CALL ME MAGGIE

Situatedness

DASEIN, Being-here, openness, having to be open, connectedness

  • “STEM without flowers is just a bare stem…”

    …which sometimes can have some BIG thorns… We need more engineers and scientists. That has become the mantra of promoters of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in education. There is nothing wrong with such a rallying cry, except that… Continue reading

    “STEM without flowers is just a bare stem…”

  • The Rise of Democratic Schools and ‘Solutionaries’…

    Twenty years ago at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Severn Cullis-Suzuki, a 12-year-old girl from Canada, “silenced the world for six minutes” with her raw and powerful oration lambasting adults for dumping the problems they created onto the… Continue reading

  • Epistemic Closure & the Reality-Based Center

    The article below is encouraging to me on many levels. I have feared that I was a Texan committing the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy. That is where you cherry pick the evidence to meet the conclusion you want to support. So… Continue reading

  • Let them eat cake… for the 21st Century

    The corporate CEOs who have made a high-profile foray into deficit negotiations have themselves been substantially responsible for the size of the deficit they now want closed.The companies represented by executives working with the Campaign To Fix The Debt have… Continue reading

  • Stoic Pragmatism // Reviews // Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews // University of Notre Dame

    Most of us have heard about that exemplary fool, Molière’s Monsieur Jourdain, who was astonished to discover in middle age that he had been speaking prose all his life. After perusing John Lachs’s wise and lively Stoic Pragmatism, many readers will… Continue reading

  • Lessons for Building a Co-Operative Movement

    …John’s life has been steeped in co-operatives. He has been a member for over 30 years in the Heartwood Co-operative Woodshop in Berkeley, CA, where he lives. He has belonged to numerous other co-operatives and collectives. In addition to being… Continue reading

  • Situating Street Artists

    Cool. Filmmakers Z.S. Grant and John Carr have spent the better part of the past year ricocheting around the country, capturing the stories of politically minded street artists for their documentary series, “Voice of Art.” Their eight-episode Web series —… Continue reading

  • More response to the New York Times’ Latest Irritating Analysis of the Hipster

    Another reaction to Wampole’s diagnosis of overly tragic irony among Millenials that nicely bookends the other response I posted yestereve. If the prototypical highly educated, white, 20-something city dweller is a skinny dude in a vintage Stryper T-shirt with elaborate… Continue reading

  • The relationship between direct speech and philosophical inquiry « Andrew Taggart

    I was privileged to have Andrew Taggart share an early copy of his new manual The Art of Inquiry. I highly recommend this 21 st century enchiridion to everyone who would like to take up philosophizing as a way of life.… Continue reading

  • New Pew Survey of U.S. Parents

    While European legislators are considering adding a ‘right to be forgotten’ to data privacy laws to give internet users some control over who owns their data, U.S. parents are worried about the reputational damage of their teens’ online activities and what… Continue reading

  • a millenial response to being accused of “irony”

    I posted Christy Wampole’s piece on Millenials and the great issue she takes with them: they are too ironic. I argued that I thought she was missing something, but I did not go too deeply into why. This wonderful response… Continue reading

  • How to Live Without Irony – NYTimes.com

    Thanks to Andrew J. Taggart for pointing out this entry to the Stone blog at NYTimes.com. A good read. Not sure I agree with the whole premise. In my view, while Millenials do  present a lot of irony (at least… Continue reading

  • Wall Street Banks Seeking to Confuse Democratic Networks

    This is a very important bit of investigative journalism coming out of TruthOut.org right now. Let me attempt again to make the basic facts clear.  Third Way is not a “liberal think tank.”  It does not take “a centrist approach.” … Continue reading

  • Philosophizing & Inspiration

    Because I spend so much time being concerned that philosophizing as a way of life is about helping folks figure out how to live better lives, many professional philosophers do not think I am a “philosopher.” I am cool with… Continue reading

  • Smoochy Boochy… Remaking the World in the American Image

    Adam Curtis rocks. One of my favorite documentarians… ever. Below is a link to his documentary It Felt Like a Kiss. I recommend reading the full Wikipedia article, but here is a taste to get you situated: It Felt Like a… Continue reading

  • Gas Fracking Survey

    One of the great aspects of my job at the University of North Texas is that I get to work with a plethora of really bright young minds. Currently visiting UNT from Bard College is Jordan Michael Kincaid. A super… Continue reading

  • Class, Race, & Economic Discipline

    As always, a nice find by my good brother Carl Sachs. Very interesting. Notwithstanding slavery, segregation and today’s covert racism, the Southern system has always been based on economics, not race.  Its rulers have always seen the comparative advantage of… Continue reading

  • Drinking alone with the Moon…

    Drinking Alone with the Moon From a pot of wine among the flowers I drank alone.There was no one with me — Till raising my cup, I ask the bright moon To bring me my shadow and make us three.… Continue reading