| Saturday,
June 20, 2009 Meme 184: All societies are
multicultural
Multi-culturalism is celebrated by certain people as
something desirable. The grounds for this celebration are quite plausible,
namely that having diverse perspectives can be of greater help in
understanding the world and solving its problems than having just one
perspective. Its advocates seem to think optimum = maximum and that there
can never be too many perspectives.
The fact is that, bar possibly small, utterly isolated
societies of long ago (and just maybe even today in certain jungles), all
societies are the result of mixtures of earlier societies. In Great Britain,
we have English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, and earlier Celts, Angles, Saxons,
Danes, Normans, and before that Picts, Manx, and whatever. We don't know who
the first inhabitants of these isles were nor how long they remained the
only inhabitants.
In Europe, there was the Corded Ware culture, the Bell
Beaker culture, Alans, Varangians, Goths, Huns, and before them Basques, as
well at the more familiar Franks, Germans, and Celts. I intend no definitive
lists. The Goths themselves were multi-cultural, namely the Ostrogoths and
Visigoths. And yet again, the Ostrogoths were made up of Tervingi and
Greuthungi, though there is some confusion on that point.
So if multi-culturalism is a fact, just what is being
celebrated? What, exactly, do the diverse viewpoints that are presumably so
helpful and desirable consist of? Like most people, I dare say, I am
inclined to think that there are several ways to approach problems: MY WAY
and any number of wrong ways. Yet, I bring to problems any number of
perspectives, that of an economist trying to specify the exact cost and
choice situation, that of a mathematician trying to locate the given problem
as part of a more general problem, that of a federalist trying to find the
proper level at which to address the problem, that of a lawyer making fine
distinctions, that of a sociologist trying to discern how the larger group
shapes the perception of the problem, that of a sociobiologist trying to
situate the problem within our evolved human nature, that of a biologist
looking for gene-cultural co-evolution, that of a minister looking to better
fill the collection plate, and on and on, including most emphatically what
Mr. Mencken would have thought.
Multi-culturalism is, in practice, a term celebrating
the blessings of *racial* diversity. I most definitely think that race and
culture have co-evolved and that characteristic patterns of thought will
differ among racial and sub-racial groups. But I have had a hard time
characterizing them, and the celebrants of multi-racism have not been of any
help above the most superficial level. When pressed, the celebrate ethnic
dancing and cooking. I am dubious about the dancing. I doubt that if, at the
annual Folklife Festivals on the National Mall around Independence Day every
year, if the dancers from two countries performed each other's dances,
anyone would ever notice. For the cooking, there is no need at all to urge
Americans to go to ethnic restaurants. They do that on their own.
Besides, if the United States were as genetically and
culturally homogeneous at it was in, well 1776, there would still be YOUTH
CULTURE, which is the subject of the current issue of the University of
Virignia's _The Hedgehog Review_.
Once again, a slogan does not mean something so bland
as its literal name would suggest. Those advocating "limited government"
have no great number of opponents in favor of unlimited government. They
mean that they want much less of it than exists now. Those who want a just
distribution of income are not opposed by advocates of an unjust
distribution. They mean that they want much more redistribution than exists.
And so it is with multiculturalism.
[I am sending forth these memes, not because I agree
wholeheartedly with all of them, but to impregnate females of both sexes.
Ponder them and spread them.]\
Frank
===========
On Education:
I had two good teachers from first grade through high
school graduation. The first was my second grade teacher (who had already
been warned by my first grade teacher that I would read ahead in the text
books in spite of being told not to). My older brother (by 18 months) had
taught me how to read before I started school, because he didn't want to
have a "dumb little brother". My second grade teacher tried to keep me
challenged, allowed me to read ahead, even brought me more books to read. I
was not disruptive in class; I liked to draw, and had plenty of time to
enjoy it. Whenever she thought I wasn't paying attention, she would ask me a
question about the lesson at hand. I saw her a couple of years ago at her
son's funeral (one of my best friends thoughout my school years and beyond;
we always stayed in touch), and she remembered trying to trip me up with
surprise questions. She said I always had the right answer.
The other good teacher was my high school math
teacher. She taught me from Algebra to Trig (as she had my older brother).
