‘Not the kind of knowledge that flatters authorities,’ Frank Furedi says.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Where Did ‘Theory’ Come From? 
May 20th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Morris Dickstein considers some roots.… Read the rest
‘Infallible for 152 years, and now this! Oy!’
May 19th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Cronies, star systems, sanctimony, glitz – the Times after the Blair meltdown.… Read the rest
Damasio on Spinoza
May 18th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
His dissent on the prevailing view of the mind-body problem stood out in a sea of conformity.… Read the rest
These Predictions are Postdictions
May 17th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Michael Shermer looks at Moby Dick and the Bible as secret decoder devices.… Read the rest
The Presentation of Self in Presidential Life
May 16th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ordinary millionaires without neckties and other varieties of manipulation.… Read the rest
Journalism, Truth, and ‘Truth’
May 16th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Julian Baggini says journalism’s goal of objectivity is neither anachronistic nor incoherent. … Read the rest
Hills of Beans
May 15th, 2003 7:33 pm | By Ophelia BensonHard on the heels of the story about New York Times reporter-trickster Jayson Blair comes this Guardian examination of the Jessica Lynch ‘story’ and the various forces that played into that exercise in media manipulation. Saving Private Lynch is one of the stories Jayson Blair was reporting on when he concocted the porch overlooking the tobacco fields and the herds of cattle, the porch that ‘overlooks no such thing,’ as the Times account says so acidly that I found myself wondering what the porch does overlook. A pile of rusting cars? A still? A tennis court? A swimming pool?
I thought when I first read the long Times story – so, they had him covering the Washington sniper, and then … Read the rest
A Heretic in the Church of Traumatology
May 15th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
New study of memory and repression won’t please ‘the psychobabblers and the melodramatists and the daytime-television bookers.’… Read the rest
The Rise of the Info-Novel
May 15th, 2003 | By Peter LurieWhat was it you wanted from that big new novel? If you’re looking for an education
about Victorian brothels, Dante studies during the 19th century,
iconography and iconology in art history, the structure and function of railroads,
the Allied retreat to Dunkirk, British scientific expeditions in the Himalaya,
Bobby Thomson’s Brooklyn-crushing dinger or any number of other subtopics in
history, philosophy, business or law, then you’ll likely find it satisfying
enough. But if you’re looking for the promise of invention, for a world created
and set in motion, for characters who grapple with ethical and moral dilemmas
that radically transform their perspective – the elements that make a great
and true novel – you’ll be disappointed.
I’m not arguing … Read the rest
Higher Education and its Discontents
May 14th, 2003 | By Ophelia BensonHigher education is a site where a lot of disputes, tensions, disagreements, irreconcilable opposites and incompatible goals meet and clash. Proxy battles are fought there rather than in the marketplace or the courts or government because the stakes are so much lower, having comparatively little to do with profit, prison, laws, or bloodshed. So silly or perverse or evidence-free ideas get a stage to rehearse on, and sometimes drown out better ideas – and Fashionable Nonsense is born.
We have a hard time even deciding what education is for. Many people, probably most, think it’s purely vocational. People go to university because if they don’t they’ll have to do dreary boring difficult low-status jobs for no money all their lives. … Read the rest
Gerald Holton Interviewed
May 14th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The physicist, author of ‘Einstein, History and Other Passions’ talks about his work for Reagan’s commission on school reform.… Read the rest
Dodgy Educations?
May 14th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What a lot of people in the Labour Cabinet studied useless subjects at university.… Read the rest
History is Bunk
May 13th, 2003 8:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonBut it’s not very surprising if we don’t value learning, effort, apprenticeship, craft, if we’re not eager to spend years learning to play the cello or write real poetry that rhymes and scans, or to read Gibbon or Montaigne or The Tale of Genji or any of those long-winded books people used to write because they had nothing better to do – it’s not all that amazing if we don’t want to do that, when our leaders have such a squalidly practical, utilitarian, narrow, worm’s-eye view of the value of education. School is for job training, and that’s that. At least, that’s that when it comes to publicly funded education: they don’t mind our getting purely curiosity-driven education if we … Read the rest
Robert Park’s Column
May 13th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Virtuous Bill is math-challenged and a loser, Wall Street Journal takes herbal medicine claim at face value.… Read the rest
Neuroethics
May 13th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Steven Rose wonders about epidemics of depression and Ritalin use, the possibility of ‘smart drugs,’ and whether drugs are a cheap fix for social problems.… Read the rest
A Few Bags of Cheez Doodles Later
May 13th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Editor & Publisher asks some cogent (and laugh-provoking) questions about the ‘Blair Watch Project’.… Read the rest
The Optimist’s Slaughter
May 13th, 2003 | By Christopher OrletEarly on every thinking man makes the conscious or unconscious decision whether
to view the cup of life as half full, or dry as the Garagum Desert. Those whose
cup is half full are the world’s optimists, the Pollyannas and the kind of people
to be avoided at all costs, particularly at parties. In America they are, according
to Gallup, the majority (64 percent). These are the same folks who wave flags,
join the PTA, bet on the Cubs, and get caught in thunderstorms without an umbrella
and hopefully catch pneumonia. Pessimists, by my estimate, make up about 10
percent of the American population. The other 26 percent couldn’t care less,
and were probably too busy watching professional wrestling to … Read the rest
Most Hated Books
May 12th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Tolkien, Iris Murdoch, Derrida, Jeffrey Archer? Harry Potter, Possession, Atonement, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin? … Read the rest
A Huge Black Eye
May 12th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Washington Post on the fraudulent reporter at the New York Times.… Read the rest
