A Neil Postman story

I heard Robert McChesney tell this Neil Postman story during a lecture earlier this week. The story appears to have originated with the psychologist Gordon Allport. Its point: there's no such thing as a neutral question:

The form of a question may ease our way or pose obstacles. Or, when even slightly altered, it may generate antithetical answers, as in the case of the two priests who, being unsure if it was permissible to smoke and pray at the same time, wrote to the Pope for a definitive answer. One priest phrased the question "Is it permissible to smoke while praying?" and was told it is not, since prayer should be the focus of one's whole attention; the other priest asked if it is permissible to pray while smoking and was told that it is, since it is always appropriate to pray.

Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (New York: Vintage, 1993), 125–26

Robert McChesney

I went to a talk by University of Illinois professor and media critic Robert McChesney the other night. McChesney spoke on various matters related to journalism, politics, and democracy: the Constitution's safeguards against imperial ambition, the distinction between freedom of the press and freedom of speech, the enormous decline in the numbers of professional journalists and D.C. bureaus, unreported stories (the growth of the American prison population), the roles of anonymous sources and public relations in journalism, the work of Free Press ("Reform media. Transform democracy."), the importance of Net Neutrality, the limited efficacy of political humor (the Soviet Union under Stalin, he noted, had great political humor), and an instructive story from Neil Postman about the importance of asking the right question.

One exact quotation about the present shape of things:

"Professional journalism makes politics a liars' paradise. . . . There's no accountability. It's a liars' paradise."

Typewriter

The delightful webcomic xkcd.

Quicksilver discovery

I came across a sentence somewhere online today celebrating the ability to drag and drop almost anywhere on a Mac. I wondered: can one drag and drop in Quicksilver? I decided to try. Yes, it works.

To move a file:

1. Activate Quicksilver.

2. Type to get the name of the destination folder or drive.

3. Drag the file's icon onto the left Quicksilver panel, the one showing the folder or drive.

To copy a file:

1. Activate Quicksilver.

2. Type to get the name of the destination folder or drive.

3. Hold down the Option key and drag the file's icon onto the left Quicksilver panel, the one showing the folder or drive.

This feature provides a nifty way to remove files from the desktop without opening the Finder or moving through spring-loaded folders. Who knew? (Not me.)

"Size is the answer"

Thomas L. Friedman, from a column in Saturday's New York Times:

Imagine for a minute that attending the Republican convention in St. Paul, sitting in a skybox overlooking the convention floor, were observers from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. And imagine for a minute what these observers would have been doing when Rudy Giuliani led the delegates in a chant of "drill, baby, drill!"

I'll tell you what they would have been doing: the Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan observers would have been up out of their seats, exchanging high-fives and joining in the chant louder than anyone in the hall — "Yes! Yes! Drill, America, drill!" — because an America that is focused first and foremost on drilling for oil is an America more focused on feeding its oil habit than kicking it.

Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology — fossil fuels — rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology — renewable energy? As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. "Typewriters, baby, typewriters."

Me, I'm reminded of the William S. Burroughs routine about the dinosaurs:

Fellow reptiles, at this dark hour, I do not hesitate to tell you that we face grave problems . . . And I do not hesitate to tell you that we have the answer . . . Size is the answer . . . increased size . . . It was good enough for me . . . (Applause) [. . .] We will increase both in size and in numbers and we will continue to dominate this planet as we have done for three hundred million years . . . (Wild applause).

"The Hundred Year Plan," in The Adding Machine: Selected Essays (New York: Seaver, 1986), 122–23

Happy birthday, dear Art

My blog turns four years old later today.

Orange Crate Art began as an extension of my teaching, a place to collect items relevant to coursework and college. It soon became an extension of "me," moving in whatever directions seemed appropriate. My impulse always has been to notice — whether by introspection or looking around or reading — and to gather what might be delightful or useful to a reader.

I'm grateful to everyone who's read any or all of it, and especially grateful for the kindred spirits I've met only through written words (in comments here and in their writing elsewhere). Perhaps we'll meet in non-pixel form, somehow, someday, somewhere.

