How complicated is life?...incredibly complicated...
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Lullaby...The Dixie Chicks...an incredible album, if you ever get the chance:):)...
Topic: policy writing
I'm doing classwork for one of the special education classes I'm taking this summer...

And it's beginning to occur to me just how incredibly complicated this work and life, generally, are...

Even special education...

I think I've gotten underneath something that really big with this work...especially with the principles of least possible necessary aggression...

But the world and life is just so damned complicated...I can barely believe that we navigate it at all, much of the time...and I'm much more sympathetic to why so many people have such a hard time navigating it, much of the time...

Because it's so damned complicated...and if you don't believe that, it's because you're not seeing it...

An important reason that we should make it easier for people to navigate, not harder...

And an important reason for why we should have more compassion for peoples' struggles navigating it, not less...

Though, ironically, the people who navigate it most successfully are often the people who have the most compassion for others' struggles in navigating it:):)...

Anyway:):)...check out the Dixie Chicks' new album when you get a chance:):)...it's really good...though Home, their last album, was one of my all-time favorite albums, period, nevertheless country...

Also...you might check out Robert Redford's new movie, An Unfinished Life...a brilliant little movie about moving on and growing up:)...and check out March of the Penguins, The Crazy Stranger, Vodka Lemon, Dick, Nothing, and Soldiers in the Army of God...

I finally sat through the entire Lord of the Rings' movies and while I wasn't nearly as impressed with this triology than most of my friends and the rest of the world, apparently, I was much more mildly entertained than the other million times I've tried to sit through that thing, it bored me so:):)...I loved watching the first one with my family and when I made Melissa sit down and watch it with me, I enjoyed it much more for what it was, a movie that everyone could watch together...I became less of a movie snob, this weekend, and embraced the Lord of the Rings triology, despite my belief, still, that The Return of the King winning Best Picture in 2004 was utter and total bullshit:):)...

But then again, as Maslow wisely observed in the Farther Reaches of Human Nature, humanity so rarely does always match rewards with merit:):):)...but we do it enough that we can trust us...as far as we can trust us, that is:):):)...

I've got work to do:):):)...

Have a great week, everyone:):)...

Love,
Ben

Coming to terms with how rare really strong thought is...
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: policy writing
I can't sleep...even though I have to wake up and work in just 2 hours or so...tomorrow's going to be fun, I can tell...

But I am grateful for my resurgent idealism...

I'm beginning to come to terms with just how rare really strong thought is...how rarely people aspire for it...and how important it is that people be accountable to it...because it's the only and better alternative to all our dumbass brutishness...

I do believe that everyone is capable of brilliance...but I am coming to terms with how rarely people aspire to it...which is what makes it rare more the many various alternative explanations...a biological proclivity...madness as a spark for genius...and the other million different excuses that most people have for why they don't aspire for brilliance, even though it's important in every endeavor...no matter how mundane...

People like Joe Nye stand out because they're so goddamned good...and they're so goddamned good...because they aspired...and they didn't let the nay-saying hold them back...

It's so sad...we just had a discussion, today, in our teacher inservice about why academically successful black children are accused of "acting white" by their peers...and the sad truth is that so many kids...like so many adults...are just insecure...about their intelligence and their abilities as much as about themselves...and instead of seeking to improve their abilities to deal with that insecurity...they seek to bring others down who have talents that they lack...

It's so sad...

And it is how so many people in the world, nevertheless in schools, live their lives...

And the saddest part about it...is that intelligence matters to everything we do...from international policy...to education policy...to military security...to criminology...to fixing cars...to being a decent fisherman...to being a decent teacher and parent...

It matters to everything, really...

But we all live these separate lives...

Because some of us get convinced that there are smart people and dumb people, and they are on one side of the tracks or the other...

Rather than everyone taking thought and learning seriously...

My commitment is to reducing and ending that separation and the subsequent achievement gap in schools and in life that grows out of it...

But I have to say that there is so much to overcome on that one...attitudinally as much as around changing peoples' commitments...and changing relationships between teachers and students so that they both believe this, more...and so that they each have sufficient freedom to bring it into fruition...

Creating a society where brilliance is the soft but real expectation for everyone...will take a lot of time and patience and freedom...in schools as much as in the choices parents and students make about schools...

But it is the only real alternative to a world that is constantly rationalizing its baser, meaner, nastier, dumber instincts...no matter how many people get hurt in the process...and no matter how ineffective those instincts are to accomplishing the goals people desire...

It is the "illusionism" that Joe Nye speaks of in that National Interest article...the failure of people to see how their intentions are not leading to the consequences they desire...

And as I've wrestled with whether or not to trust my judgment...my instincts...my thoughts...my idealism...

Whether it's me that is deluded and the world that is just dandy...and as I am perpetually open to the idea that there are things that I'm just not seeing, yet...

When I think about how rare it is, in the broadest picture, to read someone like Joe...or Benjamin Barber...or Stephen Ambrose...or Amartya Sen...or Abraham Maslow...or Joseph Campbell...

People who have these brilliant insights into the world...

That so few people really have...

The more confident I become that I will be one of those folks, with time...as my ideas and thinking get recognized...

Friedrich Hayek had a really hard time getting hired in economics departments until the University of Chicago hired him...

But what distinguishes folks like Hayek...and more folks like Sen or Nye or Maslow...

Is just how deep and profound their insights are for humanity...

It is disappointing for me to discover just how few people aspire to engage and develop and have such insights...

But it also makes it easier to see just who has more valuable things to say, generally...

And what's interesting...is just how much the best people get recognized, eventually...no matter where they started off...

It is good to see people aspire more...people like the teachers I work with...and my family members...and the friends I engage on various internet forums...and the various groups I've belonged to...and even my lame ass friends (they know who I'm talking about) here in Lawrence, when they have aspired...

But it is really rare to read or meet people...who's insights are so truly profound...that they change the way that you look at the world...

But I do have to say that...

If we can't create a world...where all liberals can appreciate the brilliance of a thinker like Friedrich Hayek, more...

Or where all conservatives can't appreciate the brilliance of Amartya Sen, more...

And where they try to bully one another, instead...

Then the ideas aren't for naught...that's for sure...they're the only thing keeping us afloat in this god-forsaken dysfunctional world...

But the less thoughtful bullies of the world do blunt the impact of great ideas...and make their implementation more difficult...and cause a lot of damage and havok and chaos, in the meantime...

And all for naught...always claiming credit where they don't deserve it...and always overlooking their failures...to keep their defenses in tact...to avoid constructive criticism...and maintaining the cycle...of failure and whining and blame...

Until it can finally give way to more thought...

And that's all she wrote on that one...

Either we'll learn the lessons on this...

Or we'll keep living with the sorry-ass consequences...

All of us...

Though some of us at the expense of others...

But all of us being bankrupted by the cynicism...and the lack of thought...and the lack of openness to being wrong...

For all of the hassle that this life I've chosen has caused me...which is beyond plenty, for me...

I'm glad I've chosen a life of the strongest ideas and the highest ideals...

Because every other life just seems so bankrupt, in comparison...

I don't think it has to be that way...

I think we can all learn to appreciate, better, what each of us has to offer...including our engagement...and criticism...and disagreement...when they are fair-minded and constructive...

But as we build that world...

This life of big ideas is the only one that I think I could ever inhabit and be most deeply humbled and proud of my efforts...and the efforts of like-minded folks...

And the big advantage of casting a broad net for the best ideas...

Is that it makes is so much more clear just how rare and impressive are those folks who have something really profound to contribute...

I respect all of the various doers in the world...from the janitor and the convenience store clerk...to the entrepreneur and the political activist...to the teacher and the police officer and the military serviceperson...to the scholar and the professor and the researcher...

But the people with the really big ideas in the world...who are always doers and thinkers, which is the only thing that makes great ideas possible...great thinkers can't help but being doers because its the only thing that informs better thinking...everything else is too abstract to be useful...which is the fate of the thought of most scholars and non-scholars alike...

But great thinkers and doers...are the folks in this world I admire most...

The people who change the world against all odds...and who imagine better worlds...and think carefully about how to create them and make them better...

