Politicolor Header Image

Wikileaks and the First Amendment

posted by stepwinder
on Dec 6th, 2010

Being a tech enthusiast, I’m not quick to scoff at the idea of “hi-tech terrorists.” Cyber security must be considered a high priority for effective government, but the current Wikileaks stories suggest that our liberty is at stake as much as our security. If you don’t identify with the extremes (i.e., set our data free or death to Wikileaks), you might find yourself stuck in a loop wondering what you really think about it all with each new revelation.

I offer this list of articles help you think about it more! If you’re using this never ending story to discuss the tension between liberty and security in your classroom, be sure to tell us about it in the comments.

  • From Slate, Unfair Share. Christopher Beam marks the success of efforts by the government to share more data after 9/11 but ultimately concludes Wikileaks represents its continued failure to effectively manage it.
  • Clay Shirky believes in the wisdom of crowds and channeling the power of the Internet but suspects there is something very undemocratic at work. That’s a criticism of Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, as well as our response. His post, Wikileaks and the Long Haul, frames the question with the first amendment. It’s loaded with citations to other sources with a particularly important  quote from Tom Slee, another voice on the web,”Your answer to ‘what data should the government make public?’ depends not so much on what you think about data, but what you think about the government.”
  • Glenn Greenwald at Salon is keeping tabs on the effort to run Wikileaks out of Dodge with The Lawless Wild West Attacks Wikileaks. Just a snippet of the outrage Greenwald sees in the string of stories… “The U.S. and its “friends” in the Western and business worlds are more than able and happy to severely punish anyone they want without the slightest basis in ‘law.”‘ That’s what the lawless, Wild Western World is:  political leaders punishing whomever they want without any limits, certainly without regard to bothersome concepts of ‘law.’” This post was cited by Dan Gillmor who has urged journalists to support Wikileaks in order to protect free speech.

UPDATE 12/7/2010: An op-ed from Julian Assange was published today. Also, he was arrested in London for the charges against him in Sweden, or having sex without a condom.

Leave a comment

Posted in: BLUE/Government, RED/People, WHOLENESS/order
Tagged: · · ·

posted by hobbes21
on Nov 11th, 2010

Interpretations?

1 comment

Posted in: Fruit Plate

America’s “Futures Plural”

posted by stepwinder
on Sep 27th, 2010

An interesting post on Big Think provokes thoughts on our future as well as how we teach about our past. Niall Ferguson, a Harvard history professor, takes on the question, “What will be the U.S.’s place in the world over the next 20 years?” He discusses a future where the U.S. as a waning empire and one where political institutional advantages allow innovation and entrepreneurship to resolve today’s crises. On the question of how we teach and understand these dual futures, Ferguson offers these thoughts on understanding history:

It’s a very non-linear, chaotic complex process that we as historians get to study. And that’s why when we talk about the future, we should correct ourselves and say, ‘futures’ (plural) and here are the futures we have to choose from.



***It’s a short video, less than 4 minutes and it’s going to be short quips like this for me this semester. Remember to throw interesting content you find our way too. Sometimes the short thought provoking posts are the best.

Leave a comment

Posted in: BLUE/Government, PURPLE/Polity, RED/People, WHOLENESS/order

Valedictorian Speaks Out Against a Standardized Citizenry

posted by stepwinder
on Aug 9th, 2010

This speech suggests our students are no more satisfied than we are with the regime of standardized testing. In the classroom, I once discussed this kind of success with my 8th graders. The reports had come in and we had done “outstanding” on the History test. Best in the district and as high as anyone else in the state. The Principal came to congratulate us and we enjoyed our success that afternoon.

The next day, however, we discussed how many questions students had to answer correctly to achieve this success. Less than 50%. They wanted to know why so little was expected of them. This is my concern… if we don’t find a way to resist the most virulent pieces of the testing regime, we’re robbing our students of knowing true success. Erica Goldson, Valedictorian at Coxxackie-Athens High School, knows this ugly truth too.

Her full remarks are available at Sign of the Times. Here’s just an excerpt to show what she thinks of the success she achieved:

Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn’t you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker.

And, in the effort to partner criticism with constructive ideas, watch this short video from Professor Eric Mazur, a physics professor at Harvard. He saw the dark shadow of memorization of facts with little understanding of concepts in his classroom and decided to do things differently. One of my favorite pieces in the clip shows students talking to one another about torque to identify the right answer to Professor Mazur’s questions. A young man asks., “how do you know that?” Our students need to know the answer to that question as well as have the drive to ask it of themselves.

