| Saturday, March 22, 2003 |
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Liberate California!
By Diana Hsieh @ 3:38 PM
Paul just suggested that our armed forces liberate California after we're done with Iraq. The territory is about the same size, with a great deal of desert. And Californians are living under a repressive government. Furthermore, the repressed minority of conservatives in the areas north of San Francisco would likely be willing to take up arms to overthrow the Davis regime. I just hope that the Liberals don't set the oil fields on fire...
Ah, it's good to have my husband at home again.
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Western Superiority
By Diana Hsieh @ 9:18 AM
Reporting a story on Iraqi officers stealing their soldiers' pay, Instapundit makes fun of this ridiculous Samuel Huntington quote permanently displayed on Salam Pax's blog:
The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.
Instapundit responds:
But having officers who don't abscond with their troops' pay is, in fact, one example of the superiority of Western ideas, and it's one that translates rather directly into superiority where organized violence is concerned. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Dictatorships like Saddam's -- which based on history and prevalence might be regarded as the "natural" form of human governance -- turn out to be lousy at war. Democracies embodying Western ideas turn out to be a lot better. That's not a coincidence, however much non-Westerners might wish to believe that it is.
I would add that the military might of Western culture is a direct outgrowth of our scientific progress over the past three centuries or so, progress that was only made possible though the philosophical achievements of the Enlightenment. The West's skills in "applying organized violence" are not some bizarre primary feature, but rather a direct consequence of "the superiority of its ideas or values or religion." We are fascinated with science. We value truth and progress. We are willing to set aside the superstitions of religion in the face of scientific fact. These ideas and values are never found in abundance in primitive cultures... and they make all the difference in the world.
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| Friday, March 21, 2003 |
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Smart and Dumb
By Diana Hsieh @ 8:27 PM
Stephen Hicks is a smart guy... and some of the people responding to him are clearly ... shall we say ... "philosophically challenged."
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Important Informational Update About Bigfoot
By Diana Hsieh @ 8:07 PM
Terry blogs about Bigfoot documentaries:
By the end of these documentaries, it was clear that the makers wanted you to believe in at least the possibility of Bigfoot's existence. I came away believing that Bigfoot shows how powerful boredom, a gorilla suit, a movie camera and a case of Olympia beer can be on the human psyche.
In the words of Our Bounteous Blogging Lord: Heh.
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Snowed In, Plowed Out
By Diana Hsieh @ 7:58 PM
Hooray! I've been plowed out! The dogs and I celebrated by getting the mail out of our now-lopsided mailbox. (The impact of the snow from plowing the street has pushed it about 30 degrees off-kilter.) Thankfully, Paul will be able to come home tonight, rather than spending a fourth night at the Aurora hospital. Even better, he'll be bringing two gallons of my drug of choice: MILK! I made "war cookies," i.e. walnut chocolate chip cookies made (unintentionally) in the opening hours of the war, but I ran out of milk last night. Gack! Cookies and water is less than satisfying.
I wasn't aware of how burdensome the confinement was to the dogs until our walk down the driveway. Well, I walked. They leapt and wiggled and ran and bounded and panted and sniffed and chased and scurried and... We were going down to the barn twice a day to feed the horses, but that clearly wasn't terribly satisfying to them. They clearly appreciated the room to run.
My easy walk tonight was nothing like yesterday evening's pre-plowing hopeless attempt to get down the 500 feet or so to the road. (I only made it about 50 feet, as snow was simply too deep and heavy.) But tonight was a pleasant and easy jaunt. Hooray!
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Robert Campbell on Academia
By Diana Hsieh @ 11:10 AM
Robert Campbell really needs a blog. He keeps writing fascinating posts to OWL that are read by subscribers and then disappear into the closed archives. Here's his latest, actually from last week sometime.
In his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree--which I heartily recommend, by the way--Tom Friedman pauses occasionally to make laudatory remarks about American higher education. It does not occur to him that the "transparent" financial reporting, the constant innovation, and responsiveness to customer demand that lead him to praise (most) American business enterprises are nearly undetectable in academia.
Too often, people give universities an exemption--assuming that they are outside the market nexus, that the principles of economics or management do not apply to them, that their administrators do not need to be accountable in the way we expect business executives to be. Donors give money to higher education the way that the devout give to churches and temples--they're incurring spiritual merit, regardless of how the money is spent.
So I would agree with Phil Coates (2/13) that American universities are a long way from being like Silicon Valley.
It does not follow, however, that American universities are mired in the kind of stasis that the old Chinese imperial bureaucracies were. American universities are not all agencies of the State. (There are still well over 1000 private universities in the USA. By contrast, there is just 1 in Australia, and I don't believe there are any in France or the Netherlands.) They compete with one another for faculty and for students, as well as for the almighty research grants.
