Welcome back, Kotter!
After a semester's break, I'm back! There's a trip I took in November I might post on (or might not), but look for posts on Flannery O'Connor and Annapolis soon....
Monday, December 28, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
September 22-24: Alice Hamilton, Hitlerjunge Quex, and Kuhle Wampe
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
How (not) to make a good argument
As the furor about health care continues, I continue to realize that there are good, and there are bad ways to make a point. Now, I know that this is a sensitive issue, as many think that a single-payer system would be the State getting involved with our private lives. While I respect that concern, comparing the Obama plan to something like, say, T4, just isn't a thought-through argument. Of course, we all know that, should you want to win an argument, you simply need to play the Nazi card.
As a scholar who has done some work on the Holocaust, can I just tell you how often the Nazi card is played incorrectly? If someone were trying to make a point about how the Pharisees were very legalistic, s/he might be inclined to compare them to Nazis. The stereotype is that Nazis (like all Germans) are anal and love to follow the rules.
Negative, striker. Not only did Nazis make up their own laws, many of them contradictory, but they often flouted the law because they were in power.
In the case of health care, the desire to connect Hitler with the perception of a totalitarian state is a strong one, one which needs to be avoided. Germany has far more restrictions on their health care. Its system is something like what the more liberal democrats would like to see in this country--one which ensures equal opportunity to all its citizens, unborn or 100 year old. And if anyone wanted to avoid a totalitarian state, well, I'll give you three guesses who that might be.....
The problem with the Hitler card is that it is both difficult to argue with and that it is a shocker which instills fear in people--of course we want to avoid Hitler. Even if the argument is poorly constructed, the mere presence of Hitler in the argument results in a knee-jerk reaction.
Now, while I could go into explaining why the current heath care bill is not in any way comparable to T4, I hope that folks would have enough sense of mind to stop and ask just what they are being told, rather than buying into the fear mongering. I will, however, give you an example of how the logic gets fuzzy really quickly.
I watched this video all the way through, and was startled to find the link between T4 and Obama. Should you have 20 minutes, go ahead and watch it. Take note of every place that an argument is not being made, but that your conclusion is being lead through your sight or by a reaction. I noticed a few big ones that bothered me, namely the use of concentration camp footage of Jews, Communists, Roma and Sinti when those with mental retardation were being discussed as candidates for euthanasia. We have been so conditioned by footage of the camps that we connect anything grouped with them as inherently evil. While the camps certainly were evil, the leap the video asks you to make avoids having to fully explain the situation to you, the viewer. As a result, they are able to make connections between the heath care boards under T4 and the gas chambers of the death camps no longer has to be made--they've conveniently grouped it all under the same euthanasia program, when in fact T4 (1939-1941) developed independently of (and ended before) the Final Solution first proposed at the Wannsee Conference in 1942. While both are crimes against humanity, they are not the same thing.
Also, many of the murders of the Jews took place not in the camps, but through Einsatzgruppen--something which the film skips over completely.
So what is the link between T4 and Obama?
The fact that the Obama health care plan has a panel of five doctors who decide whether a life is worth living. Now, I've not had a chance to look at what this is referring to, as the film does not cite specific sections of the bill. This, my friends, is problematic. You have to take them at their word. There is no mention of the role of family, of directives (which Obama has gone on record about), or exactly who would be a candidate for this panel. As a result, the viewer cannot decide for him or herself that euthanasia is indeed on the table. The simple coincidence of the number on the panel (here an odd number, ensuring that decisions can be made without a stale-mate) makes the argument for them. They say that Obama uses the Nazi lines on heath care "exactly", but there is not a single quote. Any academic would throw such a paper right out for not substantiating its argument.
The final thing that bothers me about the video is aesthetic--an American with a fake German accent sounds unnecessarily harsh, and the Americans speaking the German words butcher them so badly that I barely understand them; they simply make the words grate the ears. Anything that sounds that bad has to be evil. Just listen to the female reader say "Kraft durch Freude". I'd fail her for pronunciation in German 101.