Without that question, what we know is shrinking each day and it’s happening in our classrooms too.

YouTube Preview Image
1 comment

Posted in: BROWN/Citizen, Front of the Class, WHOLENESS/order
Tagged:

Stephen Colbert: Human Rights vs. American Rights

posted by stepwinder
on Aug 9th, 2010

It wasn’t a stellar interview. Michael Posner appeared on the Colbert Report last week and, as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, he might have been better prepared for Colbert’s first question.

Colbert’s question: What do these three things (democracy, human rights and labor) have to do with one another?

Posner’s answer: They are very much related. Human rights is the way in which people have a democratic experience. People need to speak publicly and to participate in the political process. They need to be able to organize themselves.

The blue box may have just swallowed a couple of the others if it’s all about the political process. I wonder if our foreign policy makes more sense if you start with this impoverished understanding of human rights. My very next thought was that Academy alumni could do better than that. What do you make of these three components of the Secretary of State’s title? How should officeholders think about each component as well as the connection between them?

The interview begins at 14:30 if you click the link above. Don’t miss Colbert’s effort to make a distinction between human rights and American rights. Apparently American rights are best understood as purchasing power. He supports his position by asking, “at what point do human rights in these other countries get in the way of my ability to buy two dozen tube socks for $1.29?”

Colbert often cuts to the quick and it’s interesting to see when the interviewee realizes it… and when they don’t. I’d put Posner in that second category.

Leave a comment

Posted in: BLUE/Government, BROWN/Citizen, GREEN/Nature
Tagged: ·

Writing Assignment

posted by Shannon Lubold
on Jul 28th, 2010

The Original:

Cicero -  The Ideal Statesman

Scipio: Why, he should have virtually no duty apart from this, for it embraces all the rest — namely that he should never cease inspecting and examining himself, challenging others to imitate him, and by the splendour of his mind and conduct offering himself as a mirror to his fellow-citizens.  Just as with string instruments* or pipes or in singers’ voices a certain harmony of different sounds must be maintained (and trained ears cannot bear the effect if that harmony is thrown out or becomes discordant), and as that harmony though arising from the management of very different notes, produces a pleasing and agreeable sound, so a state, by adjusting the proportions between the highest, lowest, and intermediate classes, as if they were musical notes, achieves harmony.  What, in the case of singing, musicians call harmony is, in the state, concord; it constitutes the tightest and most effective bond of security; and such concord cannot exist at all without justice.

[About a dozen leaves are missing. Augistine (De Civitate Dei 2. 21) says that Philus asked for a fuller discussion of justice in view of the common opinion that no state could be governed without injustice.]

Scipio: I do agree, and I would stress that what we think has been established so far about the government of the state amounts to nothing, and that we have no basis for further progress, unless we refute the contention that government cannot be carried on without injustice, and, more than that, prove conclusively that it cannot be carried on without the highest degree of justice.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————

The Re-Write

The ideal statesman has qualities that should be embraced,
a rational model of intellectual conduct and of natural grace.
Harmonious are his thoughts and actions which shall govern sound,
constantly seeking wholeness, while being order-bound.

A musical conductor of life, striving for melodious consonance with each class,
whether strings, or pipes, or voices gathered to join together amass.
Each role has a part to play, whether performance or to sing,
no greater than each other, proportional equality each role shall bring.

Security is sought from these notes, and justice from its voice,
Melodious is its overture, bringing good government by our choice.
Sing out to all who hear our words, and let the bells ring tried and true,
for injustice shall not tarry here, where justice constitutes anew.

Leave a comment

Posted in: 2010 National Academy, BROWN/Citizen

World-building and Storytelling

posted by stepwinder
on Jul 28th, 2010

by Hugh C. Howey

I just fired off an email to another writer, and it contained some thoughts on these two concepts that I thought I’d share a bit more publicly. Keep in mind: there’s a good chance that I have no idea what I’m talking about.

_________________________________

…Another thing to think about is the difference between world-building and storytelling. Both are incredibly difficult to do well, and each is a wholly unique animal. World-building is something many people can’t do. They can’t look at a blank page and construct a believable land or universe whole-cloth. You do not have that problem, which is a very good thing. Writing books with texture and depth is impossible without this skill (which is nothing more than a vivid imagination combined with a sense of aesthetics, really).

