The exposition of recent changes in reading and writing leads to this excursion on a breakdown of what we used to think was the social function of language. That postulate is discussed by analyzing the comments to this series of articles as symptomatic of that breakdown.
Today's intelligence: bills to expand voting rights, better support creative artists and reduce underage access to firearms are under consideration by the New Mexico legislature.
I've weighed the way three institutions have historically unshaped our idea of democracy as a model of human relations. I now turn to look at how these cultural tendencies impact public discourse and our apparent inability to settle any public issue.
Today's intelligence: Who is Harvey Yates and what is he trying to accomplish by buying Española's newspaper and making sizeable political contributions last election cycle, primarily to New Mexico Republicans, including Solomon Pena.
The validation of a personal, individualistic point of view in American culture to the exclusion of an objective, shared, and collective perspective constantly puts us at odds with one another because individuals normally disagree in judgement, interpretations, and opinions.
Today's intelligence: Republican wannabe state legislator, a convicted felon, arrested on suspicion of having "masterminded" recent shootings in Albuquerque targeting Democratic elected officials.
Today's intelligence: New Mexico's tough new pollution rules rely on oil and gas operators to report and fix their methane emissions. How is self-policing working? Plus: a possible model for future suits against polluters and unexpected allies of tighter EPA regulations
Continuing my discussion of our turn towards individual points of view to the exclusion of larger concerns, I propose that in the last half century, American education has focused on student subjectivity pushing the culture towards individuation rather than cohesion.
Today's intelligence: an argument for timely state investment in our Strategic Water Fund and a recent trend of shootings at the Albuquerque offices or homes of Democratic elected officials
Continuing the series "Assaying Entropy," I continue to develop a description of how the original idea of democracy in America was altered due to the influence of undemocratic structures. The last essay dealt with corporate hierarchy. In the present piece, I discuss the military influence, militarism, and the frontier mentality.
The Constitution created a government around the arguments about democracy, but it did not resolve those conflicts. The resulting ambiguity allowed traditional hierarchical, undemocratic structures, institutions, and values to inform American life. Those hierarchical ideas still dominate American social thinking today resulting in a complex and often self-contradictory identity.
Looking back over the series of essays called "Assaying Entropy," I summarize what has been said: why the topics so far covered are a continuous investigation of loss and time, how that process of thinking got to the question of democracy; and where that may be going.