Should anyone come up with a better argument against the health care bill, I'm happy to hear it. But until you learn how to make an argument properly, please stop learning from past propaganda techniques.
As a scholar who has done some work on the Holocaust, can I just tell you how often the Nazi card is played incorrectly? If someone were trying to make a point about how the Pharisees were very legalistic, s/he might be inclined to compare them to Nazis. The stereotype is that Nazis (like all Germans) are anal and love to follow the rules.
Negative, striker. Not only did Nazis make up their own laws, many of them contradictory, but they often flouted the law because they were in power.
In the case of health care, the desire to connect Hitler with the perception of a totalitarian state is a strong one, one which needs to be avoided. Germany has far more restrictions on their health care. Its system is something like what the more liberal democrats would like to see in this country--one which ensures equal opportunity to all its citizens, unborn or 100 year old. And if anyone wanted to avoid a totalitarian state, well, I'll give you three guesses who that might be.....
The problem with the Hitler card is that it is both difficult to argue with and that it is a shocker which instills fear in people--of course we want to avoid Hitler. Even if the argument is poorly constructed, the mere presence of Hitler in the argument results in a knee-jerk reaction.
Now, while I could go into explaining why the current heath care bill is not in any way comparable to T4, I hope that folks would have enough sense of mind to stop and ask just what they are being told, rather than buying into the fear mongering. I will, however, give you an example of how the logic gets fuzzy really quickly.
I watched this video all the way through, and was startled to find the link between T4 and Obama. Should you have 20 minutes, go ahead and watch it. Take note of every place that an argument is not being made, but that your conclusion is being lead through your sight or by a reaction. I noticed a few big ones that bothered me, namely the use of concentration camp footage of Jews, Communists, Roma and Sinti when those with mental retardation were being discussed as candidates for euthanasia. We have been so conditioned by footage of the camps that we connect anything grouped with them as inherently evil. While the camps certainly were evil, the leap the video asks you to make avoids having to fully explain the situation to you, the viewer. As a result, they are able to make connections between the heath care boards under T4 and the gas chambers of the death camps no longer has to be made--they've conveniently grouped it all under the same euthanasia program, when in fact T4 (1939-1941) developed independently of (and ended before) the Final Solution first proposed at the Wannsee Conference in 1942. While both are crimes against humanity, they are not the same thing.
Also, many of the murders of the Jews took place not in the camps, but through Einsatzgruppen--something which the film skips over completely.
So what is the link between T4 and Obama?
The fact that the Obama health care plan has a panel of five doctors who decide whether a life is worth living. Now, I've not had a chance to look at what this is referring to, as the film does not cite specific sections of the bill. This, my friends, is problematic. You have to take them at their word. There is no mention of the role of family, of directives (which Obama has gone on record about), or exactly who would be a candidate for this panel. As a result, the viewer cannot decide for him or herself that euthanasia is indeed on the table. The simple coincidence of the number on the panel (here an odd number, ensuring that decisions can be made without a stale-mate) makes the argument for them. They say that Obama uses the Nazi lines on heath care "exactly", but there is not a single quote. Any academic would throw such a paper right out for not substantiating its argument.
The final thing that bothers me about the video is aesthetic--an American with a fake German accent sounds unnecessarily harsh, and the Americans speaking the German words butcher them so badly that I barely understand them; they simply make the words grate the ears. Anything that sounds that bad has to be evil. Just listen to the female reader say "Kraft durch Freude". I'd fail her for pronunciation in German 101.
Should anyone come up with a better argument against the health care bill, I'm happy to hear it. But until you learn how to make an argument properly, please stop learning from past propaganda techniques.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Homeward Bound?
I know, I know. It's been over a month since I've updated, thanks to the sporatic internet access and near impossibility of using my laptop in Switzerland. To give you a basic recapitulation of the last month +, Switzerland is beautiful, but it's also a bit hard to stomach all the alone time. This was, however, productive for my studies. Hopefully my exams in September will be passable.
Tomorrow my sister is getting married, so we are running around Columbia, MO, sorting out last-minute things. The groom's cake has just come out of the oven, and now I just have to make the butter cream frosting and ganache.
