A few days ago in a much discussed post I posed the question: What duties do the living have to compensate victims of past injustices? The tenor from comments, and also my opinion, is that at minimum the living have obligations towards the dead regarding their historical memory. It seems that Sperello di Serego Alighieri, … Continue reading Divine redemption or comedy of errors?
Leftists of the World Unite!
Last summer I questioned the ability of social media to actually rally people and bring about populist revolution. The storming of the United States Capitol on January 6th, however, is a counterexample which clearly casts doubt on my claim. Social media played a critical role in mobilizing and unifying diverse right-wing groups – QAnon supporters, … Continue reading Leftists of the World Unite!
A message to my fellow Austrians and friends around the world
A few days ago Arnold Schwarzenegger, posted “a message to my fellow Americans and friends around the world” on LinkedIn. I won’t wade into the quagmire of comments (and rants masquerading as comments) that his video has triggered. Suffice it to say, the United States is deeply divided and Joe Biden faces a challenge. I … Continue reading A message to my fellow Austrians and friends around the world
Pence vs. Quayle
So much media attention has been focused on how the presidential inauguration in two weeks will remove Donald Trump from office that many may have forgotten that Mike Pence will also be out of a job soon. On January 20th Pence will become just the second Vice President of the United States in the last … Continue reading Pence vs. Quayle
Knocking down the walls
Today marks 30 years of German Reunification, and next week classes start again at the Karl-Franzens-Universität. One seminar I will be taking sounds very promising – The Desire for Walls After 1989. The course description : Thirty years ago the wall between East and West Germany fell. For many people, 1989 was also seen as … Continue reading Knocking down the walls
Ruth Bader Ginsburg 1933-2020
No pithy comments or smart ass remarks today - too busy reflecting on the passing or RBG.
The Revolution will not be on Facebook
In his 1971 funk, spoken word, masterpiece The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Gil Scott-Heron artfully criticized the banality of broadcast television. Deftly weaving over 50 cultural references together in just 3:06 – including Bullwinkle, Spiro Agnew, and Liquid Plumr – he elucidated that television did not foster social transformation but apathy. Back in the … Continue reading The Revolution will not be on Facebook
Can EBPM work?
Recently an article by Gudula Walterskirchen in the Austrian daily Die Presse about evidence based policy making (EBPM) caught my eye. EBPM has been kicking around since the 1980s. Essentially it is the idea that policy decisions should be based on comprehensive, meticulously established, objective evidence as opposed to intuition, ideology, or common sense. It … Continue reading Can EBPM work?
There’s a storm coming, Mr. Bezos…
While small businesses, restaurants, or stores struggle to survive the corona crisis and unemployment has reached new heights, the fortune of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has grown by 24 billion dollars since the beginning of 2020. Tesla founder Elon Musk has had to make do with a little over 10 billion. While the fortune of … Continue reading There’s a storm coming, Mr. Bezos…
Hello? Anybody out there?
Political debate is getting uglier and polarization in politics is widening. American research shows that in 2012, less than half of voters absolutely rejected (“from the bottom of my heart”) the candidate of the opposing party and would under no circumstances vote for him/her. By 2016, that figured had risen to 70%. One cause of … Continue reading Hello? Anybody out there?
