Culture – Page 9 – The Scholar's Stage

We Laugh Because It is True (But Perhaps We Should Be Crying Too)

31 May, 2010Culture, Humor, Oligarchy, To My Countrymen

Once again, The Onion proves that it deserves the title ‘America’s most intelligent newspaper‘ : Report: Majority Of Government Doesn’t Trust Citizens Either The Onion. May 19, 2010. WASHINGTON—At a time when widespread polling data suggests that a majority of the U.S. populace no longer trusts the federal government, a Pew Research Center report has […]

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Dreaming Grand Strategy

12 May, 2010Culture, Narrative, Political Theory, Strategy

Sometime last year I stumbled across a series of 500 word think pieces written by various professors of international relations, senior fellows housed in foreign policy think tanks, and other eminent experts on all matter of topics related to security studies. From what I could tell the series was a weekly affair; every week a […]

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Pressures to Publish Increase Scientists Bias

29 April, 2010Culture, Science Policy

Last week PLoS One published an interesting study (H/T Climate Shifts) by behavioral ecologist Daniele Fanelli concerning the relationship between professional pressures to publish material and bias in the scientific literature: Do Pressures to Publish Increase Scientist Bias? Support From US States Data Daniele Fanelli. PLoS ONE. 21 April 2010. The objectivity and integrity of […]

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Made by Washington: Ignorance and Hackery

27 March, 2010Culture, Domestic Politics, The Legislature

Tying partisan hackery and propaganda with the general populace’s ignorance of affairs of state is a popular trope of late. This week’s New York Times provides a fine example: The Fight Is Over, the Myths Remain Brendan Nyhan. New York Times. 24 March 2010. AT the White House signing ceremony for health care legislation on […]

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Progressives, Conservatives, and the Politics of Reconciliation

21 March, 2010Culture, Domestic Politics, Oligarchy, The Presidency

This post shall break an unspoken rule that has guided my hand for a good year now. I am about to write about domestic politics. Long term readers of the Stage know that American political issues do not get much coverage here. Save in the rare cases where they intersect with the broader realms of […]

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Through the Agency of Demons: A Small Sketch of the Modern Mind’s Making

10 March, 2010Culture, History, Political Theory

“Who does not know that wars, the mighty tempests, the pestilence, all the ills, indeed which afflict the human race, do so through the agency of demons?” (Marc Bloch, Feudal Society, p. 83) So wrote the Saxon priest Helmold of Bosau nine centuries ago in his history of Eastern Europe, the Chronica Slavorum. I […]

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Notes From All Over 27/02/2010 (Civilizational Collapse Edition)

02 March, 2010Culture, Demographics, Ecology, Environmentalism, Food Crisis, History, Notes From All Over, Sustainability

A Collection of essays, reports, and blog posts of merit. Due to the particularities of my schedule, I will be unable to post much this next week. Perhaps the week after that as well. We shall see. To make up for this lack of material, I offer you a few interesting readings loosely connected in […]

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The Death of a Nation

30 January, 2010Culture, Oligarchy, On Liberty, Political Theory, Tyranny

Over the past few days I have been engaged in an interesting exchange over at The Committee of Public Safety, an excellent site on strategic thinking and history. As the topic of this exchange is both timely and thought provoking, I would like to extend this discussion to the general readership of the Stage. The […]

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Notes From All Over 23/01/2010

25 January, 2010Crazy Stuff That Costs Way Too Much Money, Culture, Environmentalism, History, Notes From All Over, Science Policy, The Middle Kingdom

A few older essays – long, but still containing insight: Man from the Margin: Cao Cao and the Three Kingdoms. Rafe de Crespigny. ANU Faculty of Asian Studies. Posted 7 June 2004. Dr. de Crespigny quite literally wrote the book(s) on the later Han dynasty and the “great disunion” that followed its collapse. In this […]

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Video of the Day 23/11/09 — East vs. West: the Myths that Mystify

24 November, 2009Bharat, Culture, Video of the Day

East vs. West — the Myths that Mystify Devdutt Pattanik. TED. November 2009. I endorse this presentation with some hesistance. Pattanik’s presentation is convincing, even brilliant, but there are limitations to the argument he makes. It has been 30 years since the publication of Edward Said’s Orientalism. The book’s publication brought about the collapse of […]

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Category Archives: Culture

We Laugh Because It is True (But Perhaps We Should Be Crying Too)

Dreaming Grand Strategy

Pressures to Publish Increase Scientists Bias

Made by Washington: Ignorance and Hackery

Progressives, Conservatives, and the Politics of Reconciliation

Through the Agency of Demons: A Small Sketch of the Modern Mind’s Making

Notes From All Over 27/02/2010 (Civilizational Collapse Edition)

The Death of a Nation

Notes From All Over 23/01/2010

Video of the Day 23/11/09 — East vs. West: the Myths that Mystify

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