Of course, there's so much to blog about; the honey harvest, how comparing anyone to Hitler is a poor rhetorical choice (and generally uninformed about history) and how this really gets my goat, what it's like to realize you really aren't at home in any single culture. But I've got reading to do...derg.
Tomorrow my sister is getting married, so we are running around Columbia, MO, sorting out last-minute things. The groom's cake has just come out of the oven, and now I just have to make the butter cream frosting and ganache.
Of course, there's so much to blog about; the honey harvest, how comparing anyone to Hitler is a poor rhetorical choice (and generally uninformed about history) and how this really gets my goat, what it's like to realize you really aren't at home in any single culture. But I've got reading to do...derg.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Williamsburger
I've decided that's what you call someone from Williamsburg--although I suppose you could call him a Williams-berger or her a Williamsbourgher.
Now I sit inside and hear the storms rolling in, the storms which were supposed to start hours ago and had kept me from taking my bike to Williamsburg for another ride.
Tuesday morning, I met up with my friend, J., who has retired from working as a musician and interpreter in Colonial Williamsburg and still works pretty much a 40-hour work week renovating the farm house he owns. The view from said house, by the way, is fantastic. If you are my facebook friend, a view of the same river is my profile pic. The benefits of J. being retired were fully exploited.
The rest of my visit was pretty restful, minus a nightmare where I had taken my written Quals and then I failed my orals, as my accent was too Swiss. Considering half of our program has the heaviest Bavarian accents, I realized that my nightmare didn't make sense. But there you have it.
Friday morning before leaving, I went for a ride with S., who is an expert horsewoman. Me, I can't even trot, as I've completely forgotten the rhythm. When Mini, sick of my bouncing around, broke into a canter, I freaked out. Canter would have been fine; my reaction to thinking he was going to jump into the Chickohominy or make my trip to Switzerland impossible was a bit excessive. I reigned the poor beast in, and he was more than happy to stop.
And now I'm back in Northern Virginia, shopped out with my mom and getting ready to go to Switzerlandia. Shopping included high heels for my sister's wedding, a dress for running errands (crazy pattern, fun cut), and a basic black top for wearing out so I can stop wearing t-shirts and work blouses to rock concerts). I'll have plenty of work to take with me, and hope to take little day trips to the Walensee, the Alm (high in the mountains where the cows summer....gorgeous), and Zürich. Even if I don't blog about them there, I will be taking photos. Oh! and I'm supposed to meet the new Swiss girl who will be starting our program in the fall, in addition to my student's son, who is in asylum in Zürich. Hopefully my student will pass her citizenship test on Tuesday and she can begin the process of bringing him to the US.
Updates will be few and far between, but I do hope to be able to use my laptop in the regional library, where they don't have wireless, but may be able to hook me in directly. Otherwise, I'll hopefully have enough PDFs saved on the laptop to make critical responses to what I've read that much easier come exam time.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Friday I frantically made copies for reading in Switzerland, and left town just after 1.
Now, I hate driving. Were there a train that went through Nashville, I would travel by train. Sadly, this is not the case. So, I exploited the fact that I have a new friend in Asheville, NC. I decided to drive through Gattlinberg and through the Smokies. I crossed the border between Tennessee and North Carolina just as the sun was going down, which was perfect timing--the border is on the top of the mountain, and on either side you can look out across the mountain range and see nothing but trees.
As I drove down the mountain, I reveled in the green and the hairpin turns. Driving through the gloamy, I made my way to Asheville, past motels and into the darkness.
I made it into Asheville about 2 hours late, and D. was kind about my lateness. And...she saw my bike, and said that I could not leave without going for a ride. While I didn't want to be late to the next place, I agreed--the very idea of riding up a mountain and on the Blue Ridge Parkway was just too attractive.
Now, I didn't have a camera along, but this is pretty much what I saw for most of the ride. Gorgeous? Oh, yes.
I arrived in Charles City late that night, to be greeted by friends who feel more like family. Church on Sunday was a homecoming, and I've been trying to get work done, even though I'd rather visit. Tomorrow, if it doesn't rain, I'll be going for a ride on the Colonial Parkway, which is a bit bumpy, but amazing. My friend J. will drop me in Jamestown, drive to Yorktown, and wait for me there so we can have breakfast on the riverfront.
