Libertarianism

Simply put, self-sufficiency and keeping the world free, peaceful and abundant. And of course, an historical and practical impossibility.

Indeed, it's a mightily dangerous illusion, that this philosophy could be implemented. For the world has never been like that, and libertarianism triumphs only in bad science fiction novels after some kind of apocalypse destroys the things of this world.

Ameritocracy

There, I have done the unthinkable (but not that I haven't done it before, so perhaps it is only unthinkable to some). A neologism has sprouted. I hereby define 'ameritocracy' as i) a non-merit-based form of power sharing policy, and ii) a kind of American behaviour in which assertions about theology and other such drivers of opinion are leavened with refusal to look at primary sources.

The latter exercises me a great deal. I keep reading stuff about how a Christian nation should behave. Oh, please. America is no more a Christian nation than Jesus was a Roman Catholic. It was founded on humanist principles and fig-leaved with God by a bunch of Freemasons and whatnot, which is why America's religious traditions tend to be oddly crazed (I use this in the sense of 'fractured').

Just this evening I was treated to the awesome contention that the Bible would not condone capital punishment. Well, it does. Unless you do a lot of unedifying stance-shifting and peculiar exegesis. Especially with Romans 13:3-4 on the table, and Paul's blatant acceptance of the right of the state to try him with capital punishment as one possible outcome.

Ah well.

Word of the Day: Inauguration

An inauguration is an interesting event. I have just watched the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama. I'm glad he has a name like that, and I am even happier that unlike many men of power I've heard, he actually knows how to write and deliver a speech.

Traditionally and etymologically, an inauguration is an august occasion on which something or someone is consecrated and installed while the omens of a flight of birds are read and analysed. Most of the time, this is a good thing. But one must be careful with meanings and rituals.

The word 'augur' is related to the root aug-, as in 'augment'. It descended from some ancient Indo-Aryan root, via the Greek aux- (as in 'auxillary'). It means something like 'the priest whose divinations increase our prosperity'. An inauguration is therefore an event aimed at the increase of prosperity of the state.

But what about the flight of birds? Well, that comes from the Latin auspex, literally 'one who watches birds'. If the auspices (i.e. the way in which the birds behave) were good, then the inauguration would be a success. We can relate this to the motto of the English adventurer Raffles, Auspicium Melioris Aevi, which when taken in a completely literal sense would mean, "Watching the birds to see if good times are coming," or more simply, "Looking for a good time."

Progressive Education

I've been reading far too much literature on the politics and marketisation of education. It seems to me that the political left in the US has come to dominate this discourse so throughly that, despite their dominance of the education sector, many of them can blanket-blame capitalism for the ills of their education system(s) and get away with it in a blaze of self-righteous fury.

The argument seems to go like this: capitalism requires free markets, free markets ensure that only the sort of educational practices that make money will be supported, educational practice is thus constrained, the market ties up innovation eventually because the capital is locked into a narrower range of educational practices, capitalism dies. And is reborn, in some sort of ghastly Marxist historical parody.

So on one hand, they're complaining about the marketisation of education, and on the other hand, they're not telling us why it should be otherwise. Well, not quite. They say that encouraging breadth and innovation in education and other practices which the market doesn't handle so well are essential to make people more competitive and develop human capital. This makes us all better people and unlocks the market. Which thus encourages capitalism to burgeon and... that's a good thing.

Hmm. Seems to me that either way, the leftists have locked themselves into a death-embrace with the capitalist right. Madness. We should all just be Machiavellian and confess to that. Better than some horrible Adam Smith- Karl Marx hybrid, which I have today decided to dub the Groucho Marx Theory of Education.

On second thoughts, Groucho was a much better educator than either of them.

Random Thoughts on US Election Day 2008 (Part III)

Polls just closed over the entire great country (excepting the secessionists of Alaska). More random thoughts come to mind...

