Brain cannot see itself fooling itself, so the only way to avoid bias is to avoid situations that produce it. … Read the rest
All entries by this author
NUT Rejects Vote Against ‘Faith’ Schools
Apr 19th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonProposals in government bill could give ‘faith groups’ a much bigger role in running of schools. … Read the rest
A Cant-free Voice
Apr 18th, 2006 8:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonRead any Dwight Macdonald? If not you should. He’s a good one.
I take exception to all this.
But you can’t dine on clippings and the bones of old controversies, so what did his versatile output amount to after decades of pounding the typewriter? For years…Macdonald had been…frustrated, fatigued and plagued by the feeling that he had failed to climb the masthead of his talent by writing a major, original work – bringing out a real book, not just a basket of articles.
That’s a stupid opposition – a real book as opposed to a ‘basket’ of articles. As if there is some Platonic Ideal length, as if there is some magic that makes sixty thousand words on the … Read the rest
Hizb ut-Tahrir and the National Union of Students
Apr 18th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNUS president-elect says rhetoric may have changed, but they are still homophobic, sexist, racist.… Read the rest
A Call to Reduce Religions’ Role in Schools
Apr 18th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDelegates attending NUT conference concerned at influence of fundamentalists in state schools.… Read the rest
Macdonald a Critic of the Left From Within
Apr 18th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWould have agreed with Trilling’s praise of Hawthorne’s ‘dissent from the orthodoxies of dissent.’… Read the rest
Gordon Wood on Why History Matters
Apr 18th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA society whose best students have a thin understanding of its past is a society in trouble.… Read the rest
Dwight Macdonald
Apr 18th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA singular, wised-up, cant-free voice that is pure intelligence at play.… Read the rest
Academics on TV
Apr 18th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey risk the Carl Sagan effect, but they can make knowledge more widely available.… Read the rest
The Gospel of Judas: Exclusive
Apr 18th, 2006 | By R Joseph HoffmannFresno, CA: Following hard on the heels of the commercial success of the Da
Vinci Code and forty three books about Mary Magdalene, news of the finished
translation of a gospel attributed to Judas Iscariot, known to history as the
betrayer of Jesus, received mixed reactions in the scholarly and religious
communities last week.
Vatican spokesman Archbishop Heiko Vitali wasted no time in dismissing the
discovery as yet another example of how scholars are willing to believe
“proven heresies.”
“What do we know about Judas? That he was a liar. So even if this gospel came
from his hand–as I’m sure it did not–it would be just another big lie,” said
Vitali.
His sentiments were echoed by the head of … Read the rest
Cultural Anthropology 101
Apr 17th, 2006 9:37 pm | By Ophelia BensonMartin Jacques has some thoughts on globalization, or on one version of globalization anyway. He starts with Ruth Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and the Sword.
… Read the restBenedict, a cultural anthropologist, was assigned by the US office of war administration to work on a project to try and understand Japan as the US began to contemplate the challenge that would be posed by its defeat, occupation and subsequent administration. Her book is written with a complete absence of judgmental attitude or sense of superiority, which one might expect; she treats Japan’s culture as of equal merit, virtue and logic to that of the US. In other words, its tone and approach could not be more different from the present US attitude
Democracy as Cultural Imperialism
Apr 17th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShould we say that arbitrary arrest, torture, slavery are not ruled out by universal principles? … Read the rest
Alain Finkielkraut on Fanatics Without Borders
Apr 17th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOpposition to humanitarian intervention is becoming more and more peremptory and strident.… Read the rest
Whither the Village Voice?
Apr 17th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonInvestigative reporter fired, two prize-winning writers quit, months after New Times Media merger.… Read the rest
Sunday Herald Interviews Todd Gitlin
Apr 17th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Without opposition, without dissent, politics cease and democracy dies.’… Read the rest
Carlin Romano on Amos Oz on Fanaticism
Apr 17th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘But this is clearly humanistic mush.’… Read the rest
Hilary Mantel Reviews a Biography of Robespierre
Apr 17th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhy was his purity fatal? Because it seemed to be absolute.… Read the rest
Keep Your Instruments of Cohesion
Apr 16th, 2006 9:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe New Statesman provides a partial antidote.
… Read the restOne ally, Andrew Copson of the British Humanist Association, is dismissive of the vogue for New Age thinking and the popularity of vaguely “spiritual” schools…Copson’s association has about 6,000 members, but it claims as kindred spirits, at the least, the many people of no religion who do not specifically identify themselves as humanists. These people need a voice, he argues, because of the continuing prevalence of the notion that religions have a superior morality. “Charles Clarke [the Home Secretary] gave a speech the other day saying that faith gives people values,” Copson says. “There’s an attempt to use faith as an instrument of cohesion. But other people are not valueless.” The philosopher
Endless Supply
Apr 16th, 2006 7:31 pm | By Ophelia BensonYet more kack; the rabbi hands the kack-distribution duty over to a bishop.
There is a paradox about the current bout of media atheism.
Oh yes, the current bout of media atheism. How about the ongoing drip drip drip of media theism? Is there a paradox about that? In the fact that it keeps saying the same few untrue things over and over and over again, never fazed by voices whispering of bad arguments and troops of strawmen, and never able to find anything new to say?
… Read the restThe idea that faith and reason are inherently opposed to one another is a mantra that is mind-boggling in its lack of historical perspective. The fact is that all philosophers, ancient and
‘Scientism’ Charge is the All-purpose Smear
Apr 16th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhen at a loss, say ‘you are making a religion of science.’… Read the rest