Now, I hate driving. Were there a train that went through Nashville, I would travel by train. Sadly, this is not the case. So, I exploited the fact that I have a new friend in Asheville, NC. I decided to drive through Gattlinberg and through the Smokies. I crossed the border between Tennessee and North Carolina just as the sun was going down, which was perfect timing--the border is on the top of the mountain, and on either side you can look out across the mountain range and see nothing but trees.
As I drove down the mountain, I reveled in the green and the hairpin turns. Driving through the gloamy, I made my way to Asheville, past motels and into the darkness.
I made it into Asheville about 2 hours late, and D. was kind about my lateness. And...she saw my bike, and said that I could not leave without going for a ride. While I didn't want to be late to the next place, I agreed--the very idea of riding up a mountain and on the Blue Ridge Parkway was just too attractive.
Now, I didn't have a camera along, but this is pretty much what I saw for most of the ride. Gorgeous? Oh, yes.I arrived in Charles City late that night, to be greeted by friends who feel more like family. Church on Sunday was a homecoming, and I've been trying to get work done, even though I'd rather visit. Tomorrow, if it doesn't rain, I'll be going for a ride on the Colonial Parkway, which is a bit bumpy, but amazing. My friend J. will drop me in Jamestown, drive to Yorktown, and wait for me there so we can have breakfast on the riverfront.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Reminders of Citizenship
Yes, I know that I posted this in my last blog, but I have to repeat the post because it's such a good reminder for me as I prepare to travel on and ponder the future while trying to live in the present.
Epistle to Diognetus
I have this taped up in my carrel as a daily reminder of what it means to be in this world but not of it, what it is to live for God and not myself:
For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind either in locality or in speech or in customs.
For they dwell not somewhere in cities of their own, neither do they use some different language, nor practise an extraordinary kind of life.
Nor again do they possess any invention discovered by any intelligence or study of ingenious men, nor are they masters of any human dogma as some are.
But while they dwell in cities of Greeks and barbarians as the lot of each is cast, and follow the native customs in dress and food and the other arrangements of life, yet the constitution of their own citizenship, which they set forth, is marvellous, and confessedly contradicts expectation.
They dwell in their own countries, but only as sojourners; they bear their share in all things as citizens, and they endure all hardships as strangers. Every foreign country is a fatherland to them, and every fatherland is foreign.
They marry like all other men and they beget children; but they do not cast away their offspring.
They have their meals in common, but not their wives.
They find themselves in the flesh, and yet they live not after the flesh.
Their existence is on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.
They obey the established laws, and they surpass the laws in their own lives.
They love all men, and they are persecuted by all.
They are ignored, and yet they are condemned. They are put to death, and yet they are endued with life.
They are in beggary, and yet they make many rich. They are in want of all things, and yet they abound in all things.
They are dishonoured, and yet they are glorified in their dishonour. They are evil spoken of, and yet they are vindicated.
They are reviled, and they bless; they are insulted, and they respect.
Doing good they are punished as evil-doers; being punished they rejoice, as if they were thereby quickened by life....
In a word, what the soul is in a body, this the Christians are in the world.
Welcome!
Welcome!
For those of you who don't read German, I want to explain the purpose of my blog. I've called it "Zigeunerlesen", a word play on the German term "Zigeunerleben", the life of a gypsy and "lesen", to read. Since my late teens, my mother has called my endless moving about and travels my "Zigeunerleben", which I do love. But there's also a longing to be rooted.
This blog will attempt to account for my travels, readings, and musings.
Enjoy!
For those of you who don't read German, I want to explain the purpose of my blog. I've called it "Zigeunerlesen", a word play on the German term "Zigeunerleben", the life of a gypsy and "lesen", to read. Since my late teens, my mother has called my endless moving about and travels my "Zigeunerleben", which I do love. But there's also a longing to be rooted.
This blog will attempt to account for my travels, readings, and musings.
Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)