Jonathan Brun

Debates as they were

Intellectual debates (at least in North America), no longer resemble anything like this. Sound-bite interviews on the major networks make more time for the host than the guest.

The closest thing I see to the attached video are the debates on www.edge.org or posts with comments on 3 quarks daily. TED talks and Slate’s www.meaningoflife.tv offer interesting points of view, but are not interactive debates.

Anyways, I picked up Foucault’s ‘Histoire de la folie à l’âge classique” at a local bookstore. Despite my initial enthusiasm, French philosophy always seems magical on the bookshelf, daunting on the night-table and eventually heavy in the hands. I also think that Foucault is wrong regarding the basis of the judicial system and Chomsky is right (see clip Part II – linked on Youtube).

The brief mention of rising multi-nationals is noteworthy. Here’s to the dreamers:

Part II:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXBfOxfmSDw]

Agreements with Natives in Canada and Australia

Natives.

The way we (Canada) treat (some of our) natives:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070813.wnunavik13/BNStory/National/

And the Australians:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/22/news/outback.php

The Australians seem set on ‘telling’ the aborigines what is good and bad. Their hard handed approach smacks of colonialism and the white man’s burden to transfer our glorious way of life to the locals.

Canada, has made significant steps to transferring genuine authority to the natives in the hopes that they will slowly develop the skill set which is required for a civil society and self-governance. We have also started giving ‘one-time’ transfers of cash and ruling out future transfers; thus, forcing the natives to become self-reliant. This is the most logical and low-cost method of dealing with the natives in Canada.

Perhaps helping their communities enter the 21st century will absolve some of the crimes we committed.

The Insane Artist

Just saw the Bruce Nauman exhibit in Montreal.

Very cool stuff. I repeatedly fail to understand modern art. It seems to be the sane observing the insane artist with little hope of truly understanding their madness that created the ‘art’.

Can a doctor understand, or worse – cure – insanity? What do I understand of Nauman, Kerouac, Duchamp, Ginsberg, …. except that they existed over the edge and looked back at us.

That being said, Nauman’s work is definitely worth seeing and you should check out the exhibit before it closes.

More Global Warming Zealots

Building on Dyson’s Heretics article, here is a piece about the various players who hate global warming skeptics (read NOT deniers).

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/15/opinion/edjacoby.php?page=1

Three books that changed my life

Identifying my favorite book, music, movie, or female hair colour remains a challenge. Recently visited subjects or people often occupy more prominence in your thoughts than events that occurred years ago. That being said, there are three books that help define the way I see society at large, humans at large and success in the modern (post 1950) world.

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Guns, Germs and Steel won the Pulitzer Prize and the author, Jared Diamond, is widely recognized as an important intellectual. Though my endorsement of the book will not affect its sales, I must say that it had an important impact on me when I read it four years ago.

The book attempts (rather successfully) to explain why Europe, Asia, Africa and the rest of the world developed the way they did. The main contributing factors are boiled down to geography, domesticable animals (pigs and chickens for protein and disease immunology; cows, horses and ox for work power), domesticable plants (rice, wheat: carbohydrates), proximity of enemies, and proximity of allies.

The real impact of this book is that it removes – at least for me – any notion of racism or inherent supremacy. The explanations provided are logical, factual and fit with basic evolutionary theory. Once you have examined the arguments, you may find it difficult to criticize Africa or Asia for their current state of affairs.

The book also lead me to conclude that if Asians had colonized North America prior to Europeans, the massacres would not have been any different. Largely it satisfies a lingering feeling most of us have but are unable to answer without the scent of racism: why are whites on top?

The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature was a New York Times Notable book and built upon evolutionary theories by Richard Dawkins and others. The basic premise is that our genes and more importantly, their desire to propagate, is the determining factor of our actions. The book synthesizes innumerable studies on a variety of animals. As with most amazing books, it manages to create a coherent picture out of thousands of different scientific voices.

The applications of the findings are wide ranging from mating rituals to social interactions and power struggles. This book answered a lingering question that I could not adequately address, why do humans do stupid things? By stupid, I simply mean things that are not logical on the surface: mating with a poor person, an ugly person, destroying the environment, allowing a powerful young prodigy to overtake the master, monogamy, social structures, fiefdom, and a million other trends. Now, I tend to believe in evolutionary biology (though it has a few gaps) and its application to human behavior patterns. Amazing stuff!

Good to Great: What makes some companies make the leap and others don’t is a great description of what it takes to create company and make a difference in the modern world. Based on 5 years of research by Jim Collins and his management sleuths the book outlines what makes a great company (and probably society): A level 5 leader without an ego, great people (not great skills), scalability, perfect execution of one task, simple metrics to analyze success, the willingness to face the facts and debate without hard feelings and the use of technology as an accelerator, but not as an end all.

The end story is that simplicity and deduction is what matters in business and life.

Here

UPDATE: I have changed my mind and am no longer certain that this book is any good, let alone great.