Dispatches
An irregular discussion of the intellectual substructure of the quotidian and workaday, as reflected in the themes of the book The Mighty Quinn.
The Gulf Wing Doors are Open. Bill found a compelling rprecusor to Arab Spring in the October Revolution in Sudan in 1964.
The Point-Counterpoint Dispatch. Brian and his Israeli-American friend Gadi S. do some dialogin' regarding the Iran nuclear situation. Fresh for Passover!
The Incentives Dispatch: Virtually everybody who ever came to the United States to live came here to be able to solve our own problems. Our prolems now revolve around skewed incentives
The Waiting for the Beatles Dispatch: Are we all metaphorically waiting at the airport for a flight to arrive, seeking the release only a good pop song can provide?
The First Lady Michelle Obama Graces an Episode of iCarly Dispatch The First Lady appeared on iCarly, and it sure looked like everybody was having fun -- Randim Dancing, y'all!
The Getting Played Dispatch. The dominant meme for our times is "I'm getting played by my own government." If the American Left and Right could work together and leverage their rage, things might begin to change.
The "An Episode In The Making Of The President 2012" Dispatch. Bill pokes fun at the garden trolls running to be the leader of the free world, using Romey's "I Love Lucy" reference as a springboard.
The Dignified Curtains Are Open Dispatch. Bill Travers makes an ingenious connection between Dylan's annus mirabilis of 1965 and the protestors of 2011.
The Mind the Delta Dispatch. Virtually all of the economic growth in the next 20 years will be driven by Chinese and Indian consumers. Consumer spending in the United States has topped out.
The Ignobel Dispatch. It would be a mistake, a misapprehension, to award Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize for Literature. Why? Because it ain't literature.
The More Easily Remembered Dispatch. The far right in Germany makes the usual noises about the need to let bygones be bygones. Bill Travers remembers the downside.
The Six Steps from 9/11 Dispatch. Conservatives, like the Bush Administration, often trip up on their need for managed change. Brian Prioleau writes about how this is nowhere more evident than the events after 9/11. Everything changed, but not in a predictable way
The What Matters Dispatch. A government that insults your intelligence is not all that big a surprise. A government that restricts your intelligence begs opposition.
The No Other Place Dispatch Bill Travers and Brian Prioleau discuss the Standard and Poors downgrade and the specific need for cooler heads to prevail, and perhaps get the math right.
The Markets and Blame Dispatch. Is the Beijing Consensus really consensus at all? Are the Chinese people showing signs of getting fed up with a government that makes all the decisions but can't take responsibility?
The Joker/Thief Dispatch. Bill Travers unearths a key influence for some of Dylan's most memorable lines. You won't believe what it is.
The Words Bob Dylan Forgot Dispatch. Further proof that Bob Dylan is not a cyborg or the devil incarnate.
The "Dorks and Theft" Dispatch. Is Dylan a plagiarist? That was the allegation from Clinton Heylin in his second books of Dylanalia. We have a response.
The "Self-Serving Incuriosity" Dispatch. What would it be like to live the antithesis of the Gramsci cogito, i.e. "Pessimism of the will and optimism of the intellect?" We do a thought experiment in Texas.
The "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking" Dispatch. A review of some of the best, and a few of the specious, covers of Dylan' songs.
The Easter Dispatch. Easter is the central mystery and metaphor in Christianity. But what -- and how -- does it mean?
The Right Here, Right Now 2 Dispatch. Twenty-two years ago it was the Velvet Revolution. Today it is the Jasmine Revolution. The world goes 'round and 'round, and Bill Travers make note of several concentric revolutions.
American Propaganda and Biblical Literalism Why is Biblical literalism such an important feature of the American conversation? Bill Travers allows writer Brian Prioleau a forum for discussion.
The Your Mother was Wrong Dispatch. Debating the political opnions of those with whom you do not agree turns out to be a good way to control dementia -- which explains a lot, really
The Will at War. For the human race and the individual, war is an extreme test of wil and acceptance
The Faith Dispatch. Can we use faith in God interchangeably with adherence to a specific religion?
The August Dispatch. Strindberg was a pretty unque guy, but his debut production in the United States was nothing short of weird.
The Lost Dispatch.. Hey, it's summer. Lighten up.
The Watery Dispatch. A Travers disquisition on investors, horses, etc.
