Thucydides uses the frightening story to warn of the wild — and often dangerous — swings in public opinion innate to democratic culture. The historian seems at times obsessed with these explosions of Athenian popular passions, offering an even longer and more hair-raising account of popular mood swings over invading Sicily. We forget sometimes that the Athenian democracy that gave us Sophocles and Pericles also, in a fit of unhinged outrage, executed Socrates by a majority vote of one of its popular courts.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/420496/progressive-mass-hysteria
quinta-feira, 9 de julho de 2015
quarta-feira, 8 de julho de 2015
Grécia moderna não é Grécia antiga
The revolution worked, culminating in international recognition of a new Greek state in 1832. It also successfully planted Hellenism as the nation’s foundational myth, reorienting Greek speakers toward a national identity centered on the glory of antiquity.
Almost immediately, problems began to emerge.
“[Europeans] had these exalted ideas—‘We’re going to run into Agamemnon and Pericles’—and they were disappointed by the Greeks,” Greene said. “There’s Europe and then there’s Europe, and this wasn’t the right Europe.”
Educação na Finlandia
Extensive training is the basis for giving teachers the autonomy to work the way they want. The result is a highly prized profession and an education system always near the top in international rankings
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Mais
Citações do racista Lincoln
“Free them [black slaves] and make them politically and socially our equal? My own feelings will not admit of this . . . . We can not then make them equals.” (CW, 2, 256). “There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people, to the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races.” (CW, 2, 405). “What I would most desire would be the separation of the white and equality between the white and black races . . . . I, as well as Judge [Stephen] Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong, having the superior position.” (CW, 2, 16).
“I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races . . . . I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people.” (CW, 3, 145-146). “I will to the very last stand by the law of this state [i.e., Illinois], which forbids the marrying of white people with Negroes.” (CW, 3, 146). “Senator Douglas remarked . . . that . . . this government was made for the white people and not for Negroes. Why, in point of fact, I think so too.” (CW, 2, 281).
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“I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races . . . . I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people.” (CW, 3, 145-146). “I will to the very last stand by the law of this state [i.e., Illinois], which forbids the marrying of white people with Negroes.” (CW, 3, 146). “Senator Douglas remarked . . . that . . . this government was made for the white people and not for Negroes. Why, in point of fact, I think so too.” (CW, 2, 281).
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terça-feira, 7 de julho de 2015
A guerra contra livre expressão
Brooke Goldstein and Aaron Eitan Meyer, “Lawfare: The War Against Free Speech,” 2011. “Lawfare,” the use of litigation as a weapon to silence and punish an opponent, is a significant challenge to free speech and rule of law today. Bad lawyers created lawfare; good lawyers must combat this subversion of the goals of our profession.
segunda-feira, 6 de julho de 2015
Por qué tem existência?
Jim Holt: Why does the universe exist?
Why is there something instead of nothing? In other words: Why does the universe exist (and why are we in it)? Philosopher and writer Jim Holt follows this question toward three possible answers. Or four. Or none.
Educação na Finlandia
Highly trained, respected and free: why Finland's teachers are different
Extensive training is the basis for giving teachers
the autonomy to work the way they want. The result is a highly prized
profession and an education system always near the top in international
rankings
"Dikastiscracia"
"Dikastiscracia" - meu novo nome para designar o sistema político do Brasil
A teoria política conhece monarquia, democracia oligarquia, plutocracia e mais. Porém o que tem atualmente no Brasil é nada disso. Para criar um nome para o sistema político do Brasil proponho “dikastiscracia” – baseada na palavra grega para juiz (dikastis – δικαστής). O que temos no Brasil é “regra dos juízes”, chamado “dikastiscracia”.
A teoria política conhece monarquia, democracia oligarquia, plutocracia e mais. Porém o que tem atualmente no Brasil é nada disso. Para criar um nome para o sistema político do Brasil proponho “dikastiscracia” – baseada na palavra grega para juiz (dikastis – δικαστής). O que temos no Brasil é “regra dos juízes”, chamado “dikastiscracia”.