American universities have undergone far more evolution than the Mandarins did, once they were in place. Those universities that have lasted 100 years or more are much larger now, serve many more students, select those students on the basis of performance on tests that did not exist then, are much more secular, and have notably different administrative structures. (Tenure did not exist at any American university 100 years ago; faculty at most of them were personally hired and fired by the president of the institution, on a year-to-year basis. The American Association of University Professors, which designed the current tenure system, began agitating for it in 1915 and had largely gotten its way by 1940.)
Institutional rigidity, authoritarianism, and the perpetuation of intellectual orthodoxies are far more advanced in most other parts of the world. Universities in France, Japan, or Germany do not literally exemplify the Mandarin model (they offer a much wider diversity of material to be mastered, and it does change over time). But in their rigidity and deference to authority, even in their degree of integration into the overall government bureaucracy, they are a lot closer to it than universities in the USA. This is why American universities have been clobbering them at the graduate level, and why students from all over the world flock to the United States for graduate training. It is also a good part of the reason why English has become the standard language of academic publication.
I've made these points, not to argue that American higher education doesn't need fixing, but to bring some balance. American universities are significantly dysfunctional--but universities elsewhere tend to be worse.
What I am wondering about these days is where the constituency is going to come from to change the universities. The old guild protections are crumbling--the AAUP is tottering, as 40+% of all American faculty members neither have tenure nor are eligible to get it. But without significant pressure for accountability, applied both internally and externally, universities will devolve into havens for unaccountable administrators. Teaching and learning will continue, along with collecting money from corporations and government agencies for the use of scientists and facilities that they don't have to pay full freight for, but everything will be done so the maximum number of administrators can keep getting paid.
The extreme hostility to universities that prevails in some sectors of the Objectivist community inhibits any drive to change them. If our system of higher education is as irredeemably rotten as some OWL contributors hold it out to be, then there is little point in doing anything, except awaiting the inevitable downfall, and preparing to celebrate when it comes.
The academic careerism that some other contributors to OWL have manifested also works against constructive institutional change. It is hardly fair to ask libertarian and market-oriented academics, still a small minority in most disciplines at most universities, to shoulder a disproportionate burden. In fact, most employees in every kind of organization either lack management skill or don't find management issues interesting. Still, if the free-market-leaning academics don't take the initiative, who else is going to?
There are a lot of things that might be worth trying:
Charging differential tuition by the course, or at least by the program (not hard, now that registration and billing have been computerized). This would eliminate the huge cross-subsidies that go from undergraduate to graduate education, and from low-cost undergraduate programs to high-cost ones. (My college--the unit that includes the business and the social science departments at my university--is currently asking for permission to charge higher tuition for its courses. But the colleges with higher costs of instruction--such as science and engineering--are not making such requests. Even if the administration grants my college's request, cross-subsidies will continue.)
Replacing tenure with renewable multi-year contracts, coupled with cuts in administrative jobs, costs, and privileges. (Administrators don't get tenure per se, though some have inherited it from their days as faculty members, and others arrange to be given decorative faculty titles with tenure attached. But most career administrators are no more likely to be fired than tenured faculty are.)
Increasing the institution's dependence on tuition as a source of revenue. The closer undergraduates and their families get to paying full-cost tuition, the less patience they will show with the many ways in which universities short undergraduate education. They may also become more concerned with how much of their tuition money is reaching the classroom, instead of feeding Student Life bureaucrats. (Student Life is the biggest driver of administrative expansion over the last generation, and on most campuses it is also a haven of Political Correctness.)
Changing the norms of financial reporting (the current ones lead to completely useless reports). If universities actually reported how much they spent on administration, there would be tremendous pressure on them to lower the amounts promptly.
I'm sure there are lots more that I haven't thought of. But what are the chances of any of them being implemented? Tuition is rising at some State universities in desperate response to cuts in direct appropriations from tax revenues-- it is not happening because anyone is thinking about the likely consequences. Nothing at all seems to be going on on the other fronts.
Robert L. Campbell
PS. In response to some comments Phil made about intellectual orthodoxies in psychology, I'll be briefer:
1. Critics of mainstream cognitive psychology are not locked out in academia. They get published (despite having to fight for it, in some cases) and have careers. Interactivists were largely driven out of one learned society about a decade ago but they have been able to find other places to present their ideas. Mark Bickhard actually began working in a department of Educational Psychology and now makes his home in Philosophy department. Interactivists with training in psychology have generally gotten academic jobs; those with philosophy Ph. D.'s give us more cause for worry.
2. There are polemics in some research specialties in psychology. (In moral development research certain well known figures have responded to criticism with vituperation. Followers of James Gibson mix it up with mainstream cognitive psychologists and symbolic Artificial Intelligence types.) But the kind of writing for which Ayn Rand became notorious ("if you're not with us, you're against us") is unusual.
