Hubris

Dave Foreman notes in his essay “The Anthropocene and Ozymandias” that life began on earth some 3.5 billion years ago, but that is almost beyond comprehension.  He urges us instead to think back to the arrival of more complex life forms which began in what geologists call “the Cambrian explosion.”  That was only 545 million years ago.

Foreman then asks us to consider a book of 545 pages.  Each page represents a million years.  The last sentence, maybe some 13 to 15 words before the end, would be when modern homo sapiens left Africa and began its spread across the continents.  Farming began maybe three words before the end.  The last word would take us from about 2000 BCE to today.  The period at the end represents the last 100 years with our exploding population, radioactive fallout, biocides, greenhouse gases, and plastic waste.  4/5ths of that period is within my lifetime.

Now think about our leaders.  Think about people like Elon Musk or Donald Trump or Ted Cruz or the Koch Brothers.  Think about the Supreme Court, or the Republican House of Representatives or the MAGA movement.

Foreman ends his essay with the poem “Ozymandias.”  Google it.

You can read Foreman’s essay in Ben A Minteer and Stephen J. Pyne, eds.  After Preservation:  Saving American Nature in the Age of Humans.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, c. 2015.

Pennsylvania Colleges

Gov. Shapiro has been disappointed in the Pennsylvania system since he took office last year.  He’s appointed a working group to suggest changes.  The state colleges often duplicate efforts, and they are underfunded.  The 15 community colleges and the 10 state colleges operate under different management.  Pennsylvania ranks 49th in spending for public higher education.  Tuition is also high.

The big plan will be unveiled on Feb. 7.  The Governor says he won’t eliminate any campuses.  

When I moved back to PA I taught classes in pol. sci. at East Stroudsburg University for a number of years.  Many students were caught between working and classes, overwhelmed by the need for income and the need for study time.  I also learned that many parents, including wealthy parents, did not contribute to their kids’ educations.  If Gov. Shapiro’s plan calls for lower tuition or more scholarships, that would be a major improvement.  

I also learned that many graduates did not plan to stay in the area.  Not too many jobs for a newly minted college grad in Carbon or Monroe County.

I tested positive today

It was probably inevitable that I would get Covid.  Linda tested positive about ten days ago, and it is hard to isolate when you live with someone.  So far it hasn’t been worse than a cold–not even a fever.  Just coughing, etc.  No need to go into detail.  Now if I got this correct from Trump, I should go to the vet tomorrow and get some horse worming medicine.  Or was it bleach?

I’ll comment on Gov. Shapiro’s plan for the state colleges tomorrow, but when you have a higher ed. system in which the number of students was 115,000 in 2012 and 83,000 in 2023, you are doing something wrong.

Schema for rooting

You’re on the couch watching the playoffs between two out-of-state teams.  How do you know who to root for?  My old department head Dr. Hennessey had a whole plan worked out, but it was mostly for college teams.  He rooted for East over West, North over South, secular over religious, pubic over private.  For example, Berkeley over Stanford or Michigan over Notre Dame.  I forget what he did if the categories crossed; for example, if a northern private college played a southern public college, but I think he had some sort of scale worked out.

Tonight’s game between Detroit and San Francisco would be East vs. West.  Or it might be old declining Rust Belt city vs. high tech West Coast hub.  On the other hand, I lived for 32 years in the Bay Area during the Joe Montana/Jerry Rice era.  

It’s a tough one.  I decided not to watch the game.

Generational differences on Israel

Older Americans 65 and up are far more likely to support Israel than Americans aged 18 to 29.  The difference between generations on questions like aid to Israel or whether Israel is sincerely interested in peace is stark.

Ezra Klein has a great article explaining these differences.  People my age remember how Israel struggled to even exist, how its neighbors attacked it, how it was founded with ideals of freedom and democracy.  

Younger Americans see the Israel of nuclear capability.  They see West Bank settlements, abuse of Palestinians, and a Prime Minister backed by religious nationalists bent on expansion, refusing to even consider a Palestinian state.  They see a response to the horrific attack on Israel that kills thousands of people who had nothing to do with Hamas.

There are Israelis and Palestinians who would like to live in peace.  They don’t control of the situation.  The fanatics on both sides are in control.  I don’t see how the Biden Administration can do very much, but I believe it is sincerely trying.  

