Love happens...

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What I learned over Christmas vacation...

I hung out with friends and family a lot, this Christmas...we talked a lot...I picked peoples' brains for ways to make my class more interesting...to make school a better experience for kids...

The consistent answer from friends and family was making it one where kids and students get to choose what goes on, more...reading books that interest them, and not just classic literature...activities that they like/want to do, and not just teacher directed activities...and this was from my school-smart friends and family as much as from my friends and family that struggled with school, more...

I love/d school, I would explain to friends and family...except for that last 6 months or so in grad school when my advisor got more interested in the grant money and his own schedule for me than with my education...the first two reasons having nothing at all with why I was in grad school, in the first place...which he just kind of took for granted too much, by the end...I made plenty of my own mistakes, as well...

But even though I love school and education and all the values that it seeks to impart much more than any of my friends and most people, generally...and I think I understand more than most educated folks how most people don't share these interests...and how this has everything to do with why more and less educated folks see the world so differently...

I also know what it's like to have people take my cooperation in that process for granted, so wrapped up are they in their own priorities...that they forget to ask me about mine...

And my commitment, as a teacher, is to change that relationship between teachers and students...at least between me and my students...and set the standard for everyone else...

And my friends and family gave me a lot of great feedback on that this Christmas vacation...

It's so funny...but for some strange reason...reading about Robert Kaplan writing of all the "virtues" of American empire...and all the people in the world that such an arrogant, conceited view of the world and power takes for granted...

It just has kind of chilled me out, quite a bit..

Both because I won't be bullied...by Robert Kaplan via whatever political leaders that he might encourage with such a short-sighted, nasty little worldview...

But also because it begins to help me come to terms with my limitations in changing the process...which just kind of chills me out...and helps me accept, better, that good ideas, like bad ideas, get picked up, experimented with, and thrown aside once it becomes clearer to the folks engaging them that they aren't as useful...or maintained and elaborated once it becomes clearer that they are more useful...

And all ideas work like that...for me...for everyone...

My advisor was someone who thought a lot...without having a lot of great ideas...lots of people are like that...I don't really know, really, if that's better than not thinking a lot...because I have to say that there are a million people I've encountered in my life who are far less pains in the ass and who have been far more helpful to me in developing good and better ideas than my very clever by half advisor...

All those folks back in Wichita come to mind, for me, right now...and so many folks, here in Lawrence and in Kansas City...Brandi and Melissa and a million friends come to mind around that one...

It's so sad to me to think that so much of the world gets fucked up because folks get disillusioned with school...and doing good...because of so much pressure to do more than they are prepared to do...or understand to do...or are ready to do...

And then just kind of grow to resent school and education as some kind of imposition...or useless afterthought in their lives...

All because they get pushed to hard, too fast...

Me too...but I've dealt with it better than most folks, I think...

I think my own graduate school advisor was kind of an ass, much of the time that I dealt with him...though he could be a good guy, too, when we wasn't being such a goddamned bully...and most people I encountered had issues with their advisors...I just felt like I was in a better position to walk away, frankly...I had the same issue with my undergrad and my master's advisor, truth be known...I've not had a very good experience with advisors, generally...something about having people push me around, all the time, that I'm a little put off by...I'm sure it's not just me...it's an open secret that students hate advisors and professors and teachers who act this way...it's just that, for some reason, the general attitude is that students should just learn to deal with what jackasses their teachers and advisors and professors are...which is the reality much of the time...though I bailed when it became clearer to me that my advisor had little more to offer than a degree...which was not the reason I was in grad school...I was there for an education...something that I think my advisor and many professors had lost track of being the most important priority in a university, a long time ago...totally straight-up on that one...I can't tell you how many times I heard from professors, "Just finish the degree up"...and I kept thinking, "If the only thing that this whole experience is worth is a degree, what the fuck is it worth, you fuckin' cynical bastards?...you really think professors got it all figured out?...is that how knowledge gets developed, you dumbasses?...by just gettin' the degree?"...goddamn fools...

And my friends and family helped remind me of that, this weekend...as they told me about how they'd like to have their own priorities and interests taken more seriously when they were in school...some very smart and decent folks gave me that feedback as much as folks who struggled with school, more...

So it's advice I'll take more seriously...

I wonder, sometimes...why professors and teachers and all kinds of folks in schools...can't see more clearly how much of the world gets fucked up because of our failures in schools...

How someone like Robert Kaplan and the soldiers he interviews carry around chips on their shoulders about their school experiences...because of their shitty school experiences...which is no excuse for their arrogance...it just seeks to understand it a little better...

And I'm just tired of that cycle...I want to change it...to make a start on getting everyone on the same page, better...that the learning matters...but so do the people who are doing the learning...

Problem is...

Noone seems to take those two priorities as seriously as they need to be taken...so wrapped up are most folks in short term and less important priorities...

And stubborn ass me...I just won't choose between thsoe priorities...improving the learning environment for everyone...raising the standards for everyone...and creating more space for everyone to have their say...to study around their interests, more...to have fun in school and with their education as much as they take it seriously...

And most of all...

To care about it all...

To know just how important...learning...and the people engaged in it...are...

All of them...all of it...

And that's something that Robert Kaplan is just wrong about...it's not something that can be worked through with brute force...

It's something that takes more light than heat...

Many and most problems in the world are ones that take more light than heat, most of the time...though there are always times when we need heat and deal with the heat of the situation to deal effectively with the challenges in front of us...

And Robert writes so often about heat...because he lacks enough light to shine on the situations he encounters...

Most people do this, I'm learning...they talk about and use more heat...the less light they have to shine on a situation...

And I just didn't get into teaching...or policy...or any of the things I care about in life...

To keep making this stupid mistake over and over again...just because everyone else does...someone's got to face the mistake and cut it out...and it might as well be me...

Have you ever heard Clint Black's (and Skip Ewing's...who co-wrote it) Something That We Do?...if you haven't...you should download it...or go check it out at Borders...or buy the CD...it's beautiful...I'm planning on singing it to my wife at my wedding...along with several other love songs I've got stuck away in my repertoire...

I'm tired of life with too much heat and not enough light...politics with too much heat and not enough light...schools with too much heat and not enough light...wars with too much heat and not enough light...a criminal justice system with too much heat and not enough light...

Too much heat...not enough light...

If there is any one most serious problem in the world...

This is the one...

And its the one that stands in the way of resolving all the others...

Kind of ironic, don't you think?...that so many people turn to heat...to help them to resolve their problems...

And yet it is the one most important obstacle to resolving them...

But...

There's only way to find that out, for sure...

To keep making the same stupid mistakes until you get it figured out for yourself:):):)...

Me, too:):)...

I realized this weekend that everyone wants to stop making the same stupid mistakes...they just don't know how, often...and most folks are kind of stubborn about giving up the bullshit...

But if interacting with my Grandma Sutherland has taught me anything...it's that everyone can and is, ultimately, willing to learn, some of the time, at least...and when you're lucky...more of the time...

It just takes time:):)...

Me included:):)...

Most people fuck up before they see the fuck up...some people think about the fuck up to prevent it in the future...others stubbornly keep fucking up without enough thought...

But all of us can learn to think more about our fuck ups...with the right support...for ourselves and for others...to think about them better...and how to prevent them in the future...

And we all need a lot more patience with ourselves and with each other...as we do the learning...

Did I mention that I love Dar Williams?...I do...I love her...I'm listening to her really beautiful, "O Canada Girls," right now...if Dar Williams was single and in my area, I'd ask her out in a fuckin' heartbeat...she is just so goddamned sweet...

Sleep tight, everyone:):)...

Love,
Ben

The ugly world of power...

