tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82308792248781609952024-02-19T04:10:48.877-06:00Timothy J. Shaffer's BlogThis is a blog written by Timothy J. Shaffer, PhD. It's themes are primarily focused on issues about or related to civic engagement, deliberative democracy, politics, history, and society.Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-90399635880794913562021-04-24T09:53:00.005-05:002021-04-24T12:43:59.153-05:00Responding to a Call<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBi_fQF5HckNeMYHexc0hmpgEbzlKjym2RBC5UQvhrY-tLf3nkecWMT72DqHwl9xSUH2MGPMLJrIzeVkYiDbVVayoDjedE4jFRlO_H_ueTU4fXEiZVydDYpX6ngKERHt-UaUsQhtM5Q43q/s2048/matt-popovich-7mqsZsE6FaU-unsplash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1108" data-original-width="2048" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBi_fQF5HckNeMYHexc0hmpgEbzlKjym2RBC5UQvhrY-tLf3nkecWMT72DqHwl9xSUH2MGPMLJrIzeVkYiDbVVayoDjedE4jFRlO_H_ueTU4fXEiZVydDYpX6ngKERHt-UaUsQhtM5Q43q/w400-h216/matt-popovich-7mqsZsE6FaU-unsplash.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Every month, I have the opportunity to speak on <a href="https://1350kman.com/" target="_blank">KMAN</a>, a regional radio station in Northeast Kansas about work that's happening at the <a href="https://www.k-state.edu/icdd/" target="_blank">Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy</a>. During the last visit, I was asked about the recent guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial following the murder of George Floyd. There were a couple callers with comments about the topic. This wasn't surprising and was, frankly, expected. With a listening audience covering quite a stretch of rural Kansas, the perspectives of most listeners go beyond the perceptions of what a college-town such as Manhattan might be. <br /><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One caller followed up with an email. I took a bit of time later that day to respond because I found it important to engage someone seemingly interested in the topic but maybe not having access to information that might broaden their perspective. Below is the exchange. Maybe it's helpful for you, too.</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;">[Note, in my email response I sent attachments but include articles as links here.]</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></div><br /><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />---<br /><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;">1st. I found it interesting that you questioned my source on the number of blacks killed compared to whites, yet you only read about the shooting. Sounds like your source was bias. Most major newspaper headlines said black teenage girl gunned down by white cop. This is a bad narrative to push. The only way to get the truth is to watch it. So when you question my source, yet believe your source, it's kinda contradicting.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This year alone 50 whites killed by cops, 30 blacks. <br /><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tony</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />---<span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext"><br /></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext">Tony,<br /></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext"> <br /></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext">Thanks for your call this morning on KMAN. My comments about the source of information you were referring to weren’t an attack. I hope it didn’t come across as dismissive. Instead, it really was a statement about the need for all of us to be aware of our sources of information. I thought you were still on the call and were going to be able to respond with respect to the specific source you were mentioning. In an academic environment, we always scrutinize sources of information that serve as the basis for claims and arguments, especially if they aren’t peer-reviewed and have a higher accountability than something on a blog or personal website that doesn’t base information on agreed-upon expectations. This is true even when you agree with it, which is important, so we don’t have confirmation bias since we easily gravitate to positions we agree with think rather than what we don’t.<br /></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext"> <br /></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext">As I said on the air, I don’t prefer to watch unnecessary violence, especially deaths that are often preventable. So, your comments could very well be true. But my point was that, even if there was such a situation, there are ways to disarm someone without killing them. This is where interventions into training and practices become important. This<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://media.nature.com/original/magazine-assets/d41586-020-01846-z/d41586-020-01846-z.pdf" target="_blank"><i>Nature</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>article</a> says much more about this.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br /></span></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext"> <br /></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext">In the article “<a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w26774/w26774.pdf" target="_blank">Does Race Matter…?</a>”, research based on information from more than two million 911 calls in two US cities enables the authors to conclude that white officers dispatched to Black neighborhoods fired their guns five times as often as Black officers dispatched for similar calls to the same neighborhoods. For suggestions about what<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>might</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>work given this research, you can read that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Nature</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>article already mentioned.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br /></span></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext"> <br /></span>In <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0229686" target="_blank">Schwartz (2020)</a>, Black Americans are 3.23 times more likely than white Americans to be killed by police. The researchers examined 5,494 police-related deaths in the U.S. between 2013 and 2017. Rates of deadly police encounters were higher in the West and South than in the Midwest and Northeast, according to the study. Racial disparities in killings by police varied widely across the country. For example, some metropolitan areas demonstrated very high differences between treatment by race. Black Chicagoans, for example, were found to be over 650% more likely to be killed by police than white Chicagoans. You were right—and I agree with you—that more whites are killed. A quick search about<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219" style="color: #0563c1;">demographics from the</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Census shows us that w<span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext">hite people constitute the majority of the U.S. population, at 76.3%. Blacks are 13.4%. So, your comment about 50 white and 30 blacks needs to be put in context and that is why I asked if this was raw data or a percentage earlier this morning. This point gets explained well in this<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/06/24/Study-Black-Americans-3-times-more-likely-to-be-killed-by-police/6121592949925/" style="color: #0563c1;">article</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>point out, in lay terms, the range of disparities. For example:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br /></span><o:p></o:p></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext"> <br /></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext">“</span>Among all [metropolitan statistical areas], the analysis found, black people were 3.23 times as likely to be killed by police than white people. Among MSAs, researchers said the figures "varied greatly."</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the low end, black deaths in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Ga., area were 1.81 times greater than white deaths. That figure rose to 6.51 in the MSA with the highest level of disparity -- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Ill.</span></div></blockquote><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext"> <br /></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext">These findings aren’t necessarily uniform as you can find<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2246987-us-police-kill-up-to-6-times-more-black-people-than-white-people/" style="color: #0563c1;">here</a>, but as this article highlights, the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>ways</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in which people conduct research makes a big difference. This is why it is essential to understand what data people are using and how. This is why I asked about the source of your information this morning.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br /></span></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext"> <br /></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext">Finally, I’m also including some information here that I hope you’ll take a look at since your comments today indicate you’re seeking better understanding about the issue at hand. There are some good general mapping databases below that will allow you to easily see information that you can manipulate to view raw data for different populations (i.e. black v. white victims). Here are two accessible datasets that you might find useful about the topic of police shootings, more generally.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br /></span></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext"> <br /></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext"><a href="https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/" style="color: #0563c1;">Mapping Police Violence<br /></a></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext"> <br /></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/" style="color: #0563c1;">Police Shooting Database<br /></a></span><span class="EmailStyle18" color="windowtext"> <br /></span>I hope you find all of this helpful as you seek to better understand the issue of police violence and the role of race. </span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks for the call today.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">Tim</span></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-33647144998196020052020-04-30T12:41:00.000-05:002020-04-30T12:41:34.731-05:00Divided We Fall: Unity Without Tragedy <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I'm be fortunate to be part of the efforts to bring this wonderful show together. The <a href="https://nicd.arizona.edu/" target="_blank">National Institute for Civil Discourse</a> and <a href="https://www.newvoicestrategies.com/" target="_blank">New Voice Strategies</a> have brought this together! Learn more by visiting <a href="https://www.dividedwefalltv.org/">Divided We Fall TV</a>. </div>
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DIVIDED WE FALL: UNITY WITHOUT TRAGEDY brings ordinary citizens together to wrestle with the complex issues that divide our nation. Breaking out of partisan echo chambers to listen to one another, the participants - equal numbers of whom strongly approve and disapprove of President Donald Trump - explore what it means to be an American.<span style="background-color: rgba(0 , 5 , 37 , 0.65); color: white; font-family: "pbs sans" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
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Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-29280582160858672292020-04-16T22:23:00.001-05:002020-04-16T22:41:03.587-05:00K-State, distance learning, and a global health crisis: Then and now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are now weeks into the new experience of social distancing, teaching remotely, and finding ways to continue our mission as a land-grant university with respect to teaching, research, and engagement because of a novel coronavirus, COVID-19. For many, it feels utterly foreign to not be able to interact with students, fellow researchers, or youth through 4-H programming. This has caused a rapid response to technologies that create the experience of being present as much as possible.</span></div>
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When we think about the radical nature of where we are today, it’s a helpful reminder that Kansas State University, generations ago, took many steps to provide remote instruction as part of a forgotten movement that helped define the public mission of land-grant universities at the turn of the 20<sup>th</sup> century and beyond.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/americas-forgotten-pandemic/2743E3A649CCF1197CA35939F9A5F8A1" style="color: #954f72;"><i>America’s Forgotten Epidemic</i></a>, Alfred Crosby detailed the great influenza known as the “Spanish Flu” that emerged in <a href="https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/flu-epidemic-of-1918/17805" style="color: #954f72;">Haskell County and at Fort Riley</a> in 1918 and impacted the world over. Recent <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC340389/" style="color: #954f72;">estimates range from 50 to 100 million dead</a>, considerably more than the 10 million military casualties. Crosby published his book’s second edition in 2003 on the heels of concern about then-contemporary outbreaks such as SARS. As he put it, “As I write this, SARS has spread …. It is well on its way to circling the globe in a matter of weeks.” He highlighted the importance taking seriously these health concerns. For an institution such as K-State as the future home of the <a href="https://www.k-state.edu/nbaf/" style="color: #954f72;">National Bio and Agro-defense Facility</a>, it is important to recognize, as Crosby put it, “The medical optimism circa 1976 is receding. <i>America’s Forgotten Pandemic</i> has at last attained contemporary relevancy.” We continue to confront challenges that some saw as belonging to the dustbin of history. We can learn from what took place a century ago.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So what did K-State do during the 1918 influenza? Land-grant institutions such as K-State were fulfilling their tripartite mission by educating students on campus and across the state. But how? One of the ways was through distance learning to engage diverse citizens. It’s easy to think of distance education as a relatively new experience, but it, in fact, has deep roots at K-State and at </span><a href="https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/04/snail-mail-wi-fi-cornells-history-remote-instruction" style="color: #954f72; font-size: 12pt;">other land-grant universities</a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. “Study by correspondence was promoted with vigor, and the staff of the department enlarged,” noted Julius Willard’s </span><a href="https://archive.org/details/HistoryOfTheKansasStateCollegeOfAgricultureAndAppliedScience/page/n295/mode/2up/search/correspondence" style="color: #954f72; font-size: 12pt;">1940 history</a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> about K-State during the late 1910s. The idea of asynchronous learning from people geographically dispersed and unable to pursue a degree on campus had gained traction during the late 19</span><sup style="font-size: 12pt;">th</sup><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> and early 20</span><sup style="font-size: 12pt;">th</sup><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> centuries. At K-State, the origins of providing education through correspondence study were in 1910 when the Board of Regents authorized Extension to establish such courses in various departments related to farm life. This work was increasingly broadened to include “reading courses, study centers, courses giving credit on college entrance, courses giving credit toward graduation from college, and special services.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In July 1918, the </span><a href="https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiuo.ark:/13960/t83j9jz8w" style="color: #954f72; font-size: 12pt;">Kansas State Agricultural College Bulletin</a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> published the announcement of courses and information for the Home-Study Service. As the Home-Study Bulletin noted,</span></span><br />
