suggests that cell phones are also eroding our personal relationships. The published article can be found here (with paid subscription). In addition to these interpersonal effects of cell phone use, there are other social costs to consider, such as the effects it is having on education and classroom instruction, a…
The internet revolution (lecture by Alexander Bard)
Alexander Bard’s provocative keynote speech at Next Berlin 2012 challenges the way history is taught, with industrialization presented as the climax of human history. He believes we need to contextualize history not in terms of the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Industrial Age, but rather in terms of information, such as spoken information, written information, printed information, broadcasted information and finally the Internet as participatory information. Trained in sociology, Bard examines technology in the context of the paradigm changes that are taking place in society. His observations on identity shifts in today’s youths is especially compelling. Young people are…
On most metrics, the US is a dog
The provocative title of this post is not an opinion but a quote from a recent book by Howard Steven Friedman, a statistician and health economist for the United Nations and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. The book, entitled “The Measure of a Nation,” compares the US’ standings on a variety of metrics concerning health, safety, education, democracy and income equality to those of 13 carefully chosen competitor OECD nations: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Portugal, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain and the UK, all of whom have populations of at least ten…
How ego and ideology are destroying the world’s greatest public university (Mark LeVine)
Irvine, CA – The University of California is home to many of the country’s leading scholars in dozens of fields, and for decades it has been an important laboratory for social change in the United States. It has also been at the forefront of many struggles for political, social, civil and labour rights struggles, as both an incubator of new ideas and practices and as a laboratory in which various attempts to change the balance of power and responsibility between social groups, and between society and government, have played out. So you might not be surprised to learn that as one…
Can You Understand the Republican Brain? (Mark Karlin interviews Chris Mooney)
Scientific American lauds author Chris Mooney “as one if the few journalists in the country who specialize in the now dangerous intersection of science and politics.” Having interviewed Mooney about his first book, the highly praised, “The Republican War on Science,” Truthout/BuzzFlash interviews Mooney about his latest release, “The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science – and Reality.” Truthout and BuzzFlash readers can directly obtain “The Republican Brain” and support uncompromised journalism by clicking here. Mark Karlin: Progressives often say of Fox that they create facts to bolster their opinions. Is this true of the Republican mind set in general? Chris Mooney: This…
The assault on public education (by Noam Chomsky)
Public education is under attack around the world, and in response, student protests have recently been held in Britain, Canada, Chile, Taiwan and elsewhere. California is also a battleground. The Los Angeles Times reports on another chapter in the campaign to destroy what had been the greatest public higher education system in the world: “California State University officials announced plans to freeze enrollment next spring at most campuses and to wait-list all applicants the following fall pending the outcome of a proposed tax initiative on the November ballot.” Similar defunding is under way nationwide. “In most states,” The New York…
Nature deficit disorder
The BBC News website has an interesting article on something called “nature deficit disorder.” The author claims that the term was coined in 2005 by author Richard Louv, who argued that the human cost of “alienation from nature” was measured in “diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses”. The author also asserts that: Evidence suggests the problem is worse in the UK than other parts of Europe, and may help explain poor UK rankings in childhood satisfaction surveys. That children in the UK and many other advanced industrialized countries are having…
Nine strategies to end corporate rule
Yes Magazine has put together an interesting collection of articles, written by various writers, around the question of the century: What can we do to bring an end to corporatocracy and help build a sustainable society that prioritizes human needs above corporate profits. The collection of articles can be found here. The nine strategies: 1. Amend the constitution to end corporate personhood. 2. Dive into grassroots campaigns. 3. Hold corporations accountable to our laws. 4. Get Past the Propaganda 5. Support independent media and keep the Internet free. 6. Protect the Commons 7. Vote. Protect our democracy. 8. Make your…
Power, knowledge and the universities (by Tarak Barkawi)
Tarak Barkawi, associate professor in the Department of Politics, New School for Social Research recently published an article named “Power, knowledge and the universities” which appeared on Al Jazeera. He presents a number of conclusive examples to highlight contemporary problems with the intertwines of governmental, public and esp. corporate influences and interests in university education. Some representative quotes of the full article will be highlighted in the following: Institutions concerned with producing knowledge, whether universities, publishing houses, news media, think tanks, and so on, require power to do their work. They need money, of course, but also a legal and…
Just how stupid are Americans? (Interview with Rick Shenkman)
It’s a provocative title for a post, but it really just refers to a book entitled “Just How Stupid Are We?” (where “we” clearly refers to Americans) by Rick Shenkman, Associate Professor of History at George Mason University. A brief article by Shenkman on the same theme can be found here and the video clip below contains a relevant interview with Shenkman. His account of the causes, consequences, and solutions to American ignorance is highly interesting. Among the causal factors is the death of civics education in America and the introduction of the TV in 1965, which in turn has…
The internet filter bubble
Thanks to Google’s search engine we now have the ability to retrieve instantly a massive amount of information on virtually any topic or any question we might have. On the surface, it seems that we are all better informed and more knowledgeable as a result of Google. But are we? Consider the fact that Google recognizes users and collects information on their digital behavior–their favorite searches, articles they have read on Google news, and even their choice of words. Everything is recorded, the pattern is analyzed, and a user profile is created. Then, when you perform a search, Google tries to find…
Don’t let a financial crisis go to waste: use it to privatize public education
Another must-read article in The Nation magazine documents the successful efforts that are underway to privatize the last shreds of the crumbling public education system in the US. The author, Lee Fang, picks up where Naomi Klein ended in No Logo. Reader beware: the information contained in this article is extremely distressing and should not be read by those who are easily depressed.
Video: Speech by Chomsky on academic freedom and the corporatization of universities
On April 6, 2011 Chomsky gave a speech at the University of Toronto mainly focusing on the decline of academic freedom going and the coporatization of universities. In his speech he connects the issue with the larger picture of corporate reality. The recorded Q&A session after his speech is especially worth watching. Quote: There’s, furthermore, no way to measure the human and social costs of converting schools and universities into facilities that produce commodities for the job market, abandoning the traditional ideal of the universities: fostering creative and independent thought and inquiry, challenging perceived beliefs, exploring new horizons and forgetting…
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Applying the laws of robotics to smart phones
The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of rules devised by the visionary science fiction author Isaac Asimov. In his books and stories these rules were introduced to ensure robots would serve the goal to maximize human well-being, serving their direct masters in the first place and secondarily any other human being. These rules read as follows: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.A robot must…
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