And I'll say thanks (again) to Rachel, who suggested Orange Crate Art as a name, to Rachel and Ben for showing me that I could learn some HTML, and to Elaine, whose taste is ever discerning. And thanks (again) to Van Dyke Parks, who was generous and enthusiastic about my borrowing his title.

As a young professor-type, my idea of writing was to get on the shelves of libraries, where I would live forever. Writing here, now, brings me much better rewards.

And for Pete's sake, if you read this blog and have never listened to "Orange Crate Art" (the song) and Orange Crate Art (the album), please give them a try:

Van Dyke Parks, Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove
Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, Orange Crate Art

Onward!

Previous birthday posts
You say it's your birthday (2005)
Birthday (2006)
Orange Crate Art turns three (2007)

"[A] blank page"

[From the 1962 film.]

In a post today, Andrew Sullivan pointed his readers to a Tim Shipman article from the Telegraph on those who are shaping a certain vice-presidential candidate to be their future. Sullivan's conclusion: "The goal is war against Iran and Russia. And a further deepening of the occupation of Iraq."

From the Telegraph:

[M]any believe that the "neocons", whose standard bearer in government, Vice President Dick Cheney, lost out in Washington power struggles to the more moderate defence secretary Robert Gates and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, last year are seeking to mould Mrs Palin to renew their influence.

A former Republican White House official, who now works at the American Enterprise Institute, a bastion of Washington neoconservatism, admitted: "She's bright and she's a blank page. She's going places and it's worth going there with her."

Asked if he sees her as a "project", the former official said: "Your word, not mine, but I wouldn't disagree with the sentiment."

The article offers some details of Sarah Palin's two-week education in Foreign Policy 101. It's scary stuff. Read it all:

Neoconservatives plan Project Sarah Palin to shape future American foreign policy (Telegraph)

And for longer reading, the New York Times has an investigation of Sarah Palin's way of governing. Its closing anecdote:

At a recent lunch gathering, an official with the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce asked its members to refer all calls from reporters to the governor's office. Dianne Woodruff, a city councilwoman, shook her head.

"I was thinking, I don't remember giving up my First Amendment rights," Ms. Woodruff said. "Just because you're not going gaga over Sarah doesn't mean you can't speak your mind."

Read it all:

Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes (New York Times)

John Ashbery's collages

From the New York Times:

A couple of them date from his college years in the 1940s. Most are from the 1970s and were recently rediscovered tucked away in a shoebox. "I lost those for a long time," he says. "Quite a few others got thrown out." Several more are hot off his apartment work table.

At eighty-one, John Ashbery is showing collages at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York.

Above, Poisson d'Avril (1972). Wikipédia explains: poisson d'avril (April's fish) is an April 1 children's custom that involves attaching a paper fish to a person's back without being noticed. The paperhanger then shouts "Poisson d'avril!" Or «Poisson d'avril!»

A slideshow accompanies the Times article. No catalogue yet at Tibor de Nagy's site.

The Poetry of Scissors and Glue (New York Times)
Tibor de Nagy Gallery

Inara George and Van Dyke Parks on the air

Inara George and Van Dyke Parks visited Morning Becomes Eclectic at KCRW yesterday. Stop, look, and listen:

Inara George and Van Dyke Parks Visit MBE

Related post
Review: Inara George and Van Dyke Parks

Letters to the Times

Of London, that is:

Sir, The complexity of English spelling, grammar and punctuation has its advantages. The two phishing e-mails and the letter telling me I had won a Spanish lottery, all received in the past week, were readily identifiable as fakes because of their poor standards. Apparently, I would have had to pay the lottery agent 5 per cent of my wining fund.

Shaun Thorpe
London W12

*

Sir, Mr Francis suggests (letter, Sept 11) that if youngsters are not taught how to spell, they will not be able to enjoy the pleasure of a crossword.

I have often found it convenient to overlook spelling conventions when squeezing words into the inadequate spaces allowed.

Paul Adams
Westcott, Surrey

Related posts
If it's Wensday, this must be England
Phishing