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“The Department of Home-study Service of the Division of College Extension was organized to form a close connecting link between the work of the resident classes and those who are doing extra-mural work. The instructors employed in this department were selected not only because of their technical preparation, but also because they have made a careful study of the methods of correspondence teaching.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfBNuOzcPTx9lNY-aFMzqjbuTuALbAVDz8beCJvfySJeNwJFwbew1jrHH_HzZ8rJDlREqftvSGIG2Hwxr3jsM8RsywzNtxC0eFs_0kDJgbJZ4bg365ARUTLPTlKq33tHwTZwSdTWG6ciSy/s1600/Screen+Shot+2020-04-10+at+11.10.26+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="662" data-original-width="660" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfBNuOzcPTx9lNY-aFMzqjbuTuALbAVDz8beCJvfySJeNwJFwbew1jrHH_HzZ8rJDlREqftvSGIG2Hwxr3jsM8RsywzNtxC0eFs_0kDJgbJZ4bg365ARUTLPTlKq33tHwTZwSdTWG6ciSy/s320/Screen+Shot+2020-04-10+at+11.10.26+PM.png" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">A visual on the cover of the 1918 and 1919 </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Kansas State Agricultural College Bulletin highlighting</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">the way in which the state was the campus for the </span>institution<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">.</span></div>
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K-State had a commitment to providing education to Kansans beyond those who could be on campus in Manhattan. The following year, the <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiuo.ark:/13960/t5m969700" style="color: #954f72;">Bulletin</a> announcing courses for 1919 stated its work this way: “The Home-study Service is a part of the Extension Division of the Kansas State Agricultural College, designed to make the state its campus—to enable the College to come to those who cannot come to it.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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This sense of the State of Kansas as the campus was captured by the image found on the cover of both the 1918 and 1919 publications. Embodying similar principles to the famous “<a href="https://www.wisc.edu/wisconsin-idea/" style="color: #954f72;">Wisconsin Idea</a>” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, K-State saw its role through education in all parts of the state touching boys and girls, men and women alike. Through correspondence courses and other forms of learning managed by K-State, education was not limited to academic halls or research fields on campus. In a <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Bulletin_Bureau_of_Education/k3rGzP839lMC?hl=en&gbpv=0" style="color: #954f72;">1923 report</a> on the state of higher education in Kansas, this sentiment was confirmed: “The whole State has thus become the campus of the institutions, and the people have been made to feel that, if they cannot go to the institutions, the institutions will go to them with a variety of courses….” Correspondence and home-study offerings were a popular way for Kansans to access education when they weren’t able to experience in-person education on campus. These alternative forms became opportunities for “odd hours of spare time” to “be made to count.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s helpful to note this history because of the similarities of the 1918 influenza and COVID-19 today. Currently, during this time of the K-State community dispersed from the Manhattan campus and now returned home across the state and beyond, there is a valuable reminder that K-State has provided education during a global health crisis in its past.<o:p></o:p></div>
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While many of us spend considerable time utilizing modern technologies such as Zoom and Canvas, the useful technology of the day then for communicating over long distances—the postal service—was important but was not <i>the</i> defining characteristic. As a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=sIAfAQAAMAAJ&lpg=RA9-PA8&ots=aAojd_YaVT&dq=correspondence%20courses%20land%20grant%20postal%20service%20role&pg=RA9-PA1#v=onepage&q=correspondence%20courses%20land%20grant%20postal%20service%20role&f=false" style="color: #954f72;">1920 report</a> on correspondence courses highlighted, “It is not, then, the intervention of the postal system which gives the correspondence study its virtue. The method of instruction is the essential thing.” It’s not simply that we’re teaching online, but how we’re doing it. After this period of time passes and we return to campus, there will be new technologies and resources that we’ve utilized today that will serve us in the future. While faculty have learned new ways of engaging students because of this current crisis, we might bring some of our newfound knowledge to courses when we finally meet again in Nichols, Waters, and Justin Halls because of the educational benefits to doing so. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally, as we look back to the period of that <a href="https://www.history.com/news/spanish-flu-second-wave-resurgence" style="color: #954f72;">two-year global pandemic</a><span style="color: #0563c1;"> </span>more than a century ago, it’s important to recognize that life continued. K-State continued to grow, especially as it related to what the institution was doing when it educated citizens, especially in such challenging times. A helpful reminder of that larger mission and purpose was stated by then President William Jardine. In his <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiuo.ark:/13960/t1wd9v01h" style="color: #954f72;">inaugural address</a> in February 1919, President Jardine noted:<o:p></o:p></div>
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“In the realm of the college proper, it shall be the aim of our teaching in the future, as in the past, to give training of the highest professional type in the fundamental sciences and liberalizing subjects, as well as thorough training in the several technical curricula. Emphasis will be placed also on the practical viewpoint. We want students to know the problems that are to be solved and to be able to meet men and women of the work-a-day world on a common ground of understanding. In a larger way the aim of our teaching and training will be to produce not only the practical agriculturist, engineer and housekeeper, but also young men and women trained for leadership, young men and women who have been led, through a study of the social relations combined with professional and practical training, to have a larger vision of the duty of college trained men and women as leaders in community development.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This commitment to helping students gain technical knowledge and expertise, a commitment to practical application, and a “larger vision” of duty is a theme that shaped K-State in 1919 and continues today. The “new education,” to use Jardine’s phrase, “must embody in it the larger, broader aim of training for citizenship.” In today’s terminology, we would refer to those with technical knowledge and a commitment to a larger purpose as </span><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15575330.2019.1642926" style="color: #954f72; font-size: 12pt;">civic professionals</a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. As we engage one another using Zoom during COVID-19, we would do well to remember previous generations of K-State faculty and students who dealt with their own serious challenges. A century ago, faculty were encouraged to educate students to have a “larger vision” and to see them as “leaders.” While it might be in the backs of our minds, we do well to remember our role in furthering </span><a href="https://www.k-state.edu/about/mission/" style="color: #954f72; font-size: 12pt;">K-State’s mission</a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> of helping to develop a highly skilled and educated citizenry necessary to advancing the well-being of Kansas, the nation, and the international community.</span></span></div>
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Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-69022476092304570722020-03-12T14:59:00.002-05:002020-03-12T14:59:29.052-05:00A pandemic is not a deliberative moment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As I shift my teaching this semester from face-to-face to online (thanks Zoom!), I'm thinking about the learning opportunity that comes when you're teaching about dialogue and deliberation theory. Foundational to deliberative democracy is the idea of citizen participation and engagement with a wicked problem that requires people to wrestle with the tensions and trade-offs on a particular policy decision.<br />
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While there are many reasons engage people in decision-making processes that inform an appropriate response to this crisis as it relates to the distribution of resources, <a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus" target="_blank">COVID-19</a> is not a deliberative problem. Instead, it is a classic example of a <a href="https://urbanpolicy.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Rittel+Webber_1973_PolicySciences4-2.pdf" target="_blank">technical problem</a>. It's helpful to remember that "technical" is not "simple." This pandemic is an urgent and technical one. So when we're thinking about something like public health, it's important to defer to <a href="https://urbanpolicy.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Rittel+Webber_1973_PolicySciences4-2.pdf" target="_blank">expertise</a> within the particular domain. It can also highlight how technocratic approaches can be very helpful in such challenging times. The <a href="https://grapevine.is/news/2020/03/06/fastsplaining-this-is-how-iceland-handles-the-coronavirus/" target="_blank">example from Iceland </a>is something many other countries could benefit from.<br />
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In short, there are times when deliberative processes are essential and necessary. And, as is the case with our current pandemic experience, advocacy for informed public health strategies based on expertise rather deliberation is the way to go right now on this particular issue.<br />
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Finally, make sure to wash your hands and don't touch your face!</div>
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<a href="https://gfycat.com/discover/coronavirus-gifs">from Coronavirus GIFs</a> <a href="https://gfycat.com/canineunsightlybighornsheep-coronavirus">via Gfycat</a></div>
Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-38480483093836922142019-09-29T12:42:00.002-05:002019-09-29T12:43:38.108-05:00An unexpected encounter and an unforgettable experience<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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1/ After three days of being with colleagues at the <a href="https://twitter.com/NICDInstitute?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NICDInstitute</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NICD19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NICD19</a> Research Convening in Tucson, I had extra time here as I had an additional night in Tucson before finally going home. Doing so led to a unforgettable experience grounding why I was here in the first place. <a href="https://t.co/uzVydAKkpg">pic.twitter.com/uzVydAKkpg</a></div>
— Timothy J. Shaffer (@timothyjshaffer) <a href="https://twitter.com/timothyjshaffer/status/1178336490473938945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-12200508725974646112019-06-03T21:23:00.001-05:002019-06-03T22:20:06.530-05:00I Am Easy to Find<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I've watched this short film a few times. I'm a fan of The National. But I feel like this film by Mike Mills made with The National is something more than a long music video.<br />
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I've come to experience it as a sort of meditation. You might find it to be useful in such a reflective way for yourself.<br />
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Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-19100032998599894872019-02-18T09:03:00.000-06:002019-02-18T09:03:55.544-06:00Lincoln’s ‘House Divided’ speech teaches important lessons about today's political polarization<h1>Lincoln’s ‘House Divided’ speech teaches important lessons about today's political polarization</h1>
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<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222908/original/file-20180612-112627-lu4lg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C88%2C924%2C600&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="File 20180612 112627 lu4lg4.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1" />
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The nation was bitterly divided over slavery in 1860, when this political cartoon was published.