By inspiring and leading others to take on those ideas...and make them reality...

And that is where real leadership is and always has been in the world...and the only kind of leadership that sustains itself over the long haul...

I better sleep for a little bit before I have to go to work...

Have a great day, everyone:):)...

Love,
Ben

Embarking on my more scholarly career...
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Kenny Chesney's The Good Stuff...in my head:):)...
Topic: policy writing
I've been reading two books, lately...

Joe Nye's Soft Power...which is brilliant, by the way, when you get the chance:):)...

And Robert Beattie's Nightmare in Wichita, detailing the case of our own homegrown serial killer in Wichita, Kansas, the BTK Strangler, Dennis Rader...a book that, I agree with Robert, just may well have helped smoke that little weasel out of his hiding spot...since BTK resurfaced after publicity about Beattie's book...likely to get proper credit for his work and to get his version of his gruesome history out for the public to see...

Joe's book is brilliant...and I wanted to spend the day at the WSU research library with policy journals and scholarly books all day, researching international policy and whatever else came up during that study time...but the library is shut down, today, for whatever reasons...so I didn't get a chance...I'm at the 21st and Hillside Wichita Public Library instead...reading and researching the best I can in a public library rather than in a university library, where all the best scholarly resources are at...

I want to start writing more work for my scholarly interests, more formally...and I'm wanting to research for that task...the university world has all kinds of formalities that I'm sure folks will want to see before they pay attention to ideas...so I'm gonna start writing in that way to get some articles and books published at some point, I'm decided...

But I have to say...to all the naysayers I encountered who thought that leaving school was a bad idea...

That I'm totally convinced, at this point, that there is something to spending some time in the real world...and not just having your head in the clouds...and it was one of the best decisions I made in my educational and scholarly career...Tom's opinion on the matter, notwithstanding:):):)...

It was an inconvenient time to do it, for sure, for everyone involved...but goddamn if I wasn't tired, at that moment, of having an advisor arrogant enough to think that newer and better ideas came from professors or advisors riding students to finish their programs...rather than students taking whatever freedom necessary...to develop newer and better ideas...and if that means that my life and his life gets inconvenienced, then so fuckin' be it...because the ideas are/were/will forever be far more fuckin' important than any fuckin' grant...and if you don't believe that, then you shouldn't be in a fuckin' university, in my book...because you're gaming the system for all the wrong fuckin' reasons...I just think Tom got used to that outlook...and I wasn't buying it...because school and an education actually mattered to me...and I wasn't going to treat it with less respect than it deserved...

I don't care what you call yourself...radical...liberal...conservative...Communist...Christian...theocratic...Socialist...anarchist..

I don't care what the fuck you call yourself...

You don't fuckin' decide for me how my ideas get developed...and how my education pans out...I will decide those things, thank you very much...and your input will be appreciated and duly taken...but will not decide the final direction of my education, thank you very fuckin' much...

Why people in universities can't take freedom of thought nearly serious enough too much of the time, I will never know...

But I will take it that seriously and more until you do...

Joe Nye's book is really, really good...Joe's breadth of knowledge of so many international policy events, trends, ideas, thinkers, and the political climate for ideas is really impressive...

But what really makes Joe's ideas stand out is their boldness and their broad potential for application...

There are tons of really great thinkers that Joe cites in his work...

But what stands out in Joe's work is that he has developed ideas with broad scope...and which make sense...Joe's work on soft power has been praised by conservatives like Robert Kagan, Henry Kissinger, and Brent Scowcroft because it is really top notch work...Joe is a liberal, I believe...statements like, "American soft power is eroded more by policies like capital punishment or the absence of gun control, where we are the deviants in opinion among advanced countries," seem to both endorse gun control and oppose capital punishment, implicitly...and to overestimate the degree to which European opinion of American policies should matter to us, I think...I oppose capital punishment and gun control and I think that is the best position on both issues for all kinds of reasons that I've gone into depth about and can do so again at another point...and I want the best policies, whether Jacques Chirac, Angela Merkel, Tony Blair, and any other leader or nation's population likes those policies or not...

I don't agree with Joe all the time...nor do I agree with any thinker all the time...but Joe's work is uniquely strong among policy thinkers, I think, as is Benjamin Barber's, because of the breadth of both of their work and the potential applications that each of them has in a variety of different situations...Joe's work is a better guide for those seeking to use authority wisely, I believe...and Benjamin's is better work to understand the reactions to that authority and the kind of decentralized participatory democratic opportunities that might better account for the concerns of a ever-freer and more democratic world...Robert Kagan's and Henry Kissinger's work are excellent corrections to too much utopian thinking on the left about America's ability to abandon its sovereignty and autonomy and strategic self-interest to multilateral international institutions or to an overly optimistic view of forced collaboration -- which is not real collaboration at all -- in international institutions, like the U.N., especially when those institutions leave a lot to be desired, too often, with whom they let set their agendas, as is the very good case of conservative criticism of countries like Syria setting human rights policies in the United Nations...Kagan's work, in particular, is an excellent correction to the notion that matters of authority and sovereignty don't matter in an often chaotic world where actors in bad faith threaten innocent lives...Kissinger and Kagan, both, are far too cynical in their machinations around the use of power, both for my tastes and for America's interests, I believe...but they are both becoming less so, which is just right by me:):):)...

Joe's work rationalizes liberal power, too much, I believe...and Benjamin's work is an excellent and better correction to the notion of centralized power, liberal, conservative, or otherwise, on so many issues, I believe...though some kind of monopoly on the legitimate use of the hard power and force is still needed, I believe -- privatized prisons and security being a permanent and legitimate use of private power, I believe...though still needing to be subservient, I believe, to public power vested in law enforcement and the courts, despite their many, many flaws -- and I think most people would agree and which I highly doubt that Benjamin would seriously disagree with...Benjamin's focus is just more on the world, at large, than is Joe's, rather than more on governments' use of power, as is Joe's...

But the big difference between Joe and Benjamin's work and Henry and Robert's work...is that where Robert and Henry are consistently borrowing from others' ideas very good ideas...Benjamin and Joe are actively developing newer and better ones...and that is what makes them stronger thinkers, generally, I believe...even as Robert's and Henry's corrections are powerful and important ones, much of the time, I believe...

The more I deal with people who don't take thinking seriously around the most important issues we face...the more I appreciate everyone who takes the thinking seriously...with or without new and original ideas as great thinkers like Joe Nye and Benjamin Barber bring to the table...

Developing new ideas is hard work...and the hardest work, as a young scholar, used to be all the nay-saying from folks too lazy to come up with newer and better ideas of their own...now, I realize...there are leaders...and there are followers...and those folks are followers, much of the time...so as much as they bitch about how there is nothing new under the sun...they generally enjoy the sunlight, once you show them the way...

There are just some of us who are busy showing the way...while others bitch about how there's no other path...

Plato's Allegory of the Cave...how much more I appreciate it and Anthony Gethiel's Honors' English class my freshman year at Wichita State...

The challenge of the 21st Century...is that people can't be dragged from the cave to see the sunlight...because they just find their way back to the cave, which is furnished with cable TV and Cheetos, these days...people have to find their own way out of the cave and into the sunlight...to see the difference between the shadows and the light of reason...

Goddamn it's good to be back in Wichita...I love my hometown...and I love the university where I first fell in love with the world of ideas...I would love to teach at a third tier, no-prestige University like Wichita State, someday...if for no other reason than to be around folks who love ideas for their sake...because they aren't making a lot of money off of them, that's for sure...and where conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, peacefully cohabit in a really very excellent political sciece program at Wichita State, and learn things from one another, if you can believe that (one conservative professor, Ken Ciboski, taught this really excellent comparative politics class that I so thoroughly enjoyed while I was there and still learn more from -- as I review the textbooks from that class, periodically -- each time I revisit what we learned there)...and, in a lot of ways, I would prefer it to the fucked up world of scholarly fame and prestige that takes over peoples' egos, I think, too much, at places like KU and Harvard and Stanford and Yale and Berkeley and a million other places where a lot of really great thinkers live and work...

