The Summer of Their Discontent – Part I

This past summer I tried an experiment. I’ve been teaching the HUM 2210 and 2230 (Humanistic Traditions I and II) courses online each summer for five years now. Summer classes are by definition slacker magnets, particularly online sections. They draw students who think because the class is shorter it won’t require as much. They draw students who think that because the class is online it will be easier. As a result, you get the usual online class denizens – the hung over frat boys who don’t want to have to get up for class, the students who can’t get into any of the classes they need and decide to knock out their GEP requirements online and the graduating seniors who have put off their general education requirements until the very end and who think the course work is beneath their dignity given their newly acquired vocational skills.

In all fairness, this hardly exhausts the possibilities. You always have a small group of students who actually get caught up in the material, wrestle with the questions humanities courses raise and generally perform like actual college students. And there is invariably the one or two working mothers or fathers desperately trying to get the college degree needed for a decent life while juggling child care and work schedules. It’s this latter group of students for whom I have the patience of Job and the utmost of admiration. But, sadly, it’s the former group of students who have increasingly made summer teaching online an experience in the same category with barium enemas.

For the past four summers I have placed a caveat on my homepage regarding these online courses. The link reads “Is this Webcourse the right course for me? (HUM 2211 and HUM 2230) and contains an informal survey asking students to rate their responses to questions such as the following:

7. I am not laboring under the misapprehension that a course taught online is easier or less demanding than a regular face-to-face course. Indeed, I recognize that given the demands on the student to be responsible for meeting the course schedule and managing time with no interaction with the instructor in class, it can be much more difficult.

9. I am particularly adept at managing time, at reading and following directions and acting without assistance from instructors using only a schedule and course modules (particularly critical in summer sessions where 15 weeks course material is covered in a six week session, meaning each class week is the equivalent of 2.5 ordinary class weeks).

In short, I warn students ahead of time that their preconceptions are not on target. I warn them that the online class in which they are enrolling will be an actual course - with all the requirements of a real class - simply taught in online format. And I warn them that, contrary to popular conception and fervent student desires, it will be demanding. Despite such warnings, the classes always fill (even as the face-to-face sections languish and sometimes are cancelled), dominated by the usual suspects – the frat boys, the graduating seniors and the folks working full time jobs over the summer and taking two or more courses.

In what is perhaps a paradox, I have observed that as I have increasingly cut requirements from these summer online courses, the complaining actually increases each time. This is somewhat in line with studies which suggest that students actually want more engagement in online classes - perhaps as a consolation for a recognition after the fact that online courses are often mere shadows of their face-to-face editions - even as they resent having to actually do anything to engage the class.

This past summer, I found myself facing an unprecedented situation of a student using the course email list to run a mutiny among the students. Suggesting that the work load was too high and the feedback too slow (in all fairness, a week and a half can be perceived as a long time in summer sessions), the young man drafted a sample letter to be sent to my chair essentially demanding that I be disciplined. Becoming aware of the mutiny via a student I knew from a real live class who sent me the mass mailed letter, I responded with a point by point refutation to the email that I posted to course news. That effectively ended the mutiny. Upon receiving the form letter, my chair directed the student to meet with me in person and after less than an hour of talking face to face, the student apologized for the incident, said he wished he’d taken this class in a face-to-face section and concluded by saying he would consider taking other classes with me. (So much for the “just as good as regular classes” propaganda from the IT boys.)

Admittedly, this confrontation left a sour taste in my mouth going into the second half of the summer . I was burned out from Summer A and wanted to avoid any more confrontation. I decided to minimize my interactions with the incoming students and cut the Summer B course to a bare bones bottom line which required nothing more than three exams over the three volumes of the text and the four Gordon Rule Papers required by the state. No content quizzes on the chapters, no discussions of material, no posted responses to the Gordon Rule Papers, no group activities or presentations, all of which I have used in real live classes and past online editions of the class. Even as I prepared the syllabus and schedule for what I was calling Humanities Lite, I predicted to my chair and colleagues that the complaints about the course would increase and my evaluations would drop.

Today the truth of those predictions arrived in the form of course evaluations from the summer sessions. As I had predicted, even with the aborted mutiny, the first half of the summer evaluations were much higher and fairer than those of the whittled down second half. Even so, it was not without complaints.