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division</span></span>
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<span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/bradford-vivian-424850">Bradford Vivian</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/pennsylvania-state-university-1258">Pennsylvania State University</a></em></span>
<p>The idea of “two Americas,” or “red” and “blue” states, now dominates public discussion. “Political polarization,” <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/packages/political-polarization/">the Pew Research Center reports</a>, “is a defining feature of American politics today.” </p>
<p>But the idea that America is politically polarized isn’t new.</p>
<p>In 1858 Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the most important addresses in U.S. history, his <a href="http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/lincoln-a-house-divided-speech-text/">“House Divided” speech</a>, when he accepted the Illinois Republican nomination for Senate. The speech marked his entrance into national politics at a time when the nation was profoundly at odds over slavery.</p>
<p>Lincoln’s speech still offers timely lessons about the costs of deep-seated political polarization.</p>
<p><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/commonplace-witnessing-9780190611088?cc=us&lang=en&">My research</a> examines how communities remember – and sometimes fail to remember – the lessons of the past. Lincoln’s description of the Union as a house divided is well-remembered today. But many Americans fail to heed its deeper lessons about equality and the moral foundations of popular government.</p>
<h2>The divided states of America</h2>
<p>To cite the language of journalist Bill Bishop’s best-seller, <a href="http://www.thebigsort.com/home.php">“The Big Sort,”</a> Americans have sorted themselves into distinct, homogeneous groups. </p>
<p>Complex social, moral, legal and even scientific questions are now filtered through the lens of opposing party identifications. Political scientists <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=dAm5BgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=political+polarization+in+american+politics&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwinh_j6qr_bAhUKv1MKHTvQBBIQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">Daniel Hopkins and John Sides conclude</a> that U.S. “polarization has deep structural and historical roots” with “no easy solutions.”</p>
<p>In his “House Divided” speech, Lincoln addressed a nation even more fiercely divided by partisan acrimony, regional differences and economic tensions than the U.S. of today.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222909/original/file-20180612-112602-zxasa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222909/original/file-20180612-112602-zxasa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222909/original/file-20180612-112602-zxasa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222909/original/file-20180612-112602-zxasa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222909/original/file-20180612-112602-zxasa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222909/original/file-20180612-112602-zxasa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222909/original/file-20180612-112602-zxasa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Illinois’ Old State Capitol circa 1858, the year Lincoln gave his ‘House Divided’ speech there.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum</span></span>
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<p>Lincoln began his speech by attempting to predict whether a calamity was coming and if it could be prevented: </p>
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<p>“If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it … I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.”</p>
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<p>The alternative to bitter polarization that Lincoln offered didn’t prevent the Civil War. But it shaped postwar understanding of the territorial, political and even armed conflicts that led to it and the lessons to be learned from it. </p>
<h2>Union first</h2>
<p>Above all, Lincoln stressed in his speech that “a crisis” over slavery was imminent. He asked Americans to choose the common purpose that would best serve their Union – a government of all free or all slave states – before the crisis chose for them. </p>
<p>Lincoln developed the idea that the Union is exceptional in public statements from 1858 until the end of the Civil War. In his <a href="http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lincoln1.asp">First Inaugural in 1861</a>, Lincoln called the Union “perpetual,” and “much older than the Constitution … [N]o State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union.” For years, Lincoln held that Americans belong to the Union before they belong to political parties. </p>
<p>His reasoning purposefully echoed George Washington’s <a href="http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/washingtons-farewell-address/">Farewell Address of 1796</a>, which warned Americans that “the spirit of party” is a prime threat to “Union … a main prop of your liberty.” For Lincoln, Americans’ common identification with the guiding ideal of equality should transcend their affiliations with political parties.</p>
<p>Consider the symbolism of Lincoln’s main metaphor, the Union as a house:</p>
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<p>“A house divided against itself cannot stand … </p>
<p>I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided.”</p>
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<p>Building and maintaining a house is familial and collaborative. Family conflicts are inevitable; households fall apart if families don’t resolve those conflicts.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222911/original/file-20180612-112627-16no46t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222911/original/file-20180612-112627-16no46t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222911/original/file-20180612-112627-16no46t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222911/original/file-20180612-112627-16no46t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222911/original/file-20180612-112627-16no46t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222911/original/file-20180612-112627-16no46t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222911/original/file-20180612-112627-16no46t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Lincoln in 1858.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>The metaphor of a house emphasizes interdependence, cooperation and shared purpose. It asks how citizens might build and maintain something together, despite natural differences, rather than live and work separately. </p>
<p>These ideas have been lost in social and political debates today, which are dominated by competing party agendas and talk of irreconcilable “red” and “blue” state mentalities.</p>
<p>Lincoln’s central warning – “A house divided against itself cannot stand” – was rich in moral significance. A house should rest on a firm physical foundation for the safety of the family who lives in it. The Union, Lincoln implied, should rest on a firm moral foundation: a bedrock dedication to equality. </p>
<p>The Union, he believed, cannot be a compact of convenience or a loose-knit confederation. It was founded for a clear moral purpose: to extend conditions of equality to as many people as possible. The “new nation” that “our fathers brought forth” in 1776, Lincoln would say most memorably in his 1863 <a href="http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/lincoln-gettysburg-address-speech-text/">Gettysburg Address</a>, was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Commitment to the principle of equality was an essential, not optional, basis of membership within.</p>
<h2>Beware false prophets</h2>
<p>Bipartisan compromise sounds good – but it can erode fundamental commitments to equality. By 1858, the U.S. had witnessed decades’ worth of political compromises over slavery: <a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/missouri.html">the Missouri Compromise</a> of 1820, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/compromise1850.html">the Compromise of 1850</a> and <a href="http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/kansas.html">the Kansas-Nebraska Act</a> of 1854. All of these measures maintained the institution of slavery while purporting to limit it.</p>
<p>According to Lincoln, such compromises only led to more intense conflict: </p>
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<p>“We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented.”</p>
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<p>Lincoln warned of false political prophets who earned praise for short-term bipartisan compromises without taking a firm stand on fundamental forms of inequality. They aimed to build a “political dynasty,” not a strong union: </p>
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<p>“Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by its own undoubted friends – those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work – who do care for the result.”</p>
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<p>Lincoln’s opponent in the Senate campaign, incumbent Democratic Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, claimed to not care whether territories voted to become free or slave states so long as the elections reflected the popular will in those territories. The “machinery” of such compromises over principles of equality, Lincoln said, constructs only “temporary scaffolding,” hastily fabricated to win elections before being “kicked to the winds.”</p>
<h2>Equality over polarization</h2>
<p>I believe Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech offers alternative ways to imagine the nation than as a patchwork of “red” and “blue” states. </p>
<p>Americans belong to a union first, parties second. Party machinery and false political prophets divide the house of the people; the people have the power to stabilize that house if they choose to do so. The union was founded on a dedication to equality. It retains a firm moral foundation by preserving commitments to principles of equality over region or party.</p>
<p>The primary offense against the principle of equality in Lincoln’s time was slavery. But Americans can apply the logic of his argument to contemporary inequities based on race, employment, gender, voting rights, criminal justice, religion and more. The nation is a house divided, many times over, in all of those cases.</p>
<p>Lincoln didn’t claim that perfect equality could be achieved. But he saw broad commitments to the idea of equality as essential to the ongoing work of creating, as the Constitution puts it, a more perfect union – and a freer one for all.</p>
<p>The union must “become all one thing, or all the other” in order to be truly free. On this guiding principle, Lincoln declared, there can be no partisan dispute and no bipartisan compromise.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on June 14, 2018.</em><!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97841/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: http://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
<p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/bradford-vivian-424850">Bradford Vivian</a>, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences and Director of the Center for Democratic Deliberation, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/pennsylvania-state-university-1258">Pennsylvania State University</a></em></span></p>
<p>This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/lincolns-house-divided-speech-teaches-important-lessons-about-todays-political-polarization-97841">original article</a>.</p>
Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-6654852253785410722018-10-13T12:44:00.001-05:002018-10-13T23:43:23.885-05:00Jumping into Civic Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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For the PDF of this document, download it <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/14OnaCHw0t-2TreSrXBRt0j06WmlTrKmx/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a>. </div>
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Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-25898160435206444482017-11-23T23:43:00.000-06:002017-11-23T23:43:25.536-06:00 Talking it out, deliberative dialogue in higher education: Compact Nation Podcast<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I had the opportunity to be interviewed about my teaching and research with colleagues at Campus Compact as part of #CompactNationPod. Listen below.<br />
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<b>Talking it out, deliberative dialogue in higher education</b><br />
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In our eighth episode of the second season, Co-Hosts Emily Shields and Andrew Seligsohn sat down with author and scholar Timothy Shaffer about his work and research in deliberative dialogue, including his new book “Deliberative Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning for Democratic Engagement.” We discussed what it really takes to embed dialogue in campus and community work and some ideas for making it more effective. We also took a detour from the usual pop culture conversation to review Thanksgiving traditions, including Andrew’s recipe for turkey that doesn’t suck. Listen now and weigh in online using #CompactNationPod.<br />
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Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-50988828038168270642017-11-06T16:53:00.003-06:002017-11-08T08:45:03.632-06:00New issue of Journal of Public Deliberation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: large;"><b>***Just released!***</b></span></div>
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This issue features state of the art research on deliberative democracy and public participation in a variety of global contexts. Several articles offer advances in research methods, including John Gastil and colleagues’ assessment of the efficacy of using Participedia as a research tool, and Jaramillo and colleagues’ call for more transparency and data sharing in deliberative research. Research in this issue includes studies of participatory budgeting, stakeholder workshops, focus groups, and youth dialogues in public and university settings. The issue also includes practice-based Reflections from the Field and two book reviews that are likely to be of interest to scholars and practitioners in deliberation and public engagement.</div>
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<b class="">Journal of Public Deliberation, </b><b class="">Volume 13, Issue 2 (Fall 2017)</b></div>
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<a class="" href="https://www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/">https://www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/</a> </div>
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<i class="">Testing Assumptions in Deliberative Democratic Design: A Preliminary Assessment of the Efficacy of the Participedia Data Archive as an Analytic Tool</i></div>
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John Gastil, Robert C. Richards Jr., Matt Ryan, and Graham Smith</div>
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<i class="">Prompting Deliberation about Nanotechnology: Information, Instruction, and Discussion Effects on Individual Engagement and Knowledge</i></div>
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Lisa M. PytlikZillig, Myiah J. Hutchens, Peter Muhlberger, and Alan J. Tomkins</div>
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<i class="">Beyond Aggregation: “The Wisdom of Crowds” Meets Dialogue in the Case Study of Shaping America’s Youth</i></div>
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Renee G. Heath, Ninon Lewis, Brit Schneider, and Elisa Majors</div>
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<i class="">Explaining Political Efficacy in Deliberative Procedures: A Novel Methodological Approach</i></div>
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Brigitte Geissel and Pamela Hess</div>
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<i class="">The Influence of Communication- and Organization-Related Factors on Interest in Participation in Campus Dialogic Deliberation</i></div>
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Gregory D. Paul</div>
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<i class="">Focus Group Discussion as Sites for Public Deliberation and Sensemaking Following Shared Political Documentary Viewing</i></div>
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Margaret Jane Pitts, Kate Kenski, Stephanie A. Smith, and Corey A. Pavlich</div>
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<i class="">Authority and Deliberative Moments: Assessing Equality and Inequality in Deeply Divided Groups</i></div>
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Rousiley C. M. Maia, Danila Cal, Janine K. R. Bargas, Vanessa V. Oliveira, Patrícia G. C. Rossini, and Rafael C. Sampaio</div>
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<i class="">“Nothing about Politics”: The Political Scope in rural Participatory Governance, A Case Study in the Basque Country, Spain</i></div>
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Patricia García-Espín</div>
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<i class="">Organising Stakeholder Workshops in research and Innovation – Between Theory and Practice</i></div>
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Morten V. Nielsen, Nina Bryndum, and Bjørn Bedsted</div>
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<i class="">Mediation Styles and Participants’ Perception of Success in Consultative Councils: The Case of Guadalajara, Mexico</i></div>
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David López García</div>
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<i class=""> </i><u class="" style="text-align: center;">Reflections from the Field</u></div>
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<i class="">Reading Between the Lines of Participation: Tenant Participation and Participatory Budgeting in Toronto Community Housing</i></div>
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Behrang Foroughi</div>
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<i class="">For more Transparency in Deliberative Research: Implications for Deliberative Praxis</i></div>
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Maria Clara Jaramillo, Rousiley C.M. Maia, Simona Mameli, and Jürg Steiner</div>
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<i class="">Review of Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration by Teresa M. Bejan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017)</i></div>
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Donna Schenck-Hamlin</div>
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<i class="">Review of Listening for Democracy: Recognition, Representation, Reconciliation by Andrew Dobson (New York: Oxford University Press: 2014)</i></div>
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Marietjie Oelofsen</div>
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Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-57656647705803110192017-10-14T21:36:00.000-05:002017-10-14T21:44:02.613-05:00When 20,000 American Nazis Descended Upon New York City<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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For the full story, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/542499/marshall-curry-nazi-rally-madison-square-garden-1939/">check out this story at The Atlantic</a>. </div>
Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-16173862427029427772017-06-26T01:24:00.000-05:002017-06-26T08:42:58.212-05:00Deliberative Pedagogy - Now on Amazon, B&N, and Google Play<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo0z1tImGvgdkXUqT-7ZhdtLPfkRqgWcW4L1C4nQxsfYABMMQ6wgpCLcrKqUMPsf_8-7BB3Ei7XrkqQhba9asO_bSr5MxN4hIDDwl4nIfGSGsZc2p-egd6hyeN_2w1Gdev3QeHcFOkPo2j/s1600/9781628953015_p0_v1_s192x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo0z1tImGvgdkXUqT-7ZhdtLPfkRqgWcW4L1C4nQxsfYABMMQ6wgpCLcrKqUMPsf_8-7BB3Ei7XrkqQhba9asO_bSr5MxN4hIDDwl4nIfGSGsZc2p-egd6hyeN_2w1Gdev3QeHcFOkPo2j/s320/9781628953015_p0_v1_s192x300.jpg" width="224" /></a><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Our book, <i>Deliberative Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning for Democratic Engagement</i> (Michigan State University Press, 2017), is now widely available. You can get it on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Deliberative-Pedagogy-Democratic-Engagement-Transformations/dp/1611862493/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1498455937&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/deliberative-pedagogy-timothy-j-shaffer/1126619204?ean=9781628953015" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a>, and in the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Timothy_J_Shaffer_Deliberative_Pedagogy?id=iv0oDwAAQBAJ" target="_blank">Google Play</a> store. As always, you can order it through the <a href="http://msupress.org/books/book/?id=50-1D0-3FDB#.WVEOh1PyuV4">MSU Press</a> website. There, use the code "PED2017" for a discount.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We look forward to having people check out the book. And if you happen to read it, please let us know your thoughts and reactions. Public comments are helpful (on Amazon, for example), but you are also encouraged to reach out and email me: tjshaffer [at] ksu.edu.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We published this book because we saw a need for a collection that spoke to the multiple settings in higher education where deliberative approaches to teaching and learning might be useful and impactful. The strength of the book, I think, is the diversity of perspective, place, and institutional type. Here is the blurb from the press about the book:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">As the public purposes of higher education are being challenged by the increasing pressures of commodification and market-driven principles, </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Deliberative Pedagogy</em><span style="background-color: white;"> argues for colleges and universities to be critical spaces for democratic engagement. The authors build upon contemporary research on participatory approaches to teaching and learning while simultaneously offering a robust introduction to the theory and practice of deliberative pedagogy as a new educational model for civic life. This volume is written for faculty members and academic professionals involved in curricular, co-curricular, and community settings, as well as administrators who seek to support faculty, staff, and students in such efforts. The book begins with a theoretical grounding and historical underpinning of education for democracy, provides a diverse collection of practical case studies with best practices shared by an array of scholars from varying disciplines and institutional contexts worldwide, and concludes with useful methods of assessment and next steps for this work. The contributors seek to catalyze a conversation about the role of deliberation in the next paradigm of teaching and learning in higher education and how it connects with the future of democracy. Ultimately, this book seeks to demonstrate how higher education institutions can cultivate collaborative and engaging learning environments that better address the complex challenges in our global society.</span></span></blockquote>