What an ugly, dangerous, scary world the world of power is...

I've been reading the reviews of Robert Kaplan's new book...and half of President Bush's Christmas reading, from the reports I read...

Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground...at metacritic.com...

Imperial Grunts...at Amazon...

Imperial Grunts...at Powells...

Imperial Grunts...at Barnes and Noble...

I have a lot of respect for Robert Kaplan...

But his thesis of an inevitable (and desirable) American empire is so corrupt and dangerous a thesis that I will read his book with more than a bit of Lord Acton's famous skepticism that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely...

Unfortunately for Kaplan and those of his ilk...American political power is already in serious decline...

And the arrogance to think that American power could or should be wielded so cynically...is repugnant in a way that I can hardly even accept comes from someone so otherwise brilliant at Robert Kaplan...

Appropriate for a book embracing the idea of American empire...Andrew Bacevich writes in the anti-imperial Nation magazine one of the best critiques such a thesis that I have read thusfar...

Robert Kaplan: Empire Without Apologies...Andrew Bacevich...Sep. 8 post/Sep. 26 issue of the Nation Magazine...

Kaplan's own chip about his place in international policy circles seems to reinforced by the chips of the American servicemen and women that he interviews and their place in policy discussions that they, like Kaplan, are not as well prepared to engage in as their more learned colleagues...

Luckily for all of us...power doesn't operate the way that Kaplan would like it to...

But how arrogant for Robert to suggest that it would...

If that thesis turns out to be true -- and it is confirmed by too many sources for me, at this point, to be too skeptical of the veracity of those who present it as such -- Robert Kaplan just lost an enormous amount of respect from a policy student who had otherwise harbored much admiration for Robert's journalism and his willingness to think outside of the box of the international policy establishment...

All those pointy-headed ivory tower scholars, those of this particularly ugly-minded ilk must reason...keeping us from ruling the world properly...as God and the American Constitution would want us to...if it weren't for all those elitist liberal professors...keeping the world from the discovering the truth of our clearer right to that power...whether we have to take that right by force or not...

How conceited and repugnant...and...luckily for the world...damned foolish...dangerous, to be sure...but damned foolish, ultimately...

In so many ways...Robert Kaplan just became everything I don't want to be as a policy thinker...his persistent whines that his brilliance is just not recognized enough in international policy circles culminate in an attempt to end-run the international policy discussion...instead of earning his place in the circles that he so desires to earn respect from...

My mistakes in my own scholarly career and life are my own...I have no interest in whining, any more, about my recognition or lack thereof (to myself, more than anything else), my experiences in grad school, or anything of the kind to somehow circumvent the much more important discussion of ideas, that is far more important than the egos of anyone...policy scholar or not...and certainly my own...

America earned its place in the world by earning the world's trust...

And it will earn its decline in the world by earning the world's distrust...

And ideas like this one will go a long way to promoting that second end...

Let's hope this and next American President and Congress learn this lesson...before much more trust in America's leadership is undermined by such arrogance...

It's very sobering to live through this political moment...a moment of such open hubris...that an honest student of power...can only hope to stay away from the nasty stuff...while we slowly and with much effort...clean the process up...

Love,
Ben

Frederick Kagan makes an excellent case for how we can win the war in Iraq...

Military historian Frederick Kagan (any relation to conservative international policy scholar Robert Kagan?) makes an excellent case in the December 19th edition of the Weekly Standard (a magazine that I had, as of late, been regarding as hopelessly partisan and thus one I was losing respect for) for how America can keep the faith and keep focussed on winning this war...rather than on giving in to our more cowardly and defeatist instincts and cut and run...

Frederick Kagan...Fighting to Win...The Weekly Standard, Dec. 19th, 2005...

Kagan argues in his article that a focus on cutting the number of troops rather than on winning the war and making a transition to Iraqi responsibility for its own security undermined the latter goal as Americans grow war-weary...and that a focus on cutting troops that does not keep the larger focus on transitioning to an Iraqi democracy where Iraqi military and law enforcement forces are responsible for their own security could likely allow a civil war to erupt that would, eventually, require a U.S. presence again, down the road...

I agree with that concern...and appreciate Kagan's very balanced and sober assessment of how Americans can remain to both train Iraqi troops to to be better prepared to more effectively undermine insurgents and terrorists militarily (which is necessary no matter what fantasies folks may have about political solutions to this situation, which are needed, of course, as well)...and to be more more professional (thus helping to prevent the kind of torture that arises out of fear and shortsightedness amongst less professional military and law enforcement forces)...

Specifically...Kagan calls for a duel strategy that includes what Andrew Krepinevich, in Foreign Affairs, calls an "oil-spot" approach to dealing with insurgents -- which sweeps insurgents from a limited number of territory that they gain strongholds in to prevent creating a permanent presence which allows them to recruit and train new fighters, to store weapons, and to strategize more effectively offensive and defensive efforts...as well as a more general strategy of securing larger tracts of territory and allowing Iraqi forces to maintain security of those tracts once Americans are able to more reliably sweep out insurgents...while holding that same territory, rather than moving from area to area with smaller numbers of troops, as Krepinevich suggests with his "oil-spot" or "whack-a-mole" strategy, the latter name given by its more skeptical detractors...

I wholly agree with this concern that we need to make sure that a transition to an Iraqi democracy makes sure that Iraqi troops can readily secure a freer Iraq with the help of Americans or else lose so many gains made in recent months in undermining the insurgency...

Kagan is right that the most important larger effort to undermine the insurgency comes from the most recent election, the participation of the Sunni minority, and (I hope) opportunities for the Sunnis to participate in a coalition government with the majority Shia who did not win a controlling majority...

Which matches our experience with successful efforts to undermine terrorism, Northern Ireland being the best example, to my mind, where opportunities for political participation created an alternative to violence that, eventually, undermined terrorist activity in Northern Ireland almost completely...

But, in the meantime, there is a need for a stronger and more professional and thoughtful military effort to take hold among Iraqi military and law enforcement servicepeople, under American mentorship, to more effectively secure a country with domestic military and law enforcement forces which would, in all likelihood, be more easily overwhelmed by the insurgency without American support...

Everyone wants American troops to withdraw, at some point, obviously...the troops, themselves, likely, more than anyone else, given the risks that they take to do that job...

But everyone involved should be more concerned at Mr. Kagan is, here, with a military effort that is long-term in its outlook and its commitment to success to assure a democratic transition that does not require further future intervention...

Left-wing and right-wing tendencies (more left than right, ironically, at this moment, I believe) toward a more isolationist, head-in-the-sand outlook on this war would result in the very same consequences that head-in-the-sand approaches have had in the past...which is more and more serious problems awaiting our recognition of our own foolishness...

And as Mr. Kagan makes clear in this article...a premature exit from Iraq would, in all likelihood, lead to losing ground on very promising recent trends in the war effort in Iraq...especially the number of those killed and injured around elections...

As Frederick writes...

"Data about insurgent attacks in Iraq do not support any sense of urgency about withdrawing either. The October constitutional referendum saw significantly fewer attacks than the January 2005 elections; 299 attacks on January 30 generating 213 casualties, versus 89 attacks and 49 casualties on October 15. Insurgents attacked only 19 election sites in October; in January they struck 88. Although the significance of such data is not clear, and other trend lines are less promising than this, there is certainly no case to be made that the situation is worsening enough to support urgent demands for immediate withdrawal. On the contrary, it appears that significant progress is being made."

Frederick is right...we need to stay the course until the Iraqis are fully prepared to take over their own security situation...this is not a video game...this is war, for real...and it is not something which responsibilities should be taken lightly because Americans are growing weary of the news reports and under the unrelenting and more mindless anti-war cries on the left...