If my ideas are worth a lick, people will find me, I'm sure...and if not...then it's a pretty good sign that I should look into carpentry or something more up my alley:):):)...

I've got some books to read and some sources to track down, everyone...

Oh...and I want to take a moment, thinking about the WSU research library, to thank our head extemper, Brian White, at Wichita State and now a really fabulous forensics coach at Kapaun Mt. Carmel in Wichita, Kansas, for introducing me to the really pretty impressive scholarly journal and periodical collection at Wichita State University, while the Wichita State extempors were building one of the better sets of extemp boxes (a collection of research articles for domestic and international policy speeches in intercollegiate competitive speech and debate) in the country...I fuckin' love that library, and Brian more than any other person really introduced me to everything it had to offer...

Brian was and is, by the way, one of the first and smartest conservatives that I ever got to know, really well, and someone who gave me first-hand knowledge, at a fairly young age, of how smart conservatives can be...and how much a young liberal kid had to learn about the world...and someone who persuaded me -- along with our more socially conservative speech and debate coach, Chris Leland -- to vote for George Bush, Sr. in my very first election...not a bad vote, though I think Bill Clinton turned out to be a better President...but a really fine Republican President I think more today than I did, then...and for Kansas Republican Eric Yost, unfortunately, for Kansas Attorney General...who turned out to be one of our shittier Attorney General's, I think...but a pretty straight Republican ticket in 1992...and most of the credit for persuading a pretty strong-minded liberal Democrat to vote that way in that year goes to my friend, Brian, who is still one of the smartest and most decent conservatives that I have ever met in my life...

I have a whole lifetime of policy thinking and writing to get a head start on, this Christmas vacation...so I guess I better get on that...

Have a great week, everyone:):):)...

Love,
Ben

Realizing that I pretty much write...like I live...for myself, primarily...
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Superman's Song...Crash Test Dummies...Brown Bunny...Vincent Gallo...Chloe Sevigny...
Topic: policy writing
I think a lot about my place in the world...

Why do I always end up eating so much shit...when I'm so much more genuinely committed to the welfare of others than most people...

Nice guys finish last and all that...

And tonight...watching Some Kind of Monster...and getting some peace with the fact that I want my writing...and my teaching...and my relationships...and my life...as much as possible...to reflect me...the real me...as comfortable as I perpetually feel being and sharing myself...as I really am...

I guess I just realized that...I don't write or teach or do anything for anyone else, primarily, really...

Because if I did...I would expect a lot more money and a more decent and comfortable life than the one I have...if that were the case...

Mowing other peoples' lawns...especially rich peoples' lawns...

I've spent a lot of time asking myself, "Why don't you pursue that stuff like everyone else?"...why do you forgo all that bullshit so you can go and clean up other peoples' messes and prepare the most difficult kids for life?...why do I do this...when I get so little respect for it...and so little money, compared to other professions...and so little decent treatment from anyone who wants to make me feel bad for trying to be so good...because, I assume, they feel so bad for being such shitheads...or maybe it's because they just lack much real perspective on how self-absorbed they really are...

So why do I do it, I'm perpetually asking myself...

And the basic reason that I always come back to is...

Because I want to...

Because I want to be the best person I can be...

Because I care...for whatever stupid, fucked-up reasons...

Even about people...who don't care about me...nearly as much as I care about them...which is most people...probably everyone I know...for whatever stupid, fucked-up reasons...

For whatever reasons...I care about them...I don't always know why...I just do...it's just who I am...I'm not dysfunctional about it, I don't think...if people start to treat me like too much shit...I mosey along my way...and let them figure out their own bullshit on their own...without my help...which is a lot harder than figuring out with my help...though, usually...I'm gone before they figure that out...

So hopefully I leave them with enough wisdom to figure it out, better, on their own...

But I just want to be a genuine person...I don't know why I don't chase the money...or the girls...or the thrills...or the vacations...or the power...or the prestige...or the whatever...more...I just don't...

Because I think there's something to being a decent person...and having some sense of self-respect...and honesty...and being real...and responsible...and being myself...and I just don't know how to live any other way, frankly...because every other way feels fake and fucked up and cowardly...and I just can't do it...

But the truth is...I don't know why I care about being a decent person...in a world where so few people care about it as much as I do...I just do...

I guess...mostly...because I think it matters...whether anyone else does or not...

And I guess...partly...because I figure...surely there's got to be a girl that I can spend my life with...who I can respect as much as I respect myself...and who respects herself that much as well...

And because I have this vague hope...that others will find that kind of courage and the ideas it produces useful...because they've expended all of the other options that don't work as well...

And that some folks will find it as useful...as I first found folks like Abraham Maslow...and Amartya Sen...and Joe Nye...and lots of authors like these ones...who help explain the world, better...that perpetually needs explaining...

I don't know why the world rewards the less meaningful things in life, so much...I imagine because most people have just never figured out the path to a more meaningful or purposeful life...and they reward, more, people who think like them...and like my friends...many of them just don't give much of a shit to...

And I guess the reason why I do...is both because I've had more purpose in my life, up till now...and I know how much better it feels than so many meaningless thrills and bullshit...even as the thrills and bullshit can be kind of fun, too, at times:):):)...

And because for whatever vague reasons...I just think it's better to try to be the best person you can possibly be...even with all the equivocation and bullshit from others...which there is much of...than half-hearting it...as most people do, I think...

Why should people be good in a world which rewards people for being good so little...and so much for being so shitty?...

A society that is more self-actualized, Abraham Maslow argued...like a person...is one that rewards, better, doing good...and its one of the easiest signs of how upside-down a society is compared to one of higher values...

It's a really great question...

Why would people want to be good?...

When it pays off so well...in so many ways...money just being one of the bigger ways...

To be bad...or to be not so great...

I don't really have an answer for that...except some vague notion...some vague faith...that living a life where you try to be the best person you can be...is a better life to live...

I have my mom...and my dad...

My mom...who was/is a good person...but who kind of stagnated...and who I am much less close with, today, and have less respect for than my dad...

And my dad...who made lots of mistakes, when I was a kid...but who took responsibility for them...and kept growing...and who I like better...and respect better...as a consequence...and who was also, probably not coincidentally, much more successful, as well, long term...

And also...because...from a young age...my single most important goal in life...

Was to make life a better place...for everyone...me, included...

And because I so appreciate everyone along the way...who made my life better, similarly...

I guess a lot of people think of that as naive...or sentimental...or weak...or of me as a sucker...or whatever...

And sometimes I agree with them...when I look at what other pathes I passed up...to take the tough one I've taken...

Except...

When I think about meeting a girl like me...

And thinking how much I would respect the living shit out of someone who took my road...and would be thoroughly impressed with a girl who took improving life that seriously...I'd respect a guy like that, too, of course...but I'm looking to love and marry a girl...and have some kids and a family...so meeting a guy I respected like that just wouldn't fit into that particular plan, as well...as much as I would respect the shit out of him, too...

And when I think about how many of the happiest times in my life...have been living life with that kind of purpose...and sharing it with someone else, at least...if not more than one someone elses...

But living it on my own is fine, too, I guess...

I just wish it wasn't so goddamn hard, sometimes...

Or that all this effort -- which is far and above what most people give to life -- would be rewarded better...

But instead...all I get, lately...is a lot of people's bullshit...with very little appreciation for my efforts, at all...not that I'm whining...I just get a little overwhelmed with it, sometimes...

I don't believe in God...or an afterlife...not as an entity...or as a place...so I don't think that there's some kind of heavenly reward waiting for me, at some point...

It's just that...for whatever reasons...I've internalized these values...the values of decency...and compassion...and love...and forgiveness...and intelligence...and honesty...and integrity...and loyalty...and independence...and courage...and strength...and hope...and appreciation for life as it is...not just for what I want it to be...and doing everything in my power to be good...and be the best person I can be...

At some level...I think it's in our best interests...in the long run...even as it has led to some pretty shitty circumstances for me, at times, as I've traded off comfort...so many times...for doing and being my best...

But I have to admit that my faith has been challenged in the last three years...since leaving school...in the last four years...since losing Brandi...than it's ever been challenged before, in my life...

I don't know...

I just do...