3. Nathaniel Branden's self-esteem theory is taken seriously by some clinical psychologists. Its strongest detractors are social psychologists who think that therapy promotes vanity and despise clinical practitioners as a class. There is no doubt, however, that Branden gets less attention than some others with less interesting ideas because he has rarely published in academic journals. (Walter Foddis has posted to OWL in more depth about some of these issues.)
4. Whatever is operating in academia to make orthodoxies too easy to perpetuate (and everything from the tenure system to the ever-growing importance of grant funding makes some contribution), in the end you really do have to persuade real live human beings that your approach has something going for it. Indeed, it may turn out that interactivism is wrong about important things. After all, that's what's happened to just about every other theory in psychology! We can't ask for more, in psychological research, than an opportunity to learn from our mistakes so we can come up with a better theory in the future.
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Shock and Awe
By Diana Hsieh @ 10:20 AM
Fox News is reporting that "shock and awe" has begun.
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Changes in the Press
By Diana Hsieh @ 9:01 AM
Jed Babbin and I have had similar thoughts about the consequences of embedding the press. He writes:
For those of us who wore the uniform in the Vietnam era, the most amazing thing is not the capability of our soldiers, or their equipment, or the level of success so far. It's not the calm, tough aura around the field grade and senior commanders. That stuff is all the norm. The amazement comes from the attitude of the press embedded with the troops.
During Vietnam, we shunned the press. They were the enemy, almost as much as the North Vietnamese were. They couldn't be trusted, and deserved the mushroom treatment. The "five o'clock follies" body count briefings were meant to keep them at a distance. But the Newly Embedded Pressies (or "NEPs" if I am permitted to invent an acronym) are learning much in a prolonged lesson denied their predecessors. They are getting to know -- and love -- the guys on the line. Being there, seeing these young folks, their intelligence, training and enormous capability will implant a respect for the American soldier no other experience can. Big Dog Don Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers have built a bridge to the press that will pay off in fairness and understanding for decades to come.
This change is a Very Good Thing.
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| Thursday, March 20, 2003 |
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Political Emotivism
By Diana Hsieh @ 6:42 PM
Peter Saint-Andre has a nice tidbit on political emotivism up on his blog. Based on interviews I've seen, a "Boo Bush!" emotivism is indeed the driving motivation of many war protestors. But, as Peter notes, Republicans often suffer a similar knee-jerk reactionism of "Boo Clinton!"
So how about a more general "Boo statist politicians!" instead? :-)
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| Wednesday, March 19, 2003 |
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Snow Totals Update
By Diana Hsieh @ 6:06 PM
The National Weather Service reports that Sedalia has received 54 inches of snow as of 4:20 pm. And the snow is still falling... but it's expected to taper off tonight.
Wow.
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Snow Update and Pictures
By Diana Hsieh @ 12:49 PM
I'm not sure how much snow has fallen as of this morning. My yardstick was nowhere to be found, presumably buried under the snow. (For that matter, so was the Nissan Sentra parked outside.)
It was very difficult to get down to the barn this morning to feed the horses. It's only about 150 yards, but that's a long, long way when then snow is up to your waist and higher. On my first attempt, I got about 15 feet before a chilly collapse into the snow. I had rather unpleasant visions of myself stuck in the snow halfway to the barn, cold and exhausted, unable to move. So I headed back to the house, bundled up in long underwear, snow pants, and tightly bound work boots, and headed out again. I managed to get down to the barn using a slightly less deep path, one with snow only to my thighs. Both of the dogs even managed to follow me, although not without a fair amount of struggle.
The horses are pretty much locked into the barn by the snow, although the overhang provides enough of a path to get to the water trough. They were very happy to be fed, so I'm glad that I made the effort to reach them this morning. I only hope that the path I cut this morning isn't completely obliterated tonight.
I'm sure Paul won't be coming home tonight. (No other radiologists could make it into Aurora today. While he takes a break this morning, cases are being read remotely from Swedish by two radiologists who live in walking distance of that hospital.) And I'm sure I won't be going to school on Thursday. (Campus might be closed again... I hope it is.) Our driveway is scheduled to be plowed tomorrow, but that might be difficult, given how heavy the snow is. Frankly, I figure that I'll be lucky if I leave the house in a week.
As much of a pain as this blizzard is, the precipitation is most welcome, given the drought we've been having these past two years. Snow now means fewer fires this summer, after all.
Okay, so here's the fun part, the pictures. Just remember that the ground is more than 3 feet below the snow level.
This is our house, as seen from down the driveway. The lefthand lump on the right side of the photo is my old Nissan Sentra. You can also see the large overhang of snow from the outside here, shown below too.
