Against “Us” and “Them” ?
February 25, 2006 at 12:09 pm | In culture | No CommentsThe cartoon controversy that recently engulfed Europe and the Middle East has left a smattering of inflammatory yet predictable images in its wake: calls to action from Muslim leaders, burning buildings, and an indignantly free press out to lunch with the First Amendment. It seems that the script was written well before the cartoons were drawn.
To blame, argues S. Brent Plate in The Revealer, is the boilerplate concept of the “clash of civilizations” — a ubiquitous phrase among journalists and politicians since Samuel P. Huntington resurrected it in the 1990s. Plate argues that the phrase is so often repeated that we as a culture tend to believe it. Then, whenever anything seems to provide evidence of this clash (preferably in sound-bite-friendly format) the media is quick to pounce.
This has become the trend regardless, Plate argues, of historical precedent that suggests the opposite. “These seemingly separate civilizations have been dependent upon and exerted strong influence over each other for over a thousand years,” he writes. Recent scholarly work has rooted the West’s modern university system in the great learning centers of Islam, elucidated a flurry of exchange between Christians and Muslims in sixteenth to eighteenth century Europe, and revealed a thriving culture of tolerance between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in medieval Spain.
The rest of the article is at the link.
Jurassic Beavers, artificial fun, and youthful indiscretions
February 25, 2006 at 9:41 am | In animals, legal, working life | No CommentsJurassic beaver swims into view
As a Jurassic predator, it was hardly in the big league. But compared with the shrew-like stature of the earliest mammals, it was a fearsome giant.
Meet the Jurassic ‘beaver’ from China. Living 164 million years ago, it’s the oldest known furry member of the mammal family, and the first known to master swimming.
Rushkoff on the futility of artificial workplace fun
Thanks to Kevin at Consumatron.com for sending me this link to a fabulously ridiculous story about a company - Gem Plumbing and Heating - hiring “Fun University” to help them make their boring workplace more fun.
No, it has nothing to do with the work at hand, but completely extraneous bouts of silliness, as in: “About 100 cans of silly string were placed around the building, and when employees got their hands on them, this building just exploded. It was an absolute blast.”
As I try to explain in the “follow the fun” chapter of Get Back in the Box, efforts like this are really stupid, and actually defeat the whole point. By making the “fun” at work extraneous - external and unrelated - to the boring and dull work that people are actually doing, it only exacerbates the problem. It’s like giving kids dessert as a “reward” for finishing the main part of the meal. Why do they need a reward? Because the main meal tastes terrible!
Alice Marshall notes that a Virginia state senator introduced a sensible bill to keep “youthful indiscretions” in the form of a first offense for marijuana from being made permanent on a person’s record. Good idea, but, alas, voted down.
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