We have a responsibility to the Iraqi people to do this thing right...and that means making sure that Iraqis are ready to secure their own country...not just cut them loose because we've grown weary of their presence in our domestic politics...

Frederick Kagan makes the case far better than I can in the Weekly Standard (Dec. 19th)...because he knows better what he's doing...which you will get a very clear sense of reading the article, I hope...

A very well reasoned, argued, and genuinely balanced case, I believe...from someone who knows better what the situation looks like on the ground...and what strategies might better help us achieve our bigger objectives...and why...

In an magazine otherwise lost in its own self-righteous partisanship, folks like Frederick Kagan and David Brooks make clear why it is so important for the most intelligent and thoughtful and courageous center to hold in such a critical situation...

Because too many lives are on the line to settle for anything less...

And because the conversation bottoms out, morally and intellectually, the more we engage in adolescent wars about who has all the right answers...which is noone, obviously, to anyone responsible and smart enough to see that...

Please check out Frederick's very powerful article...

Love,
Ben

Embarking on my more scholarly career...

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

For now...this is how I handle this kind of situation...

My friends or anyone else threaten me...or anyone I care about...we're not friends...

And they can fuckin' deal...until I get an apology...

And it persists...and you deal with the lack of active cooperation you get from me until you can learn to stop been such a fuckin' shithead...

And that is effective until the day that I show up at your funeral...or you show up at mine...

Don't fuck with me...or forgo my friendship until you learn to stop being such an asshole...

Love,
Ben

I am so pissed, right now...

Christmas ended a little too early, this year...

I have a friend who is suing another much closer friend over some damage to their property, right now...

I'm pissed off in a serious way at all the people involved, right now, because this is something that clearly could have been resolved much more readily and in a grown-up way...

Had we been dealing with grown-ups...

But we aren't dealing with grown-ups...we're dealing with three little kids who got in a fight without a grown-up around (they even had to have a grown-up in the form of a police officer come and mediate what they were too immature to mediate for themselves)...

The damage of property was a reaction against what I agree was pretty shitty treatment of this person by her two friends...it's still not excused, of course...and she owes them money, whether she likes it or not...

What makes this particular situation so upsetting is how I've been suggesting the entire fuckin' time to these three little children that they grow up and start dealing with each other like the adults that they supposedly are...

They have not, as of yet...

And a court battle looms in the distance if they continue down this terribly immature path...

I get so fuckin' annoyed with adults who can't learn to just do the right fuckin' thing and cut out the bullshit when the wrong path clearly keeps bringing on consequences that are bad news for them...

But that's the nature of trying to force our way to maturity for most kids...and not patiently modeling it for them and teaching it to them along the way...

Is that we have adults who don't quite seem to get that the real world offers them consequences whether they fuckin' like it or not...

Which is most adults and children, really...

I just get really fuckin' annoyed when the consequences are in my back fuckin' yard when I've been giving good advice on how to avoid such bullshit all along the way...

Here's to learning the fuckin' lessson and keeping the bullshit out of my life, from now on, for goodness fuckin' sakes...

Grow up...

Love,
Ben

Christmas with the Sutherlands...

I'll have to write later about my favorite little redneck Christmas ever with the Sutherland family, this year...

But I just couldn't let that last little venting post be the one up for Christmas...

Christmas with the Sutherlands was really special this year...

I spend a lot of time on the holidays looking out for younger cousins and family members...

My sister, Jenny, and I are apparently talking with one another again, which is good news...and my mom and I talked together for the first time in 3 years...also a great thing...

And there was just a lot of love shared in the Sutherland family, this year...

It's amazing to me...how...as I've learned to stop seeing peoples' humanity in terms of religion or politics or whatever...to just appreciate and support and challenge and love people for who they are...how much more I love my own life as a consequence...

My cousin, Carla, called me "enlightened" this Christmas...and I thought it was awful sweet...Carla is a particularly great cousin and family member, I have to admit...but it matters to me that at least some folks in the world appreciate what I have to offer to the world...and not always be bumping into folks who see me through their fears and insecurities about life...it's the most tedious thing about caring about almost literally everyone (we just saw footage, in my family, of Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, performing the unusual step of pleading guilty and confessing his crimes in court...I care about Dennis, because I care about everyone...but I have to say that it was pretty grotesque trying to imagine what kind of person rationalizes that kind of behavior)...that I'm constantly listening to peoples' rationalizations for why they are such dicks and why I need to be more dickish like them...it's like the alcoholic who wants you to take a swig...or the pothead who just can't smoke without someone else...everyone wants validation for their stupidity, I'm learning...and it gets tedious in the extreme constantly dealing with people trying to get me to take the rap for why they are such assholes...

And nice to have people in my life who don't expect me to be an asshole to earn their respect...

I hope your Christmas and Hanukah and New Year are as loving as mine:):)...

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

Love,
Ben

How petty can people be?...

It's Christmas...9:40PM...and I just read an email sent by a friend, today, to remind me she was taking another much closer friend of mine to court...

Can you think of anything more petty on Christmas?...how small can people be, I wonder, when I read something like I just read...

Pretty small, I'm learning...

Pathetic...

Merry Christmas, everyone...

Love,
Ben

Why Democrats lost in 2004...and why they'll lose again in 2008 if they don't get their asses in gear...

David Brooks is right...

David Brooks...Kerry, Edwards worlds apart...

...and brilliant as always...can I say that David Brooks has thoroughly impressed me over the last couple of years as a voice of sanity and constructiveness and intelligence in a sea of liberal and conservative cynicism:):):)...

Thank you, David...

David's basic observation...is that after Katrina...Kerry was obsessively anti-Bush...and John Edwards did something that Kerry didn't even do very well when he was running for President...

He was thinking...

John Edwards, according to Brooks, was talking about the pressures that economic insecurity place on families and their ability to function effectively, especially in the midst of serious catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina...

That and John's Washington Post editorial taking responsibility for his vote for the war in Iraq make him, effectively, in my mind, the Democratic front-runner...Hillary has shown almost zero leadership ability her entire tenure in the Senate except for a very safe and constructive, but also kind of no-brainer, bill sponsored publicly with the help of former Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich...a shrewd move, to be sure...but a very basic bill that allowed for better sharing of medical information that involved very little political courage at all, really...that seems to be Hillary's forte, at this point...avoiding policies that involve courage...

John Edwards and Barak Obama are the two most impressive potential Democratic candidates, right now, I think...

The reason?...

Because they both have ideas about how to govern...as strange as that might seem to power-obsessed Democrats right now...

You know what Bill Clinton told John Kerry that he should have done in his election contest with George Bush that he failed to do...and which I think is the biggest reason that he lost that election...

Articulate a vision...and some big ideas about what he might want to do with all that power...

But instead John furrowed his brow...and kept his focus on winning power...and making every anti-Bush plea that his handlers wrote for him...

And this is for all the liberals who might be reading...

Do you remember what happened to John in the 2004 election?...

He lost, motherfuckers...

And if Democrats want to lose again...if I were them, I'd just keep focussing on power and give very little attention to ideas...just like they did in that election...

John Edwards is getting wise...

Because he's tired of losing, I'm sure...

But at least he's thinking...

And you know who I'm voting for in the 2008 election...

The candidate with the best ideas...

I don't know who that is...

Rudy Guliani...John Edwards...John McCain...Barak Obama...Hillary Clinton (though she's shown almost no inclination towards good constructive ideas, at this point)...Evan Bayh...

Whoever has the best ideas...

And America will be doing the same...I guarantee it...

And if liberals want to learn the lesson on this one, for good...