I've just always tried to be my best...and I've just never stopped doing that...and I do it more the older and, I hope, wiser I get...

But maybe it's not so wise...

Maybe I'm just bullshitting myself...

Maybe people like me are just bullshitting themselves...

And what I should have done...is started a metal band...and been the best goddamned rock vocalist and guitarist I could be...and if possible...that could be...and fucked a lot of groupies...and made them do all kinds of fucked up stuff for me...did a lot of drugs...and got drunk and high as much as possible...and played a lot of music...in front of millions of cheering fans...and made a shitload of money...to have whatever my heart's desire...and maybe springboard an acting career...and maybe a political career, out of that...

And just generally hopped onto as many gravy trains as I could get my greedy little hands on...

Maybe that would have been...would be...a better path...

Something tells me it wouldn't have been...wouldn't be...

But maybe it would have been...

Maybe the reason why it pays better to be an asshole...or why it pays so little to be noble...

Is because what the human race needs more of...is assholes...not nice guys...

It does seem like that much of the time...

And definitely many of my friends think that is the better path...

And that I'm naive and a sucker for thinking otherwise...

And my life does not, at all, seem like some testament to the fact that being the best person you can be pays off, at this point...maybe it won't ever be...

Abraham Maslow taught, perhaps all his life...I haven't read his biographies close enough, at this point, to know...but he taught most of his life, at least...at Brooklyn College...some small, dinky college in New York...

He wasn't rich, as far as I know...his niece, in one account I've read, did sue over the use of some of his ideas and/or writings, in the name of his estate...I agree with the guy who wrote about it that this was very much out of keeping with the spirit Abraham Maslow's work...and a crazy and sad irony for the legacy of a man so dedicated to dealing with people with more decency, kindness, love, and generosity...

He was just this decent guy...who wrote...for the benefit of people who might learn something from his work...which is some of the finest work in psychology in the twentieth century...and in the history of psychology...and humanity...as far as I'm concerned...

Why?...why do it?...

I'm sure that's what many of my friends ask...not really of themselves...since many of the friends I'm thinking of haven't choose this path, really...and not really of me...since we've never had that conversation...

But just generally...

Why would so many people choose to be such suckers?...they gotta ask themselves...

Why would so many people...choose to do work...where they know they won't be rewarded for it, very well...where lots of people shit of them...both every day...and just generally...in how much they bitch and complain...about how everything they do perpetually falls short of some demanded ideal...where they are so little appreciated...concretely, at least...appreciated abstractly...but less, day to day...

Where the rewards for the work just seem so non-existent...in so many ways...compared to a million other options...all over the place...

Why do so many people...sign up to be...teachers...professors...scientists and researchers...military service-people...police officers...politicians (though there is some money in this line of work, apparently, that goes with all that power)...diplomats...missionaries...civil service professionals...non-profit professionals...

Public servants...of one stripe or another...

Why do people choose to do this work?...

When the rewards are so low?...and the treatment is so poor?...

Why do they do it?...

And the only answer I can give on some days...is...

A sense of purpose...

A sense of hope, maybe...

A sense that you are doing good in the world...

Sounds pretty circular, doesn't it?...

I guess...either you buy it...or you don't...

Either you buy that it's a good thing to do good in the world...

Or you don't...

And it's very dissappointing, I have to say...to find out how many people choose the latter...or choose something in between the two...

I guess we all kind of exist somewhere between these two choices...

Believing that it matters to do good in this world...

And not believing it...

I try to spend as much as my time with the first sentiment as possible...but I spend enough time in that second feeling, as well...

And I don't always know why...

I guess just on faith...

Why, I don't know, much of the time...

I wish I could be more definitive than that...

But that's how I really feel much of the time...

Even as someone who dedicates almost all of his life...to doing good...and making the world better...

Integrity involves a lot of voluntary sacrafice, much of the time...and I don't always know why...

I just do it...on faith...and because the things I care about...seem to work out better...when I do...

Some days I wish I could just wish away all the problems in the world...as so many people do...or try to do...

But...usually...I just keep working constructively...on building a better world...with hopes that maybe it will be better in my own lifetime...and maybe it will be better in my children's lifetime...and maybe that will matter to someone...one day...

It would be nice to think that this would be today...or tomorrow...or every day...

But then that feeling...always gets interrupted...by sorry realities that I have no control over...an aggressive bill collection effort...a utility bill I can't pay...an overbearing or controlling or passive-aggressive or petty boss or co-worker...the knowledge that someone I know has it better than me...no matter how much more work I've put into taking on the real challenges of this life...

It weighs on me...often...and not always with easy answers...unfortunately...

And mine will either be the memoir of some pathetic idealogue...who could never quite figure out he was wrong...or of a person of some thought and wisdom, I hope...who, like almost everyone, really...lives a life with too much inequity, much of the time...even as it also holds much joy and love and compassion and decency and wisdom...as well as some fun and good times, as well...in a world that is, hopefully, always striving for more equity...to always be better...even if it strives ever so slowly, sometimes...and very little, if at all, at other times...

It is painful to think of life, this way, sometimes...

And it is life...for me, anyway...and I would suspect for everyone, at some level...

And when it is painful...like now...I just sit with the pain...and wait for it to pass...or try smoking it away with a cigarette...which doesn't really work any more, these days...

And hope that it makes me stronger and better for it...

And that is life...I think...

But perhaps I should consider my other options, more, as well:):):)...

I should get to bed:):)...

Hope everyone is doing well:)...

Love,
Ben

Why I write the way I write...
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: The Decemberists...This is the story of your red right ankle...Dixie Chicks...I believe in love...
Topic: policy writing
I just heard this interview by Robert Siegel of National Public Radio with Adam Rosen of the Institute for International Economics about President Bush's nomination of Ben Bernanke to be the country's next Federal Reserve Chairman...

That reinforced why I write the way I write:):)...

Adam gave a pretty typical liberal economist's perspective...at least for a liberal in the opening years of the twenty-first century:):)...on President Bush's nomination of Ben Bernanke for Federal Reserve Chairman:):)...

Robert indicated that writers at the National Review, one of if not the most important conservative publication in the country, were expressing concern that Bernanke was not a supply-side economist...referring to the economic theory espoused famously by economists like Arthur Laffer --creator of the concept of the Laffer curve, which sought to demonstrate the marginal utility of higher tax and lower tax rates -- that low taxes and other incentives to business growth were key to growing the economy, since they encouraged savings and investment in new businesses and expansion of old businesses, increasing productivity, employment, and overall economic well-being along the way...

Thanks to Wikipedia for a nice, concise explanation of supply side economics...

Adam Rosen, of the Institute for International Economics sought to put Robert's mind to rest:):)...reminding him, as a newly appointed high priest of the field of economics:):), that supply-side economics is not taken seriously by mainstream economists:):):)...

Which is poppy-cock, of course:):)...and is Adam playing politics with an idea that he disagrees with:):)...because he's a liberal economist:):)...which generally means that he believes in things like progressive taxation (meaning high taxes on the rich and lower taxes on the middle class and poor), economic regulation, and other interferences in the economy that conservatives generally abhor:):) (and I do, too, just for the record:):)...even as an independent who has been a liberal for most of my life:):)...

And it just reinforced for me why I write about complex matters of scholarship and serious ideas as casually and as interspersed with the personal as much as I do:):):)...

First and foremost...it's because I want to humanize serious thought...I want people to see that it's real people who deal in it...not some distant, abstract idea-geek...who doesn't seem to have a soul outside of their immediate academic work:):)...and, as such...that we and all of us, really, are subject to human folly as much as anyone else...thought thinking seriously about life does tend to cut down on that folly, I think:):):)...

Also...because I want to be as open with my life as possible and as I feel comfortable:):)...

Meaning...I don't want people to just read my ideas...I want people to know about me...as a person...as someone who has a life outside of my ideas:):)...and that influence my ideas quite a bit, really:):):)...and I want to be honest that, like all scholars, likely...my personal life affects the way that I look at the world:):)...and think about it:):)...

But a big concern that some people might have about my writing, I think...is how casual it is...how unconventional it is for an academic to write so casually...and personally:):)...