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Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-76806280473718805272017-06-14T12:44:00.001-05:002017-06-14T16:06:25.121-05:00"He was a Democrat and I was a Republican so we didn’t have too much to talk about.”<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Belleville-News Democrat, the local paper from the community in which James T. Hodgkinson lived, provides a perspective that I think we need to attend to in the midst of this highly publicized act of violence towards members of Congress and their staff with a gun. <br />
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The <a href="http://www.bnd.com/news/local/article156065789.html" target="_blank">paper quotes a neighbor of Hodgkinson</a>:<br />
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Aaron Meurer is a neighbor of the Hodgkinsons and said he noticed in the last two months James had been gone. The alleged shooter’s wife Suzanne told him her husband was travelling. </blockquote>
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“She said that he went on a trip. She wasn’t real specific,” said Meurer, unclear whether the couple had split up recently.”He’s been gone for the last two months, so I haven’t seen him around too often.” </blockquote>
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Meurer said he occasionally cut his neighbor’s grass to help out. He didn’t know the neighbors well, just socialized from the lawn, and said his neighbor would fire guns on his rural property, commonplace in the open area outside of Belleville. </blockquote>
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“I knew he was a Democrat, a pretty hardcore one. I know he wasn’t happy when Trump got elected but he seemed like a nice enough guy,” recalled Meurer, who said the couple lived across the street for about six years. </blockquote>
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“He seemed like he was sem-retired, he was home a lot. He used to garden a couple of years ago,”said Meurer, who runs his own trimming and removal service. “I didn’t really talk to him too much. He was a Democrat and I was a Republican so we didn’t have too much to talk about.” </blockquote>
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Meurer said during the campaign Hodgkinson had a lone Bernie Sanders sign near the road in his front yard. He thought that Hodgkinson had raised foster kids who had grown up. He also thought there were grandchildren who visited occasionally. </blockquote>
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“We were neighbors but we didn’t talk every day. When we saw them in the yard we’d say 'hi' and go on our way,” said Meurer. “He seemed like a normal guy, a regular guy.” </blockquote>
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Meurer suggested that perhaps “this Democratic rhetoric made him snap. I know he was a pretty hardcore Democrat.”</blockquote>
What is most concerning to me right now, aside from the vast availability of high capacity firearms and this being the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/14/the-gop-baseball-shooting-is-the-154th-mass-shooting-this-year/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.3192e4e2267e" target="_blank">154th mass shooting in 165 days</a>, is the rhetoric we use to speak of our fellow citizens and how we identify so strongly with/against political parties. As Meurer said, <b>“I didn’t really talk to him too much. He was a Democrat and I was a Republican so we didn’t have too much to talk about.”</b> Have we come to a point that we can't share our humanity with someone if they don't share our political affiliation? Disagree passionately. Debate policies. And consider that your view might not be as airtight as you maybe thought. When we demonize the other, we create a space that, with the wrong ingredients, makes members of Congress become targets rather than fellow citizens with differing views.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Art from my mother's college days hanging in my home office. </td></tr>
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The National Institute for Civil Discourse is leading the <a href="http://nicd.arizona.edu/revivecivility" target="_blank">Revive Civility and Respect campaign</a> and it seems we need to figure out how to engage one another about the significant issues and challenges we face--even when we disagree deeply. We can do this locally. Here in Kansas we organized <a href="https://kansaskitchentable.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Kitchen Table Conversations</a> about what it means to be a citizens and a member of a community. A dear friend and colleague in <a href="https://kentuckyskitchentable.org/" target="_blank">Kentucky</a> inspired me to do this. The point is, we need to be able to talk with neighbors, colleagues, and coworkers about the issues that matter to us. Retreating into enclaves or disconnecting all together can lead people to take detrimental and sometimes deadly action. </div>
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I'm sure I share many of Hodkinsons' frustrations with the current administration, but I know that actions like today only hurt us, not help. After listening to the Speaker of the House and Minority Leader today speak about the day's events, I would love to see a bit of a reset in how we approach our national politics. A serious challenge is that we have made everything partisan. Republican Senate leadership left a seat vacant on the Supreme Court because of partisan politics. We are on the verge of having millions lose health coverage, in part, because the oft-demonized President Obama's name is connected with the otherwise conservative healthcare model we have in the United States. We need better ways to engage, disagree, and deliberate. </div>
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People across the country and the world are watching and listening, taking in the rhetoric and being shaped by the discourse that immerses them. We can do better. We must. We need to have things to talk about with neighbors regardless of which box they marked at the last election.<br />
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Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-38949465525130106562017-05-23T11:36:00.000-05:002017-05-23T11:36:10.598-05:00Speech by New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu on monuments to Confederate leaders<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="489" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshaunking%2Fvideos%2F1414405728598341%2F&show_text=1&width=560" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="560"></iframe>Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-61565159034645961992017-04-26T14:13:00.001-05:002017-04-26T17:01:38.871-05:00Seeing beyond categories #OpenYourWorldIt's an ad. They want to sell you beer. But it also speaks to the importance of engaging with others as people. We have differences. Sometimes rather significantly. But it helps to be able to recognize and respect the other as much as possible so we can work through those differences.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8wYXw4K0A3g" width="480"></iframe>Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-74100208768008491512017-04-18T15:34:00.001-05:002017-04-18T15:34:53.961-05:00CNN treats politics like sports — and it’s making us all dumber<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4pS4x8hXQ5c" width="480"></iframe>Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-27079252939579921852017-03-10T09:47:00.002-06:002017-03-10T09:47:53.760-06:00This is why I don't do conference calls (or much work really) from home<iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FOddschanger%2Fvideos%2F1465300280156442%2F&show_text=0&width=560" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="560"></iframe>Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-38606912755755811622017-02-09T11:13:00.000-06:002017-02-09T11:13:33.320-06:00Wendell Berry's Questionnaire<div class="episode_title" style="border: 0px; clear: right; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 2em; margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">
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by <a href="http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/author.php?auth_id=1441" style="border: 0px; color: #85776d; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12.6px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Wendell Berry</a></div>
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How much poison are you willing<br />to eat for the success of the free<br />market and global trade? Please<br />name your preferred poisons.<br /><br />For the sake of goodness, how much<br />evil are you willing to do?<br />Fill in the following blanks<br />with the names of your favorite<br />evils and acts of hatred.<br /><br />What sacrifices are you prepared<br />to make for culture and civilization?<br />Please list the monuments, shrines,<br />and works of art you would<br />most willingly destroy.<br /><br />In the name of patriotism and<br />the flag, how much of our beloved<br />land are you willing to desecrate?<br />List in the following spaces<br />the mountains, rivers, towns, farms<br />you could most readily do without.<br /><br />State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes,<br />the energy sources, the kinds of security;<br />for which you would kill a child.<br />Name, please, the children whom<br />you would be willing to kill.</div>
<div class="author" style="border: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9em; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2; padding: 1em 0px 1.5em;">
"Questionnaire" by Wendell Berry from <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14.4px; font-style: oblique; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Leavings</span>. © Counterpoint, 2010. (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=Wendell%20Berry&linkCode=ur2&tag=writal-20&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks" style="border: 0px; color: #85776d; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14.4px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">buy now</a>)</div>
</div>
Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-35641031757367882502017-01-20T09:47:00.000-06:002017-01-20T09:49:41.506-06:00In the midst of a new community in the Big Red Barn with Obama <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNmYP0B7ELnQdjtKjnCvxgs1P-oo8aIGT3R_ECSK_-XbGh2yR9TT6-h5gIsj59PEepacH82Gm5eGW03syA85EZDPI4JzjlLXvMb-zm3vmwaI16V-G73-3aRJmfWCHZsyKrucj6IcRLCaMX/s1600/Cornell_Big_Red_Barn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNmYP0B7ELnQdjtKjnCvxgs1P-oo8aIGT3R_ECSK_-XbGh2yR9TT6-h5gIsj59PEepacH82Gm5eGW03syA85EZDPI4JzjlLXvMb-zm3vmwaI16V-G73-3aRJmfWCHZsyKrucj6IcRLCaMX/s320/Cornell_Big_Red_Barn.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cornell University's Big Red Barn</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In January 2009, I had just started my PhD program at Cornell University. In December 2008, I completed my MPA degree at the University of Dayton and made a winter move to Ithaca, New York. As someone starting an academic program mid-year, I was out of sync with most people. I didn't know others in my program well at that point. Like most of us have experienced some point in our lives, I had a sense of being in the midst of the unknown.<br />
<br />
The inauguration of President Obama was a big event. The university had a watch party in the Big Red Barn (BRB), an old carriage house for the university president turned into a graduate student center. It's a great place for various events like the ever-popular T.G.I.F. (Tell Grads It's Friday) with $1 beer and snacks. So, just a few weeks after moving to a new place I was standing in a very crowded BRB watching President Obama be sworn into office for his first term. Many people were emotional. The gravity of the setting and situation spoke to what I recall being a very diverse crowd. What typically was a loud and lively space was celebratory yet solemn that day. I think people realized how significant the moment was for our history and for our future.<br />