"Diskastiscracy" - my term for Brazil
Political theory knows monarchy, oligarchy, democracy, plutocracy and more. Yet none of these terms fits the Brazilian political system. To have a name for the political system in Brazil I propose "dikastiscracy" - based on the Greek word for judge (dikastis - δικαστής). What we have in Brazil is the "rule of judges", called "dikastiscracy".
domingo, 5 de julho de 2015
Dívida grega
Antony Mueller explica: "A dívida externa tem sua própria lógica econômica que precisa ser levado em consideração quando um país enfrenta uma crise de dívida. A crise da dívida externa envolve não apenas o orçamento do governo, mas também a conta corrente. A dívida externa da Grécia é uma dívida pública realizada em moeda nacional sobre os quais ela não tem autoridade. Grécia deve resolver o seu problema de orçamento, o que exige gerar um excedente para o serviço de sua dívida. Em segundo lugar, a Gr...écia deve resolver seu problema da conta corrente, que requer um superávit em conta corrente, a fim de gerar divisas convertíveis suficientes para o serviço da dívida. Aqueles que acham a solução em um "Grexit" e um retorno da Grécia à uma própria moeda doméstica (nova dracma) não percebem que isso não melhora a situação de dívida. Pelo contrário. Quando a Grécia abandonará o euro, seu endividamento vai realmente aumentar em termos da nova moeda nacional. No final, tudo escorre para um superávit orçamental e um superávit na conta corrente os quais exigem uma queda da padrão de vida (salários líquidos inferiores) e um nível de preço mais baixo (deflação). Isto é necessário dentro ou fora do euro e no caso da Grécia a solução fora do euro é pior que ficar dentro da União Monetária Europeia."
Mais:
http://www.newmedia.ufm.edu/gsm/index.php?title=Financial_Cycles%2C_Business_Activity_and_Asset_Valuations
Mais:
http://www.newmedia.ufm.edu/gsm/index.php?title=Financial_Cycles%2C_Business_Activity_and_Asset_Valuations
sábado, 4 de julho de 2015
Foucault neoliberal?
Was Foucault a neoliberal?’ So asked an accusatory headline the other day in Le Nouvel Observateur, France’s centre-left news weekly. It’s a grave allegation. ‘Saint Foucault’, as the article sarcastically calls him, was a heavyweight figure in the humanities, and his theories about truth and power have filtered down into society’s mainstream.
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Razão branca
Professor: Reason Itself Is A White Male Construct
Prof. John Caputo was being interviewed by fellow philosophy professor George Yancy for the 13th installment of an interview series Yancy conducts with philosophers regarding racial topics.
Given its emphasis on first principles and abstract thought, it may be tempting to view academic philosophy as a turf where the race of participants matters little, but Caputo says that’s entirely untrue. In fact, race is of central importance, and it’s proven by the mundane phrases philosophers use.
“‘White’ is of the utmost relevance to philosophy, and postmodern theory helps us to see why,” Caputo says in the interview. “I was once criticized for using the expression ‘true north.’It reflected my Nordo-centrism, my critic said, and my insensitivity to people who live in the Southern Hemisphere. Of course, no such thing had ever crossed my mind, but that points to the problem. We tend to say ‘we’ and to assume who ‘we’ are, which once simply meant ‘we white male Euro-Christians.’
The end result of critiquing whiteness, Caputo suggests, is the realization that the supposed “reason” underlying philosophy is just another form of white privilege … or something of that nature.
“I think that what modern philosophers call ‘pure’ reason — the Cartesian ego cogito and Kant’s transcendental consciousness — is a white male Euro-Christian construction,” he says. “White is not ‘neutral.’ ‘Pure’ reason is lily white, as if white is not a color or is closest to the purity of the sun, and everything else is ‘colored.’ Purification is a name for terror and deportation, and ‘white’ is a thick, dense, potent cultural signifier that is closely linked to rationalism and colonialism. What is not white is not rational. So white is philosophically relevant and needs to be philosophically critiqued — it affects what we mean by ‘reason’ — and ‘we’ white philosophers cannot ignore it.”
Given its emphasis on first principles and abstract thought, it may be tempting to view academic philosophy as a turf where the race of participants matters little, but Caputo says that’s entirely untrue. In fact, race is of central importance, and it’s proven by the mundane phrases philosophers use.
“‘White’ is of the utmost relevance to philosophy, and postmodern theory helps us to see why,” Caputo says in the interview. “I was once criticized for using the expression ‘true north.’It reflected my Nordo-centrism, my critic said, and my insensitivity to people who live in the Southern Hemisphere. Of course, no such thing had ever crossed my mind, but that points to the problem. We tend to say ‘we’ and to assume who ‘we’ are, which once simply meant ‘we white male Euro-Christians.’