The first half complaints centered primarily around what one student described as “tons and tons of work.” Of course, trying to cram a 15 week semester into 6 will no doubt result in such a perception if an actual class (as opposed to an online class trimmed of any real obligations for students to perform) is being taught. My mutiny leader complained about the “classroom equivalent time” as I had designated it on the schedule to show that students don’t get the class time off, that there were activities designed to simulate the same. Like many online course students, he had decided that no class attendance meant that time was the student’s and could not have any claims made on it by pesky little assignments.

One remarkably transparent comment seemed to sum up the entire thread of complaints: “An online course is about convenience, and having 2 quizzes due at the end of everyday is not convenient.” Of course, a day in a summer session is the equivalent of 2 days of classes in a regular semester. And in all fairness, the rare day when supplementary material (and thus extra credit) quizzes were scheduled was the exception and not the rule. Even so, clearly this course was not convenient enough for this student as she ended her evaluation with “I am never recommending this professor to anyone, or this class.”

Upon reading this comment, all I could think was, “O, thank G-d.” Indeed, at some level, I have come to see the revenge sites like myprofessorsucks.com and ratemyprofessor.com as doing instructors who actually demand that students engage their classes a great public service. If students are consulting these sites because they want to avoid work and decide against taking a course from me, I think the world will be a happier place for all parties involved. And if workload and convenience was all that was involved, it would be easier to simply do with these evaluations what is most appropriate for all such acontextual and generally meaningless consumerist surveys – look at them briefly, comment upon their novelty and then consign them to the closest recycle bin.

Unfortunately, in an age of educational bureaucratic micromanagement which confuses consumerism with accountability, “evaluations” like this one can become a problem for instructors who consistently prove inconvenient taskmasters. Of course, the problem isn’t the workload or the convenience. After five years of offering courses online, I observe that anytime a teacher actually demands more of students than paying their tuition and coming out with easy three hour As, their convenience-focused, work avoidant consumers will find something to complain about. As I predicted at the end of Summer A going into a stripped down Summer B, even if you only give the minimal three tests and the required four papers, the students will complain about them.

The very first comment from the Summer B evaluations began “There was not one thing I enjoyed about this class” and continued with a critique of workload: “There is an overwhelming amount of reading to retain in a given time period and exams are impossible.” While this student felt “All text chapters were completed ignored…” the following student complained “The test questions were straight from the book, not any of the unnecessary work…the extra Worksheets.” Yet another suggested “describing the kinds of questions to students before giving them the tests to produce a better grade curve.” Of course, tests are always easier when you know the questions ahead of time, no? Indeed, one student suggested “[I]n the ‘real world’ it’s not like you can’t open a book to reference something you are unsure about.” Why bother with tests at all, right? Just give a worksheet to fill in the blanks.

As I had predicted, if all you assign is tests and papers, the students will complain about them.

Ironically, the “extra Worksheets” for each chapter referenced here were designed to develop each artifact and piece of literature with questions about them. The questions ask students to consider “What might this sculpture suggest about how the Greeks saw men v. women?” and “Where do you see ideas like this in the world around you?” I provide the worksheets as study guides for the exams. I neither collect nor grade them.

Study after study suggests that actually understanding an artifact results in a greater tendency to remember it than mere memorization of the artifact and its maker followed by regurgitation of data from one’s short term memory and nearly instantly forgetting the same. And study after study suggests that if students can connect material being learned to their own lives, they are more likely to remember it. Of course, such concerns don’t fare well in a world driven by consumer convenience and the desire to avoid “an overwhelming amount of work,” even when it only involved three tests and four required papers, the least workload I have ever assigned in any college class I have ever taught anywhere.

One final thought on all this. The student who had taken a real live class with me previously wrote the following in her evaluation: “This course really shouldn’t be offered online. Too much is lost in translation. Dr. Coverston is a stellar professor who truly cares about the transfer of knowledge and engaging education.”