World-building is the enemy, however, of lean writing. The urge to add too much detail, to info-dump, to introduce too many characters all at once, all this comes from your excellent world-building skills. It isn’t the sign of a problem; it’s the sign of a powerful ability that needs practice honing. It would be like a man with massive muscles learning to golf. The tendency would be to hit it a mile, but never quite where one was aiming. That can be a good problem to have, because it’s easier to back something off than it is to ramp up what isn’t there.

The competing force in writing is storytelling. If world-building is the macro, storytelling is the micro. We zoom down through the history and lore, past the epic battles of time past, and we land behind the eyes of a simple character who has all of that larger stuff in their peripheral. Here’s the tricky part: the author needs to have that lore spread before them, like a map, but they need to write with the limited perspective of that character. As the reader, we will feel lost initially, but so should this person through whom we’re seeing the world. Their discovery is our discovery. That’s why we immediately relate to the first main character we’re introduced to. We like to think we’re them.

With storytelling, it’s best to not be too creative. Human beings have a shared genetic history, which includes innate senses of right and wrong, good and bad, fair and unjust, pleasing and disturbing, etc… The exceptions to this are not worth mentioning, because you aren’t writing for an infinitesimal percent of the population. You are writing for the people to whom Homer and Shakespeare make a lot of sense. Sir Gawain and the travelers to Canterbury all resonate even today. We might call it cliche to write of the pauper with a noble heart who one day becomes king, but then we could call it cliche to admire the shape, smell, and color of a fresh flower, or call it cliche to hum with delight at the first bite into a ripe apple. We have certain tendencies, and it behooves the author to fashion according to near-universal tastes.

So, after you’ve spent time building your world, pick a few characters (not too many), and tell their story as simply and clearly as you can. Make it compelling. Give it an odd twist here and there by playing on old themes in new ways (for instance, the gray, wizened wizard can be substituted for the town drunk, who only drinks to silence the prophecy and bad dreams he is accused of being insane for having. Once again, we see the redemption theme, the pauper -> prince theme, all hidden in an unusual take on a traditional character).

These are just my opinions, of course. I haven’t been doing this terribly long, but these are probably the same things I would’ve said five years ago, just from my experience as a reader. Like you, most of what I’ve learned has been from consumption. I am only now beginning to learn via creation…

*****

Nicole, a participant this year, saw this post from Hugh during the first week of our work at the National Academy when we were talking about “world making texts.” Questions of wholeness and order aren’t reserved to the political theorists! Thanks to Nicole and Hugh for arranging to cross-post Hugh’s thoughts here.

Leave a comment

Posted in: WHOLENESS/order

Talking About Revolution

posted by stepwinder
on Jul 27th, 2010

The Academy is talking about the “Federalist Transition” and we needed Kuhn to get there. This video aims to explain Kuhn’s understanding of revolutions but also reminds us to take seriously the “baggage” that accompanies the words we choose. And, if none of that is interesting, we can consider his choice of music. While we may not be certain about what the word “revolution” means, there appears to be little doubt that it sounds like Rage Against the Machine.

YouTube Preview Image
Leave a comment

Posted in: PURPLE: Federalist Thinking
Tagged:

Weekly Wavelength

posted by stepwinder
on Jul 27th, 2010

This is one of the easiest ways to share your ideas on Politicolor. Every week we ask our contributors two questions and post their answers in an effort to help you find good ideas on the web. Because effective citizens are informed citizens engaged in sharing ideas…

What didn’t you know last week?

Gravity is an illusion. This story from the NY Times also suggests some of our best ideas  come to us when we have to change our plans. (Stepwinder/Shellee)

Most of the crew has gone on vacation. Leave your responses in the comments below and help fill this space!

What are you reading?

American Dream is Elusive for New Generation. I certainly have my own story when it comes to coping with the current economy, but I’m concerned about how it changes our ideas of the American Dream and what is possible too. It’s easy to read stories like this with a “kids today!” filter. I’m working through this longer read, however, wondering what it reveals about who we are and who we might be as a society and the problems aren’t always a question for the younger generation! (Stepwinder/Shellee)

This string without attribution or much commentary comes from discussions at the National Academy in Los Angeles this week:

Mel walked us through constitutional interpretation using Bob Jones University v. United States (1983). This is the university’s current statement about race under a broader category of “Who We Are.” Sarah, a 2010 participant, pointed us to this statement in addition to Stanley Fish’s column asking “Is Religion Special?”

