A perhaps obvious observation

As my title suggests, this is probably an obvious observation, but I think that the framing of American political debate, obsessed as it is with defining the proper role of “the government,” can obscure this fact even for people who know it on some level: state institutions are far from being the only or even the most important structures of power and authority. The distinction between the public and private sphere is not the dividing line between governance and freedom, but an articulation within the sphere of governance itself. For example, the average person is governed much more directly and effectively by their superiors at work than by anything that could be called “the government.” The relationship with the boss is a constant feature of everyday life, while encounters with agents of “the government” are rare, or at least episodic (getting pulled over for speeding, etc.).

The Girlfriend on the bank bailouts

Apparently some people are arguing that since the TARP funds have been paid back, the banks didn’t “really” get bailed out. Steve Waldman of Interfluidity responds with a metaphor:

Suppose my kid’s meth habit got the best of him. He’s needs to come up with $100K quick or his dealer’s gonna whack him. But he’s a good kid, really! Coulda happened to anyone. So I “lend” him the money, even though he has no visible means of support and the sketchiest loan sharks in town wouldn’t give him the time of day. Now I believe in bootstraps and hard work, individualism and self-reliance. So I tell my son. “Son, you are going to pay me back every penny of that loan. You are going to work it off. I have arranged with one of my golf buddies, a guy who owes me a favor or three, a job that pays $200K a year. You’d better show up every day at 9 a.m. and sit behind that desk, and get me back my money!” And he does! After a year, he’s made me whole. What a good kid.

No bail out, right? He paid me back every penny! Worked it off!

Bullshit. The opportunity I provided him, the $200K job that he would not otherwise received without my intercession was a huge grant. On the open market, if I were to accept bribes from the highest bidder to wangle the job from my friend, that opportunity would be worth more than the $100K advanced. I paid my son’s loan with my own money. I just obscured the cash flows, so my son and I can pretend and sustain our mutual self-regard and our righteous disdain for the moochers and the hippies and the riff-raff.

I shared this metaphor with The Girlfriend, and she pointed out that it would be more fitting if dad had given the son start-up capital to buy a package from his connect in New York and then required him to sell meth in order to earn back the $100K.

A big day for Erik Peterson fans!

Despite his influence, Erik Peterson’s work has mostly not been translated into English — until now. The translator of his Theological Tractates, Michael Hollerich, has sent out an announcement:

Stanford University Press has now published my translation of Theologische Traktate, including the Monotheism monograph. You’ll make both me and the press (and Erik Peterson) happy if you decide to buy a copy, and also to spread the word to your friends. With my introduction to Peterson’s life and work. Includes translations of Peterson’s abundant quotations from Greek and Latin sources, which (he was a German professor, remember) he usually disdained to translate for his readers.

Who assesses the assessors?

There are a lot of things to dislike about contemporary trends in American educational “assessment.” Some of the common complaints, however, seem to me to be a little ad-hoc. For instance, one can certainly object that quantitative measures are not the best way to go about assessing educational effectiveness — but that critique can also appear opportunistic in light of the fact that grades and exams were a central part of the pre-”assessment” regime.

The key critique of this regime, it seems to me, is its completely unscientific nature. There are countries that are generally agreed to be doing a better job of educating their population than the US. The way they run their systems is public knowledge, and I’m sure they would be happy to clarify about any questions we might have. Indeed, we could probably bring in a team of Korean or Finnish assessors to help us figure out how we could emulate them better.

What we’ve chosen to do instead is to implement a completely new and unprecedented system, made up of new standards of measurement and new types of “accountability.” We have no particular reason to believe that this system will actually produce better results. If anything, we have reason to believe the opposite, insofar as the most successful countries are doing nothing of the sort — to say nothing of the fact that these policies are being promoted by such luminaries as Bill Gates, whose expertise at creating cheap knockoffs of other companies’ software gives him unique insight into how to improve the American educational system.

And what if the assessment regime doesn’t wind up producing better results? I think we all know what the conclusion will be then: we need to assess harder.