<br />
I was excited for my own new adventure at Cornell and beyond in the academy, but I was also excited and inspired by the possibility and promise of a democratic life that was/is engaging, meaningful, and inclusive of people from all walks of life and backgrounds. I saw a bit of that diverse America standing in that wonderful gathering place known as the BRB. We would walk out later in our varied directions via snow-worn paths to return to labs, offices, and classrooms. We had a charge and I feel that many people saw themselves as part of something larger that day.<br />
<br />
President Obama's <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/01/21/president-barack-obamas-inaugural-address" target="_blank">inaugural speech</a> acknowledged the many crises we faced at that moment--terror networks, economic catastrophe, rising costs of health care--but he asked us to grow up a bit and choose a better path. In his words:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics. We remain a young nation. But in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.</blockquote>
And what might be more a historical footnote from that day in 2009 is the poem offered by Elizabeth Alexander, entitled <i><a href="https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/praise-song-day" target="_blank">Praise Song for the Day</a></i>. It remains, to me, the most beautiful poem I know. I include it here as people amass in Washington, DC for the inauguration as well as the march to follow the next day. Alexander spoke of possibility and love. We need that more than ever.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="923" scrolling="no" src="https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/praise-song-day?mbd=1" width="575"></iframe>Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-63041659410144782782017-01-07T22:23:00.001-06:002017-01-07T22:23:42.782-06:00Yes We Can: People Share Their Most Memorable Moments from the Obama PresidencyAs President Obama completes his second term, it is helpful to be reminded of the authentic and genuine commitment and compassion that shaped his politics. I don't think the White House will be this warm for a while.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eDOo3v2ntHI" width="480"></iframe>Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-63183739356082849722016-12-17T09:18:00.002-06:002016-12-17T09:18:37.605-06:00Normalizing the Abnormal, Then and Now<h1>Normalizing fascists</h1>
<span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-broich-319535">John Broich</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/case-western-reserve-university-1506">Case Western Reserve University</a></em></span>
<p>How to report on a fascist? </p>
<p>How to cover the rise of a political leader who’s left a paper trail of anti-constitutionalism, racism and the encouragement of violence? Does the press take the position that its subject acts outside the norms of society? Or does it take the position that someone who wins a fair election is by definition “normal,” because his leadership reflects the will of the people?</p>
<p>These are the questions that confronted the U.S. press after the ascendance of fascist leaders in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.</p>
<h2>A leader for life</h2>
<p>Benito Mussolini secured Italy’s premiership by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/March-on-Rome#ref276619">marching on Rome</a> with 30,000 blackshirts in 1922. By 1925 he had <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/benito-mussolini-9419443#the-break-with-socialism-and-rise-to-power">declared himself leader</a> for life. While this hardly reflected American values, Mussolini <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/08/18/when-we-loved-mussolini/">was a darling</a> of the American press, appearing in at least 150 articles from 1925-1932, <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/441.html">most neutral, bemused or positive in tone.</a></p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Benito Mussolini speaks at the dedication ceremonies of Sabaudia on Sept. 24, 1934.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Saturday Evening Post even <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Autobiography_(Mussolini)">serialized</a> Il Duce’s autobiography in 1928. Acknowledging that the new “Fascisti movement” was a bit “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=sWB9BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=diggins+mussolini+rough+in+its+methods&source=bl&ots=rTXM3FoSTZ&sig=6nigpggTFpNwdEP0KxbEjPevjdQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjt9deVzOfQAhXEhVQKHcuHDbMQ6AEIJTAB#v=onepage&q=rough%20in%20its%20methods&f=false">rough in its methods</a>,” papers ranging from the New York Tribune to the Cleveland Plain Dealer to the Chicago Tribune <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/441.html">credited it</a> with saving Italy from the far left and revitalizing its economy. From their perspective, the post-WWI surge of anti-capitalism in Europe was a vastly worse threat than Fascism.</p>
<p>Ironically, while the media acknowledged that Fascism was a new “experiment,” papers like The New York Times <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/441.html">commonly credited it</a> with returning turbulent Italy to what it called “normalcy.” </p>
<p>Yet some <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1c9QAQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT4&dq=Mussolini%3A%20Biggest%20Bluff%20in%20Europe%20Hemingway&pg=PT51#v=onepage&q=Mussolini:%20Biggest%20Bluff%20in%20Europe%20Hemingway&f=false">journalists like Hemingway</a> and journals like <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=sWB9BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA318&dq=diggins+mussolini+and+fascism&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjtzqms0OfQAhVLrFQKHT0NC4oQ6AEIHjAB#v=snippet&q=%22the%20new%20yorker%22&f=false">the New Yorker</a> rejected the normalization of anti-democratic Mussolini. John Gunther of Harper’s, meanwhile, wrote a razor-sharp account of Mussolini’s masterful manipulation of a U.S. press <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/441.html">that couldn’t resist him.</a></p>
<h2>The ‘German Mussolini’</h2>
<p>Mussolini’s success in Italy normalized Hitler’s success in the eyes of the American press who, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, routinely called him <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/441.html">“the German Mussolini.”</a> Given Mussolini’s positive press reception in that period, it was a good place from which to start. Hitler also had the advantage that his Nazi party enjoyed stunning leaps at the polls from the mid ‘20’s to early ‘30’s, going from a fringe party to winning a dominant share of parliamentary seats in free elections <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_federal_election,_July_1932#Results">in 1932</a>.</p>
<p>But the main way that the press defanged Hitler was by portraying him as something of a joke. He was a <a href="https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/2541.htm">“nonsensical” screecher</a> of “wild words” whose appearance, according to Newsweek, “suggests Charlie Chaplin.” His “countenance is a caricature.” He was as <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UZkC2D6WkHEC&pg=PR4&lpg=PR4&dq=Dan+Nimmo,+Political+Commentators+in+the+United+States+in+the+20th+Century&source=bl&ots=RLFXWfPuPm&sig=BEfgzFfEUKa9-92j8VpRGVnLLbc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiyscvlsOfQAhVX8GMKHahiDNgQ6AEIJTAC#v=onepage&q=Dan%20Nimmo%2C%20Political%20Commentators%20in%20the%20United%20States%20in%20the%2020th%20Century&f=false">“voluble” as he was “insecure,”</a> stated Cosmopolitan.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/149472/width237/image-20161209-31375-o4khpu.jpg">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">German youth study the newspaper on May 18, 1931.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Hitler’s party won influence in Parliament, and even after he was made chancellor of Germany in 1933 – about a year and a half before seizing dictatorial power – many American press outlets judged that he would either be outplayed by more traditional politicians or that he would have to become more moderate. Sure, he had a following, but his followers were “impressionable voters” duped by “radical doctrines and quack remedies,” <a href="http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/doc/150031488.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Sep+16%2C+1930&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post++%281923-1954%29&edition=&startpage=6&desc=THE+GERMAN+ELECTIONS.">claimed the Washington Post</a>. Now that Hitler actually had to operate within a government the “sober” politicians would “submerge” this movement, according to <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9801E6DB123BE433A25750C2A9609C946094D6CF&legacy=true">The New York Times</a> and <a href="https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/csmonitor_historic/doc/512913766.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Feb+24%2C+1931&author=&pub=The+Christian+Science+Monitor++%281908-Current+file%29&edition=&startpage=20&desc=Germany%27s+Tactics">Christian Science Monitor</a>. A “keen sense of dramatic instinct” was not enough. When it came to time to govern, his lack of “gravity” and “profundity of thought” <a href="http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/csmonitor_historic/doc/512996876.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=May+16%2C+1931&author=&pub=The+Christian+Science+Monitor++%281908-Current+file%29&edition=&startpage=15&desc=Hitler+Explained">would be exposed.</a></p>
<p>In fact, <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9906EEDB1539E033A2575AC1A9649C946294D6CF&legacy=true">The New York Times wrote</a> after Hitler’s appointment to the chancellorship that success would only “let him expose to the German public his own futility.” <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9506E3D8163BEF3ABC4950DFB7668388629EDE&legacy=true">Journalists wondered</a> whether Hitler now regretted leaving the rally for the cabinet meeting, where he would have to assume some responsibility. </p>
<p>Yes, the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Beyond_Belief.html?id=IMELYD5xxXAC">American press</a> tended to condemn Hitler’s well-documented anti-Semitism in the early 1930s. But there were plenty of exceptions. Some papers downplayed reports of violence against Germany’s Jewish citizens as propaganda like that which proliferated during the foregoing World War. Many, even those who categorically condemned the violence, repeatedly declared it to be at an end, showing a tendency to look for a return to normalcy. </p>
<p>Journalists were aware that they could only criticize the German regime so much and maintain their access. When a CBS broadcaster’s son was beaten up by brownshirts for not saluting the Führer, <a href="https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467117623">he didn’t report it</a>. When the Chicago Daily News’ Edgar Mowrer wrote that Germany was becoming “an insane asylum” in 1933, the Germans pressured the State Department to rein in American reporters. Allen Dulles, who eventually became director of the CIA, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Beyond_Belief.html?id=IMELYD5xxXAC">told Mowrer</a> he was “taking the German situation too seriously.” Mowrer’s publisher then transferred him out of Germany in fear of his life.</p>