The end result of critiquing whiteness, Caputo suggests, is the realization that the supposed “reason” underlying philosophy is just another form of white privilege … or something of that nature.
“I think that what modern philosophers call ‘pure’ reason — the Cartesian ego cogito and Kant’s transcendental consciousness — is a white male Euro-Christian construction,” he says. “White is not ‘neutral.’ ‘Pure’ reason is lily white, as if white is not a color or is closest to the purity of the sun, and everything else is ‘colored.’ Purification is a name for terror and deportation, and ‘white’ is a thick, dense, potent cultural signifier that is closely linked to rationalism and colonialism. What is not white is not rational. So white is philosophically relevant and needs to be philosophically critiqued — it affects what we mean by ‘reason’ — and ‘we’ white philosophers cannot ignore it.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/03/professor-reason-itself-is-a-white-male-construct/#ixzz3exPkT6FC
Independência americana
Secession: Armed vs. Peaceful
Mais
sexta-feira, 3 de julho de 2015
Idade Média - historia revisada
In Johannes Fried’s The Middle Ages, the author makes his case for an alternative interpretation of the medieval period as much more sophisticated than commonly thought, writes Ignas Kalpokas. The book intricately traces how ideas and systems of thought that we now consider quintessentially modern European ways of life, thinking and culture stemmed from this time period.
The Middle Ages. Johannes Fried. Harvard University Press. 2015.
The Middle Ages are perhaps the most controversial historical period of them all. Although its profile has been increasing steadily ever since the denigration of all things medieval by Enlightenment (and, to an extent, Renaissance) scholars, still relatively few studies do it justice. Johannes Fried’s The Middle Ages is notable in this context as an attempt to portray the period as much more modern and sophisticated than commonly thought. In fact, for the author, the Middle Ages, rather than being a lost epoch, contains the seeds of what we are today.
quinta-feira, 2 de julho de 2015
O grande assalto contra a liberdade de expressão
“Think of liberalism ... as a collection of ideas or principles which go to make up an attitude or ‘habit of mind.’” – Arthur A. Ekirch
In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville was keen to observe that “once the Americans have taken up an idea, whether it be well or ill founded, nothing is more difficult than to eradicate it from their minds.”
Reflecting upon my experience as a first-generation immigrant who grew up in the United States, I concur with Tocqueville; this inherent feature of the culture and character of the American people holds true even today.
In America, there are no sacred cows, no one is above criticism, and no one has the final say on any issue. It is worth emphasizing that today, the United States stands virtually alone in the international community in upholding near-absolute freedom of personal expression, largely thanks to the constitutional protections provided by the First Amendment.
But without certain internalized values and principles, the legal bulwark of the First Amendment is nothing more than a parchment barrier.
As cliché as it may sound, it is important to recognize that our cherished freedom to think, speak, write, and express ourselves should not be taken for granted. Defending the principle of free speech is a perennial conflict that has to be fought in the court of public opinion here and abroad.
Unfortunately, a number of recent developments have greatly alarmed civil libertarians and may very well carry long-term negative repercussions for the United States as a free and open society.
In his new book, Freedom from Speech, Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and tireless free speech advocate, highlights a troubling cultural phenomenon: the blurring of physical safety with psychological and ideological comfort.
It is a disturbing trend that is not limited to the United States:
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In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville was keen to observe that “once the Americans have taken up an idea, whether it be well or ill founded, nothing is more difficult than to eradicate it from their minds.”
Reflecting upon my experience as a first-generation immigrant who grew up in the United States, I concur with Tocqueville; this inherent feature of the culture and character of the American people holds true even today.
In America, there are no sacred cows, no one is above criticism, and no one has the final say on any issue. It is worth emphasizing that today, the United States stands virtually alone in the international community in upholding near-absolute freedom of personal expression, largely thanks to the constitutional protections provided by the First Amendment.
But without certain internalized values and principles, the legal bulwark of the First Amendment is nothing more than a parchment barrier.
As cliché as it may sound, it is important to recognize that our cherished freedom to think, speak, write, and express ourselves should not be taken for granted. Defending the principle of free speech is a perennial conflict that has to be fought in the court of public opinion here and abroad.
Unfortunately, a number of recent developments have greatly alarmed civil libertarians and may very well carry long-term negative repercussions for the United States as a free and open society.