See Ezra Klein, “Gen Z Is Listening to What Netanyahu Is Saying.  Is Biden?” New York Times, (Jan. 27, 2024), p. A20. 

Another "expert" on global warming speaks out

Our local paper printed a letter from a local expert on global climate patterns explaining why the idea of global warming is a hoax.  He even cited a book about the issue and discussed why the climate will become colder.  

Suppose almost all of the world’s climate scientists really are wrong about global warming and this local letter writer is correct.  Bear with me.  Let’s just suppose.  What are the steps advocated to alleviate the predicted global warming?  More efficient use of energy.  Less carbon dioxide.  Less waste.  Less air pollution.  More trees.  Less cancer.  Less mining.  The downsides might be some unsightly windmills and employment shifts.  

Now suppose we follow the advice of this local expert, but he turns out to be wrong.  Famine, drought, species die off, mass migrations, wars, and a ruined earth result.

This seems like an easy choice.  

Expert on trans issues?

I’ve read a few articles and one book (Becoming Nicole) about transgender issues.  It wasn’t really an exhaustive study, but I’ve come to some conclusions.  One is for trans kids, it is important to start hormone therapy early.  Another is that actual surgery, if that is the ultimate desire, in most cases should occur later.  Finally, I learned that I really don’t know all that much about it, and the decisions in trans cases should be left up to the kid, the parents, and medical professionals.

Pretty much the same conclusion was reached by the Republican Governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, when he vetoed a bill that barred transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or gender transition surgery.  DeWine said that if that bill became law, “Ohio would be saying that the state, that the government, knows better what is medically best for a child than the two people who love that child the most, the parents.”  Before his veto, the governor visited with families of trans kids and spoke to medical experts.

Trump weighed in and said the governor had “fallen to the radical left” and said the legislature should override the veto.  On Wednesday the legislature overrode Governor DeWine’s veto.  

Information for this article came in part from Anna Betts and Amy Harmon, “Ohio Leaders Override Governor’s Veto, Clearing Way for Ban on Transition Care,” New York Times, (Jan. 25, 2024).

Recognizing good news

A number of developed countries are experiencing negative population growth.  In other words, more people are now dying than are being born.  Population is decreasing.  This has already happened in Japan and perhaps in Korea and Italy.  Some other European countries are on the verge.  The U.S. would be getting close to this tipping point except for immigration.

Governments are in a tizzy.  Some have programs to increase births, such as subsidies for each baby produced.  

The rate of world population increase in the last 100 years is unsustainable.  We reached a billion about 1804.  I was born in 1942 when the world population was under 3 billion.  Today it is over 8 billion.  In my lifetime!  The globe has too many people.  The only reason global warming has not jumped even further is because most of the people in Africa and Asia don’t live the incredibly wasteful lifestyles of the developed world.  The fact that some countries are actually seeing a decrease in population is something to celebrate.  

SJSU on strike

The faculty at San José State University and the other campuses in the CA state system are on strike.  The demands include higher wages and fewer students per classroom.

When I started teaching at San José State the profs were not organized.  In the early 80’s we had a system-wide election between the United Professors of CA and the CA Faculty Association.  I was recruiting for the UPC, an AFL-CIO affiliated union.  CFA won; I thought at the time the profs just  couldn’t quite picture themselves in the same organization as steel workers and farm laborers.  Nonetheless, in a few years the CFA was part of the Santa Clara County Labor Chapter and had all the trappings of a full-fledged union.  Benefits flowed.

In my lifetime I’ve been a member of four unions:  the Bethlehem Municipal Workers, the Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and the CFA.  I receive pensions.  I have medical care.  And I will now sing “Solidarity Forever” and “You can’t get me, I’m part of the union.” 

Covid and RSV

Linda has tested positive for Covid and is almost finished with the Plaxovid.  You get pills for five days.  You take two in the morning and two in the evening.  I thought it was interesting that one of them is made in China and one is made in Italy.

In the meantime I do not have Covid.  I took two tests.  Two days ago and today.  But I sure have something.  Coughing and a fever.  I am so tired of this.  Sorry to get personal.  I’ll do better tomorrow unless I am totally out of it. 

It's not about the babies

Daniel K. Williams, whom I think is a very sincere anti-abortion advocate, recently wrote an opinion piece that the best way to “save unborn lives” is to make sure that expectant mothers have the resources they need.  He pointed out that 42 percent of the women who had abortions had incomes below the poverty level and noted that one study found that 40 percent of women having abortions cited financial reasons as the reason.  He said the focus was too much on bans and not enough on help.