I must say I agree with her initial assertions and I can only hope her final complimentary statement is true. In reality, Humanistic Traditions courses do translate poorly to online format. Art takes time to download as some of the complaints about testing suggested (particularly when taken during the 11:00 pm to midnight witching hour of all online courses when the UCF system slows to a crawl due to overuse). The concepts that these courses consider do not translate well to asynchronous discussion or written comments read in the absence of the commenter. Tests with artificial time constraints to discourage the ability to cheat (Are you listening, FSU athletic department?) require a focus on technological means rather than pedagogical ends. These are valid concerns and have been raised by a number of instructors repeatedly.

However, when the concerns that give rise to online courses are administrative (translation: monetary) rather than pedagogical, it should not be surprising that online courses end up as a dumping ground for the excess students admitted into an already overtaxed system ill-prepared to handle the onslaught. Online classes become the solution to shortage of classroom space problems. Thus one pathology gives rise to another as instructors teaching online try to adapt pedagogy and content to the realities of online courses: minimalist content and requirements driven by consumerist entitlement. The result? Low to none-existent workloads, quizzes which test little more than the ability of students to actually crack their texts long enough to look up answer, and the occasional discussion requirement which produces a slew of posts beginning “I just feel…” with little of substance thereafter. Those who seek to do more than that minimum face stiff resistance, whine-filled evaluations and the occasional mutiny. There is much to be said about such realities. Little has anything to do with education.

A second post follows.

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The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.

Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
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Things That Make You Go Hmmmmmm

Item 1: This week’s Time magazine, an advertisement for Crash, "a Starz original series"


“In this city, you’re either a roadblock or a shortcut. And if you’re not using someone, then someone’s using you. In L.A. there are no accidents.”

What a grim place (if that were, in fact, true) !

And what a wonderful credo for free market fundamentalism!

Item 2: Seen on a bumper sticker:

I Support the Separation of Church and Hate.

Indeed.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.

Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Things that make you go HMMMMM..... (8-20)

Bumper sticker observed on Florida's Turnpike (forget the Ronald Reagan Turnpike bit boys, Ronnie Raygun did nothing for Florida):

"5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions."

Indeed.

Hmmmmm.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.

Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This is how homophobia works

Recently I posted a discussion of heterosexism, an unconscious set of presumptions about the world that begins with the presumption that everyone is either heterosexual or ought to be. In many ways, because heterosexism is more subtle and tends to be invisible (much like “race” or “ethnic” always means other than WASP) it is harder to get at than the more blatant kinds of irrational prejudices we would identify in folks like Fred Phelps and his travelling Theatre of the Absurd family troupe out of Topeka, KS.

But the scale from a normative, presumptive heterosexism to blatant, misanthropic homophobia has a lot of gradations along the way. Here’s one that caught my eye this week.

The story involves a quarterback out of Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Riley Skinner is about as cute as they come (one friend responded to his photos with “How does anyone get so beautiful?”) and apparently not bad as a football player. He comes from a preppie WASP background in Jacksonville, FL, having attended an academically well regarded private academy also known for its football prowess. The son and nephew of southern college football players, Riley would seem to have everything going for him. Until now.

Apparently Mr. Skinner had someone take a photo of himself out of uniform – completely out of uniform. The nude photo of this southern jock Adonis quickly went viral on the web. Not surprisingly, the assessment of Riley’s sexuality was almost immediately the subject of web chatter.

One of the more interesting comments on this matter comes from the website Fratdog Sports Blog whose motto is “Sports journalism for the arrogant.” Apparently the pathology in the blogger’s thinking doesn’t end at arrogance. Having heard about the Skinner scandal, the blogger provides a picture of Skinner (from the waist up) and the following entry on Feb. 4, 2008.

Entitled “Riley Skinner Smokes Noles Poles,” the blogger begins, “ I am extremely uncomfortable reporting this. “ No doubt. Of course, the obvious response would be “And why would that be?” but I suspect this is not a man (and I am presuming this writer is male given what follows) prone to much critical reflection. He continues: “Fair warning - this is very, very, legitimately gay. Riley Skinner has apparently taken a nude picture of himself or [Wake Forest University head coach] Jim Grobe has has (sic) this picture under his pillow since 2005. No joke, that link will ruin your f***ing day. We are unbelieveably (sic) rattled over here.”