And the reason that this doesn't bother me...is, first...because the personal stuff, I think, is really important actually...and I think it's important for people to know some of the day-to-day realities that shape me and my ideas:):)...and know that I test them every day:):)...that my ideas are not, at all, some kind of ideological agenda...they are ideas borne of very serious thought and real experience:):)...and that that is important to me:):)...and I think should be to everyone:):)...

But the reason why I'm not concerned about how people may disregard my ideas...based on how they're written...

Is borne out in that interview...

You see...Adam just disagrees with supply side economics:):)...and then found a creative, if somewhat deceptive, way to disregard ideas that he disagrees with:):)...

And that is just par for the course...in political and economic and other discussions, I think:):)...but in life, too, I think:)...

I sometimes do it...especially if I think I'm being bullied...and it's a clever and generally honest way to fight back in those situations, I think...to expect people to think seriously...rather than to mistake their groupthink and their bullying for serious thought...

But I try to be honest, generally, when I have a disgreement with someone...the higher the stakes the discussion...like if someone is impugning my character...the less seriously and the less respectfully I will take a disagreement...which I'm fine with, really...I think low-ball disagreements can expect some in-kindness in responses to them:)...

But, generally...I'll try to be as honest as possible about a disagreement:):)...

And...the bottom-line...with any idea...

Is that either you'll agree with it...or find agreement with it...or you won't...

That's really it...everything else is window-dressing...

Meaning...the formality or informality of the writing...the presentation...the grammar...the punctuation...

All the bullshit...eventually gives way...to the basic issue...

Either you find agreement with an idea:):)...or you don't:):)...

I heard about Ronald Coase's ideas on the internalization of extra-economic costs to a society for economic decisions (like environmenatal consequences, say) in a undergraduate macroeconomics class with a liberal economics professor, Martin Perline (one of my favorite undergraduate professors:):)...who dissuaded me of the kind of kooky thought of economist Murray Rothbard, in his book Bionomics, a libertarian tract that I was fascinated with as an undergrad:):)...

I've never read Coase, formally:):)...Dr. Perline did tell us that he had won the Nobel Prize in Economics:):)...and I found his ideas a fascinating opportunity to cut through a lot of the difficulty of getting businesses to think about larger environmental consequences from their business decisions and not at just narrow profit margins...

But I do know that Ronald's ideas are brilliant:):):)...and I don't give a shit about how he writes them:):)...or how he delivers them in a lecture:):)...or how he dresses or doesn't when he shares those ideas:):):)...

I just care about the ideas:):)...because I think they're good ones:):):)...

And that's basically how it works, I think:):)...

I can write in the formalities, too, of course:):)...I was in college of some sort for 12 years, for goodness sakes:):)...I would hope that I have the basics of grammar and spelling and other important formalities of writing down:):)...

But part of the way I write...is both to share of me, personally...meaning...how I'm feeling as I write:):)...like with smileys:):)...

And also to communicate...with the elipses...

That thinking is an on-going...never-ending...process...that it's never done...there are never finished answers...

And anyone who tells you there are...is not only bullshitting you:):)...but they're artificially shutting off the quest for better ideas...

Ronald Coase would never come up with ideas to "internalize the externalities," as Ronald might say:):)...

If he believed that all the important ideas in the world were all out on the table...no more thinking necessary:):)...

And neither would anyone else:):)...

Good thinkers and great thinkers know this...that's how they get to be good and great thinkers:):)...

But...my concern...was that not enough average folks...average thinkers...realized this...

That too many people thought that ideas were less open than all that...because they just look so neat and clean and polished up:):)...when they're written about in articles or books or wherever:):)...

When...really...when you get underneath the hood:):)...

All ideas...and all thinking:):):)...is in process:):)...and that nice, shiny engine:):):)...often has quite a few quirks that its most intimate mechanics know best:):):)...

And I just wanted as many of my own quirks out there as possible:):)...

Because I want people to realize...that anyone can do this:):)...it just takes some effort...and some desire...some practice...and a lot...a lot...a lot...of study:):):)...

And I was just thinking today:):)...as I was mowing the same lawns that I just mowed last week:):):)...

How much I love working with these ideas:):):)...

How important it is to me...

How in awe I am of people who develop genuinely new, interesting, constructive ideas...to make the world better...

And writers, generally, who inspire me to look at the world in a different way:):):)...

Adam Rosen is a fine economist, I'm sure...

But his comments were not on par with the really influential ideas of Ronald Coase...or Amartya Sen...or Fredrich Hayek...or Milton Friedman...or John Kenneth Gailbraith...or John Maynard Keynes...or Robert Heilbroner...or Carolyn Minter Hoxby...

Economists who sought/seek to explain the most difficult and important economic, political, and social phenomena...with deep, broad explanations...that are very diverse...and often in conflict...

And which all add to our understanding of the world:):)...

Adam's comments on NPR didn't really add much to that understanding, in the broadest sense...as very good an economist I'm sure he is:):)...and as much as I learned from him about Ben Bernanke...

I hope my ideas will contribute to that broader discussion in similar ways...

But I've made my peace with the fact that there will likely be people who disagree with me:):)...and probably will be on my death bed and long after I've left this tiny little planet, third from our sun:):)...

And that...either people will find the ideas useful:):)...or they won't...and everything else is just window-dressing:):)...

And in the meantime...I want to leave something of me that is more personal...more...me...than just my ideas:):)...as important as ideas, generally, and my ideas are to me:):):)...

To share of the life that those ideas are meant to help understand...and improve:):):)...

Have a good night, everyone:):):)...

Love,
Ben

Life ain't fair...
Mood:  don't ask
Now Playing: Monty Python's Life of Brian...
Topic: policy writing
I was kind of getting bogged down, today, in my despair that life just seems like some kind of fucked revenge on smart kids, sometimes...sure seems like it...especially these days...

Rented Life of Brian, again...along with Monty Python's Holy Grail...

It's amazing how much contemporary politics is just one recycled version of yesterday's and yesteryear's:):)...

Brian and Roman soldier after Brian has been caught painting graffiti on a prominent Roman building...and has finished giving Brian a bizarre lesson in Latin grammar, complete with a sword to the throat to punctuate a lesson on the use of the nominative verb form...

Roman soldier: Understand?
Brian: Yes sir...
Roman soldier: Now write that a hundred times...
Brian: Yes sir...thank you, sir...hail Caesar, sir...
Roman soldier: Hail Caesar...and if it's not done by sunrise...I'll cut your balls off...
Brian: Oh, thank you sir...thank you, sir...hail Caesar and everything, sir...

Pretty much sums up my life, at this point...

I thought I'd give it another watch...and try to laugh at what morons we all seem these days...

God knows we need someone to laugh at us all, right now:):):)...

But then...as I thought about it some more...

I realized...

This is really kind of stupid whine...

Life is unfair for everyone...

I'm just getting my taste of it:)...

I just want life to be more fair for everyone...

And I get a little discouraged when it seems unfair...

"Cheer up, Brian...you know what dey say...

Some fings in life aw bad...dey can really make you mad...

Ovver fings just make you swear and curse...

When you're chewing on life's grissul...

Don't grumbul...give a whistle...

And dis'ul help fings turn out fo de best...

And...always look on the bright si-ide of life...(whistles tune)...

Always look on the light side of life...

Cause life's a piece of shit...when you at it...

Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true...

You'll see it's all a show...keep 'em laughing as you go...

Just remember that the last laugh is on you...

Always look on the bright side of life" (whistles tune)...

I've instructed all my friends that I want the last 15 minutes of Monty Python's The Life of Brian played at my funeral:):):)...

Yeah...life ain't fair for any of us...we all feel a little cheated inside, I imagine...for something...

I want it to be better...

But this is what we all got, for now...

So we might as well share it, I guess...and enjoy it while we got it:):)...

Ever seen Mr. Roberts?...Henry Fonda...Jack Lemmon...James Cagney?...great movie...kind of captures it...

We're all stuck on this miserable little boat, together...when it's miserable, that is...like we're all making it, right now:):):)...

So we might as well all enjoy our time while we're here:):):)...

Like they say in Mr. Roberts...