I'd suggest they run a power-focussed rather than an idea-focussed campaign like they did in 2004...

And if they have a Republican challenger with even a smidgeon of decent policy ideas...

Watch them beat the shit out of your candidate...

And then you'll come to me...and I'll say, "I told you so"...and you don't want that...because I'm a gloating motherfucker...especially when you do something stupid that I've been telling you to stop doing for at least 3 years, now...

And you know what the worst part is...

If you -- meaning liberals -- do run a campaign that is power-based...and you win...

You'll know you won't deserve it...

Uhh...what an icky feeling...to win something as important as the Presidency when you don't deserve it...

I guess it will be a test of just how low liberals can go...

They've gone pretty low, at this point...as have conservatives...

But it'll be a pyrrhic victory...and I won't be cheering with you...and will be, either, 1) eagerly awaiting when your candidate starts thinking and stops being an asshole...and engaging him/her until we get them there and/or 2) eagerly awaiting for the next election, when we can get rid of him/her...

And if Hillary Clinton -- the resident non-thinking candidate gets nominated...

You better hope John McCain or Rudy Guliani doesn't get nominated by the Republicans...

Wikipedia...opinion polling for 2008 Presidential election...

Because, right now...they would cleanly spank Hillary's red little ass...

And notice...the only candidate who beats either Rudy or John McCain, right now...on the Marist College poll...

Is John Edwards:):)...

Hmm...

I would suggest that Democrats start thinking more...and engaging in power gambles less...

Because...while I will buy you a beer when Republicans kick your tight little heinies...

I don't want your hear you're whining when I say you, "I told you so"...because I did...

And because I'm getting tired of Democrats acting like they have some kind of entitlement to office just because Bush is a less than ideal President...just like every President is a less than ideal President...

So a friendly suggestion to Democrats...from an independent...

Start thinking more...or get used to losin'...

Some tough love for a party with too much tough...not enough love...and far too few ideas, right now...

John Edwards has started to figure this one out...

Perhaps other Democrats can start following his lead:):):)...

Let's hope so...for the sake of the country...which deserves better than most liberals and Democrats (and conservatives and Republicans, for that matter) seem to be offering, right now...

Love,
Ben

By the way...can I say that John McCain is probably the shrewdest motherfucker on the face of this fuckin' earth...have Democrats not figured out, yet, that George Bush will not be running in the next election?...which means that we have two anti-Bush candidates for the next election...whichever Democrat gets nominated...and John McCain...so he rides the wave of anti-Bush feeling in the country, right now, and rides his favorables...and kicks the ass of every Democrat running or potentially running, right now...

"Uhh...we'll get just keep bringing down Bush's favorables and we'll beat him with any candidate"...duh-duh-duh...fuckin' dumbass Democratic handlers...you're gonna get your asses handed to you with that strategy, you fuckin' manipulative morons...and you'll deserve it...

"Uhh...we don't have to be for any good ideas...we'll just be against Bush"...fuckin' stupid assholes...the one saving grace is that once your candidate gets beat with that stupid-ass strategy, you lose your jobs, too, you fuckin' dickheads...

Political consultants and the cowardly fuckin' politicians who follow their advice are the fuckin' bane of democratic politics, today...and the only correction to their behavior that they care about is getting their asses whooped in the next election..and so be it, you fuckin' evil little Machiavellis...I hope you end up in someone's mailroom after you lose those gambles you arrogant pieces of shit...

Power obsession is a sickness..."Precious...my precious"...

Get some brains, some heart, and some fuckin' courage and walk your asses down the fuckin' yellow brick road...

And stand up and be leaders, you fuckin' cowards...

$25 for Christmas...

Well...I was able to carve out $25 to spend on some books, this year, for at least some Christmas presents this year...out of necessity, I have to put off bills until my next paycheck...there wasn't enough money whether I wanted to or not...and I don't know where I'm going to have money for my other student loan payment...but I'm sure I'll get something figured out...something always does get figured out...

I'm still in negotiations about my contract...the human resources persons offered a pretty significantly bigger amount than the school board offered...so we still have to get that resolved...if not...I'll guess the student loan folks will have to wait on their money until we negotiate an amount that I can pay...

It's only money, I always tell myself...because when you don't have any...and never have, in my case...you get some perspective on what really matters in life...I've never really been a poor person who was terribly angry about wealth inequity...and always hopeful that it would be addressed...and grew up in a family that believed not only in taking care of its own, as much as it could...but also earning its way through the world...I still know it will...you can't make it go away because you ignore it...and there are clearly major consequences for individual businesses and the economy, generally, from the politics of wealth inequity that imposes all kinds of restrictions and costs on businesses in the name of "doing something" about its sad legacy...

The truth is that wealth inequity will have to be addressed voluntarily by people...just like racism...and sexism...and every other terrible legacy in our country's history...

People's consciences have to change...not any laws...

There is no union...or law...or tax...or whatever...that will make it go away...either we will face our responsibility to create wealth equity in this country...or we will live with its sad legacy on our hearts and minds until we do...and all of the terrible consequences that it has on us and our societies, as well...

We'll figure it out, I'm confident...you can only put off your conscience and your enlightened self-interest and for so long...otherwise, you're culture begins to so degenerate that it doesn't even know who or what it is anymore...

Huh?...sounds like pop culture, these days:):):)LOL:):):)...

People have a natural need for growth beyond that kind of degeneration...poor or rich...so we'll get it resolved...I'm pretty clear...

And...in the meantime...we are responsible for the legacy of the destructiveness of financial pressure to serve our own greed...and our own desire not to get fucked over by own our creditors...by banks...and our various creditors...

It's such a sad legacy...our greed...

It's so self-serving...and hinders so much growth on all our our parts, in the meantime...it's shortsided...a part of the hyper-competitive, hyper-aggressive, ugly side of our natures...that will pass once people stop feeling like such victims...about what they "can't" do..."I 'can't help others and support greater wealth equity" so many businesses reason...I'm here to look out for profits...I have to be selfish, so many business folks, rationalize:):):)...I have no choice:):):)LOL:):):)...

Don't you feel sorry for all the poor people in business and in life who just have no choice but to be selfish:):):)LOL:):):)...it just breaks your heart, doesn't it:):):)LOL:):):)...

We are all such dumbasses, I swear:):):)...oh well...we learn...we fuck it up...we get better:):):)...

It's very much what Dr. Martin Luther King finally came to realize with the civil rights movement...civil rights, Dr. King started to realize, was a matter of changing hearts and minds:):)...there were elements of civil rights that inevitably meant changing the law...because they had to do with how the law and how policy affected African Americans...and how African Americans affected the law and policy...the Voting Rights Act...voting in the South...the murder of civil rights activists...

And something had to be done to improve and change segregated conditions in the South and all over the country...and while forced integration has certainly had a mixed legacy, at best...it served a purpose...

In retrospect...conservatives...like Bill Buckley...and others...who argued -- without racism, I don't think -- that forced integration would just inflame racial antagonisms, more, were probably right...and certainly blacks and whites, alike, have taken issue with the still-remaining legacies of forced integration, like forced bussing...but that particular period in our history -- when National Guardspersons were needed to integrate blacks and whites in public schools and public universities -- is over...the on-going legacy of court-orders in schools around desegration and using force, generally, to resolve race matters -- the NCAA very bad ruling around the use of Native mascots by college sports teams is one that comes to mind, here -- is the darker side of an otherwise noble effort to integrate blacks and whites and teach us to live together...it was a compromise...but a compromise that we have to move beyond, now, into an era where we choose to care for another because it's the right thing to do...and not because we're forced to...