• Alaska is a huge place. It's the largest state in America, about 1.7 million square kilometres of mineral goodness. The Yanks bought it for what in this year's US dollars would be $360m. It boggles the mind.
• Haha, the moment polls closed, they gave the West Coast to Senator Obama. He's at 324 electoral votes now and counting.
• In retrospect, this marks the true beginning of the Internet Era. The anti-Internet, anti-blogging, anti-freedom-of-speech, anti-intellectual cabals and agencies of the past age have just lost one major battle in the culture wars.
• Apple machines are very cool. And so is Apple stock.
• The senator from Illinois may yet hit 378 EV. They haven't quite called Indiana, North Carolina, Missouri, Montana, Colorado, or Nevada yet. Soon.
• Obama will have won a victory 'from sea to shining sea'.

Actually, you might as well have the full lyrics. America isn't always quite so beautiful, but it sometimes can be.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.

America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.

America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

Random Thoughts on US Election Day 2008 (Part II)

Woke up early enough (ha, that sounds odd) to catch the beginning of the election results stream. I've always marvelled at the way pollsters and pundits extract solid opinions by extrapolation from virtually nothing. In Vermont, the data from less than 1% of the voting results allows CNN to call it for Senator Obama, while in Kentucky, it takes 13% to call it for Senator McCain.

More random thoughts:

• More women vote than men; it is the crowning glory of the suffragette movement.
• I'm struck by how stable the Biden and Obama families look; in contrast, the Palins look manic and the McCains look synthetic.
• There'll be a whole new generation of young people singing along with John Denver, "Where's Virginia? Mountain mama, take me home..." (OK, that was a bad pun.)
• Then again, some people might confuse John Denver with Denver, Colorado.
• In South Carolina, McCain is projected to win from the fact that at the moment, Obama is leading 55-44 with 1% counted.
• I have sinned; I am drinking ginger extract with my coffee.
• The stock market seems to have made me some money.
• I kept having dreams of stuffed bird toys; it is all Speedcuber's fault.
• I'm wondering what McCain will say at his concession speech, and at what time Obama will make his victory speech.
• Michael Fullan's The New Meaning of Educational Change is on my desk; the title is beginning to take on new significance.

I'll be adding more to this list.

Random Thoughts on US Election Day 2008 (Part I)

I've been having random thoughts all day, in between assembling my review on global educational reform. Educational reform and national policy may be very interesting, but it can't compete with one of the largest quadrennial shows on earth (bar the Olympics).

So here are my thoughts:

• James Carville looks perpetually malevolent; he ought to act in fantasy horror movies.
• Sarah Palin reminds me of the Nanny (Fran Drescher) in the eponymous comedy TV series. Fran's more attractive, though. And she's from Queens.
• Obama is actually pretty buff compared to Arnold Schwarzenegger (the evidence is here).
• The majority of American states have 'minority' language names, i.e. non-English.
• McCain v Obama reminds me of any number of ancient dinosaurs desperately holding on against the tide of change and trying to establish a legacy based on quicksand.
• I am predicting that Obama will get 393 electoral votes. I'm probably wrong, but one ought to dream big dreams.

I'll update the list as we go along...

Three Necessary Traits

I think Obama's winning because of three key traits: competence, fairness and stability. In my sociological observations of classrooms, management teams, businesses and academia, these three traits in combination have always won the highest accolades and inspired the most added value and dedication.

The reason you have to group all three together is in these three statements:

1. If you have competence and fairness but not stability, you have some sort of laissez-faire wonkery going on. You cannot have long-term vision. This works for some kinds of teams, bit not for all.

2. If you have competence and stability but not fairness, you have an authoritarian situation. It describes not only hard-working bureaucracies in positive situations, but also gulags and prisons.

3. If you have fairness and stability but no competence, that's when you have a mediocre bunch of well-meaning bumblers. It is fun to watch, and even to work in. But it won't get you results.

Thinking about this has helped me to see why educational and political reforms sometimes turn out the way they do. It all depends on the teams that are built and deployed. Somebody, or some bodies, must be deployed to handle these three aspects such that all three are sufficient to the task at hand.

Joke of the Day

I was having dinner with the family last night. Somehow, this came out of my mouth and the family was stunned. Poor family.

There's a new role for the US Secret Service. It will appear in their Christmas cards later this year.

The Secret Service: shepherds a Biden in the field.

Heh.

Four Kinds of Findings

I don't normally address political issues in this blog. Sometimes, however, something catches my eyes which may have greater applications beyond their mundane frame. In this case, it's the Branchflower Report (colloquially referred to as the 'Troopergate' Report).