She would not allow me to skip homework. She went out of her way to place
herself in the position of my guidance counselor, and set my class schedule
every year. My study hall was always in a period after her class period. If
I didn't turn in my homework, she would come to study hall and take me back
to her classroom, sit me at a desk in her cloakroom/office, and calmly
demand that I complete my homework assignment. I graduated from high school
in '63. I enlisted in the Air Force before the end of my senior year to get
a jump on the draft, and ten days after graduation I was at the Induction
Center. After basic training, I was assigned to the USAFSS and further
training, and served a tour in the mideast.
All my other teachers throughout school taught by rote
from last year's lesson plan (which had been used who knows how many years).
Extremely boring. I believe a good teacher will continue to teach in the
worst of circumstances, and a poor teacher won't teach to the potential of
students in the best of circumstances. I have 3 children, 31, 23, and 15. I
have been involved in my children's education since 1983. It has been my
observation that teachers, by and large, have somehow forgotten what it
means to be a student. Without that perspective, I don't think it possible
for one to be an excellent teacher.
My 15 year old son, by virtue of nature or nurture or
some combination, is not intimidated by person or position. He's been in
magnet schools (class size limits, enhanced opportunities, etc.) since
kindergarten. In a parent-teacher-student conference with one of his 7th
grade teachers and the principal of the middle school (PhD in Education and
the recipient of many awards and other accolades), my son respectfully
debated the principal to a standstill regarding the quality and challenge
(the lack thereof) of his classes in general and that of the teacher
participating in the conference in particular. I saw it coming, but the
principal was late to realize that he had been matched, and called a halt to
further discussion. That my son had done the same with the teacher was the
reason for our conference with the principal. The issue of quality and
challenge remained unresolved.
I've dealt with systems of all types since my military
service; communications, organizational, electrical, mechanical, control,
network, etc. In troubleshooting, I have the same starting point for any and
all systems. Is it plugged in? If the anwer to that question is yes, then
the second question is this: Is it getting sufficient and reliable power
through the power cable? I can't recall how many problems I've corrected by
replacing a power cable or surge protector, but it's a substantial number. I
worked in phosphate mining for over 31 years. Many years ago I shut down an
entire beneficiation complex because of phase imbalance in the incoming
65KVA from the power company (from whom the initial response was that what I
described could not be happening). In the public school system, the
equivalent first level toubleshooting question refers to the teachers. Does
their education and preparation provide them with the ability to be plugged
into the needs of the students? Does it provide them the means and aptitude
to supply sufficient quality and challenge to their students? Those who
don't possess the ability to be "plugged in" need to be replaced with those
who have that ability. Any improvement in public education must start with
that initial troubleshooting technique. And it may go all the way back to
"the power company".
Bruce
============
You may have noticed the strange story of the two
"Japanese" found carrying $134 Billion in US Bonds.
http://article.nationalreview.com/
?q=Mjc4OTc2MTYyMDI0MTQyZD
BmYjExMWMzODlkNzk3Mzk=
My informant and were discussing this and noting that
it doesn't make sense. Japanese don't usually get involved in stuff like
this, and the Japanese Gov wouldn't either.
Then we realized, "North Korea!" The "Japanese" must
be either North Koreans posing as Japanese, or Koreans born in Japan working
for North Korea.
You read it here first.
Steve
=============
An exuberant SF fan speaks:
I cannot believe what I just saw and heard. I am
hallucinating. I must be.
The body of Robert E. Howard is a veritable whirligig
in its grave. If there were an afterlife inhabited by the spirit of Humanist
Gene Roddenberry, his grin would be stretched from ear to ear. Frank Herbert
would be smiling quietly, through that improbable beard of his. John W.
Campbell, Jr., would be dumbfounded, and then declaim, "It's about time!"
On a dais with the Seal of the President of the United
States upon it, I saw John Hodgman mention Conan of Cimmeria's god Crom, the
Kwisatz Haderach, the Bene_Gesserit, Jor-El of Krypton, show an
Alex_Schomburg painting of a Sandworm of Arrakis from a cover of ANALOG, and
then quote Spock of Vulcan to James T. Kirk in THE WRATH OF KHAN while
making the Vulcan salute to the President -- and get it back in return.
I have crossed over into another universe. I must
have.
A universe where science fiction fans are respected?
Quoted? Honored at the highest levels of government?
This cannot be. I am hallucinating.
Tomorrow this will be gone. It will not have happened.