I don't know why so many people fail to learn that very simple and important maxim...

Might doesn't make right...

But they do...persistently...and totally take for granted the wisdom that comes with it...

Does Pope Benedict really believe that if he fires priests and scholars who are gay or who disagree with his belief that homosexuality is a sin...that he'll make homosexuality go away?...or that he'll lead the Catholic Church to believe that way?...and that perversion will finally be eliminated from the fold of the Church?:):):):):):) (the naivete of such a belief makes me chuckle a little:):):)...

Apparently so...though he's a damned fool for thinking so...

Because...in all likelihood...either, 1) Catholics will just start leaving the Church...or 2) Catholics will start changing the way the Church makes decisions...

And in the meantime...really brilliant Catholics, like Father Thomas Reese, are left out of some really important conversations on behalf of the Church -- though I have no doubt Father Reese's thinking will win the day on this, long term...the Catholic Church will become completely irrelevant without open debate and discussion at its center -- by his less brilliant brethren...

Homosexuality is not going away because Pope Benedict forces out priests who are gay...or priests who don't believe that homosexuality is a sin...or who want to have an open debate about whether it is a sin, as Father Thomas Reese -- a far smarter man and a far better Catholic than the Pope...and a serious scholar of the Church institutions -- was advocating at America magazine, before he was forced out...

What the Pope...and the President...and so many liberals and Democrats...and so many people, generally, who try this route fail to recognize...

Is that trying to force a question in your direction, generally -- when the question is a matter of conscience and not a matter of immediate danger -- undermines your credibility...it doesn't make your detractors or their concerns go away...

And that will be true around wealth equity, as well...

Companies that sell their soul for profits -- like Walmart -- are dealing with the consequences of those policies, now, as communities like Lawrence, foolishly, I believe, try to keep them from expanding in our town...because of their reputation with employees and competitors...

And those practices...which have very little to do with real competition, which is about improving and generating value...and are a reflection of the merit of goods and services...not of weasly effots to hurt competitors...they have everything to do with hypercompetitive practices to rationalize self-centered ends...not competition based on merit meant to help others...no reason for me or anyone else to support those practices, whether they come from Wal-mart or any other business or political action group or any other individual or group...

Sam Walton's story is pretty impressive, though, if you get a chance...

Sam Walton...Wikipedia...

I'm just getting a chance to absorb it, right now...

Most rich folks, like Sam...and my parents...have been fucked over along the way...so when they fuck others over...I think they often think it is just part of the game...which is what keeps it going, of course...and the reason why we need to call a spade a spade to get it to stop...but, like my father...Sam Walton was a good man...a really, good man, really...if you check out his biography...a man who started with very little...and built a pretty impressive collection of stores that do so much for so many Americans every day...a man who believed -- for good reason -- in free enterprise and who opposed Communism, funding scholarships for Central American students to study in America and nurture those values, and stem the tide of Communism in this part of the world...

He was ruthless...as were Rockefeller...and Carnegie...before him...and as Gates is, as well, after him...and most major and often minor business people...

But they are also hard-working and often brilliant...and innovating...

It's time for this legacy to end...the cutthroat competition...the hypercompetitiveness...the ugly side of markets and capitalism that is so self-defeating...both of the nurturing of values that support free markets and free societies...but also of those markets, as cutthroat competition has so many terrible consequences for the market -- regulation that limits innovation, consumers and competitors that are cheated, taxes that produce resentment amongst those who pay them often begrudgingly and hurts more general generosity around issues that Americans and others otherwise care about, support for big government on the left that often fuels the self-delusion of both poor communities and greedy capitalists, alike, and has led to a very tragic legacy of too many failed and repressive leftist socialist and communist governments in the the world to count...and the illusion that socialism can really create the equity that it promises...which, of course, it can't...

I can't tell you how many conversations I have with Canadian leftists who refuse to acknowledge, honestly, the problems their health system has with shortages, rationing, and problems with their research and development...all to defend the very worthy commitment to equity that socialism offers...

The United States, on the other hand, has one of the finest health care systems in the world...largely because of our commitment to the free market...and all the ways that Americans take for granted how markets care for their needs...even as it does so at far too much expense to all of us...especially poor folks like me:):):)...

And...the United States has one of the most promising and voluntary efforts to create universal access within this far better health care market...the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, I believe, both reported within the last year about efforts by major health insurance companies and providers to find a path to universal access, as a very wise effort to come to terms with the legacy of wealth inequities in the health care system...and to preserve the many wonderful qualities that a free market health care system provides...

But that will not be enough, obviously...

Businesses and financial groups of all kinds will need to follow suit...

And begin taking economic equity seriously...

They will, I'm confident...it will just take time...as more and more people become aware -- if you read David Brooks, these days, it's very touching how committed a conservative can become to resolving issues of wealth equity -- their consciences will be pricked...as Martin Luther King said they would and needed to be during our earlier civil rights period...

We have Martin to thank, in large part, for why this most recent round of fruitless political warfare over economic issues -- as is much of the what has been going on, lately, between Democrats and Republicans and in various courts, as much as the war in Iraq -- has not taken a far worse turn...

It was Martin's commitment to a world whose conscience would be pricked around matters of wealth inequity that animates the best of wealth equity commitments, right now...amd serves as alternative to the more manipulative efforts of radicals and liberals that seek, fruitlessly, to muscle their way to minimal equity...rather than commit ourselves, freely, to full equity...

It is Martin's legacy that has, largely...led to richer nations forgiving debt...that inspires the bulk of folks who attended Live 8...and the support of efforts like the funding of international aid efforts to deal with AIDS, and tuberculosis, and malaria, right now...and support for more equitable school funding...

Though I should make clear that these efforts really will have to transfer...slowly...progressively...to voluntary and decentralized and market-driven approaches -- indendently run public and charter and private schools, in the case of education...and private, non-profit efforts, in the case of international aid -- to funding such issues and resolving matters of wealth equity...they may provide an important stop-gap, right now...but such measures also produce resentment, as long as peoples' consciences are not pricked...as consciences are pricked, that kind of resentment becomes less of a problem...but the potential of voluntary and decentralized fund-raising is still foregone....government funding simply does not have nearly the fund-raising potential that voluntary efforts by decentralized and diverse institutions have within a healthy market...decentralizing international aid and schools and health care efforts...and leaving their funding up to the American people and peoples of the world to either step up to take care of...or to be responsible for the consequences when they don't...private fundraising not only has far, far more potential ability to raise more money for such efforts, and to begin to deal with wealth equity issues inherent in them...but freeing up the economy will mean creating more money to spend on such efforts...

The scared, bullying liberal approach of regulating and taxing the economy is a long-failed approach...that has been giving way, for a quite a long time, now, to a liberal and conservative and independent and non-partisan commitment to a freer economy and the economic benefits that provides...as well as the benefit of having decentralized institutions that are each individually responsible for the results they achieve...

And, similarly...equity efforts in that economy will best be achieved by free people making free commitments...

To follow Martin Luther King's lead...

To allow their consciences to be pricked...

And to start doing the right thing...

And they will:):):)...

You know why I'm so confident of that?...

Because no matter how many very terrible mistakes humanity has made over the course of its history...

It always finds a way to clean them up...

And this generation will be no different...

Right now...it is just a matter of finding our way...

And find our way we shall...

Merry Christmas, everyone...it's now, officially, December 24th, here where I am:):):)...

I have so much more to write on this issue...about non-profit and for-profit markets in education and health care and other areas of critical importance to wealth equity...about the psychological benefits of such an approach to poor and rich people, alike...about becoming whole and decent human beings...about communities and societies that take responsibility for ourselves and each other...freely...without coercion...

