It’s too soon to say about Tunisia, of course: will its revolution succeed? Will a democratic coalition endure, establishing a new order of government by consent? Will that spirit spread through the region? Who knows? But it is not too soon to suggest some possibilities and implications emerging from the chain-reaction of liberation that has …
Does higher education ensure learning? Years ago, I co-taught a semester-long seminar in a multidisciplinary arts graduate program at San Francisco State University. The subject was the economic and policy environment for artists’ work, and as I’ve discovered many times since, most of the students, despite years of arts practice and study, were learning the …
In winter darkness, can you close your eyes and remember the taste of a ripe apricot? Can you recall the bittersweet green scent left on your hand as you harvest a tomato an instant before the bursting-point? I’ve reached the six-month point in my online dating experience, and it feels like a small milestone: no …
The word of the week is blame. Who should be blamed for Jared Lee Loughner, the loony white male devotee of the Sovereign Citizen Movement who shot nineteen people outside a Tucson supermarket on Saturday, killing six and wounding fourteen, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords? What happens when scapegoating overtakes a culture, as it has overtaken …
“Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.” Antonio Gramsci At a New Year’s gathering of friends last night, we spent the last hour before midnight sharing our answers to two questions: “What gives you hope?” And “What is your mission in 2011?” The answers ranged across the map of the human heart. Some people …