Comments for The Recovering Academic http://tochangeit.com/blog Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:38:30 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 Comment on The American Dream? by John Halbert http://tochangeit.com/blog/2011/06/09/the-american-dream/#comment-3 John Halbert Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:38:30 +0000 http://tochangeit.com/blog/?p=33#comment-3 Hmmmm. Interesting stuff. You really do sound like a recovering academic. I consider myself almost a fully recovered academic. One of the best things, for me, about majoring in philosophy was getting about as deep into social/political thot (I spell it that way to take the "ugh" out) as possible, and realizing that there just wasn't much there, particularly as a guide to how to live my life. I realize that there is a purpose to engaging in philosophical discourse - the Founding Parents would have been lost without the Enlightenment. But it's not for me. Insofar as I am interested in articulating a vision of how our society is transforming, I actually look to physics. I think we are making a transition from an understanding of how society works based on Newtonian mechanics - very orderly, understandable, like clockwork - to a relativistic one, i.e. characterized by uncertainty and probability, rather than certainty and stability. As a senior at Swarthmore, I wrote a paper for Phil Weinstein's Modern Comp Lit seminar about how Joyce, in Ulysses, achieved in literature what Einstein achieved in physics. Einstein understood that space and time were part of a continuum - Joyce understood the same thing about form and content. The best articulation that I have encountered to translate relativistic mechanics into an understanding of how society works is complexity theory. Unfortunately, I also haven't seen much really interesting work being done there yet, and I also haven't seen much expression of it in popular culture. or at least the intelligentsia. I also think we are making a transition from two-dimensional thinking to three-dimensional thinking (and I don't mean 3D movies), but I REALLY haven't seen anything about that. And, of course, it would be all but impossible to translate any of this into any kind of a politically useful soundbite. But I also don't worry about that, because Barack Obama is president, he's doing a good job, and lots of good things are happening in politics right now. Hmmmm. Interesting stuff. You really do sound like a recovering academic. I consider myself almost a fully recovered academic. One of the best things, for me, about majoring in philosophy was getting about as deep into social/political thot (I spell it that way to take the “ugh” out) as possible, and realizing that there just wasn’t much there, particularly as a guide to how to live my life. I realize that there is a purpose to engaging in philosophical discourse – the Founding Parents would have been lost without the Enlightenment. But it’s not for me.

Insofar as I am interested in articulating a vision of how our society is transforming, I actually look to physics. I think we are making a transition from an understanding of how society works based on Newtonian mechanics – very orderly, understandable, like clockwork – to a relativistic one, i.e. characterized by uncertainty and probability, rather than certainty and stability. As a senior at Swarthmore, I wrote a paper for Phil Weinstein’s Modern Comp Lit seminar about how Joyce, in Ulysses, achieved in literature what Einstein achieved in physics. Einstein understood that space and time were part of a continuum – Joyce understood the same thing about form and content.

The best articulation that I have encountered to translate relativistic mechanics into an understanding of how society works is complexity theory. Unfortunately, I also haven’t seen much really interesting work being done there yet, and I also haven’t seen much expression of it in popular culture. or at least the intelligentsia.

I also think we are making a transition from two-dimensional thinking to three-dimensional thinking (and I don’t mean 3D movies), but I REALLY haven’t seen anything about that.

And, of course, it would be all but impossible to translate any of this into any kind of a politically useful soundbite. But I also don’t worry about that, because Barack Obama is president, he’s doing a good job, and lots of good things are happening in politics right now.

]]> Comment on Great Places by Daniel Tamm http://tochangeit.com/blog/2011/06/17/great-places/#comment-2 Daniel Tamm Sat, 18 Jun 2011 06:05:35 +0000 http://tochangeit.com/blog/?p=41#comment-2 This is part of it, yeah. But for the meta-narrative I'm looking towards Democratic Socialism (www.dsausa.org). They are a simple source of coherent principles. Glad you're writing, Andy. This is part of it, yeah. But for the meta-narrative I’m looking towards Democratic Socialism (www.dsausa.org). They are a simple source of coherent principles.

Glad you’re writing, Andy.

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