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Friday, June 07, 2002 |
CHEAPER THAN A BUREACRACY, TOO
MATTHEW YGLESIAS ON HOMELAND SECURITY:
It seems to me that no matter what we do, some people somewhere will still be able to pull off a devastating attack sooner or later. The answer to the terrorist problem isn't trying to devise foolproof counterterrorism measures, it's defeating the Islamist ideology that inspires the attackers. Going on the offense, (a) kills terrorists, thereby making it harder for them to attack us (b) deters states and other powerful figures from sponsoring terrorism, and most importantly (c) shows that hijacking planes and crashing them into buildings doesn't make America give in -- it makes America topple your regime. Going on defense, on the other hand, makes us look weak. It makes it look like... Well said. [InstaPundit]
5:08:51 PM 
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GREAT WORDS
A few wonderfully inflammatory and thought-provoking ideas from an interview with Jeff Schmidt, the author of Disciplined Minds:
"Graduate school is an intensive and protracted period of scrutiny during which the individual is pressured to conform under threat of expulsion. The tenuring process is another years-long process of scrutiny. Those who remain after the two long rounds of weeding and transformation are so intellectually and politically timid that they don't need tenure. Thus the people who need the protection of tenure don't have it, and those who have it don't need it, because they have nothing provocative to say."
"Our society features a single, thoroughly integrated system of education and employment. The education component is hierarchical and competitive because it is a sorting machine for employers, a gate-keeper for the corporations and academic institutions."
"Learning doesn't require credentialing, ranking, grading, high-stakes testing, groveling for letters of recommendation and so on. Good teachers don't need -- or want -- the power to crush their students socially." [Ken Rawlings]
4:57:36 PM
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EDITORS, EDITING & EDITORIAL DECISIONS AREN'T BAD
Why I may have missed the point of yesterday's DaveNet
Yesterday, Dave Winer posted a piece titled "Is It Marketing or Journalism?" I read the piece with a great deal of interest because there are so many ways that this question has shown up in the mainstream media as well as in weblogs. A few examples:
Examples could go on. After the DaveNet email had been out a few hours it was obvious that people were not using the article as a source of debating the same things I thought we needed to discuss. Those "critical" of the piece were unhappy with Dave's example. Maybe that very specific example was Dave's lone point. I don't think so, but maybe it was.
The bottom line for me came when Dave said this, "This is the difference between a director of marketing and a professional journalist. The former accomodates the employer, and the latter must not." It strikes me that part of this is about "loyalty." To whom are we loyal? Once you disagree with "the play called in the huddle," what do you do?
Editors (and journalists) make decisions all the time about how to say things, what to say, when to say them and when to keep quiet. Their integrity isn't impuned each time they avoid the most outrageous or controversial choice. Avoid often enough and, yes, their integrity as journalists gets called into question.
I don't think Gillmor was wrong to keep quiet about his employer's decision. I think the Air Force Colonel bordered on treason with public criticism of the Commander In Chief. I think every news source had a decision to make about the Daniel Pearl video, and those who chose to leave it out didn't harm their reporting of "the story." Those who left it out there rightfully deserve questions about their motives, their sense of responsiblity to the family, etc.
But, I may have missed the whole point! It's good stuff, Dave.
9:34:43 AM
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QUESTIONS ABOUT CAUSE AND EFFECT
What really makes a "place" creative and why?
"Be creative or die" [Salon.com] is an interview with Richard Florida about his book called "The Rise of the Creative Class." Memphis scored dead last in his research into cities that have the right kind of creative buzz to attract long-term prosperity. The creative class web site is here. A study done to try and "help" Memphis is here.
I think some of the cause and effect relationships in this data are still fuzzy, but in the spirit of Old Economy and New Economy thinking, there are some excellent findings. Those of you in Silicon Valley, Austin, Boston and other technology centers may not find that this is news. In fact, you may discover that you didn't know other places could be quite so "backward."
9:31:39 AM
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© Copyright 2002 Steve Pilgrim.
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