In his new book, Freedom from Speech, Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and tireless free speech advocate, highlights a troubling cultural phenomenon: the blurring of physical safety with psychological and ideological comfort.
It is a disturbing trend that is not limited to the United States:
Mais
Crimes esquecidos
Deny the British empire's crimes? No, we ignore them
... Caroline Elkins, a professor at Harvard, spent nearly 10 years compiling the evidence contained in her book Britain's Gulag: the Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. She started her research with the belief that the British account of the suppression of the Kikuyu's Mau Mau revolt in the 1950s was largely accurate. Then she discovered that most of the documentation had been destroyed. She worked through the remaining archives, and conducted 600 hours of interviews with Kikuyu survivors – rebels and loyalists – and British guards, settlers and officials. Her book is fully and thoroughly documented. It won the Pulitzer prize. But as far as Sandbrook, James and other imperial apologists are concerned, it might as well never have been written....Mais
Imperio Britanico
10 Evil Crimes Of The British Empire
At its height, the British Empire was the largest to have ever existed. Aside from covering most of the globe, it was responsible for some of the greatest advances in engineering, art, and medicine that the world will ever know. The Empire gave us steam engines, penicillin, radar, and even television.However, life under the British wasn’t all just incredible inventions. Alongside the good stuff the Empire did sat a whole ream of not-so-good stuff, and alongside that a whole load of other stuff so evil it’d make Dick Dastardly balk.
10 The Boer Concentration Camps
We all now know about the horrors of concentration camps, but during the time of Boer Wars, rounding up tens of thousands of innocent people and detaining them in camps seemed like a stroke of genius. The British needed the South African populace under control and had the means and manpower to detain them. What could possibly go wrong?
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Casamento na perspetiva libertária
Libertarians and Culture
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quarta-feira, 1 de julho de 2015
Proteção social
Senado aprova aumento de até 78% para servidores do Judiciário
Projeto segue agora para sanção ou veto da presidente Dilma Rousseff.
Reajuste será escalonado e concedido de acordo com função dos servidores.
O Senado aprovou nesta terça-feira (20) por 62 votos a zero projeto de lei que concede reajuste salarial escalonado para servidores do Judiciário. O texto prevê que o aumento – entre 53% a 78,56% – será concedido de acordo com a função exercida por cada servidor.
Pelo projeto, o reajuste será escalonado, de julho de 2015 até dezembro de 2017, e o pagamento será feito em seis parcelas. A matéria segue agora para sanção ou veto da presidente Dilma Rousseff.
O governo era contrário ao projeto devido ao impacto nas contas públicas. Segundo o Ministério do Planejamento, o aumento custará R$ 25,7 bilhões nos próximos quatro anos.
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Pelo projeto, o reajuste será escalonado, de julho de 2015 até dezembro de 2017, e o pagamento será feito em seis parcelas. A matéria segue agora para sanção ou veto da presidente Dilma Rousseff.
O governo era contrário ao projeto devido ao impacto nas contas públicas. Segundo o Ministério do Planejamento, o aumento custará R$ 25,7 bilhões nos próximos quatro anos.
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30 horas semana
Don't look now, but we should soon have the 30-hour work week as the standard, instead of the 40-hour work week last enshrined during FDR's New Deal. Why, when Americans now work more hours than any other developed country?
There are a number of good reasons, and they have little to do with the ACA, or Obamacare, which has decreed that 30 hours per week is considered to be full time employment for large businesses that are required to offer insurance coverage to their employees.
But it has a lot to do with the labor slack in our job market that Fed Chair Yellen has been talking so much about, and the declining health and welfare of American workers. Thanks to the tech revolution and huge productivity gains of those past 30 years, fewer workers are needed to do the same amount of work in the digital world. So if fewer workers are needed to do the same work, then why are more employees working overtime?
Maybe because no policy maker in America has thought through the consequences. What would it mean to share the workload with more people? The Germans certainly have done something about it. Rather than fire employees when times were tough in Germany's last recession, firms hit hardest by the reduction in demand reduced their employees' working hours to spread the pain.
And, the four-day workweek is nearly standard in the Netherlands, especially among working moms, according to a CNN Money article. Overall, the entire workforce averages around 29 hours a week -- the lowest of any industrialized nation, according to the OECD.
Mais
There are a number of good reasons, and they have little to do with the ACA, or Obamacare, which has decreed that 30 hours per week is considered to be full time employment for large businesses that are required to offer insurance coverage to their employees.