What we all need is a little liberty:):):)...you'll have to see it to understand, better:):)...

And that's what I think we all use a little...a lot...more of...

Liberty, that is:):)...

And maybe a little less shit from one another...and a little more support...

Have a good day, everyone:):)...

Love,
Ben

P.S. I talked with my grandma, tonight...she's slowed down, some, with her illness...I know she must be dissappointed...being so active...and having to slow down...but she sounds like she's doing alright...we'll all hope good things for her:)...

Falsifiability...as a principle of science...and developing tests for my ideas:)...to prove them wrong:):)...
Now Playing: Six Feet Under...season 4...
Topic: policy writing
I was having a conversation, today, on what distinguishes the theory of evolution from theories like intelligent design...

And I got a great idea for the next steps in testing my ideas:)...

The conversation was about what makes science, science...

And a bunch of folks posted on the idea of falsifiability...

Which basically means...that scientific ideas can be demonstrated...and falsified...we can demonstrate scientific ideas are right...and demonstrate that they are wrong...

Empirical standards assume that when we say demonstrate...we mean that we can make clear inferences and interpretations of facts using our senses...sight...sound...taste...smell...touch...

Political science works similarly...though setting up experiments by the most rigorous scientific standards is difficult...because developing clean separation of conditions is terribly difficult in the social world...

Political and social scientists (psychologists especially) aspire...with experiments that seek volunteers to expose themselves to separate conditions that produce as clean a difference between data as possible...

But, generally...those experiments are still subject to fairly heated debates about interpretation of data...

And in political science, especially...debates that are often predicated on policy biases that are really difficult to parse out...

An excellent example of this difficulty in policy debates is the scholarly debate on vouchers...

Paul Peterson, of Harvard University, William Howell, and whole host of others represent a camp of folks who believe in vouchers...and who conduct experiments to try to test their validity...

And Paul Witte, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and others are folks who have done analysis of that same data, generally, and come to different conclusions...

And though the same folks have worked with similar data...they have often come at that data with different assumptions about a whole host of complex phenomena -- another very serious complexity with policy questions...there is just so much complexity to social and political phenomena...that even serious policy thinkers and scholars have very serious differences and strong feelings about them:):)...although...as I'm learning...a similar problem exists -- including the strong feelings -- in other scientific circles like biology, physics, and chemistry...

Both of these groups of researchers have had particular interest in a set of data that has been collected from the experiment with publicly-funded private school vouchers engaged by the city of Milwaukee...

And both of them have come to very different conclusions, as you can imagine, based on their different policy positions...and the subsequent assumptions about the data that they've come at the data with:):)...

Paul and his associates have tried to separate out the data...they've looked at results from students with similar backgrounds who have stayed in public schools (one of the very interesting critiques of this analysis of data is that comparisons are made of those who are stable in public schools versus those who choose to use vouchers...rather than those who engage in public school choice versus those who use vouchers)...and those who have taken advantage of the private school vouchers to attend schools both in other public schools (I believe, if I'm remembering the data set, correctly...if not...it would be an interesting way to analyze the data)...and in private schools outside the public school district...

But the trick, here, is that the advocates for various perspectives -- those favoring private school vouchers...and those favoring public schools -- each developed experiments and analyzing data in a way that supported their various perspectives...even as I thought there was much validity (meaning, truth...not just validity for their feelings:):):)...in each perspective...

I tend to think that public schools offer the best educational opportunities...

But I also think that freedom -- which shows up differently and incomplete in different schooling situations...and in schooling situations versus other situations, altogether -- is critical to the best learning...

So I'm going to go about my testing, differently...

I've developed my ideas, enough, I think, at this point...here...and on a couple of different forums I've been on -- Blonde Sagacity...but more...the EZBoard International Debate forum I've debated on -- to develop a much better idea, in my own head, at least, of what the implications of least possible necessary aggression, involves:):)...enough to write a book, at least, if not several, at this point:):)...

But the testing is really the tricky part:):)...

And I feel separate enough from the ideas, at this point (and confident in them, as well, I must admit)...

That I'm going to approach the question of falsifiability with the higher scientific standard...

Meaning...I'm going to develop tests to prove my ideas wrong...

And like any true debater:):):)...

I'm going to develop tests that are as rigorous in trying to prove my ideas wrong...as I was in developing them to constructively solve serious policy problems that I and others encounter...

And I'll start with what I think are the weakest areas or seemingly weakest areas in my ideas...

Some of the areas where I'm concerned by either statistics or by arguments in my ideas include advocacy for gun rights (the statistics of gun-related murders in the United States are way disproportionately high...though the U.S. has a lot of gun control laws that date back to near the beginning of the 20th Century, at least...and I don't have a very good explanation for those gun-related murders, at this point, by my lights)...

Another area is why people, intuitively, believe that harsher punishments are more effective for serious and violent crimes...even when the psychological data seems to point in the opposite direction...

Another area is places where pressure and intimidation and punishment seem to work...and help buttress the idea that they work for many people...but where, as behavioral and other psychologists, I think, rightly argue, that they work temporarily -- and I would add with longer term consequences that are often not accounted for -- and do not lead to internalization of principles and understandings that accomplish those goals more sustainably and substantially...

Meaning...why education and understanding and constructive engagement and thought and reality checks are far more effective, long term, and without those longer term consequences, than punishment is either the short term...and certainly in the long term...

As I've said before...aggression is sometimes necessary...

But the problem is in the rationalization of its use when it is not or is less useful...as means of gaining control...that is elusive...

Some of the military and law enforcement applications are ones I want to explore...since so many folks in these fields might be more likely to object to them, I assume...though I'm learning an awful lot about the diversity of ideas in these fields...but these are fields that more regularly use force to deal with difficult issues they encounter...

Business and economic applications might occur in these fields that might be less open to them than some other fields -- like education and academia...though there is much more precedent for the idea that freedom and education -- in the form of free trade and schooling -- creates growth in the fields of business and economics than in the fields of military and law enforcement...criminology might have incorporated more psychology...but I haven't studied enough criminology, at this point, to know...that's a place to start, too, I think:):)...

And the legal field has advocates for freedom on different sides, as do the politicians and activists that often borrow from this field to make arguments...

Bill Clinton's leadership includes both advocacy of things like drug control and gun control...and constructive engagement in places like China and Vietnam that seem to have been succesful in opening those countries up, both to promote more freedom in these countries and cultures, generally...but also to provide reality checks that make citizens and leadership in these countries more aware of poorer and better policy choices...

And George Bush's leadership with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq offer excellent opportunities to test these ideas, as well...if conservatives who argue that America must look after her interests and the resentment of the world be damned and that means playing every hard power card we have necessary -- military, legal, political, and economic -- and that the casualties in Iraq are the necessary by-product of a more successful international policy than the one offered by the liberal leadership of Presidents like Bill Clinton (something that seems like a significant stretch to me, at this point, I must admit:):):)...then that scenario would pose a significant challenge to these ideas, I think:):)...

Liberal, Democratic, and citizen reaction to Hurricane Katrina, the blame games, the resignation of Michael Brown, and other unfolding events with that natural disaster might also offer an opportunity to look at the up-side of blame games, so to speak:):)...God knows a lot of liberals and Democrats engaged in them:):)...and an awful lot of folks -- conservatives included -- argued for them...so this might be a place to look at efforts that challenge a more constructive approach to difficult policy questions...or which frame constructive efforts differently...

And Tom Delay's indictments and issues with campaign finance regulation as well as larger issues with campaign finance regulation might offer some interesting tests of the issues -- good and bad -- with campaign finance regulation...

And I probably should, at some point, make increasingly clearer on this blog...as I have on other forums...the places where I think aggression is appropriate and most appropriate...where controlling and limiting freedom is more appropriate...in conjuction with efforts at constructive engagement...because the stakes are too high to leave freedom as an option...unrepentant and sociopathic murders and violent criminals...and even repentant murderers and violent criminals, for periods of time that assure more safety that they will not repeat their crimes...

And places where it is less useful...

Trying to impose democratic and freedom-loving values comes to mind, here:):)...

But here's the challenge for me...