About the path to our being better people...a path of freedom...of free will...as every major religion I'm familiar with tells us is needed for people to choose moral and good lives...

As Jesus believed and lived a life of that commitment...

Can you think of one person that Jesus tried to take down to make the world a better place?...

I can't...not one...

What a great man he was...and Happy Birthday to him...

Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls...Merry Christmas, you old Building and Loan...

Merry Christmas, George...

Merry Christmas, everyone...and Happy New Year...

And to all my Jewish friends...Happy Hanukah, here in a couple days...I'll be lighting candles, at some point, this year...mabye with my very Catholic family, this year...just to spice things up, a bit:):)...

And Happy Kwanzaa...I don't think I'll be making my peachy bread pudding, this year, for Kwanzaa...as I have for past Kwanzaa's:):):)...but maybe I'll find some time to reflect on the reason for that season, this year, as well:):):)...and maybe we can do some Kwanzaa celebrations with my very redneck family, this year:):):)...

And Happy New Year...I have no plans for New Year, this year...I'll have to talk with Melissa and see if she's going to be back in town for New Years (she's in Milwaukee with her family, right now:):):)...Merry Christmas, Melissa:):):)...and Judy and Melissa's dad and Melissa's brother:):):)...

And Merry Christmas to all of you:):):)...and your families:):):)...and families all over the world...

This year...when my mom's family sings Let There Be Peace on Earth...it will be a very special time to sing that song, I think...as I hope we all hope for peace...as we navigate a world that is far too often too nasty and violent and destructive and hyperaggressive and hurtful...

Have a nice holiday, everyone:):):)...

Love,
Ben

...whether you've been naughty or nice, really...

...Santa brought four new posts over at my other blog, today...

Building a Better World...A New Hope...

Merry Christmas and Bah Humbug:):)...

Love,
Ben

U2...

I wrote all this shit, this morning...and then lost it all...doesn't that piss you off when that happens?:):):)...

You know what's ironic about U2 selling out?...as John Waters says in this nice little article he writes about their newest album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, in The Age magazine...

U2: pop gone sour...

"...a band that for nearly two decades has been at the top and is desperate not to slip..."

You know what's ironic about that stupid move by an otherwise amazing band?

U2 never was on top...

They topped out at 66 on the all-time album sales chart, with Joshua Tree at around 10 million albums sold...Achtung Baby sold around 8 million...

Recording Industry Association of America's All-Time Top-Selling Albums (as of 5/16/05)...at Infoplease.com...

The Finger...All-Time Album Sales (as of 1/07/05)...

Though Wikipedia lists Joshua Tree at 26 million and sales of Achtung Baby at 18 million...

U2...at Wikipedia...bottom of the page...

...and I have no way of objectively calling which numbers are correct...

U2 never was one of the all-time popular bands...

And I used to really respect the fact that they didn't give a shit...

They just kept making music that mattered...whether people bought it or not...

Songs like Sunday Bloody Sunday...and New Years Day...and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For...and Where the Streets Have No Name...and Silver and Gold...and Bullet the Blue Sky...and God Part II...and Pride (In the Name of Love)...and Love Rescue Me...and Angel of Harlem...and When Love Comes to Town...and Desire...and With or Without You...and 40...and Gloria...and Van Diemen's Land...I Will Follow...

Because...if people don't like a song like Sunday Bloody Sunday...about ending the violence in Northern Ireland...violence that bands like U2 and the Cranberries helped end...along with politicians like John Hume and David Trimble...

Who gives a shit what they think?...

They clearly have some fucked up priorities...

So if all folks care about it having a song that they can dance to...and not one that makes them think...and care about things other than themselves...

Why would you give a shit what they think about your music?...

They're clearly morons...who cares what they think?...

A question that John Waters poses to U2 in this nice little review of another mediocre album from this otherwise great band...

The truth is I'd still rather hear songs like Mysterious Ways and One, as clearly mediocre as they are compared to songs like Sunday Bloody Sunday and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For...than not hear from U2 at all...as John's sub-title alludes to...

But what I'd much rather...

Is that U2 stop carring so much...about what all the morons in the world think about their music...and whether or not they buy it...

And start making good music again...

I had so much more to share this morning...

I think this is turning out to be my best Christmas ever...and it's definitely not because of money...which I have very little of this Christmas...

But now I've lost it...and I'll have to write about it again some other time...

You know what I miss most about hanging out with Brandi?...

Her courage...

I haven't seen that in someone I've been close to, other than myself, in a long time...it's sad...

If Bono were to die, today...

I'd remember Rattle and Hum, 1988...because that was his best moment...fuck Time Magazine...

Because it was the moment in his life when he had the most courage...

I appreciate what he's done for efforts to alleviate AIDS and TB and malaria in developing countries all over the world...

But I'd rather have his courage...

Bono isn't trying to grow up, as John suggests in this album...

Bono got scared...to ask U2 to do something as courageous as their latter, better albums...

As John suggests of the Beattles...when the Beattles were holding John Lennon back in a similar way...after the White Album...John did the sensible thing...

He left...

And if U2 can't create the space for Bono to sing as meaningfully in his songs as he does in his political work...

Bono should probably leave too...

And start making music that means something again...

It will be sad not to hear from The Edge and Larry Mullins and Adam Clayton, again...though I'm sure we'll hear some new incarnation of these guys' very decent musical abilities...

But goddamn if I don't want to hear Bono wail about some injustice again as powerfully back as he did back in the day...

And if U2 has to disband for that to happen...

Then so-fuckin'-be-it...

And if Adam Clayton and Larry Mullins and The Edge and Bono don't want that to happen...and if they want to be something more than a has-been band...

Then they need to start making some music that's worth listening to, again...

My friends...my parents...a lot of folks...are selling out, right now...

It's so sad to watch people sell their soul for so little...

And the saddest thing...is to watch people sell to such low bidders...

Pathetic...

Sometimes I wish I had a greatest hits of my friends and family when they were at their best...to at least enjoy the memories of when they had a little courage to be themselves...and to do something worthwhile...

But like everyone else...

Either they'll have to learn the lesson on their own...

Or like Elvis...the all-time top-selling performer...die trying...

Right now...I'd just settle for a little company...someone with courage...who realizes that the alternative is just so goddamned lame...they just won't even consider it, anymore...not seriously, at least...

And when they don't want to be asking themselves that really sad question that all the folks who sell out have to be asking themselves...

"Who really gives a shit what I think, anymore?"...

By the way...if you haven't seen Capturing the Friedmans' yet...definitely recommend it...and you know what I love about this movie?...the director doesn't seem to give a shit about how much money it makes or doesn't make...and good for him...hopefully that will last...

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone...

Love,
Ben

What I want to be when I grow up...

I've decided that tomorrow...the last day of classes before the winter break...I'm going to give grades out...which are all pretty good, really...and then I'm going to skip the homework we haven't graded, yet...and only grade it if it will improve folks' grades...

And then we're going to talk and write about what we all want to be when we grow up...me included...

I decided that I'd much rather have the kids thinking about their own dreams over the Christmas break...than fractions...which are, really, only a small part of life...compared to that much bigger question...

You know when were my favorite times in school when I was a kid?...those unstructured times...when we just kind of hung out, together...in a classroom that was otherwise a lot of bustle and effort to get stuff done and still get some social interaction with peers in under the watchful eye of our teachers...

Three of my all-time favorite learning/school moments are:

1) Sophomore year, high school...we're reading To Kill A Mockingbird in Ms. Hudson's Honors' English class...and I stay home...sick...I drink several milk cartons full of water in hopes of peeing out whatever it was that I'm dealing with...and I spend the whole day in bed reading what turns out to be my favorite novel ever...I finished To Kill a Mockingbird, that day...and its not an understatement to say that it changed my life...