But it has a lot to do with the labor slack in our job market that Fed Chair Yellen has been talking so much about, and the declining health and welfare of American workers. Thanks to the tech revolution and huge productivity gains of those past 30 years, fewer workers are needed to do the same amount of work in the digital world. So if fewer workers are needed to do the same work, then why are more employees working overtime?
Maybe because no policy maker in America has thought through the consequences. What would it mean to share the workload with more people? The Germans certainly have done something about it. Rather than fire employees when times were tough in Germany's last recession, firms hit hardest by the reduction in demand reduced their employees' working hours to spread the pain.
And, the four-day workweek is nearly standard in the Netherlands, especially among working moms, according to a CNN Money article. Overall, the entire workforce averages around 29 hours a week -- the lowest of any industrialized nation, according to the OECD.
Mais
Piketty
"Eu acredito em capitalismo, propriedade privada e mercado", diz Thomas Piketty - InfoMoney
Veja mais em: http://www.infomoney.com.br/mercados/noticia/4126236/acredito-capitalismo-propriedade-privada-mercado-diz-thomas-piketty
Veja mais em: http://www.infomoney.com.br/mercados/noticia/4126236/acredito-capitalismo-propriedade-privada-mercado-diz-thomas-piketty
Estrutura do salários no setor público
Salário médio do Judiciário é o maior dos Três Poderes?
Leandro Kleber
Enquanto o Congresso Nacional segue votando projetos de lei que aumentam salários de funcionários públicos dos Três Poderes e irão gerar despesas adicionais de bilhões de reais nos próximos anos, levantamento do Contas Abertas mostra que, em média, o servidor do Judiciário e o do Legislativo ganham o dobro do lotado no Executivo. A União gasta, em média, R$ 13.290 com a remuneração dos 119 mil servidores federais do Judiciário, R$ 12.516 com os quase 36 mil servidores do Legislativo (Câmara, Senado e Tribunal de Contas da União) e apenas R$ 5.599 com os cerca de 1,8 milhão de servidores do Executivo ( veja tabela ).
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Movimento progressista
Uma breve história do movimento progressista
por Nelci Gomes
Os progressistas têm um jeito com as palavras que chega a ser realmente impressionante. Talvez tudo tenha começado quando eles roubaram, nos EUA, o termo 'liberal' dos libertários. Desde então, a coisa virou uma bola de neve e saiu totalmente de controle.
De "justiça social" a "pró-escolha" (exceto quando a escolha se refere a armas ou lâmpadas incandescentes), passando por vários "ismos" criados pejorativamente para rotular seus opositores, os progressistas são especialistas em tais feitos linguísticos. E embora os conservadores e até mesmo os libertários também, e infelizmente, utilizem várias frases triviais em vez de argumentos sólidos, os progressistas são os campeões invictos neste quesito. A melhor prova disso é o próprio termo progressista que eles utilizam tão excessivamente: quando se referem a uma medida que apóiam, tal medida é progressista; quando se opõem a algo, tal medida é reacionária.
Esta simples dicotomia é um enorme prazer para aqueles indivíduos incapazes de um raciocínio mais elaborado e que gostam de ver suas crenças resumidas em chavões simples, quase sempre partidários e rudimentares.
No entanto, a ideia de que o progresso ocorre ao longo de algum gradiente entre o conservadorismo reacionário (ou libertário) e o progressivismo é flagrantemente falaciosa.
Mais
De "justiça social" a "pró-escolha" (exceto quando a escolha se refere a armas ou lâmpadas incandescentes), passando por vários "ismos" criados pejorativamente para rotular seus opositores, os progressistas são especialistas em tais feitos linguísticos. E embora os conservadores e até mesmo os libertários também, e infelizmente, utilizem várias frases triviais em vez de argumentos sólidos, os progressistas são os campeões invictos neste quesito. A melhor prova disso é o próprio termo progressista que eles utilizam tão excessivamente: quando se referem a uma medida que apóiam, tal medida é progressista; quando se opõem a algo, tal medida é reacionária.
Esta simples dicotomia é um enorme prazer para aqueles indivíduos incapazes de um raciocínio mais elaborado e que gostam de ver suas crenças resumidas em chavões simples, quase sempre partidários e rudimentares.
No entanto, a ideia de que o progresso ocorre ao longo de algum gradiente entre o conservadorismo reacionário (ou libertário) e o progressivismo é flagrantemente falaciosa.
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