Friday, 10 October 2008, will probably be remembered (if at all) as the day on which the Palindromic Crusade bit itself in the tail. Mrs Sarah Palin, Alaska's Governor and Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate in 2008, was under an ethics investigation. Branchflower and his Republican-heavy (8 to 4!) committee voted 12-0 to release the findings as planned. Overall, the consensus was that Palin had violated state ethics law by trying to have her brother-in-law fired as state trooper.

The interesting thing, to me, was the release of the report with four main findings, which I am summarising below:

1. Governor Palin abused her power as a public officer by exerting efforts to benefit her personal interest in firing the trooper.
2. However, the firing itself was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional authority. This is because it is the right of the Governor to hire and fire state employees.
3. The trooper received all his entitlements, so no wrongdoing was done after the fact.
4. The state Attorney-General's office failed to comply with Branchflower's request for information pertinent to the case.

It's the same in any political arena. Given the right to hire and fire, since the dawn of time, some people have taken this right to be an absolute and untrammelled power. With such an attitude, no justification or reason needs to be advanced. To the Palins of the world, findings 2 & 3 are full excuses for the abuses stated in findings 1 and 4.

But the point of the report is a simple one: it was an abuse of power, and hence a violation of ethics; it was not an abuse of authority. Some people must learn the difference between power or force (Greek dünamis or bia) and authority (Greek kratos). Whereas the latter can be taken mostly as granted by legal structure and terms of appointment, the former always requires moral checks and balances.

This is especially true in the education circles that are more familiar to me. But I've blogged about that before.

The Politics Of Hope

It's been a long time since I last wrote much about US politics. In that time, I've seen the incumbent president preside over terrible things in the name of hope. He has not been the success that many hoped for; he has had the worst ratings of any sitting Commander-In-Chief in history. It is a waste. He has not done a completely bad job, but most of it has been a stench in the nostrils of the American people.

And in the last year or so, I've come to support Senator Barack Obama. The points against him are manifold – people say he is too smart, too devious, too inexperienced, too angry, too mixed-up (in many ways). The points for him are that he learns fast, that he is disciplined, intelligent and willing to learn from everyone who contributes positively. Most of all, he advocates hope and a more inclusive position on political affairs. As an educator, used to dealing with young people of all kinds, I believe that the points against him are not damaging. The points in his favour tilt the balance to the positive.

You see, if Senator Obama triumphs, he will have done it by being a good student and a good teacher. He will have done it by educating and being educated. He will have transcended the difficulties of his past, dealt with the angry seniors (Rev Wright, President and Mrs Clinton, Senator McCain) and worked with the rest for the future that is to come. Of course, only time will tell whether the audacity of hope will win out in the end.

Some critics complain that Senator Obama says too much about the intangibles. To me, this is the good part; that he has said anything about the intangibles puts him head and shoulders above many of his peers. Why? Because he also has detailed and interesting policy statements on many issues. These statements show that he has given many issues deep thought while looking forward positively. And if we do not look towards a better age, how will we live in faith that the best is yet to be?

First Principles: Negotiation

I have to admit that I'm a bit of a junkie for lists; I am somewhat of a lister myself. Some time ago, I realised that some politicians make clearly defined lists of interesting points which they claim to use. Some of these lists are particularly useful to think about.

Here is a list from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, taken from his book, Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life (pages 363-365), on negotiation:

Richardson's Rules
• Share the credit. Politics and diplomacy are team sports. Acknowledge it.
• Be discreet and don't volunteer too much information.
• Your style can be informal, but you must show proper respect.
• Remember who your friends were when things weren't going so well.
• Aim big. Always try to achieve more than you have to.
• When you're about to make a major change, cover your bases.
• It helps to be in good shape. You never know when you're going to be called to the negotiating table.
• Deliver a strong message with dignity and without insults.
• Never lie when negotiating, because lies catch up with you. Be direct.
• Use the media if you need to, but keep your negotiations private.
• Have others deliver bad news; it keeps you viable as a future negotiator.
• In most meetings, the law of diminishing returns kicks in after five minutes.

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Very useful rules indeed. I have also begun to look at Senator Barack Obama's speeches. He is good at identifying key points in very large discussion frameworks.