I'm not interested in being right where I'm wrong...

It makes no sense...

Why would someone want to prove they are right when they are wrong?...

If you're wrong, you're wrong...

So...the challenge for me...

Is to develop as rigorous of tests as I can develop...

That attempt to prove my ideas wrong...

That try to falsify them...

I'm working on them...as well as using this as an opportunity to look at data that I want to analyze with fresh eyes...that look for alternative explanations...

And better yet...

With an eye to proving my ideas around least possible necessary aggression wrong:):):)...

Science is so fun, don't you think?:):):)...

That's why I love it:):):)...

It's the enterprise most open and rigorous...about proving itself wrong:):):)...

If anyone has any suggestions...as I'm sure a lot of people should...most people agree with me, in part...and then not, in part...so the parts where you don't agree with me...you can draw on those for ideas to prove these ideas wrong...

Please submit them:):)...

So here is everyone's chance:):):)...and an open invitation as long as I and everyone else is alive and kicking:):):)...

Any ideas that anyone has about how these ideas might be wrong...

I am way open to hearing them, right now...

Because I'm serious...

My focus, right now...

Is on proving my ideas wrong:):):)...

I think I might start with that John Stuart Mill essay I blogged about earlier...the one I said was the most comprehensive critique of these ideas, generally, that I have found, up to this point...it's published in a book called Applied Ethics, edited by Peter Singer, and published by the Oxford University Press in 1986...it's called Speech in Favour of Capital Punishment(1868)...in case you're interested:):):)...

Immigrants and native citizens...sorts out those who choose to live with laws and those who don't...to sort out matters of domestic force to deal with domestic issues within countries...and sorting out data for more and less democratic and more and less autocratic countries would be useful, too...

And consequences following constructive engagement and diplomatic resolutions of various international issues and those following the use of military power...and then to look at the consequences following conditions where I would assume, given these principles, where diplomatic or constructive engagement would be more effective...and conditions where militaristic or more forceful efforts would be more effective...terrorism presents particular challenges around collaborative efforts between military and law enforcement...but I imagine we can find data separating various consequences after various scenarios...

There are a lot of confounds in any data set we'd consult...meaning...there's a lot of different policies being used during similar or simultaneous time periods...

But the great thing about democracies...is that they offer a better laboratory for different approaches...

Meaning...that there are different democracies and different governments with different policies and different more dominant and less dominant ideologies during different time periods -- many of those democracies incorporate federalism...so different governments within federal arrangements that offer different policies to consider -- with different policies and different consequences from those different policies that we can analyze...

Also...if you feel more comfortable emailing me ideas for tests rather than posting them publicly on my blog (and I'll respect any requests for anonymity)...please feel free to do so...at...

benfrankln@yahoo.com

...or...

bfrankln@hotmail.com

...or...

You can also post suggestions on my Blogspot blog at http://benfrankln.blogspot.com...

Let the tests begin:):):)...

Love,
Ben

Politics without ideas and the naked arrogance of seeking power...
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: policy writing
Jonathan Chait has this really terrible, intellecutally obtuse article in The New Republic -- a magazine I used to respect but which has since become a breeding ground for cynicism and meaningless abstraction (generally...it's not just Jonathan) -- in it's July 11th edition that I just happened on today...

Jonathan Chait...The Case Against New Ideas...

I have to say that the left is really hitting rock bottom, at this particular political moment...

And Jonathan's really awful article demonstrates the arrogance of not just too many liberals, right now...but of engaging in politics, especially, and any endeavor, period, with the cynical position that all that matters is that you take charge...ideas be damned...

It is this attitude that is the basis for Lord Acton's political aphorism, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely...

And Jonathan's article, here, is about the most naked demonstration of that kind of arrogance that I've ever seen in contemporary writing...

Niccolo Machiavelli, of course, is one of the most naked advocates of power for its own sake...

But Machiavelli died several centuries ago...

And Jonathan Chait is alive and well arguing similarly obtusely in a way that demonstrates Jonathan's lack of thought, really...and not much else...

I mean...don't people resent the idea of people arguing that they should have power over you without any reason given whatsoever?...

I've been dealing, lately, with my resentment that people have control over me, period...rather than respect my freedom and ability to make judgments on my own...especially when I don't see anyone, right now, who I trust to make better judgments for me...period...

But power with no reason?...

I sure hope we haven't all gone off the deep end, like that...

But the nice thing about bottoming out...is that it gives you an opportunity that you either take or you don't...

To look at yourself in the mirror...

And to deal with whatever cynicism, resentment, anger, hate, fear, envy, greed, power-seeking or whatever general ugliness is underneath all that...

And the whole thing makes me so glad that when given the choice between pursuing a life where I just try to get to "the top" -- whatever the hell that is, really, when you stop to think about it -- or to contribute meaningful ideas that either people take advantage of or they don't to improve their lives...

That I took the latter route...

A route that I'm sadly learning is far less traveled that I ever imagined...given how important a trek it is...

I never dreamed that so many people could be so foolish to think that what really matters is how much control or power they have...or how much money they have...or how much influence or prestige they have...or how much they get laid...or how many kinds of drugs they do...or whatever...

Whatever...other than what they contribute to make the world a better place...both their own little home in it...their family...their friends...their loved ones...

And the bigger world beyond it...

It's so funny to me that people would be so goddamned foolish so much of the time:):):)...

Lost in all kinds of foolishness that don't help...and that don't mean a goddamn thing, really...to anyone...not really...

You ever won something that made you feel important...like a volleyball game...or a bridge match...or a talent show...

Well...it is amazing to me that so many people live their lives like life is just this giant talent show...

When...if you ever have won anything like that in your life before...or even gotten close...

Hopefully you realize...

That it's both fun...

And it's also just kind of bullshit, really:):):)...

It doesn't really mean a goddamn thing:):):)...

That's what 7 years of forensics competition taught me:):):)...

That I could win a lot...

And at the end of the day...

The winning really didn't mean anything...

It was the learning that mattered...and the friendships:):)...and the love shared:):)...and the ways I tried and hopefully made things better...or anted up and admitted when I hadn't...

Really...

And everything else is just one long load of horseshit that we give way to much attention to:):):)...

And the more I see just how wrapped so much of the world is in the shit that doesn't matter in life:):):)...

The more it makes me thankful that I carved out my own path:):):)...and thanks to Robert Frost for being one of the first people to inspire me in that direction:):):)...

I hope everyone's doing well, today:):):)...the time off has done wonders for me:):)...and I've got some applications to get on:):):)...

Have a great day, everyone:):):)...

Love,
Ben

I'm kind of feeling discouraged about this little experiment...
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: The Blower's Daughter...Damien Rice...
Topic: policy writing
I started this blog pretty soon after I left grad school...and I've written in it and engaged policy conversations since leaving grad school out of commitment to both share myself openly...personally...my more serious policy work...a chance for me to vent...everything...

One of my commitments...was that I wanted to -- very much like Stephen King's comments on this subject -- to dispel the snottiness of too many intellectual discussions about the capacity for everyone to be smart and brilliant and for genuine equity in education/intelligence to be a reality...and a potential reality -- since equality just isn't possible...I'll never be a surgeon...no matter how much potential I might have to be a surgeon...my expertises' are education, policy, and psychology...I'm not a surgeon...and never will be...I may have the potential...but I will never have a knowledge base comparable to a surgeon...

But everyone should have and feel like they have that shot, I think...and many people in scholarly circles -- including very equity-oriented scholars like Nobel-prize winning poverty economist Amartya Sen -- have many serious doubts about the possibility of that...

I believe in it...and much of that is because I don't just identify as an intellectual (though it gets put in my face just about every day of my life that that is how most people think of me)...

I identify as an average person...I identify as white trash...I identify as an actor and a singer and an avid theater lover...I identify as a passing sports fan...as a major connoisseur of music of all kinds (I have some of broadest music interests I've ever encountered, really:):):)...

And while I share the commitments of my grad program...that expertise shouldn't be lorded over people...and ESPECIALLY in policy contexts...

I also identify as a policy expert...

And I get really frustrated in conversations with people who don't study policy more formally...and don't think of policy and political science in this way...