Clearly this frat boy has missed more than a few English grammar and comp classes and he apparently has not figured out how to run the spell check. And the childish play on the abbreviation for Seminoles to create a homophobic slur is pretty much par for the course for many frat boys (and middle school kids). Beer tainted functioning tends to do that. (yes, speaking from experience both as frat boy and being beer tainted). The result is a blog entry that suggests the frat boy’s problem is either stupidity or immaturity (perhaps both) rather than arrogance.

But what’s interesting about this blog is his presumption that this exhibitionist jock is gay. Ultimately, the self-revealing statements that the blogger is “extremely uncomfortable” and “unbelieveably rattled” say much more about him than the handsome narcissist he would malign. Indeed, the study out of the University of Georgia on homophobic responses might suggest that the young man “doth protest too much.” Highly homophobic responses can readily be unconscious responses to fear of homoerotic feelings in oneself, according to the study.

The apparent truth about poor ole Riley (this from a friend of the family in Jacksonville) is much more complicated (and amusing) than the simplistic presumption of the poor beer addled frat boy. Apparently, Riley was fooling around with another girl while going with his girlfriend. When she found out about it, she broke up with him and Riley began seeing the other girl. Deciding to impress his new love object, he had the photo made and sent it to her as an email attachment. He thought. In fact, he mistakenly sent it to the ex-girlfriend who quickly distributed the photo to the web including a number of gay porn sites. As Shakespeare observed, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Riley had been hoist on his own petard (mightily resisting the temptation to make the obvious salacious comment here, having seen the photo - you can find it in an images search if you must see).

I doubt it would do much good to actually send this observation to the purveyor of the fratdog sports blog (indeed, what am *I* presuming about the right to do so?). If his own obvious homophobia is rooted in a fear of homoerotic feelings in himself, he would not be able to hear it. And given the general tenor of his postings, it’s rather unlikely he would be able or willing to check his irrational presumptions.

That, folks, is precisely how homophobia works and why we have such an uphill battle in overcoming this virulent social disease.


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The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.

Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Things That Make You Go Hmmm………(8-19)

March 20, 2003 - Shock and Awe......

Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, officials in the United States armed forces described their plan as employing shock and awe…

Limited bombing began on 19 March 2003 as United States forces unsuccessfully attempted to kill Saddam Hussein. Attacks continued against a small number of targets until 21 March 2003, when at 1700 UTC the main bombing campaign of the US and their allies began. Its forces launched approximately 1700 air sorties (504 using cruise missiles).[12] Coalition ground forces had begun a "running start" offensive towards Baghdad on the previous day. Coalition ground forces seized Baghdad on 5 April, and the United States declared victory on 14 April.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_and_awe

Jan 20, 2004, State of the Union Address –

“All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you. Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country.”

These are the words of President Bush in his inaugural address on 20 January. Bringing freedom and democracy to the world, beginning with the Arab world, is now apparently the primary focus of US foreign policy.

http://www.david-morrison.org.uk/iraq/freedom-american-style.htm

Meanwhile, back in America.....

Nov. 4. 2008 - Anti-marriage constitutional amendments

Anti-marriage amendments were on the ballot in Arizona, Florida and California this election, and passed in Arizona and Florida. In California, as of 3 p.m. (EST) on Nov. 5, Prop. 8 had a margin of 52 percent in favor and 48 percent opposing it, with 95 percent of the precincts reporting. Voters in Arizona approved Prop.102 by a 56-44 percent margin, banning legal marriage for same-sex couples. In Florida, voters passed Amendment 2, which would not only ban marriage rights for same-sex couples, but would also limit any partner recognition rights to unmarried heterosexual and same-sex couples.

http://www.thetaskforce.org/press/releases/prAF_110508

Aug. 15, 2009 – 'Don't ask, don't tell': Retreating from a mistake – LA Times Editorial

'Don't ask, don't tell," the policy delusion that acknowledges that gays and lesbians serve in the military but pretends they aren't there, is in its final days. Sooner rather than later, this discriminatory law is going to be overturned…Nearly 13,000 servicemen and servicewomen have been discharged under the policy -- 287 since President Obama took office. The armed forces have spent more than $1.3 billion to kick them out and to pay for the investigations that justify their expulsions. Among those who have been discharged are almost 60 Arabic linguists, weakening our national security in order to pursue a policy of exclusion.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-dontask15-2009aug15,0,5507360.story

