Category: Knowledge and Politics

How Texas Teaches History

October 21, 2015

An interesting article on a familiar topic but this article delves into the use of language to obfuscate historical truth. Below is a passage from the article about some of the phrasing from a textbook commonly used in Texas.

Families were often broken apart when a family member was sold to another owner.

“Note the use of the passive voice in the verbs ‘were broken apart’ and ‘was sold.’ If the sentence had been written according to the principles of good draftsmanship, it would have looked like this: Slave owners often broke slave families apart by selling a family member to another owner. A bit more powerful, no? Through grammatical manipulation, the textbook authors obscure the role of slave owners in the institution of slavery.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/opinion/how-texas-teaches-history.html?_r=0

The Killing of Osama bin Laden

October 20, 2015

This was a really interesting article about the story about Osama bin Laden’s death. This investigative piece contradicts the “official” government account of the events and paints a very troubling picture of how the events unfolded and were subsequently reported on.

This story raises interesting questions about how history is written. What actually happened here? Can we ever really know? Whose accounts and reporting can we trust?

With regards to ethics…was this killing ethical? Was the subsequent potential cover up ethical? What if it saved lives? Protected sources? How do we judge?

With regards to language…do we call this an assassination? A murder? Homicide? Or a justified killing in a larger war? What are the implications of each of these terms?

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden

When it comes to refugees, terminology matters States have an ethical and legal obligation to keep their borders open to refugees fleeing from war.

September 7, 2015

“The use of terminology is of critical importance in shaping our perceptions, attitudes and behaviours. Calling those who flee from persecution, inhumane treatment, torture, violence and war as ‘migrants’ may have irreparable consequences on government policies and the lives of thousands of actual refugees.”

Should Authors Shun or Cooperate With Chinese Censors?

May 27, 2015

“A report by the PEN American Center, which found some books were expurgated by Chinese censors without the authors even knowing it, called on those who want their works published in the lucrative Chinese market to be vigilant, and recommended a set of principles in dealing with publishers.

“But each author may approach the problem differently. How should Western authors and artists deal with Chinese government censorship? Accept or negotiate changes, or decline to have their work published at all?”

The Cost of Turkey’s Genocide Denial

April 24, 2015

“Such obstinate refusal to come to terms with history’s darker chapters is not unique to Turkey. Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has refused to acknowledge and apologize for what Imperial Japan did during its colonial annexation of Korea or in China in the 1930s and during World War II. Russians agonize over but repeatedly temper their assessments of Stalin’s crimes; Poles and Ukrainians turn away from the brutalities of the anti-Semitic pogroms before and during World War II.

“Americans, Australians and Israelis shy away from confronting the foundational crimes that were committed against those living on the territory that they coveted but which they wanted emptied of indigenous people. It is often forgotten that former victims can easily become perpetrators in their drive to make a nation.”

“Turkey has lost the battle with truth over its refusal to acknowledge the mass killings of Armenians during World War I as genocide, a Turkish academic who helped break a long-standing taboo on the issue said.”

http://news.yahoo.com/turkey-lost-battle-truth-over-armenia-genocide-academic-182428141.html

Another article.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36433114?mc_cid=1e136768f2&mc_eid=34e2887073

You and I Change Our Minds. Politicians ‘Evolve.’

March 15, 2015

“As a general rule, it is difficult for people in public life to change their minds. There is an immediate rush to portray politicians as ‘flip-floppers’ when they shift position on anything, even if they do so following a careful consideration of an issue rather than a meeting with a pollster. The hecklers will reliably accuse them of lacking the ‘courage of their convictions,’ of being ‘typical politicians,’ even though the typical politician actually tries to change his mind as rarely as possible, to avoid the hecklers.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/magazine/you-and-i-change-our-minds-politicians-evolve.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below

THE ORWELLIAN RE-BRANDING OF “MASS SURVEILLANCE” AS MERELY “BULK COLLECTION”

March 15, 2015

“Just as the Bush administration and the U.S. media re-labelled ‘torture’ with the Orwellian euphemism “enhanced interrogation techniques” to make it more palatable, the governments and media of the Five Eyes surveillance alliance are now attempting to re-brand ‘mass surveillance’ as ‘bulk collection’ in order to make it less menacing (and less illegal). In the past several weeks, this is the clearly coordinated theme that has arisen in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand as the last defense against the Snowden revelations, as those governments seek to further enhance their surveillance and detention powers under the guise of terrorism.”

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/13/orwellian-re-branding-mass-surveillance-merely-bulk-collection/

This American Life Podcast: Cops See it Differently

February 21, 2015

A really amazing two part podcast about policing in the United States. Through the different parts of this podcast, we hear from police departments and officers around the country and how they’re dealing with the challenges they face. What’s fascinating about this is the role of perspective and how different experiences affect how people see different situations. Part 2 Act 2 discusses the implicit association test and what a police department is doing about how to deal with implicit bias while policing. Part 2 Prologue is an interesting and short bit about a reporter watching the Eric Garner video with a friend who is a police officer and how the two of them see completely different things and interpret the video in very different ways.

Below are links for the full episodes.

Part I

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/547/cops-see-it-differently-part-one

Part II

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/548/cops-see-it-differently-part-two