Walter C Uhler » Cultural Criticism
Thinking About Racism as the Election Draws Near
Last month professors Josh Pasek, Jon Krosnick and Trevor Thompson published a remarkable paper titled, “The Impact of Anti-Black Racism on Approval of Barack Obama’s Job Performance and on Voting in the 2012 Presidential Election.” The paper is based upon three online surveys of at least 1,000 Americans; one conducted in 2008, one in 2010 and a third that ended in early September of this year. The surveys enabled the authors to measure the existence of both explicit and implicit racism among people who call themselves Democrats, Independents and Republicans. Explicit racism, as measured in these surveys, is nothing like the explicit racism that existed fifty years ago. Lee Atwater, a bare knuckles campaign advisor to both President George H. W. Bush and President George W. Bush, explained the … Read entire article »
Filed under: African-American History, American History, Cultural Criticism, Current Events, Race/Racism
Former Chairmen of Penn State’s University Faculty Senate Repudiate the Freeh Report and Decry Unjust NCAA Sanctions
The burden of being a full-time graduate student at the Pennsylvania State University during the academic years of 1973-1976 was almost enough to push my frivolous enjoyment of Penn State football completely out of my life. I was spending much time in the stacks of the Pattee Library. Some of that time was spent on Saturday afternoons, occasionally Saturday afternoons when Joe Paterno’s Penn State football team was competing against some other team right down the road from the library. Don’t get me wrong, I was (and remain) a big Penn State football fan, especially because of the pride I took in the belief that Coach Paterno attempted to assure that his players did things right. Education and the building of character first, then the winning of football … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cultural Criticism, Current Events, Media, Sandusky Scandal
Another Media Clown Show Stupifies Minds About Penn State
It started with the grand jury report released in November 2011. First, very few Americans knew that the grand jury report was a summary of testimony, not a transcript of testimony. Second, very few Americans knew that New York State chief judge Sol Wachtler once said: “a grand jury would ‘indict a ham sandwich,’ if that’s what you wanted.” Third, America’s news media did nothing to enlighten them. Thus, very few Americans were mentally equipped to question assertions made by the individual who summarized Mike McQueary’s grand jury testimony. Consequently, too many Americans fell too easily into righteous indignation when they heard or read that McQueary supposedly testified he “saw a naked boy, Victim 2, whose age he estimated to be ten years old, with his hands … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cultural Criticism, Current Events, Media, Sandusky Scandal
Certain Americans
Certain Americans chose a president no smarter than themselves, an illiterate who, in the seventh year of his presidency, still mangles the English language with such sentences as “Childrens do learn.” Far worse, however, certain Americans chose a president who then lied to them about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda, in order to send their sons and daughters (along with our sons and daughters) to kill Iraqis and, perhaps, die in an illegal, immoral invasion – now considered the worst strategic disaster in US history. Even so, certain Americans either shrugged their shoulders or rationalized away the evil behavior of their president when, for example, on the eve of announcing the invasion of Iraq, he “pumped … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cultural Criticism
Iraq, Iran and the Moral Rot Infecting the Soul of America
The more I read history, the more I’m convinced that the United States, far from being God’s appointed beacon for all mankind, was always a big-talking, poor-performing country in which the massive and willful stupidity of the majority engendered a moral rot incapable of withstanding manipulation and seduction by self-serving business/political interests. Thus, columnist Richard Cohen was merely acknowledging the latest example of such rot among the majority, when he asserted the Iraq War “was no mere failure of intelligence. This was a failure of character.” “Character” implies steadfast adherence to a moral code. But, as Walter Lippmann so cogently expressed it: “No moral code, as such, will enable [a person] to know whether he is exercising his … Read entire article »
Filed under: American History, Bush Administration, Cultural Criticism
Stinky Inky, Part VI: Carlin Romano’s April Fools’ Joke on His Philadelphia Inquirer Readers
Judging by his article, “Russia’s culturati a pale imitation of worthies of ‘Utopia,’” Carlin Romano and the editors of Philadelphia Inquirer have conspired to subject their readers to an infantile April Fools’ Day joke. Thus, readers of the April 1, 2007 issue of the “Inky” might be forgiven, if, after reading Romano’s review of Tom Stoppard’s 3-part play, The Coast of Utopia, they had no better understanding of 19th century Russian intellectual history than they had before falling for his joke. The real joke, however, concerns Mr. Romano’s apparent ignorance of 19th century Russian intellectual history. It seems to be no more informed than that held by the woman I encountered on February 24, 2007, during the intermission of the third play of Stoppard’s … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cultural Criticism, Russian History
Giving Thanks? Yes, Thanking God that I’m Not Like Them!
While immersing myself in Russian literature during the 1970s, I was struck by the age-old Russian tradition of “kissing the earth.” Russian women would kiss the earth as prisoners commenced their long trek into Siberian exile. Not only were they acknowledging the first step in the prisoners’ redemption, but also acknowledging: “there, but for the grace of God, go I.” Also implicit in their actions was the recognition that they were, in a small way, complicit in the prisoner’s transgressions. Dostoyevsky’s famous anti-hero, Raskolnikov, — having separated himself from the human family by committing murder — eventually kissed the earth in belated recognition of his kinship with other human beings. There, but for the grace of God, go I: … Read entire article »
Filed under: Cultural Criticism
The Nation: Editor's Picks
- Global War on Terror, R.I.P. May 24, 2013 Bob Dreyfuss
- This Week in Poverty: Homeowners Take the Foreclosure Fight to the DOJ May 24, 2013 Greg Kaufmann
- Was the Assassination of Four US Citizens Legal? May 23, 2013 Jeremy Scahill