tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post6284490581546838339..comments2024-03-29T02:03:49.151-04:00Comments on History Unfolding: Orwell, Revisited againDavid Kaiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-13561062148292537032013-04-05T03:10:49.403-04:002013-04-05T03:10:49.403-04:00Thanks Dr K. for another great essay. I think our ...Thanks Dr K. for another great essay. I think our problem is that we both grew up deluded by the 1933-1973 period that now looks like an incredibly anomalous time. That period was the legacy of populist movements that gave the middle and working classes a brief period of countervailing power against what has now become a nearly totally dominant corporate capitalism. Atlanta is an apt setting to watch this prevailing zeitgeist of unimpeded worship of corporate capitalist values play out. I lived there 1986-1997, and can tell you that no other values existed there except blind obedience to greed, which is only a baby step away from blind obedience to lies. But it really is just the American way reasserting itself, after a brief minor interruption. We kid ourselves if we believe that education, or any other institution will be able to remain aloof from what so completely dominates the rest of society. We are all Atlanta now. <br /><br />PS-Galactic, thanks for the Goya stuff-it's a great comparison with our situation.Zosimahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11263402425021727149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-35293669773868593122013-04-04T06:46:16.495-04:002013-04-04T06:46:16.495-04:00Is there not a underlying problem with the use of ...Is there not a underlying problem with the use of financial incentives for education, as you may imply, and in other areas, including health care?<br /><br />Actually, I always thought that 2+2= 5-1. So maybe I will have to reprogram.<br /><br />Anyway, Professor Kaiser, you sound like a hard task master.wmmbbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02460859618464223462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-4631923171577469542013-04-01T12:33:37.106-04:002013-04-01T12:33:37.106-04:00Excellent post on this critical issue David. The ...Excellent post on this critical issue David. The Atlanta scandal only scratches the surface of the problem I fear.Larryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13733155849517667884noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-21799190139651125092013-03-31T17:15:35.315-04:002013-03-31T17:15:35.315-04:00Dear Professor Kaiser, I am so pleased that you pi...Dear Professor Kaiser, I am so pleased that you picked up on this story from Atlanta and put the headline in its proper context. I wish all historians and for that matter intelligence analysts would heed what Cicero said in De Oratore" The first law for the historian is that he shall never dare utter an untruth. The second is that he shall supress nothing that is true. Moreover, there shall be no suspicion of partiality in his writing or of malice." Alohamackingpinbravohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01084940731640086964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-34111323865398839602013-03-31T07:29:21.192-04:002013-03-31T07:29:21.192-04:00I thought this week of the quote
"The sleep ...I thought this week of the quote<br /><br />"The sleep of reason breeds monsters" and thought it was shakespeare but googling it I became more knowledgeable. Goya's Caprichos from 1799 depicting spanish society's ills. It looks like Dickens type of ideas but more fantastic in picture form.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caprichos<br /><br />"Los Caprichos are a set of 80 aquatint prints created by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya in 1797 and 1798, and published as an album in 1799. The prints were an artistic experiment: a medium for Goya's condemnation of the universal follies and foolishness in the Spanish society in which he lived. The criticisms are far-ranging and acidic; he speaks against the predominance of superstition, the ignorance and inabilities of the various members of the ruling class, pedagogical short-comings, marital mistakes and the decline of rationality. Some of the prints have anticlerical themes. Goya described the series as depicting "the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common prejudices and deceitful practices which custom, ignorance or self-interest have made usual".[1]"<br /><br />all pictures with commentaries as in El Prado museum.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-79942614560980692332013-03-31T02:00:44.204-04:002013-03-31T02:00:44.204-04:00Reality bites, sooner or later.Reality bites, sooner or later.Rupert Chapmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07007234333289329849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-14835346646398760432013-03-30T16:27:19.592-04:002013-03-30T16:27:19.592-04:00Professor
Thanks for this rant. Touches on proble...Professor<br /><br />Thanks for this rant. Touches on problems, as you suggest, far wider, and more complex, than mere educational bureaucracies.<br /><br />all the best,<br />Bozonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18078858723231122013noreply@blogger.com