class warfare

As we look to the future of higher education, said the M.I.T. president, L. Rafael Reif, something that we now call a “degree” will be a concept “connected with bricks and mortar” — and traditional on-campus experiences that will increasingly leverage technology and the Internet to enhance classroom and laboratory work. Alongside that, though, said Reif, many universities will offer online courses to students anywhere in the world, in which they will earn “credentials” — certificates that testify that they have done the work and passed all the exams. tom friedman n y t 1-27-2013____________________________________________________________________ i wonder why tom is always so far behind the curve on these sorts of things...i took my first on line class from iu in the fall term of 2008...a labor history class to be exact...got an "a" too...all it really took was the ability to read the text and string two or three cogent paragraphs together that were germane to the topic...something like a more formal form of blogging...not that much of a stretch actually...and if there were credentials that came along with it i have yet to receive them ( not that i am one to dwell on credentials when so much of this life is an empirical sort of roller coaster that renders a good portion of formal learning irrelevant...they don't put that in the syllabus and it is doubtlessly an observation that some would roundly disagree with...but what do i know? )...some of the academics i know have embraced the on line university but most respond with reactions ranging from quiet unease to outright loathing with those farthest removed from computer science...liberal arts and humanities for instance...being the most outspoken proponents of classroom experience...all of which is fine and good but does not excuse tom form being such a plodding jerk or the engineering and technology centered geeks at mit from being patently biased about the value of on line learning...like all learning you only get out what you put in and i really need to see how they verify that each student has "done all the work and passed all the exams" when they only know them through a screen...my relationships with academics have not always been peaceful and loving but they were face to face and the amity and enmity as well as my grasp ( or lack thereof ) of the material were fairly plain to see...i am, in fact, enrolled in an on line class this semester and am fairly confident it will go well...but that doesn't mean i don't miss eye contact.

bads

"we still call it economic growth, or simply 'growth' in the confused belief that growth must always be economic. i contend that we have reached the economic limit to growth but we don't know it, and desperately hide the fact by faulty national accounting, because growth is our idol and to stop worshiping it is an anathema...i must confess surprise that denial has endured for forty years." herman e. daly. professor emeritus in the school of public policy, university of maryland.___________________________________________________________________ so why the denial about limits? and why the politically expedient cooked books? and why is growth an idol? it's not my idol...i believe in limits...social....cultural...economic...it's the hegemonic culture that is "hiding the fact by faulty national accounting"...i'm doing my best to decode the data and place it in context of an economy firmly embedded in the bioshpere and all the natural limits that entails, human ingenuity non withstanding...the hegemonic culture needs "growth" because it has developed a methodology of privatizing the benefits of that growth while socializing the costs...that is the basis of their position of wealth and privilege and the platform from which they inform us of their worldview and from which they propagandize us into thinking that it is our worldview and that it will benefit us all...that poverty can disappear through growth without sharing...they are, of course, lying through their teeth and laughing all the way to the bank while the "losers" keep on chasing the carrot...i am weary of the apologists for capitalism and "market mechanisms", techno-optimists and the rabid, greedy scum that people the stock exchange and investment banks...we all need material things to survive...goods if you will...but the system that produces those "goods" doesn't account for the "bads" it produces along with them...those are "externalities" and not subject to the scrutiny of public accountancy...enough...basta ya! it's time to ferret out the truth of our situation...build supportive communities...produce as much as we can on our own and utilize the consumerist utopia for what we need, not what someone else wants us to believe we need...in short a culture not an economy...that is a manifestly non-violent way to reduce the ruling oligarchy ( plutocracy? hamiltonian scam artists? pharaohs? brahmins? whatever you care to call them ) to irrelevance...to remove ourselves as far as possible from their worldview...take what you need from it and leave what aggrandizes them at our expense...it all starts in your neighborhood...not in theirs.

banking with bureaucrats

capital is infinitely flexible and adaptive with the "invisible hand" relentlessly regulating market mechanisms to keep supply and demand in equilibrium...that's why economists and their technocratic creatures accountants are so vital to the smooth functioning of the system...can't tell the players without a good set of well kept books...right? sure...and this is why on this balmy, climate change driven january day i find myself in receipt of a $0.28 check from j p morgan chase...drawn on the "disbursement clearing in trust for various mortgagors and various investors" division from columbus ohio...no doubt a few pennies that got misplaced in the whole payoff transaction business...let's see here...$0.45 in postage ( already the bureaucratic forms have cost them ) then there's the envelope and the cost of printing the check...and some low-level drone had to stuff it in the envelope and the sign off on a check sheet saying it had been stuffed...and then it had to be put in the mail and trans ported form ohio here to indiana and then stuffed in my mailbox by another bureaucratically controlled civil servant...this is becoming an expensive twenty-eight cent check and we haven't even gotten to the cost of cutting the tree, transporting it, pulping it, and rolling it into rolls which also had to be transported to some check paper printing and perforating the damned stub facility...yep...capital is flexible and knows how to adapt...no worries about the balmy january day or depleted resources or carrying capacity overshoot...they have the mentality to bring it under control.