2) Junior year, high school...late one night...on a weekend, maybe...but maybe even on a school night...I can't remember...I stay up all night over the course of a week, I believe...I can't quite remember...reading Henry David Thoreau's Walden...and commit myself to transcendentalism...did I mention that I love Henry David Thoreau...

3) Senior year, college...I've finished forensics...and I've met this brand new really great friend to transition me into a more primarily academic-focussed life (though...truth be known...only known to me, now years later...I was far more academically focussed than most people my age, forensics or not)...she and I study together in the political science/liberal arts and sciences building at Wichita State University...both writing papers...I re-write a Latin American microenterprise paper I've had for awhile into some bullshit anthropology final paper (and get an A)...she's doing something much more legitimate...but it's just nice to have the company of someone who takes the learning seriously, too...

And some more...

4) Sixth grade...Mrs. Legg's class...after being previously informed in the year that to "assume" makes an "ass" out of "u" and "me," I'm already much-impressed with my very pretty and wise sixth grade teacher...then...one day...she takes the class out to the playground...to sit underneath a tree...and to either read a book or just initiate the most frank and respectful discussion of sex that I have had with a teacher up until that point...it was so sweet...so unexpected...and such a beautiful thing for a teacher to do...

5) Senior year, college...my 4th year of school...my last year of forensics competition...Bond Benton, my best friend at the time, and my parliamentary debate partner, and I, go up to Willamette University in Oregon, that year, to compete at the National Parliamentary Debating Association's National Tournament...we travel with Bond's mom and her best friend up the coast of Oregon, Northern California, and Washington, making a trek, for the sake of his mom's friend, to see all of the covered bridges along the Northwest coast...they are beautiful...I pick up a copy of a National Parks' book with writings from famous conservationists like John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson...and I write poetry, while visiting the Redwoods in Northern California, about coming to terms with my father...who he is, versus who I fantasized him to be...Bond and I unexpectantly get knocked out in octafinals (Bond and I were very competitive that year)...we very disappointedly continue our trip along the coast...and take solace in the beauty of our surroundings...

6) Senior year, college...post-forensics (I had several seniors year...three, to be exact:):):)...I have several one-on-one meetings with my favorite professor, David Ericson...my modern political theory class...I wonder if Dr. Ericson knows how much he influenced me with that class and with those meetings...Dr. Ericson is my primary advisor on a very good senior thesis on the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, the first federal legislation in America touching education below the college grade, that I never submitted to a committee...Dr. Ericson and I spend several weeks talking about the nature of politics in democratic countries that profoundly affect the way that I think about politics...and touch me...that this brilliant man would spend so much time talking with me and helping me develop my own intellect...

7) Brandi and I spend 3 months in Washington, D.C., learning about politics...about love...and about the world...all at once...it was a total coming of age for both of us...and I learned so much, I can hardly count all of it...we go see Cornell West and Eugene Rivers, on Brandi's prompting, speak about race and poverty...we see just about every artsy theater movie that comes out within our vicinity...two very gay-friendly young kids from Wichita, Kansas with not a ton of experience with gay culture spend time just kind of absorbing D.C.'s gay district, Dupont Circle...we go to a gay bar where the patrons sing musicals, only to find very few people singing...but plenty of gay men to chat with...Brandi is the first girl that I rent pornography with...we work together...we live together...we take the metro back and forth, each day, together...I learn more about people in three months than I ever have before in my life...with one of the most people-savvy persons that I have ever met in my life, other than me...and I learn what it means to be deeply in love...an experience that I have yet to duplicate still today...

I think that last one takes the cake, really...and all of the subsequent learning Brandi and I do together...

8) Senior year...grad school...it's getting clearer for me that I'm starting to develop original ideas...the idea of which, itself, is exciting enough...not quite realizing, yet, just how much potential impact these ideas might have...I'm still very much mourning losing Brandi, but I'm getting stronger...and her leaving has prompted a flurry of study of every relationship/psychology/people book I can get my hands on...I read Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Abraham Maslow's Farther Reaches of Human Nature, and Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom in that year, as well as a million other books...none of which are on a class reading list...all of which profoundly transform my thinking about people and the world...

9) December 2002-December 2005...I leave grad school to work on my original work, independently...frustrated with a relationship with an advisor that has begun to feel like an imposition and an obstacle to my education...I work several average joe jobs...learn about poverty, first hand, involuntary...learn a lot about the world outside of school, which I have been in for the last 12 years of my life...and write more independent, more original, more personal, more profound work than I have ever written in my entire life...Brandi's ghost never totally leaves me...but her cutting off all communication makes it clear that she is renigging on her promise to remain friends, no matter our relationships...I'm getting used to Brandi making the switch from always considering my feelings, because we were best friends, to never considering my feelings, because we were once lovers...an arbitrary change that I have no real control over...and I begin to depend less and less on friends and more and more on myself for final calls about my life...subsequent friendships only reinforce that trend...

10) 2005...Hurricane Katrina...I finally understand Joe Nye's caution that we take security for granted until it is gone...and I finally understand Hobbes...security and freedom are no longer abstractions for me...and Hobbes becomes my new best friend...though I'm still wedded to Mill and Locke and freedom...for good reason...because they are what all that security is for...

There's more...debate and forensics tournaments with Conrad Jestmore in high school and with the Wichita State team in college...my junior year Honors' English class with Elizabeth Taggart, as a beautiful liberal counterweight to the libertarian influence of Mr. Jestmore...Billy Budd and my senior year with one of my favorite teachers of all time, Zenobia Washington, for A.P. English...

And a million others, really...

All my best times have been either in school...or around learning and education, really...structured or unstructured...

My favorites are clearly unstructured...but it's much clearer to me, now, how, just as my freedom is only assured with adequate security...so are my more freely-explored educational experiences only made possible or as strong by my more structured educational experiences...

People who say that they're educations didn't matter...or that school didn't matter...to their lives...to their success...to their experiences...

Are bullshitting themselves...pure and simple...

The world doesn't turn out as well as schools because so few people really aspire to make the world that good...

But the world gets better...because of schools...and because of our time spent there...I'm sure of that, now...

I know my life was made better...

And thank you to every teacher -- formal or informal -- who made that possible...

Love,
Ben

Why rules and deference to authority are bound to fail...

As I've been reflecting on my own use of authority, in the last couple of weeks...and the use of authority by folks who I trust with it more...teachers...

I think I've finally figured out why rule by authority is kind of withering away, even as it is in its last throws of demanding legitimacy...

Because authority is used -- as a rule, not as an exception -- arbitrarily...

Meaning...though the people who are charged with authority often try to use it in a way that is responsible...

As a rule...authority gets used arbitrarily...based on the moment to moment whims of those with authority...

And as more people with authority recognize that...the more, I hope and know, at some level, that they will make allowances for that fact...

But in the meantime...the recognition of this fact by those who authority is used over...which is all of us, at some level...the more people begin to ignore authority...as it becomes clear just how arbitrary its use is relative to the realities that authority is charged with governing...

Rules only work if they work...and its not their enforcement that ultimately decide if they work or not...it's the reality that we all live with...and the less they work...the more they'll be ignored...

Rules and authority are already ignored, to a great degree, by those they are imposed upon, as a rule...the real question, at this point, is whether those with authority will begin to relax their imposition...and as authority figures reflect on this, there really is only one conclusion they can come to, at some point...they have to relax their imposition...else be so out of sync with reality...to be not taken seriously at all...and people who aspire for positions of responsibility do not so aspire to not be relevant...they aspire, generally, to make a positive impact on life...and most of them know better than to believe that they can only do so with impositions of authority...in fact...so much so...that, as a rule...among those with authority...at least in the situations in which I've worked and in most democratic societies, I think...those who use authority most meticulously...are those who are least respected among their colleagues with authority...