In our discussion of “user’s knowledge” vs. “maker’s knowledge,” our afternoon groups turned to considering the worlds built through a good book. Nicole, a 2010 participant, was a bit startled to find an author she knows was contemplating something similar on his blog. We’re going to repost his thoughts in their entirety but his latest post considers democracy, capitalism and choice.

And lastly, as our models of political order came into view these last two weeks, we had several discussions about the promise and perils of pursuing one transcendent truth. Another NYT Opinionator post,”Moral Camouflage or Moral Monkeys,” seems to be thinking along a parallel track.

*****

You can make this a conversation by sharing your thoughts as a reply in the comments section on this post or any of the others. If you’d like to join us as a regular contributor, drop that note in the comments and we’ll let you know how to get started.

Leave a comment

Posted in: 2010 National Academy, BROWN/Citizen

Re-writing a bit of Hobbes as Cicero

posted by mkolbet
on Jul 27th, 2010

The Original: Hobbes, Thomas.  Leviathan.  Chapter 14, Section 31.

The force of words being (as I have formerly noted) too weak to hold men to the performance of their covenants; there are in man’s nature but two imaginable helps to strengthen it. And those are either a fear of the consequence of breaking their word; or a glory or pride in appearing not to need to break it. This latter is a generosity too rarely found to be presumed on, especially in the pursuers of wealth, command, or sensual pleasure; which are the greatest part of mankind. The passion to be reckoned upon, is fear, whereof there be two very general objects: one, the power of spirits invisible; the other, the power of those men they shall therein offend. Of these two, though the former be the greater power, yet the fear of the latter is commonly the greater fear. The fear of the former is in every man his own religion; which hath place in the nature of man before civil society. The latter hath not so; at least not place enough to keep men to their promises; because in the condition of mere nature, the inequality of power is not discerned, but by the event of battle. So that before the time of civil society, or in the interruption thereof by war, there is nothing can strengthen a covenant of peace agreed on against the temptations of avarice, ambition, lust, or other strong desire, but the fear of that invisible power which they every one worship as God; and fear as a revenger of their perfidy. All therefore that can be done between two men not subject to civil power is to put one another to swear by the God he feareth, which swearing, or OATH, is a form of speech, added to a promise; by which he that promiseth signifieth that, unless he perform he renounceth the mercy of his God or calleth to Him for vengeance on himself. Such was the heathen form, Let Jupiter kill me else, as I kill this beast. So is our form, as I shall do thus, and thus, so help me God.  And this, with the rites and ceremonies, which every one useth in his own religion, that the fear of breaking faith might be the greater.

Re-presented as though from Cicero:

SCIPIO: As you know, men do not always hold to their words as they attempt to imitate the laws of natures.  Still, there are ways to keep men more honest.

LAELIUS: And what, may I ask, are they?

SCIPIO: Men, in a state of nature, are driven by a fear of consequences if they do not perform what they have spoken, or the glory they receive in not needing to break with their word.  The latter, a good sense of consciousness, shows moral excellence, but is not achievable in each iteration.

LAELIUS: True, they may often be driven by a desire for wealth or power, or some other pleasure.

SCIPIO: Still, I think you won’t object to finding out about the nature of men’s fears.

LAELIUS: No, nothing seems more apt.

SCIPIO:  Well, the first fear is man’s fear of his fellow.  This we may call the common fear, the one to which all society is subject.  When men look around them, they see other men in the immediate vicinity, and that can create in them a sense of alarm.

LAELIUS: Perhaps they are not always men of good sense?

SCIPIO: No, not always.  But when men find themselves in this state of inequality, fear of another man adds nothing to them, and does not allow them to escape, no more than a fish can escape an eagle.

LAELIUS: I know the very sort of man you mean.

SCIPIO:  Such a man may still be motivated by his fear of God, and turn his pursuit again to that of justice.

LAELIUS: We can hope for nothing greater.

SCIPIO: In order to hasten this return to the laws of nature and the virtue there assigned, men can swear oaths.  By so doing, they recognize that there is one single justice.  The act of swearing helps enforce his promise to goodness, and that if he still fails he renounces God’s mercy.  Thus, the fear of breaking faith may be greater.

LAELIUS: But is it his nature to have a regard for others, or to fear others?  Is man, in nature, more likely to seek goodness or to necessarily defend himself?

[Here a leaf has been lost]

1 comment

Posted in: 2010 National Academy, WHOLENESS/order

← Earlier Posts
Newer Posts →