But tonight I am crying. Tonight, all the bullies are
silenced. Tonight, I can feel proud.
For at least tonight.
http://davidkevin.livejournal.com/360333.html
============
TSA "mission creep"
Herein lies the danger of Bush's policy on Homeland
Security.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/20/tsa.lawsuit/index.html
J
Indeed. And add the Iron Law...
===========
Healthy people should be able to take the
anti-hyperactivity drug Ritalin to boost brain power, a UK ethicist says
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8106957.stm
==============
Macsatanism
Dr. Pournelle,
I suppose that it is lucky that the author of
Objective: Ministries cited by a contributor today didn't spot the link
between MacOS X and FreeBSD, the latter's logo
http://www.freebsd.org/ (and
UNIX's longstanding commitment to daemonism) would have really nailed the
connection. Open Source as communism is also an interesting assertion. The
visual connection between his description of the Apple company founders as
"long-haired" hippies and the stylized depiction of Christ on the same web
page wasn't apparent to the author, either.
Reading your Velikovsky discussion and links from same
has given me a new perspective of Dr. Sagan's appearance in Escape From
Hell, as well as some possibly unintended references to follow that will
help me with the back story on Tran.
Thanks, -d
============
[Reason] The Invisible Hand of Population Control
The tragedy of the commons meets economic freedom
http://www.reason.com/news/show/134136.html
I said in A Step Farther Out way back in the 1970's
that the most effective way to limit population growth was wealth; it always
lowered fertility rates. Education of women has much the same effect. A
stable population results from a wealthy society.
David Riesman in The Lonely Crowd called western
societies countries of "incipient population decline". His book is still
owrth your reading.
============
Dumbest Generation Getting Dumber - the
longer kids are in school, the more they get behind
A MINORITY VIEW
BY WALTER WILLIAMS
RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2009
Dumbest Generation Getting Dumber
http://townhall.com/columnists/
WalterEWilliams/2009/06/03/
dumbest_generation_getting_dumber
The Program for International Student
Assessment (PISA) is an international comparison of 15-year-olds conducted
by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that
measures applied learning and problem-solving ability. In 2006, U.S.
students ranked 25th of 30 advanced nations in math and 24th in science.
McKinsey & Company, in releasing its report "The Economic Impact of the
Achievement Gap in America's Schools" (April 2009) said, "Several other
facts paint a worrisome picture. First, the longer American children are in
school, the worse they perform compared to their international peers. In
recent cross-country comparisons of fourth grade reading, math, and science,
US students scored in the top quarter or top half of advanced nations. By
age 15 these rankings drop to the bottom half. In other words, American
students are farthest behind just as they are about to enter higher
education or the workforce." That's a sobering thought. The longer kids
are in school and the more money we spend on them, the further behind they
get. <snip>
[Emphasis added]
This despite rising expenditures on education. The
remedy, we are told, is to spend even more, even if that requires raises in
taxes. The longer kids are in school...
==============
Letter from South Africa
Data is difficult to get as the government only
produces data to suit its purposes. Whites at the moment do not find it
difficult to become Engineers or accountants, as the limited number of
bright blacks tend to choose the glamour professions which are Lawyers and
Doctors... we get lots of American programs on TV and the people who run
Hollywood dont seem to have engineers or accountants in the family but make
lots of stories about lawyers and doctors. The road to become a doctor is
particularly difficult for white males who have to get marks in the 90's for
matric as opposed to lower 70's for blacks.
What is more difficult for white youth is to get jobs
in the semi professions where the state controls entrance. To become a
policeman or detective is very difficult as the government can fully force
their policies there. What is happening because the whites are being forced
out of leadership postions is that the instutional knowledge is being lost
and each succeeding group of new entrants are becoming more and more
incompetent.
Private schools help with the general education but
are forced to adopt government standards. SA has introduced OBE under
guidance from american educators and we have had a general downgrading of
education. As far as I can see the purpose of OBE is to make students lazy,
self obsessed and non racist ,not to give decent education.
The majority of whites in SA are not particularly rich
and apart from the Openheimers and can't afford to send their children for
private education overseas or university.