So this is the overhang of snow, as seen from the garage. I have to pass underneath it to get to the path to the barn, which worries me greatly. I have no desire for it to fall on me or the doggies, after all.
This is the barn as seen from our covered west porch.
One of our trees.
Another poor tree. Note the top of a 4 foot fencepost to the left of it.
Yet another poor tree.
So, America might have many allies in the war, but I'm feeling pretty darn isolated lately.
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| Tuesday, March 18, 2003 |
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False Excuses
By Diana Hsieh @ 9:53 PM
While snowed in today, I finished a major revision of my paper on false excuses. It's been restructured, retitled, and reworked. (The old version is still available here.) I'm very pleased with the end result, delightfully enough.
I took time off from other work to revise the essay so that I could submit a superdooper good version to the "Jentzsch Prize in Philosophy," a departmental graduate student essay contest. The deadline was today, so I was working down to the wire... but that's nothing new.
I'll be starting the process of journal submission sometime in early April. I'm not sure what my first choice will be, but most likely an applied ethics journal. As always, I'd love comments and feedback on the new version. Since I'm trying to get it published, I won't be posting it on the web site, but I can e-mail it as an attachment to anyone interested in helping me make it just that much better.
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Snow!
By Diana Hsieh @ 2:28 PM
When I went to bed last night, about 5 inches of snow lay on the ground. By morning, there was 15 inches. Now my yardstick reads 24 inches, with many more inches on the way. As you might have guessed, I didn't drive the 60 miles up to Boulder for classes today, although the university is officially open.
9 pm Update: The local news just reported the official snow figures. Sedalia has received 31 inches of snow, which is consistent with my measurements. It is expected to snow all night and tomorrow for another 7-14 inches.
I haven't found the figures for Boulder yet, but the university has already closed down for Wednesday. Frankly, I wonder how many people showed up a classes today, given the heavy snowfall. I'd probably be stuck sleeping in the cruddy grad lounge in Boulder if I had tried to go to classes today. *shudder*
10 pm Update: Paul won't be coming home tonight. He is working 3pm-11pm shifts all week long, so instead of driving 2 hours and 30 miles of dangerous roads home from Aurora and then reversing the trip tomorrow afternoon, he's spending the night at the hospital. (Nearby hotels were booked.) I just hope to see him tomorrow night!
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| Monday, March 17, 2003 |
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The Best Link Request Letter Ever
By Diana Hsieh @ 2:09 PM
Terry wins the prize for the best link request letter ever! It's pleasant! It's descriptive! It's funny! But don't take my word for it, see for yourself:
Hello Diana,
I'm sure you remember me - my best friend is Jimmy Wales, and I joined you and Paul on my first time ever shooting a hand gun! I've done that many times since then, thanks in part to your's and Paul's great instruction.
Now, down to the proverbial business. I read the post on your blog about Jimmy not linking to your blog, and his being a blog snob. I got to thinking, maybe Diana will link to *my* blog :) It's called American PhotoBlog, and it's based upon pictures I've taken of natural wonders, historical artifacts, or about anything else I find interesting. I write my 2 cents about the pictures as well. Have a look at http://tfresh.blogspot.com.
I'll gladly link to your blog in return. Unfortunately, I'm not the most HTML adept individual, as every time I try to put links in the blog template, they never work. Once I have this figured out, I won't be a blog snob, and I'll link to you.
I hope things are going well for you and Paul in the great Rocky Mountains. Drop me an e-mail sometime and let me know how life is for you.
Take care,
Terry
Terry's pictures are awesome! Go check them out!
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Oh Shit!
By Diana Hsieh @ 12:07 PM
Paul has the latest news on the mysterious and dangerous pneumonia that is spreading rapidly through the world. Unlike other recent disease outbreaks, this is dangerous and deadly to even the strong and healthy. Even worse, no one has recovered from this illness yet. This sounds really bad.
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Peggy Noonan Fixes the Democratic Party
By Diana Hsieh @ 11:49 AM
I'm not much of a fan of Peggy Noonan, but her sympathetic analysis of the deep problems of the Democratic Party is well worth reading. I particularly enjoyed this passage, definitely the most direct and blunt in the essay:
Let me be, admittedly, mean, but to make a point I can't figure out how to make any other way. Those who oppose the right to keep and bear arms are not as a rule the kind of people who would, or could, take down a nut waving his gun at the kids in a McDonalds. Those who oppose gun rights are more like the kind of people who when the incident was over would write a sensitive essay about how it felt to come face to face with one's existential powerlessness when faced with the sudden force of a sick man who alas shot two kids right in front of me. You may mean to be helpful in the abstract, but you are not helpful in the particular.
Conservatives are on the side of the citizen who'd protect the kids and takes down the bad guy with the gun. Aren't you, really? Shouldn't you be, "for the good of the children"?
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