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Posted on November 5 at 2:36 p.m.Suggest removal
Just to respond to all the people who believe this country was founded on Christianity, I will point you to the Treaty of Tripoli:
"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
And the first amendment:
"Congress shall make NO law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. [bold caps, mine"
And, did I mention the majority of the Founding Fathers were either agnostic, atheist, or deist, and both Jefferson and Hamilton were both incredibly cynical of religion?
Posted on November 5 at 1:33 p.m.Suggest removal
Amazing column. I've found that, at least in Oklahoma, it takes about 2-3 years before you find a group that can facilitate regular intellectual discussion. It definitely should not take that long.
And disregard jbob, he obviously hasn't done any reading on academic philosophy or education if he think Sir Robinson came up with any of the ideas that he lectures about. You wrote an awesome essay, keep it up.
Posted on September 24 at 1:31 p.m.Suggest removal
I, too, think Coker is pretty radical for his belief that universities are institutions of higher learning.
Universities have not, and never have been, places where students are expected to mature intellectually and socially. Historically, universities have always served primarily as a three-day distraction from Thursday-Sunday binge drinking sessions, which are integral to social growth.
I mean, does Coker actually think that kids in college are going to read books or learn new things or challenge themselves intellectually when they can just inundate themselves with alcohol and re-live the same party experience every day?
Coker truly is out of touch with modern students. If you're reading this, Corker-- you need to take a good look in the mirror and ask yourself why you have no vomit in your hair or permanent marker penises on your face.
I know it's 1:30 PM, and I'm already sh*t-faced beyond recognition, but at least I'm having more fun than you.
Posted on February 16 at 10:18 a.m.Suggest removal
Agreed. Good article. Writers have no obligation to accomodate to the sensibilities of its readership-- the curbing of free speech could only limit the educational potentital of our university. Let the dumb columns be lampooned into erasure, don't browbeat them into submission.
Posted on January 30 at 5:11 p.m.Suggest removal
Yeah, I thought the same thing and decided it wasn't worth debating any longer. The entire argument just proved the point of the article-- we spend more time quibbling over frivolous semantics on a computer screen, refreshing the article to see if there's a forum response, then we do actually engaging in meaningful work. Turn off the damn computer and take a walk outside, it's snowing for god's sake.
Posted on January 26 at 4:45 p.m.Suggest removal
Again, the article doesn't advocate the abolition of technology, you're arguing against a straw-man (or woman in this case).
Nowhere does the article claim that the solution to the problem outlined lies in "destroying the machine" or in primitivism-- the article is a cautionary note advancing the argument that obsession with tech blockades a meaningful relationship with nature and transforms humans into mindless automatons; or, in Heideggerian terms, technology (the state of being) disrupts Ontology, calcifies human expression, and turns humans into a "standing reserve."
The solution doesn't lie in destroying tech, but in refusing to surrender to its exigencies: meditate, take a walk, turn the cell phone off, etc.
Posted on January 25 at 2:08 a.m.Suggest removal
Button pushes human means that humans often abdicate autonomy and personal agency in the name of technological advancement and modernity. See technological determinism.
As for technology-- clearly the definition isn't meant to encompass the totality of human invention-- this is a more accurate conception: http://www.regent.edu/acad/schcom/roj...
Materialism is part and parcel of the instrumentalization of life, which is what the article was describing.
Posted on January 24 at 5:05 p.m.Suggest removal
I'll have to disagree with you, Laura, on behalf of the author. I think you misinterpreted his intent-- the article doesn't advocate the abolition of technology, but a reorientation how people conceptualize and relate to tech and modernity as a whole. We can either use technology as a mask and blind ourselves to the natural world, or we can put it to effective use. The problem, as outlined in the article, is that the button often pushes the human, not the other way around-- people become so obsessed and absorbed in the tech that is hailed as a staple to modernization, that they lose the will to emancipate themselves from it.
Obviously we can own a laptop while recognizing its dangerous exigencies, and I don't think anybody would be naive enough to advocate a return to prehistory, it's just a question of acknowledging how the technologization of life has changed us.
Thoreau was an inventor, but he was still able to distance himself from the colonization of tech. For example he wrote
"Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. (Walden, 52)"
Nonetheless, he taught himself to reflect and appreciate nature everyday. He wrote in a journal, he watched the sunset every day, he meditated, etc. "Turning off the computer" was just a metaphor for realizing how much technology has displaced traditional values. Once in a while, take the headphones out of your ears, and listen.
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Posted on December 1 at 7:27 p.m.Suggest removal
Please put some thought into your writing in subsequent columns
On