Friday, July 2, 2010

“GOOD QUESTION!: Are Celebrities Fit Subjects for Philosophy?” plus 2 more

“GOOD QUESTION!: Are Celebrities Fit Subjects for Philosophy?” plus 2 more

GOOD QUESTION!: Are Celebrities Fit Subjects for Philosophy?

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 12:36 PM PDT

Are Celebrities Fit Subjects for Philosophy?JOnasIsMyMiddleName:)/Flickr under a CC license

Is it worthwhile, or even appropriate, to try to understand Lady Gaga through existentialism? Tufts philosophy professor Nancy Bauer had the question thrown at her after writing a New York Times piece in which she took a look at Lady Gaga and modern female sexuality through the lens of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex. Some readers found this odd, leading Bauer to write a followup: "What subjects are fit to be addressed in public by a philosopher?" she asks. "And about what, if anything, do philosophers have any special authority?"

Bauer says she's not trying to claim that "at the tender age of 24, a pop star should be seen as having a coherent philosophy that we should both take seriously and hold her to," though she does think it fair to point out that Gaga's "self -understanding in relation to feminism seems to be unstable." Rather, she writes:
I made the claims not because I wanted to philosophize about Lady Gaga but because I take her various remarks about feminism and her self-presentation to epitomize something that I did want to think about in philosophical terms:  the conditions under which young women today have to grapple with their own self-expression, behavior, and self-understanding, especially when it comes to the tricky concept of "power."
For this, Bauer argues, philosophy can be helpful. "Philosophers typically try to illuminate with a combination of argument and (re-)conceptualization."

Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

One reader "is so outraged that the profession of philosophy would accommodate my reflecting on Lady Gaga, nay, my ...

Posted: 30 Jun 2010 09:57 PM PDT

SPLOST philosophy

Posted: 01 Jul 2010 03:50 PM PDT

Why would these organizations and so many prominent men and women in our community risk it all for a SPLOST that puts off funding of every project save the courthouse for three years?

There are a two big reasons.

The first is a profound belief that we should always have a SPLOST. That is understandable. Georgia communities are growing and using their SPLOSTs. Bibb County remains virtually alone without a SPLOST. Once a SPLOST is instituted, the momentum to keep it will be easier than getting it started.

The problem is these groups and people want to restart the SPLOST with a profoundly bad idea — waiting three years to begin funding virtually everything. The county itself gave away the game on this one. County leaders want to fund a new police and fire communications system with the SPLOST because, according to them, we are "one thunderstorm away" from a catastrophic failure of the existing system.

We better hope it does not rain for three years because the way the county structured the SPLOST, the new communications system cannot get funded anytime soon. The county says it will come up with alternate means. But the rhetoric does not meet the law.

The second is a profound belief in their own failed idea. This is troubling and suggests our local leaders have collectively become Captain Ahab chasing their white whale.

Those backing the SPLOST came up with what they thought was a great idea. They decided to bet the farm on a museum district downtown. If we built it, tourists would come.

There's just one problem — the museums were built, the downtown revitalization began, but save for the Cherry Blossom Festival and the obligatory annual Southern Living spread, few people have come.

"If only we spend more money," they think, "people will come." So now they want to buy the sports and music halls of fame. Never mind that even our local delegation thinks the idea is cockamamie. Georgia is not going to sell them, let alone return the money as an endowment. Even were the state to do so, it remains wholly implausible that a change of ownership will magically result in tourists visiting.

Buying the museums will further dig our financial grave. Along the way these same groups and individuals are giving short shrift to other projects. The Fillmore Thomas recreation area remains a mud pit. The Tubman Museum's future home remains empty and unfinished. But just you wait three more years and then something will happen. Just wait. Maybe. Maybe not.

Passing the SPLOST will, our leaders think, absolve them of their sins, while Fillmore Thomas remains a mud pit and the Tubman remains empty. Captain Ahab drowned chasing Moby Dick. His ship sank and his crew perished.

NewTown Macon, the Peyton Anderson Foundation, the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce, and the Bibb County Commission will drown us, too, should the SPLOST pass. They have a lot to answer for to a lot of people. They cannot admit they got it wrong.

Erick Erickson is a Macon city councilman and CNN contributor.

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