What Mr. Williams doesn’t seem to realize is that the so called “pro-life movement” is not about saving lives.  You don’t see “pro-lifers” advocating for gun safety laws or school lunch programs.  You don’t see them pushing for medical assistance for pregnant women.

It is about control of women.  If this weren’t the case, do you think states would insist that a woman continue to carry a damaged or non-viable fetus even if it puts her life in danger?  Would they be opposing birth control methods?  This is about the woman, not the baby.

Party of Toadies

The lack of integrity among leading Republicans is truly amazing.  Remember how Kevin McCarthy went from criticizing Trump’s insurrection to visiting Trump in Florida to kiss his ring.  (And I’m being kind here.)  Now we get Vivek R., running to Trump’s side.  Sen. Mike Lee of Utah backed DeSantis, then after Iowa switched to Trump without even telling DeSantis.  Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, after failing in his presidential campaign, endorsed Trump, and Trump said he would have an important job in the Trump administration.  Tim Scott could hardly wait to give Trump his support.  

If they thought Trump wasn’t fit to be president a few months ago, what changed?  What happened to principles? 

Advice for Nikki Haley

Nikki Haley, right now the only thing that stands in the way of Trump winning the Republican nomination and probably the presidency, needs some advice.  First she blows the answer on the cause of the Civil War, then she gets a question about whether the U.S. is a racist country.

No one, and that includes Biden, who wants to win the presidency can say that the U.S. is  a racist country.  You can’t.  You might believe it, and you might give evidence, but voters don’t like to hear that their country is racist.  Most Anglo voters don’t even understand the whole idea of white privilege.  They don't feel privileged.  

I taught American studies for years.  Some of our country’s history is bleak, but here is what my team members and I told the students.  While terrible things were done to Indians, Blacks, immigrants, Latinos, women, and so many others, there were always voices speaking out against mistreatment.  Roger Williams, John Wollman, Susan B. Anthony, Davy Crockett, Frederick Douglass, Jane Addams, and so many more.  Focus on those.  It is hard to condemn the U.S. as a racist country when so many people tried to do the right thing.  Be one of those voices.

Christine's law

In 2005 a large piece of ice detached from a car and killed a woman named Christine.  The legislature acted, and Pennsylvania law now requires truckers and other drivers to remove snow and ice from their vehicles before they drive on public roads.  It is a good law.  A woman was killed.

Hundreds die from gun violence EVERY YEAR in Pennsylvania.  A bill to tighten gun regs in Pennsylvania will pass the House of Representatives, controlled by Democrats.  Among other items, it would require that guns have a unique serial number.  Ghost guns have proliferated in recent years; they are assembled from kits, and they can’t be traced.  The bill is most likely to fail in the Senate.  Republican Senators say it runs afoul of the 2nd Amendment.  My state Senator, David Argall, will, I’m sure, vote against it.

I wonder how he voted on Christine’s law.

Should 16-year-olds vote?

Short answer–no.  Newark, NJ, is experimenting with allowing 16-year-olds to vote in school board elections.  Given the low turnout and the goofballs who win office (i.e., Moms for Liberty), maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea, but I have my doubts.  I may be the exception, but I did some stupid things when I was 16.  Canoeing in winter on the Pohopoco when the temperature was in the 20s and ice was forming is just one example.

I have never bought into the argument that “if you are old enough to fight, you are old enough to vote.”  You want soldiers to obey orders.  When the commanding officer tells you to take the hill, you don’t come back with “But sir, there are men on that hill who are shooting at us.”  You say,”Yes SIR!” and charge up the hill.  Calm reason and rational thought have nothing to do with it.

Also, the corollary to “old enough to fight, old enough to vote” would seem to be “too old to fight, too old to vote.”  The qualities you want in a voter are rather different than those of a good soldier.

I think we mature at different levels.  You don’t reach a certain age and say, OK, now you are an adult and can do adult stuff.  Sixteen may be too young to drive, but not to smoke marijuana.  Maybe you shouldn’t drive until you are seventeen.  Perhaps you shouldn’t be allowed to vape until you are 25.  I think 30 might be a good minimal age for tattooing, although I have seen some saggy tattoos on old people at the gym, so maybe there should also be a maximum age by which they have to be removed.  