The Take It Easy Hospital Dispatch. A new indie film about the Persian rock scene allows Bill Travers to discuss issues of freedom
The Natural Uncertainty Dispatch. What did the recent air traffic shutdown in Europe have to do the Keats' concept of Negative Capability and Trotsky?
The Light Bulb Dispatch. All about capitalism, light bulbs, creative destruction and cleaver wielding madmen
The Vatican Faults Dylan Dispatch. The Holy See points a finger at Bob Dylan. These guys have no grandmother.
The Open Door Dispatch. Did the triumph of market capitalism in 1990 lead to the 2008 "workout of market fundamentalism?" And if it did, is there any realistic alternative?
The Fundamentalists Hate Moderates Dispatch. To the absolutist, nothing is more threatening than reasonableness
The Northern Ireland IV Dispatch. Peace in Northern Ireland is again being held up as a model-- but a model for what, process or perserverance?
The Financial Uncertainty Principle Dispatch. Is it possible that complex financial modeling is required to fail? Hiesenberg's Uncertainty Principle may have a corollary on Wall Street.
The One Too Many Dispatch. A dispatch occasioned by a dispatch from the "I'm So Restless" Appreciation Affiliate.
The Good vs. Evil II Dispatch. Evil is finite and graspable. Perfection and virtue aspire to the infinite. This all relates to The Mighty Quinn.
The Satisficing and Afghanistan Dispatch. We don't envy President Obama in this case, but we fear that he may have obstructed correct decision making by satisficing
The Superhero II Dispatch. It felt natural to give this topic a sequel. What constitutes heroism? We asked great American intellectuals Ralph Waldo Emerson and Daniel Boorstin (not really).
The Week In Uncertainty, The Dispatch. To be a person of faith is to have certainty by the short hairs, correct? Don't be so sure -- looks like a job for Negative Capability!
The Superhero Dispatch. Thinking heroism, responsibility and freedom; Antonio Gramsci's '"pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will" and Paul Williams' "purposefulness and a freedom from purpose."
The Bitter Arguments Need Arts Dispatch. A reconsideration of issues raised in Dispatch 9: "Better Arguments Need Art " Jeff Tweedy of Wilco speaks of constructive disillusionment, and Bill Travers considers fishing downstream from Bob Dylan
American Politics and the Turning Wheel: Truly ironic irony takes time, son. An ill-considered statement from Nancy Pelosi the other day got us thinking about Teddy Kennedy and Richard Nixon, as well as "This Wheel's on Fire."
Creation of the Ungovernable: The right wing and new frontiers of irresponsibility. Conservatives read Saul Alinsky and our collective heads reel with the (im)possibilities.
Resistance is Beautiful II Dispatch: Recalcitrance with consequences is not always pretty. Personal integrity and the role of philosophy in society
The Burden Dispatch. Don't be afraid: Democracy means making up your own mind, which means gathering all the information you need to make a decision.
Resistance is Beautiful Dispatch. Recalcitrance is not just an attitude, it is an organizing principle The Invisible Republic lives, everyday and every way. But you won't find it on Google Satellite Maps.
Charity in Truth Dispatch: Just tell me what you want. If it is about changing human behavior, it is about incentives.
Northern Ireland III: When the political becomes the personal. To what extent do our "explanations" become life sentences?
Northern Ireland II: A realization. In Northern Ireland, pessimism of the intellect was the easy part...
The Truth Monopolists. The Chinese are humming a new tune that goes like this-- "Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it."
The Canon Fires A discussion of Bob Dylan as an artist and as a partof a community, variously defined: Keats' "negative capability" in action.
Freedom/License Recent events have done much to suggest the importance of the distinction between freedom and license.
The Will Dispatch. A discussion of IQ and concepts of will -- "When the evidence is ambiguous, it is all the easier for ideology to influence one's scientific judgment. "
Deep Uncertainty Uncertainty is deeply unsettling, but what if systems of logic themselves were subject to systematic error?
The Limits of Pessimism Pessimism of the intellect is not meant as a vehicle to limit the individual. Its purpose is really just the opposite.
Northern Ireland 1
When does silence denote defeatism, and when does it indicate strength of purpose?
Purposefulness and Freedom from Purpose
Reinhold Niebuhr's views on good and evil and how "we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn't use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction."
No Matter How Steep
Extremism is many things, but it sure ain't new-- a rethinking of historical roots of violence on Wall Street during the Progressive Era
Pictures: Daniel Perle, H.L. Mencken, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford playing journalists
|