Adorno on “classic rock”

From The Culture Industry:

If one seeks to find out who “likes” a commercial piece, one cannot avoid the suspicion that liking and disliking are inappropriate to the situation, even if the person questioned clothes his reactions in those words. The familiarity of the piece is a surrogate for the quality ascribed to it. To like it is almost the same thing as to recognize it.

One is predisposed to disagree with Adorno’s judgments on popular music. He is, after all, the stuffy German philosopher trained in 12-tone composition, etc., etc., and so what does he know?

My reaction to this passage was certainly negative when I read it a couple days before leaving to visit my family for Thanksgiving — but several hours stuck in the car listening primarily to “classic rock” stations convinced me of the essential truth of this observation. Does anyone really “like” the song “American Pie,” for instance? What would that even mean?

The intuitive reaction of most people who “like” classic rock is not to enjoy the musical content, chord progressions, etc., but to imitate it — for instance, by singing along to the guitar solo on “Comfortably Numb,” as someone of my acquaintance may sometimes do when in the car alone. The advent of karakoe, American Idol, and Guitar Hero revealed the underlying truth of popular music. The popularity of these phenomenon shows that what is being sold here isn’t the direct enjoyment of music, but the fantasy that one could be a rock star.

(A possible objection: some music is meant for dancing, which perhaps wouldn’t fit with this analysis. But I wouldn’t know anything about that.)

The Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia and Psychosis Syllabus

So I wanted to upload a syllabus I’ve created for an independent study course for next semester. This might be a long shot, but I wanted to get feedback from anyone who is knowledgeable about the psychoanalytic treatment of schizophrenia. I’d be grateful for any help.

Clayton Crockett Podcast

I encourage everyone to head over here to check out a conversation on radical political theology with long-time AUFS friend, Clayton Crockett.

Now available for pre-order!

Why We Love Sociopaths is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Here is the description:

Sociopaths are pervasive in contemporary television, from high-brow drama all the way down to cartoons — and of course the news as well. From the scheming Eric Cartman of South Park to the seductive imposter Don Draper of Mad Men, cold and ruthless characters captivate us, making us wish that we could be so effective and successful. Yet why should we admire characters who get ahead by being amoral and uncaring? In his follow-up to Awkwardness, Adam Kotsko argues that the popularity of the ruthless sociopath reflects our dissatisfaction with a failed social contract, showing that we believe that the world rewards the evil and uncaring rather than the good. By analyzing characters like the serial killer star of Dexter and the cynical Dr. House, Kotsko shows that the fantasy of the sociopath distracts us from our real problems — but that we still might benefit from being a little more sociopathic.

This is just my small contribution to our ongoing efforts to be the most-published group of bloggers on earth.

“I’m not a racist, but…”

Via Twitter (@bat20), I learned that the mayor of a town in Ireland is declining to meet with his black African constituents. He claims that said constituents have been uniformly rude to him and have even — get this! — accused him of racism. Henceforward, he will be referring them to his black colleagues on the city council. The story quotes him as saying, “Everything I do as a councillor is for the general good… It saddens me that people would call me a racist, because I’m not.”

As @qwghlm points out, this is “perhaps the archetypal ‘I’m not racist but….’” He may as well have said, “I’m not a racist, I just hate black people.” This is the logical endpoint of a certain white response to accusations of racism — what’s important is not the existence of any racial bias, etc., but rather the fact that “racist” is a mean name. In other words, the term “racist” in this conception exists solely and exclusively to defame the person accused of it.

I suppose this is a perverse kind of victory for anti-racism — everyone agrees that being a “racist” is a bad thing! Yet the only thing bad about it is the word itself.

A horrifying thought

In days of old, I would’ve shared this post and it would be on display in the sidebar. But, alas, in their infinite wisdom Google has removed this technology option. If any link warrants a post of its own, though, it is a new audio interview with William Gass. So, here you go.

A favorite line:

I used to love teaching philosophy for may reasons. One of them being that I could feel fairly confident that no student listening to me would ever believe what I say. Imagine being believed. It is a horrifying thought.

Oh, and yes, the Omensetter’s Luck reading group WILL take place. I will be contacting all those who expressed interest this week over the holiday, and we’ll get down to business very soon. It’s not been forgotten.