<p>By the later 1930s, most U.S. journalists realized their mistake in underestimating Hitler or failing to imagine just how bad things could get. (Though there remained infamous exceptions, like Douglas Chandler, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=OeVTAAAAMAAJ&q=Douglas+Chandler+changing+berlin&dq=Douglas+Chandler+changing+berlin&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj48dPnyefQAhUrsVQKHStxCqY4ChDoAQgfMAE">who wrote</a> a loving paean to “Changing Berlin” for National Geographic in 1937.) <a href="http://www.historynet.com/encounter-dorothy-thompson-underestimates-hitler.htm">Dorothy Thompson</a>, who judged Hitler a man of “startling insignificance” in 1928, realized her mistake by mid-decade when she, like Mowrer, began raising the alarm. </p>
<p>“No people ever recognize their dictator in advance,” <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=lixOlrqPeqoC&pg=PA172&dq=thompson+No+people+ever+recognize+their+dictator+in+advance&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwimkr6qyefQAhUJjVQKHX2zDn4Q6AEIJjAC#v=onepage&q=thompson%20No%20people%20ever%20recognize%20their%20dictator%20in%20advance&f=false">she reflected</a> in 1935. “He never stands for election on the platform of dictatorship. He always represents himself as the instrument [of] the Incorporated National Will.” Applying the lesson to the U.S., she wrote, “When our dictator turns up you can depend on it that he will be one of the boys, and he will stand for everything traditionally American.”</p>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/69613/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-broich-319535">John Broich</a>, Associate Professor, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/case-western-reserve-university-1506">Case Western Reserve University</a></em></span></p>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/normalizing-fascists-69613">original article</a>.</p>
Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-42044383923318525042016-12-11T10:00:00.000-06:002016-12-11T10:00:01.685-06:00A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall<br />Amanda Petrusich of The New Yorker wrote about the 2016 Nobel Prize awards. She started this way: <blockquote class="tr_bq">
At Saturday morning’s Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm, after the Swedish royal anthem was played, Carl-Henrik Heldin, the chairman of the board of the Nobel Foundation, delivered a brief speech to the collected laureates and guests. King Carl XVI Gustaf, his wife, Queen Silvia, and their daughter, Crown Princess Victoria, had assembled behind him, bedecked in gloriously elaborate, heavily festooned ensembles. The air was rarified. Onstage, things were glinting. “In times like these, the Nobel Prize is important,” Heldin said. What he meant by the phrase “times like these”—that our days were dark—seemed immediately evident to everyone in the room. “Alfred Nobel wanted to reward those who have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.”</blockquote>
This year's Nobel for literature was awarded to Bob Dylan. You can watch the presentation of the award <a href="https://youtu.be/TvZmrygK3F0?t=55m39s" target="_blank">here</a>. He was not there to accept his award today, but Patti Smith accepted on his behalf (she begins singing at the 1:03 mark). In what was clearly an emotional experience for her, she stumbled. The orchestra needed to start again. She performed A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.<br />
<br />
In "times like these," this is a very appropriate award for commentary on our shared existence.<br />
<br />
Here are the lyrics.<br />
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<h2 class="headline" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Clarendon FS Extrabold"; font-size: 53.1538px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 15px;">
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall</h2>
<div class="credit" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: roboto; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; margin-bottom: 33px; text-transform: uppercase;">
WRITTEN BY: BOB DYLAN</div>
<div class="article-content lyrics" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "Clarendon FS Light"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1; white-space: pre-line;">
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I saw a white ladder all covered with water<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
And what did you hear, my darling young one?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Who did you meet, my darling young one?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I met a young child beside a dead pony<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I met a white man who walked a black dog<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I met a young woman whose body was burning<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I met one man who was wounded in love<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I met another man who was wounded with hatred<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Where black is the color, where none is the number<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall<div class="copytext" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 50px;">
Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music</div>
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Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-74375720178719500422016-12-10T11:37:00.002-06:002016-12-10T11:52:19.080-06:00Words v. Videos and ImagesWhat is the internet? A short answer might be: "everything!"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6mlLaNBFDp-EN6f4YHotHmajpw4oASjEv91rSF8pXoHWTnYCaoA_64vqzznVH02vqFQEzYef1AvDOHmacLkO7Uoa6JQ4B4SWwIA9TwFjUql1MRkmTPwExCsflgz91bLE_12oSmmImfL64/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-11-30+at+12.00.42+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6mlLaNBFDp-EN6f4YHotHmajpw4oASjEv91rSF8pXoHWTnYCaoA_64vqzznVH02vqFQEzYef1AvDOHmacLkO7Uoa6JQ4B4SWwIA9TwFjUql1MRkmTPwExCsflgz91bLE_12oSmmImfL64/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-11-30+at+12.00.42+AM.png" width="320" /></a>But as I intentionally try to step back from Facebook and Twitter as outlets for simply sharing links to articles that I've read or find interesting, I'm struck by the challenge to do so. I am a little more selective in sharing articles of interest and relevance to contemporary conversations, but it's addictive to stay in the game. This is where everyone is and social media seems to be the platform of choice for a variety of reasons.<br />
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What really got me thinking about this was an <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602981/social-media-is-killing-discourse-because-its-too-much-like-tv/" target="_blank">article in the MIT Technology Review by Hossein Derakhshan</a>.<b> </b>Building on a <a href="https://timothyjshaffer.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-bubble-snl.html" target="_blank">recent post</a> and the challenge of seeing the world through not only one's preferred and often myopic worldview, the point Derakhshan makes is that social media has become more like watching TV rather than reading a magazine or essay. It seems we've all been taken by the visual and entertaining nature and allure of GIFs, videos from last night's late night entertainers, and data visualization.<br />
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This brings me back to Derakhshan. <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602981/social-media-is-killing-discourse-because-its-too-much-like-tv/" target="_blank">He writes</a>:<br />
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If I say that social media aided Donald Trump’s election, you might think of fake news on Facebook. But even if Facebook fixes the algorithms that <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexkantrowitz/2016-election-blew-up-in-facebooks-face?utm_term=.eeK7lmPpP#.qjp0zbQ5Q">elevate phony stories</a>, there’s something else going on: social media represents the ultimate ascendance of television over other media. </blockquote>
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<a href="https://medium.com/matter/the-web-we-have-to-save-2eb1fe15a426#.sqcf52yfm">I've been warning</a> about this since November 2014, when I was freed from six years of incarceration in Tehran, a punishment I received for my online activism in Iran. Before I went to prison, I blogged frequently on what I now call the open Web: it was decentralized, text-centered, and abundant with hyperlinks to source material and rich background. It nurtured varying opinions. It was related to the world of books. </blockquote>
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Then for six years I got disconnected; when I left prison and came back online, I was confronted by a brave new world. Facebook and Twitter had replaced blogging and had made the Internet like TV: centralized and image-centered, with content embedded in pictures, without links.</blockquote>
I can recall my experience of the internet before Facebook existed, particularly as it related to newsworthy issues. Pre-Facebook and News Feeds, we had AOL Instant Messenger for chatting back and forth within our dorms and with people far and wide. That's not all that different from the ease of Facebook Messenger today, but those conversations were not embedded within an experience of a News Feed and knowing what that other person was looking at, "liking," and commenting on. If I was chatting on AIM, I was communicating with you without knowing what you were looking at on your equally clunky Dell, HP, or Compaq desktop computer. There was a degree of privacy and autonomy that has largely disappeared. To know what you thought about social issues required me to know you, to talk with you. If I interact with someone on Facebook or follow them on Twitter, it is nearly impossible not to know their political views and some of the more intimate elements of their lives simply because social media encourages (pushes) us to share and consume constantly.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUKZhnXj7EhsJsCUxrLbyt5o4Bap74NvWfNz_DItbAnn-TiYvGaFzKWrvqZpxgNW930CWVy4FtwGHHQumE4Krwhfs2F6D1yLgr68Y_Vm3n5hj4Zzrl0so-_9NTaKKrAK7qbfZjGQ6f6PJa/s1600/Complex+answers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUKZhnXj7EhsJsCUxrLbyt5o4Bap74NvWfNz_DItbAnn-TiYvGaFzKWrvqZpxgNW930CWVy4FtwGHHQumE4Krwhfs2F6D1yLgr68Y_Vm3n5hj4Zzrl0so-_9NTaKKrAK7qbfZjGQ6f6PJa/s320/Complex+answers.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
My consumption of news during that earlier phase of life was distinctly different. I went directly to the <i>New York Times</i> and (the then) MSNBC. To read news stories I had to find news stories. Now it comes to me in an endless stream.<br />
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I've always appreciated long-form journalism and the depth that comes from such work. As we collectively continue to embrace quick and immediately consumable media, I remain committed to--ideally, even more so now--to the written word with depth, substance, and necessary complexity, rather than the more consumable, shareable, simple, and often wrong answers to our most pressing problems. This also points to the importance of talking about these complex issues with people, ideally with differing and competing understandings and interpretations. One of biggest concerns is that we don't have many of these spaces, whether in real life or on a platform such as Facebook. How do we have conversations that are substantive and not simply combative? That's a question I struggle to answer.<br />
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Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-33758695565187431152016-12-01T12:22:00.001-06:002016-12-11T11:40:48.717-06:00Beyond disgust and shame in a post-truth worldI watched a video posted on Facebook this morning from CNN about an interview with a few ardent Trump supporters. As the text accompanying the video stated, "Donald Trump supporters made several debunked claims about election fraud in a post-election interview with CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota."<br />