That they have such a hard time understanding that...

To me...

Politics is not just about having opinions...

Policy and politics is about studying and understanding important issues and accounting, as much as possible, for the totality of the realities associated with them...

That policy is serious work...not just having an opinion...

Just as medicine is serious work...that people can choose to listen to or ignore...but I'm for damned sure going to listen to a doctor about their thinking on my health...because it's what he does for a living...

We had this conversation a million times in grad school...

It's the old John Dewey/Walter Lippman debate...

Does expertise matter?...

And I came out of that discussion with a pretty integrated view...that Dewey was right that democratic and equitable discussions of important matters is necessary...and Lippman's thesis (that I'm not convinced, at all, really, that Dewey seriously disagreed with) that expertise was still important, independent of the need for more casual observers to be involved in such discussions...

As I argued in grad school...

I want a surgeon to operate on me...and not a witch doctor...because a surgeon knows what the fuck he's doing...and a witch doctor doesn't...no matter how much a less developed culture might rationalize the expertise of the latter...

And similarly...

While I have no interest in lording policy expertise over others...

There is an objective reality that policy thinkers, generally, hold themselves accountable to, better, than do average folks...

Because they study it for a living...

They're just better at it...

Lots of people have opinions about this war...

But I take most seriously the opinions of folks like Joseph Nye and Benjamin Barber and Robert Kagan and Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright and James Rubin and James Baker and Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and Warren Christopher and Cyrus Vance and Paul Wolfowitz and Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell and others with international policy backgrounds or who have proven themselves to be competent international policy thinkers...and anyone else who has relevant and important things to say about international policy, really...because they know better what they're talking about, frankly:):):)...as well as better military historians like James McPherson, David McCullough, John Keegan, and the work of the late, great Stephen Ambrose...because these military historians understand, better, the role of policy as guiding better military decisions...rather than the romantic fantasies of Victor Davis Hanson, for instance, who lets the tail wag the dog in his histories of warfare, to often, I believe...Hanson is an excellent tactical military historian, exploring the details of battle very thoroughly...but his understanding of the policy realities that surround warfare is pretty lacking in his writing, in my experience with Victor...which is why, though a brilliant writer, he is not one of the great military historians of our time, I don't think...

And anyone else, really, who has interesting and relevant things to say about any policy, for that matter...

But I'm kind of frustrated, right now...that in conversations with people who don't have that kind of background...

That they don't take it seriously...

I know...

Lots of people don't take medicine very seriously either...

But...personally...I would go to a doctor if I had what I knew was a medical problem...many mental health problems are misdiagnosed as medical problems, I think...in which case, I would go to a social worker or a psychologist or a psychiatrist or someone else with a mental health background that might help out...

But I would definitely go to someone with credible expertise in the area...rather than just any random person...

I guess there's just a part of me that just wants to go hang out with other policy people...and, often, just more educated people, generally...because you get a much more intelligent discussion, frankly...where that level of intelligence is taken more seriously...it's not that Ph.D.'s are always smarter...too many times, they're not...but they do tend to appreciate a more intelligent conversation, more...and take more seriously the idea that intelligence and expertise matters...even if it's always and perpetually not the last say on the matter...

But I don't want to do that because my commitment as a person is that I don't want to be exclusive about the people I hang out with...I have friends from a million different backgrounds...and I like it that way...

But my frustration is that while I take THEIR expertises' seriously...they never seem to reciprocate that respect...and it pisses me off quite a bit, really...

And it makes me want to just go hang out with people I can count on to respect that level of conversation...

Namely...policy thinkers...

But that's the problem, as is...

That too much of politics is run on peoples' random opinions...rather than consulting with people who have a diversity of views, to be sure...

But who also share common commitments...

Like being accountable to objective realities independent of those opinions...

Like thinking deeply about policy matters and not just getting lost in the current political moment...

Like considering the culture and the international environment, generally...and not just localized cultures, like Washington, D.C...

Like taking freedom and democracy seriously...or at least their study...given how remarkably free and democratic countries outperform their counterparts in improving the quality of the lives of their peoples...

Like a lot of stuff that I can just expect, better, in conversation with someone who's studied these things...even just a little bit...

I ran into a friend from college forensics competition, the other day...a public speaker from Kansas State University named Chris (I'm forgetting your last name, Chris...I'm so sorry...we competed with one another for 2-3 years, at least, together, almost every weekend...and I forgot Chris...I sincerely apologize)...Chris isn't a policy person, per se...but he extemped and was a pretty smart guy, overall...

And in just about 5 minutes of that conversation, I remembered what it was like to discuss political matters with someone who thinks about them seriously...and not just as a random opinion...

It really doesn't take that much, frankly, to impress me on these matters...just enough to know that someone has thought about these things seriously...and that they hold themselves to a higher standard than their egos, on the matter:):):)...

Because ego is a pretty common standard for almost any subject...and policy and politics, especially:):):)...

But with all the ego going around this political season...

I am definitely learning why a policy education is so important...

To separate what really matters...from all the bullshit...

Because there is DEFINITELY A LOT OF BULLSHIT out there...propaganda out the whazoo...especially in a heated political time...

And political wisdom, as the conventional political wisdom goes, generates more light than heat...

And this is definitely a political moment when we need more light than heat...

Because it is too goddamned hot in American and international politics, these days...and not only does the room need to cool down...but we need a lot more thought and a lot less bullshit to get us closer to important solutions to difficult problems...

We need more light...and less heat...

And policy thinkers are the people with the most light to offer...

I am not giving up on this experiment...

But I am getting kind of exhausted having political conversations full of heat...

And lacking nearly enough light...

And what is at stake...just so everyone without policy backgrounds know...

Is whether decisions that are politically popular in one moment keep getting made...no matter how bad of decisions they turn out to be down the line...

And whether policy people -- who spend their lives trying to help political representatives make better decisions based on objective observations of reality -- keep having largely cloistered discussions...because they often feel...as I do now...that people without policy backgrounds just don't get just how in the dark they are about policy matters...

And too often feel that their random opinions on important political matters...should be taken more seriously than they should...

I'm not giving up...

But I am frustrated...

And I can understand, now, better, why policy people give up on this course...this path of trying to include non-policy folks in serious policy discussions...

Because too many average folks just don't get it, frankly...

And just as many people want to give up on that obnoxious sister-in-law or father-in-law who just doesn't seem to get it...

Policy people...and people with all kinds of expertises, really...get kind of frustrated, as I do now, with how too many people just don't get it...

And that kind of frustration leads to arrogance, long term, I think...which is what I want to avoid both for myself...and which I want to make a change in the policy community, and intellectual communities, generally, around...

But I can't do that if people keep pretending that intelligence and education and expertise just don't matter...

Because they do...whether people want to admit that to themselves or not...

And because people with those kinds of education know that better than people who don't have those kinds of education...

It's a no-win argument for people without that level and kind of education...

Because it's just a fact...like it or not...

And it is a fact that I'm getting weary of arguing about any more...

If it has to be resolved with...fine...policy folks go their way...and everyone else goes there's...

Then so be it...because it's pretty clear to me who knows what they're talking about better:):):)...

But I just don't think that's a really good course for all of us to take...including policy thinkers...because the stakes are just too serious to not take equity in those conversations seriously, I think...

So...

I'm really frustrated, right now...

But I'm not giving up...

I'm just trying to figure out how best to navigate this little obstacle...

With integrity to what I do...

I don't know...

I just know I'm really frustrated with this, right now...

And sometimes I want to give up...because it just seems like a bridge that's not bridgeable...

Because it requires more humility that people are willing or able to offer...

For my friends who are being really hard-headed about this one...and there are two, in particular, that I can think of with whom I know their stubborness on this issue has seriously affected our relationship...

If you make me choose between my own self-respect and respect for my professional expertise...and our friendship...

I will choose my self-respect...and respect for my professional expertise...and choose to give up the friendship...

And I would expect you to do the same if I demeaned your livelihood, knowledge and expertise...nevertheless you passion in life...

I'll just sleep on it, I suppose...and see what I think when I wake up:):):)...

Have a good day, everyone:):):)...

Love,
Ben