Aug. 18, 2009 - Anchorage Mayor Vetoes Anti-Discrimination Ordinance –

The city’s Assembly approved it; the local newspaper applauded it; GLBT residents testified as to its need. But newly elected Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan vetoed it, killing an anti-discrimination bill….Anti-gay Baptist pastor Jerry Prevo has fought against GLBT equality since the first attempts by the Assembly to provide for gay and lesbian residents, the article said, and he expressed approval that Dan Sullivan had followed in his father’s footsteps in vetoing the measure.

http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=95185

Aug. 18, 2009 – "A Spreading Campaign of Torture and Murder" Against Gay Iraqis

Human Rights Watch has released a report confirming what Care2 members have been aware of for some time: Iraqi militias are "carrying out a spreading campaign of torture and murder against men suspected of homosexual conduct" in Iraq.

Released Monday, the 67 page report confirms many of our worst fears as to the situation for gay Iraqis after the fall of Saddam. The report documents 2009's "extrajudicial executions", kidnappings and the horrific anal glue torture gay men have been subjected to and, as we reported quite some time ago, points the finger at Moqtada al-Sadr's militia, a group aligned to a particularly vehement anti-gay cleric.

http://www.care2.com/causes/human-rights/blog/-a-spreading-campaign-of-torture-and-murder-against-iraqi-gays/

It would appear that Mr. Bush did have at least one success in his administration. He managed to export the US version of “democracy” – with liberty and justice for some – to Iraq. The Iraqis have learned to preach democracy and practice a deadly form of homophobia with impunity. Looks like George Bush’s Great American Adventure will leave quite a legacy in our world.

Hmmmmm……..

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The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.

Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Of democracy, drivel, demagoguery and demonization

The current orgy of demagoguery surrounding Mr. Obama’s attempts to insure that all Americans actually have health care is troubling to say the least. On the one hand, the willingness of so many no doubt decent Americans to buy into mindless drivel about death panels and socialism readily provided by insurance corporations and talk show hosts is disturbing. I find myself saying aloud “What are these people thinking?” when in reality it’s pretty clear they aren’t thinking much at all. They are driven by fear readily whipped up by demagogues only too willing to provide a stimulus for that fear even if it is imaginary.

Frankly, the tenor of these disruptions of public meetings and the vapid celebration of them on the airwaves has me doubting one of my long held values – democracy. A true democracy relies upon a free press to inform a responsible people. But our media today clearly exists to sell consumers products they don’t need by creating false senses of need while entertaining them rather than informing them so they don’t think too long about their mindless consumerism. Democracy in its highest forms is based in notions of the common good, “liberty and justice for all,” not the egocentric “What’s in it for me?” mantra or the tribal rhetoric about deserving v. undeserving patients, a thinly veiled reference to class and ultimately to race.

In the past week I’ve encountered two scholars who have offered me even more to trouble my soul as I watch this travesty unfold in town meetings and frenzied media sound bite fests. Robert Paxton of Columbia University wrote a paper in March 1998 detailing “The Five Stages of Fascism” published in The Journal of Modern History. (Vol. 70, pp. 1-23) Paxton notes that fascist reactions almost always come in the wake of any real expansion of democracy such as the massive increase in voter rolls in the 2008 election resulting in the election of America’s first African-American president and the conservatives’ loss of Congress as well. Among the aspects of the 20th Century’s fascist movements Paxton identifies that are currently observable are “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood…cults of unity, energy and purity…chauvinist demagogue[s] haranguing an ecstatic crowd…” It’s a fairly good description of the childish, mean-spirited and irrational eruptions of vitriol we’ve seen the past couple of weeks.

But Paxton’s research contains an observation that ought to concern thoughtful people. So long as the eruptions remain in the realm of the media circus, they are relatively harmless. It is when the conservatives who have formerly held power and sense they may be displaced from power for an extended period that they make the devil’s bargain with the fascist mentality to regain power. The conditions for such a move almost always come in a context of polarization within civil society, disorder, decline and a political deadlock resulting from the refusal of the right to work with the left to resolve the nation-state’s problems. When we see former governors and current members of the House of Representatives pandering to crowds of tea-baggers and birthers talking about “death panels,” it ought to make us wonder if the devil’s bargain is not being struck.