The rate of emigration is probably at this time
slowing, more because the world economic situation. However it is difficult
to say. The official stats are totally inaccurate. A lot of particularly
younger people leave without officially emigrating.
the possibility of a white homeland is extremely
remote. Firstly there is no area where whites are in a majority. Secondly it
has to be self sustaining otherwise it is a puppet state Thirdly it has to
have defensible borders. latly you would have to get the whites to move
there en masse. None of these exist or would be given by a black government.
The only time they could come about is if there were an organised genocide
of whites leading to an organised resistance. Not likely at this present
stage. (Unless you believe in Siener van Rensburg a south african
nostradamus who in 1922 predicted black rule for SA)
You can still live very comfortably in South Africa
particularly if you live in a nice suburb. The sun always shines and Joburg
has nicer weather than California (maar dis lekker by die see). There are
always beer, braaivles (barbecue) and rugby to distract you.
J
As it happens, one of our fellow passengers an a
DC/3 to Kruger Park was an Openheimer matron. This was during our trip to
South Africa in the 1970's, where Roberta was sad to see that the schools
were more and more adopting US "whole word" methods of teaching reading, and
the literacy rate was falling even then. (RSA was still under apartheid and
white rule.)
==
South African rape survey
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/
pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8107039.stm
6/18/09
South African rape survey shock One in four
South African men questioned in a survey said they had raped someone, and
nearly half admitted having attacked more than one victim.
The study, by the country's Medical Research
Council, also found three out of four who admitted rape had attacked for the
first time during their teens.
It said practices such as gang rape were common
because they were considered a form of male bonding.
The MRC spoke to 1,738 men in KwaZulu-Natal and
Eastern Cape provinces.
The research was conducted in both rural and
urban areas and included all racial groups.
Using an electronic device to keep the results
anonymous, the study found that 73% of respondents said they had carried out
their first assault before the age of 20.
Almost half who said they had carried out a
rape admitted they had done so more than once.
One in 20 men surveyed said they had raped a
woman or girl in the last year.
Professor Rachel Jewkes of the MRC, who carried
out the research, told the BBC's World Today programme: "The absolute
imperative is we have to change the underlying social attitudes that in a
way have created a norm that coercing women into sex is on some level
acceptable.
"We know that we have a higher prevalence of
rape in South Africa than there is in other countries.
"And it's partly rooted in our incredibly
disturbed past and the way that South African men over the centuries have
been socialised into forms of masculinity that are predicated on the idea of
being strong and tough and the use of force to assert dominance and control
over women, as well as other men." <snip>
Apparently the police are overwhelmed.
=================
From another conference:
The notion of multiple intelligences is uplifting
and politically satisfying. Unfortunately, evidence suggests it's wrong.
While there are many other personality traits and talents, there's only
one kind of intelligence, and not everyone has it, writes Christopher J.
Ferguson
http://chronicle.com/cgi2-bin/printable.cgi?article=http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i39/39ferguson.htm
A number of scholars, including L.L.
Thurstone and more recently Robert J. Sternberg, have argued that
intelligence has been defined too narrowly. But Gardner, a professor of
cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who
won a prestigious MacArthur Foundation "genius award" in 1981, has had
enormous influence, particularly in our schools.
Briefly, he has posited that our intellectual
abilities are divided among at least eight abilities: verbal-linguistic,
logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalistic,
musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. The appealing elements of the
theory are numerous.
It's "cool," to start with: The list-like
format has great attraction for introductory psychology and education
classes. It also seems to jibe well with the common observation that
individuals have particular talents. More important, especially for
education, it implicitly (although perhaps unintentionally on Gardner's
part) promises that each child has strengths as well as weaknesses. With
eight separate intelligences, the odds seem good that every child will be
intelligent in one of those realms. After all, it's not called the theory
of multiple stupidities.
Multiple intelligences put every child on an
equal footing, granting the hope of identical value in an ostensible
meritocracy. The theory fits well with a number of the assumptions that
have dominated educational philosophy for years. The movements that took
flower in the mid-20th century have argued for the essential sameness of
all healthy human beings and for a policy of social justice that treats
all people the same. Above all, many educators have adhered to the social
construction of reality — the idea that redefining the way we treat
children will redefine their abilities and future successes. (Perhaps
that's what leads some parents to put their faith in "Baby Einstein"
videos: the hope that a little nurturing television will send their kids
to Harvard.) It would be difficult to overestimate the influence of
Gardner's work, both in repudiating that elitist, unfair concept of "g"
and in guiding thought in psychology as it applies to education.