And while I’m on the subject, I’d keep the minimum age of 35 for the presidency, but I’d put an upper limit on that as well.  Say 75.  That certainly would have solved a lot of problems in this upcoming election.

Not impressed

So around 16% of Iowa Republicans showed up to caucus.  Of that number half voted for Donald Trump.  That means that 8% of Iowa Republicans came out to vote for Trump.  Whoop de doo!

Obligation and the Body Politic

Obligation and the Body Politic by Joseph Tussman was published in 1960.  It was assigned in grad school, and I recently picked it up to review.  Tussman notes something that seems so obvious we don’t even think about it.  

When we have a democracy, we make a unanimous decision to be bound by public decisions that are not unanimous.  We agree ahead of time that if we lose, we will make our own beliefs subordinate to those of the majority.  In other words, we unanimously agree to forego unanimity.

I thought that was profound, but there are some major holes in Tussman’s formulation.  Suppose the decision isn’t made by a majority, but by a Senate that is not representative?  Suppose it is made by an electoral college that is not representative of “the public”?  Suppose there is a segment of the population that refuses to accept the outcome of the public decision?  Suppose you have Trump and his MAGA followers claiming a fair and free election is fraudulent?

Maybe Tussman discusses such matters.  I’m only a fourth of the way through the book.

Indiana University cancels Samia Halaby show

Samia Halaby, a Palestinian artist who has lived in the U.S. since the 50’s and earned a master’s degree at Indiana University and later taught there, was about to be honored with a retrospective show at the University.  Her work hangs in the permanent collection at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

The show has taken more than three years to organize.  Ms. Halaby was informed of the cancellation in a two sentence note.  

In November Rep. Jim Banks (Republican) of Indiana sent a letter to the university saying it could lose federal funding if administrators condoned antisemitism on campus.  In December the university suspended a tenured political science professor after the student Palestine Solidarity Committee hosted an unauthorized event.  The professor was the faculty advisor for the group.  [Ever notice how often poli. sci. profs get into trouble?]

Incidentally, the Museum at Michigan State still plans to host Ms. Halaby’s show later this year.  Let’s hope they are not as chicken-shit as Indiana.

See Zachary Small, “Museum Cancels Big Exhibition,” New York Times, (Jan. 13, 2024), p C-2.

Machiavelli, Palestine, and Israel

It’s been decades since I read “The Prince,” so I may be remembering this incorrectly, but I believe Machiavelli said it was better to take a son from a person than to take land from a person.  You can grieve the loss of a son and come to accept it, but the land is always there, reminding you of the loss and standing in the way of a reconciliation.

I thought of that today when I read the New York Times article that Secretary of State Blinken’s vision for mideast peace is a nonstarter for Israel.  Blinken, and evidently Biden, are advocating a two-state solution.  Palestinians would get their own country.  

Netanyahu, of course, and probably most Israelis would say no.  Unfortunately, without a territory to call their own, Palestinians will always yearn for their own country.  It will be their own form of Zionism.  It won’t go away.  We have two mirror images.  Israelis don’t want a Palestine; Palestine doesn’t want an Israel.  Nonetheless, it wouldn’t be the first time that enemies could learn to live in peace.  It probably would be an uneasy peace at first, but history is replete with former enemies who learn to accept each other.

See Edward Wong and Patrick Kingsley, “Blinken’s Grand Vision For Achieving Peace is a Nonstarter for Israel,” New York Times, (Jan. 12, 2024), p. A7. 

Typee by Herman Melville

Before Melville wrote Moby Dick he wrote Typee and Omoo, both south seas adventure tales which also had elements of travelogues.  Melville spent time on the Pacific Islands and obviously knew indigenous life and customs quite well.

I just finished reading Typee.  It may not be better than Moby Dick, but it is certainly fascinating and, I’m pleased to report, a good deal shorter.  I was amused by the love interest, a Polynesian woman (girl is probably more accurate) named Fayaway and her adventures with the narrator.  

The defense of the islanders is also interesting.  Melville was critical of the missionaries who brought disease and greed and ruined a very pleasant way of life.  The commentary at the end of the book compares the English version to the American version published in 1846.  The American version omits some of the descriptions of the women and waters down the criticisms of the missionaries.  Even in 1846 Americans were willing to censor books that offended their delicate sensibilities.