On Friday as I drove down to Vero Beach for a weekend getaway, I heard Princeton scholar Melissa Harris-Lacewell talk about the racist and class-based undertones of the current debate on NPR’s All Things Considered. The rhetoric of individual responsibility v. the nanny state surrounding welfare and other public programs has often had a wealth of unspoken assumptions attached to it. As Harris-Lacewell noted, while welfare recipients have been cast as immature and childlike in their response to the world, in fact many “carry even greater responsibility than middle class folks who have lots of opportunities around them that kind of shore up their reality.” Try juggling family responsibilities plus work without healthcare and manage all of that while relying on public transportation. As the Princeton professor noted, “[W]hat we know over the past 25 years is that language of personal responsibility is often a code language used against poor and minority communities.”

Clearly that line of reasoning struck a chord with my friend in West Palm and his wife with whom I had lunch Saturday. Over our salad and pizza he observed: “Of course they don’t want public health care. They’d have to use their money to help blacks. Of course they don’t want public transportation. They’d have to transport blacks. Of course they don’t want public schools. It means black kids might get educated and compete with their kids.” And, no, for the record, my friend is not black. He was raised in a fairly exclusive white neighborhood of Chicago.

The personal responsibility rhetoric is insidious in form and presentation. It appeals to the Protestant work ethic which generally translates for most Americans today as slavish drivenness in their work just to keep their heads above water. It also allows for the demonization of the other, demonization that historically has followed the well worn ruts in the American imagination of class and race.

In a desperate attempt to escape the wasteland of hotel TV Saturday night, I watched an episode of Bill Maher’s Real Time. While I generally agree with Bill, I do find his smugness and cynicism wearing in fairly short order. One of his guests was Ashton Kutcher. On the subject of health care, Kutcher opined that he shouldn’t have to pay for other people’s bad habits and eating patterns. He went on a tear about junk food and fast food joints. Of course, a multimillionaire star with personal trainers has little insight into the life of the working class. Junk food, while loaded with fat and sugar, is also cheap, available in neighborhoods where fresh produce often is not, and provides quick energy for people who often make their living actually working their bodies rather than merely showing them off. Kutcher embodies the cluelessness of many Americans regarding class. And one hears no small hint of Ronnie Raygun’s “welfare queen” and her Cadillac rumbling around in the background.

In Paxton’s article, he begins with an observation about universal suffrage. Noting that Friedrich Engels presumed that “widening the vote would inevitably benefit democracy and socialism,” Engels and his compatriot Marx completely missed the possibility that self-interest, tribalism and nationalism might come to mark the new democratic enterprise, not a commonwealth, much less a communist utopia where the state would ultimately simply wither away. Paxton insists that “fascism is, after all, an authentic mass popular enthusiasm and not merely clever manipulation of populist emotions by the reactionary Right or by capitalism in crisis.” Frankly, I am not so sure about the manipulation part given the large role of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries in generating the current spate of tantrums at town meetings. But I am sure that the visionaries of the late 19th CE simply missed the possibilities that the successor to a democratic capitalism in crisis might well not be socialism but rather a fascist entity focused on a return to golden day glory by identifying and destroying all perceived enemies contributing to its current lassitude.

There are days that I have to wonder if Plato is not chuckling to himself as he watches the current devolution of democracy in America into sectarian consumerist chaos. As I watch the circus on the cable purveyors of entertainment called the news, the rule of the philosopher-king based in reason looks better every day.

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The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.

Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM….

We’re travelling westbound on Curry Ford Road, a four lane east/west major thoroughfare in south Orlando, when we are passed by an aging clunker with a full queen size bed mattress and frame tied on top of the roof. They pass us going 45 mph.

The passenger is holding one side of the bed. The driver is holding the other. With his free hand, he is holding a cell phone into which he is engaged in an animated discussion.

I hope his knee was good with the steering wheel.

Hmmmmm……….

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., Ph.D.
Member, Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest, Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Instructor: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
University of Central Florida, Orlando
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ncoverst/
frharry@cfl.rr.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding.

Most things of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++