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One comment made during this interview was regarding 3 million illegal voters in California. When pressed, the women making the comment didn't speak specifics about the issue. She walked back the earlier comment she made about the number. She also referred to President Obama saying illegal immigrants could vote by referring to an interview which has been proven to be edited to be deceptive by Fox Business Network (<a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/fox-business-deceptively-edits-obama-interview-to-falsely-claim-he-told-illegal-immigrants-to-vote/" target="_blank">here is the video in question</a>).<br />
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The import question here is raised by the reporter: where do you get your information? The response: "from the media...all across the media." Later multiple people stated you could simply "Google it."<br />
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While my immediate response is <i>what idiots these people are</i>, my slightly more reflective response is that this is exactly why we need civic education, discussion, and deliberation about important issues with one another, especially those with whom we disagree. We can quite easily dismiss this woman as someone who is uninformed and lacking basic knowledge. But what steps, practically, might we take to engage someone like this who is relying on outlets of information for confirmation of her presumed positions? This is one of the great challenges we face now in a "post-truth" environment.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpVkP0swXlyZbrwkChPoWes1W9dR6GgS-LmLxByMQ2QCsY38Y4bKyAQ9NUcNebqumbBBY1ateCWTXOcV0RHOap-KMD-GJj97hiZ8qWfRHpqoh-t9FedT3F9sXusPH1Am7v0hyvCjB6z6Au/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-11-28+at+12.12.43+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpVkP0swXlyZbrwkChPoWes1W9dR6GgS-LmLxByMQ2QCsY38Y4bKyAQ9NUcNebqumbBBY1ateCWTXOcV0RHOap-KMD-GJj97hiZ8qWfRHpqoh-t9FedT3F9sXusPH1Am7v0hyvCjB6z6Au/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-11-28+at+12.12.43+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
While "post-truth" was the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/16/post-truth-named-2016-word-of-the-year-by-oxford-dictionaries/?utm_term=.8e61a016f9b4" target="_blank">2016 word of the year</a> for Oxford Dictionary, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/post-truth-and-its-consequences-what-a-25-year-old-essay-tells-us-about-the-current-moment/" target="_blank">we have long wrestled with the uncomfortable truths as a society</a>. Here is quite an <a href="http://thedianerehmshow.org/audio/#/shows/2016-11-30/how-journalists-are-rethinking-their-role-under-a-trump-presidency/114095/@00:00" target="_blank">episode of The Diane Rehm Show</a> on this issue in our society. I would encourage you to listen to this in its entirety.<br />
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It is important to have settings where ideas--including absurd ideas--are able to be expressed. Allow them then to be stand up to some scrutiny. Have a claim about 3 million illegal voters in California face the light of day. But we can't simply express our disgust from afar. This is where civic work has come to in. We don't win people over by simply supplying facts to back our claims. In fact, they can <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/opinion/sunday/why-facts-dont-unify-us.html?_r=0" target="_blank">further divide us</a> into our ideological campus. If you want a more academic take on this, take a look at this <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2821919" target="_blank">paper recently posted on the SSRN</a>. The authors of this paper also wrote a piece in the <i>New York Times </i>about this research. While now dated (Sept. 2), their point is instructive to us, particularly the last line:<br />
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Voters are now receiving a steady stream of both positive and negative information about Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump. Which kind of news will have a large impact will depend partly on people’s motivations and initial convictions. </blockquote>
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But there’s an important qualification. In our experiment, a strong majority showed movement; few people were impervious to new information. Most people were willing to change their views, at least to some extent. </blockquote>
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For those who believe in learning, and the possibility of democratic self-government, that’s very good news.</blockquote>
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UPDATED - December 3, 2016<br />
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Dan Rather, in a post on Facebook, has offered another way to think about the challenge (and impossibility) of living in a "post-truth world." That commentary can be found <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10157810937485716" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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UPDATED December 11, 2016<br />
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Steve Inskeep, of NPR fame, offers a rephrasing that might be more helpful. Rather than "post-truth," he offers "post-trust" as a more useful, accurate, and appropriate term. Read his approach to making sure you're reading and being appropriately critical and skeptical <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/12/11/505154631/a-finders-guide-to-facts?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social" target="_blank">here</a>. </div>
Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8230879224878160995.post-46794496840942775702016-11-20T12:31:00.001-06:002016-11-21T02:44:08.699-06:00BubblesIt has been nearly four years since I've done anything with this blog. In many regards, it feels like a vestige tail from a digital animal long gone. Yet, here it is. And it is particularly because it is something that feels out of place that I would like to start using this more.<br />
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Since I last did anything here, I've become more active via Facebook and Twitter. I've written academic articles and am working on a number of projects that get at the heart of the types of questions I want to explore professionally. I hope to outline some of that work here in the future. So this is a reintroduction of sorts. While I will continue to write, post, and engage through various media, it seems like a step back from the always immediate and ever-present cycle of news.<br />
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I realize that, in my own little way, I contribute to the constant process of refreshing of News Feeds and the like. It makes me think of one of my favorite lines from a writer that I should turn to more often than I have in recent years. This is the first of two points I want to make.<br />
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In an essay published in <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Faith-Violence-Christian-Teaching-Practice/dp/0268000948" target="_blank">Faith and Violence: Christian Teaching and Christian Practice</a></i>, Thomas Merton has an amazingly timely and insightful remark that I often think of when I'm finding myself consumed by "news," particularly the immediate and round-the-clock process we now see through uncritical eyes. Here is Merton's quote:<br />
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What was on TV? I have watched TV twice in my life. I am frankly not terribly interested in TV anyway. Certainly I do not pretend that by simply refusing to keep up with the latest news I am therefore unaffected by what goes on, or free of it all. Certainly events happen and they affect me as they do other people. It is important for me to know about them too: but I refrain from trying to know them in their fresh condition as “news.” When they reach me they have become slightly stale. I eat the same tragedies as others, but in the form of tasteless crusts. The news reaches me in the long run through books and magazines, and no longer as a stimulant. Living without news is like living without cigarettes (another peculiarity of the monastic life). The need for this habitual indulgence quickly disappears. So, when you hear news without the “need” to hear it, it treats you differently. And you treat it differently too. </blockquote>
This leads to my second point: not only might we be well-served to step back a bit, but we would also seemingly benefit from speaking and engaging with others unlike ourselves. As we know from the <a href="http://graphics.wsj.com/blue-feed-red-feed/" target="_blank">"blue" and "red" feeds</a> that shape our lives, and this great SNL skit below, we largely live in our own bubbles and (mostly) like it that way.<br />
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John Oliver has also done a great job pointing out, in more detail, our bubbles.<br />
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I argue that we can and should engage with those around us, particularly those who don't share our political views. A <a href="http://themercury.com/articles/shaffer-building-community-a-cure-for-political-incivility" target="_blank">recent story in the Manhattan Mercury about my work</a> spells this out a bit more. I made <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/11/16/turn-hate-steve-bannons-cynicism-spreads-online/93923940/" target="_blank">a similar point in a USA Today interview</a>: we can't scapegoat or honestly clump everyone who doesn't agree with me into some category, as easy or as comforting as that might be.<br />
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“This racial stuff to me is BS and I’m tired of hearing it. I have it made because I’m a white male? I’m prejudiced? That shit is long ago." <a href="https://t.co/s6X6imuKfQ">pic.twitter.com/s6X6imuKfQ</a></div>
— Brandon Stanton (@humansofny) <a href="https://twitter.com/humansofny/status/800457083913019393">November 20, 2016</a></blockquote>
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So what is to be done? Here are some interesting/thoughtful/provocative links to help us see beyond our bubbles.<br />
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<li><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-identity-liberalism.html" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-identity-liberalism.html </a></li>
<li><a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/two-bubbles-unrealism-learning-tragedy-trump/#!">https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/two-bubbles-unrealism-learning-tragedy-trump/#!</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thefederalist.com/2016/11/18/liberals-should-stop-ranting-and-seek-out-silent-trump-voters-like-me/">http://thefederalist.com/2016/11/18/liberals-should-stop-ranting-and-seek-out-silent-trump-voters-like-me/</a></li>
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I hope to, with some regularity, write here rather than always posting and sharing via Twitter and Facebook. You're welcome and encouraged to follow here. You can sign up for RSS, but I will also make these posts available through other media. But as Merton helpfully reminds me, there is a benefit to stepping back. I am easily consumed by information, but I'm not always sure it's helpful. I'm going to try to do my part make sense of our work, not only through the algorithm Facebook thinks I want but through a more critical perspective and one that is open to others.<br />
<br />Timothy J. Shafferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13523377868637204350noreply@blogger.com0