Because it is becoming fairly clear to me...that the places where I am most effective as a teacher...are the places where I refer to my relationships with students as human beings...rather than as an authority figure...

Meaning...if I'm frustrated with how I'm being disrespected as a human being...appealing to that relationship is far more effective in dealing with the behavior than is asserting my authority...as a rule...

In situations where authority looms over me...it is so clear...it's use is often completely arbitrary to the realities I am dealing with...

And when kids appeal to me for similarly reasonable rationales...all I can say to them is...they'll have to get the issue resolved with the specific person that they dealt with at the time...I have to back up my colleauges...and in the meantime...I work with my colleagues to persuade them to relax their more arbitrary uses of authority...by demonstrating by example how doing so improves relationships with students...accomplishing more of our purposes...both in improving behavior...and in improving academic focus and accomplishment...and my class, generally, is a pretty good example of that principle...yesterday was an exception, largely because I, personally, was off my mark, feeling very ill and overwhelmed and out of energy...but as a general rule, my special education class -- where students are often, for good reason, sent for behavior problems, as well as academic problems -- is, generally, better behaved than many general education classes where students, generally, behave better of their own accord and without teachers having to remind them to do so, as much...

And I can tell that the places where I'm least effective...are the places where I have undermined that relationship with more arbitrary uses of authority that are really pretty typical for teachers...places where I'm tired of wrangling with students over their behavior...tired of reminding the same students to be more respectful of me and one another...and places where I act to get some resolution...places that are completeful forgiveable...but that prove to some students that all teachers are alike...and that they all just want to control you...which is ironic...because all teachers, on their better days, feel just the opposite...all teachers are striving to have students be responsible for their own behavior...so that teachers don't have to deal with it...and so that students can learn to be more responsible for their own behavior as they grow into young adults...

And I like most teachers and parents and adults and authority figures -- the good ones, at least -- try to reflect on this use of authority to use it less and less arbitrarily...and to still be effective in helping to raise young people...who are responsible for their own behavior and their own lives...

Only to prepare the more responsible of them...like me...for a world which is often arbitrary with its use of authority...no matter how responsible a person is...

A fact that I will just hope that authority figures in the adult world...are reflecting on, as well...

I trust that they are...

Because there is no major movement to relax rules in the adult world...

And yet...it is slowly, very slowly...happening...

Evidenced by the perceived need by the less reflective among us...to defend rules that have already been passed...

Melissa and I listened to a commercial on a Chiefs game being broadcast over the Dillons intercom system...for maintaining 21 as the drinking age...

And I'm thinking, "I don't recall any major push to remove 21 as a the drinking age"...so who are they defending the law against?...

And the reality is...that they are defending the law against all the people who are, quite reasonably, now and in the past, ignoring that law...opting, instead, to teach young people to drink moderately and responsibly with adults present...rather than undercover and less responsibly...outside of adult presence...

Quite illegal to be sure...but a very responsible decision that many parents have been making with their children for quite a long time, now...for good reason...it means more responsible drinking among young people...and parents who do it have come to terms with what parents who often live in a lot of denial around alcohol use and abuse often avoid...that the best recipe for alcohol abuse...is alcohol prohibition...and if you doubt that...go watch the children whose parents prohibit alcohol use...once their out on their own...it's generally not pretty...

The truth is...that luckily for all of us...responsible people don't stop being responsible just because the law says different...

In fact...responsible people often and regularly ignore the law to be responsible, when doing so is more responsible...

It was the foundation for the modern civil rights movement...it was the foundation for developing more freely-chosen sexual mores in the twentieth century, which, on-balance, has been a very good and responsible thing...and it is the foundation for good parenting...

And the most irresponsible fact of modern life...is that we have not squared this more responsible living...with the law...because the least responsible among us...have been busy trying to scare younger and older people, alike...into responsibility...that many of them -- I have some friends here in Lawrence I'm thinking of, right now -- don't practice themselves, so lost are they in their denial of this obvious reality...instead of having younger and older people alike...choose greater responsibility...which, today, as for most of the history of modern life, has involved not only not obeying laws, always...but often disobeying them...generally, quietly...and at times -- as with the civil rights movement -- openly...

But I'm not just advocating a more open reconciliation of this fact with the use of authority...

I'm predicting it...

I'm pretty clear, at this point, that this is the side of this question that will prevail...

Because no other conclusion would allow for as functional living by free and responsible adults...in a world of freedom and responsibility...

It is the presence and interaction with people we trust that promotes responsibility...not the more arbitrary uses of authority...

And the latter will always remain a serious dysfunction of contemporary life in free societies until and as we let it go...

And we will let it go...

Because there is no other way out of this one...

Not just as a fact of free societies...

But as a fact of life...

My greatest reassurance on this question...is that there is no other way around this one...no matter what obstacles those who resist this trend throw in its way...it is a fact of life that no political activism or wrangling will ever be able to remove...this is direction that people are taking and will take more in the coming decades...because it's the direction most conducive to their more responsible natures...and it is a fact of life that all political activism and wrangling will have to square themselves with...because there's no turning back on it...

A pretty safe prediction at this point, actually, if you ask me...

Free peoples want more freedom...as a fact of life...not just as a fact of politics...and they will and do want more, yet...

Have a great week, everyone...

Love,
Ben

A hard talk with myself...

I'm still dealing with this bitterness I just realized the other day that I still carry around...

This bitterness about choices involved with being a teacher...

Here goes...

Being a teacher is a real honor, for me...at some level...it means a lot to take the kind of responsibility is involved with imparting knowledge...and there is a sense of purpose in it and with those who do it that makes it a much better profession to be a part of than most professions, by my judgment...it's very much like being a soldier, or a police officer, or other kinds of less-well-paid public servants who do what they do because they want to do good and not for other reasons...

But when you do it...and you deal with as many different kinds of people as I do...you also think...

"Why don't people value school more?"...meaning...why don't the dumbasses whose lives are most in need of serious learning...why do they take it so much for granted?...and why do they so foolishly fail to see their own self-interest on this?...and why do so many of their children fall into the same mistake?...and how can it be made more plain for them just how foolish they're being?...

"Why, persistently, do the great works and the great music and the great ideas in the world always get so consistently rewarded less than those that provide more immediate gratification?"...the answer to this one is obvious, which is that most people are kind of dumbasses...and popular culture reflects their ignorance, much of the time...we all are, at some level...but some are clearly more dumbass than others...

And intellectual depth is just kind of rare, really...more rare than I ever imagined, I think...

I guess what scares me and concerns me about that is asking myself the same question that a lot of my less intellectually-oriented friends ask themselves...

Then why is it important?...

And I guess the answer to that...is just because you don't see the reality as thoroughly or as completely or with as much depth...

That doesn't make it go away...

Meaning...

Just because you don't understand the principles of physics that go into motion or the principles of chemistry that go into the various materials people use...

Doesn't mean that that understanding isn't important...

It just means that it's rarer to meet someone who understands those principles than it is to find someone who does...

And the same is true of people, I think...

When I think about it that way....it isn't something I have to be frustrated with people about as much (though most people are pretty arrogant about what they know and what they don't know about people and what makes them tick)...

It's just that most people don't really have much clue, really...

I'm really sick...I've got to get home, soon, and get some sleep...one more day before I have some time to really power up before the next semester...

Have a great week, everyone...

Love,
Ben