The only problem, with all respect to
Gardner: There probably is just a single intelligence or capacity to
learn, not multiple ones devoted to independent tasks. To varying degrees,
some individuals have this capacity, and others do not. To be sure, there
is much debate about Gardner's theory in the literature, with contenders
for and against. Nonetheless, empirical evidence has not been robust.
While the theory sounds nice (perhaps because it sounds nice), it is more
intuitive than empirical. In other words, the eight intelligences are
based more on philosophy than on data. <snip>
The original Spearman studies were designed to
factor out every talent. What remained was "g" which is the basis of IQ.
That is, if you give people a battery of tests of abilities -- all kinds of
abilities -- they will all be correlated, some more correlated than others.
But underneath it all there will be a single variable, "g", which isn't
obvious at all -- not like the ability to throw a ball, or run a race, or
play a tune from memory, or win the class presidency.
==
I went back and read Waterhouse's two articles In Ed
Psychologist 41(4) 2006.
http://lynnwaterhouse.intrasun.tcnj.edu/
Selected%20Publications%20page%202009.htm
She looks at the empirical evidence for Multiple
Intelligences, The Mozart Effect (listening to Mozart makes you smarter),
and Emotional Intelligence (EQ). She concludes all three lack supporting
evidence. The victims respond in the same issue. Waterhouse responds and
concludes: "In the absence of adequate validating empirical support, and in
the absence of concord with neuroscience findings, these three theories are
not validated technical accounts. Therefore, at present, despite their
appeal, they should not be applied in education."
She is especially good at skewering Gardner: He
claimed that MI theory is still young and that, like Darwin's theory, it
will take time to accrue evidence. She points out that 23 years after Darwin
released "Origin" there was plenty of supporting evidence.
Her writing style is short and to the point.
S
We know there are multiple talents. Calling them
multiple intelligences may or may not be a good idea.
============
Warming, acid, fusion
Jerry;
Finally getting caught up on your Current Mail, so
this will be a pot-pourri.
Acidification: most of the species in the ocean,
including corals, survived or even arose during MUCH higher CO2 regimes and
"acid" environments than now exist. Try 2,000 - 4,000 ppm CO2 atmospheres,
instead of the measly 350 ppm we are now so fearstruck by.
It cannot be repeated often enough that warm episodes
in human history were boom times; cold periods were agricultural and
cultural disasters.
Models (Google this, don't have it handy) of the full
feedback mechanisms involving CO2 and dihydrogen monoxide [water
vapor ed.] in the atmosphere, plus cloud albedo etc. etc., suggest
that the greenhouse effect is and always is at max, adding 33-35°C to the
base temperature of the planet. I.e., there is NO "runaway" risk, as the
negative feedback loops are firmly in control. No positive feedback present
(or future).
There are HUGE swings between Hot House and Ice Box
conditions, on top of that, which may be caused by motion in the galactic
plane, or some other multi-hundred-million year cycles. The two conditions
have base temps of 25°C and 12°C, respectively, with minor variations
within. We are in a mild interglacial warming period within a 12°C Ice Box
condition now, with the end of the interglacial somewhat overdue
(1,000-2,000 yrs. or so beyond the normal 10,000 yr. duration, by some
estimates).
NONE of the above has any statistical correlation with
CO2 levels. The only way CO2 is a "forcing variable", is that it is plugged
into the "scenario" models concocted by the video-game programmers at IPCC.
I.e., the result (~0.1°C/decade increase) is pre-entered by hand. Purely for
illustrative purposes, don'cha know. If you read the fine print.
As for the magnetic containment comment about fusion,
this is true -- for steady-state reactors. The Focus Fusion approach,
however, is one of microsecond pulses, with the collapsing microscopic
plasmoid fields tuned to persist just long enough, exploiting a known
quantum gap in the X-ray cooling effect, to permit a burst of p-B fusion.
The details, as it happens, matter a lot.
As far as space access goes, I haven't noted any
mention here of SpaceX, which has the inside track to take over ISS resupply,
and probably crew rotation.
http://spacex.com/cotsd.php At under half the cost of the Soyuz
Shuttle-replacement option.
The technology appears to be flexible enough for
considerable expansion beyond access up to geosynch, as currently
contemplated.
Brian H.
TOP
CURRENT
VIEW Saturday |
