Category: politics
-
On book dedications and patronage models: A very brief modern history
“Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.” –Dr. Johnson, Dictionary (1755) — Elizabethan Age: My dearest Baroness, You’re exquisite, but you know this already. Here are some sonnets. Your lowly servant. Victorian Age: To my bourgie reader, A page-turner, the first volume, here in your…
-
On the other side of radical education lies wisdom: An exhortation; or, on the question whether really free is really good
As I review the list of alternative higher education schools, I’m struck almost immediately by their shared ethos of anarchism. They begin with a rejection of the status quo and then level their critique at the corporatization of the modern research university. They say that the university is the institution of elitism, the perpetuation of privilege,…
-
Alasdair MacIntyre on the very idea of the university
Alasdair MacIntyre, “The Very Idea of a University: Aristotle, Newman, and Us,” British Journal of Educational Studies 57.4 (December 2009), 347-362. The following are notes taken on MacIntyre’s essay. I’ve sought to make my notes intelligible and worth your time. MacIntyre’s essay is worth reading in its own right as it casts an unfavorable light…
-
Wistfulness in these strange times…
My roaming personal essay, “Wistfulness in These Strange Times,” has just been published in Spike Magazine. The piece adduces the reasons we have for being wistful, and it describes the economic situation modern workers are going through. The essay begins, This morning I awoke in a wistful mood. The birdsong coming through my bedroom window reminded me…
-
A letter written by a Doctors Without Borders friend of mine upon arriving in South Sudan
The following is a letter a friend of mine wrote about her first experiences as an obstetrician and surgeon working for Doctors Without Borders in South Sudan. Her letter gives the reader a good sense of the state of medical care in some of the harder hit areas of central Africa. D.H. Lawrence is said to…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 