Petition Against Advertising on Public Broadcasts

Television Advertising as many studies show leave our children open to materialistic consumption. They become fixated with their need to buy—as like a bleeding person from a gunshot wound needs a transfusion.

PBS is one of the only commercial-free networks in America left to allow parents to expose their children to entertainment that is not inherently socially destructive, laden with commercial advertising.

As a Christian, I cannot condone the actions you, Willard Mitt Romney, present before the Polis—citizens will stand united in this affront to this fundamental economic necessity. Like national defense, a public forum or theater, just as the Ancient Greeks of Athens performed, is a key element in a stable and free democratic republic.

Calling for its reduction is equivocal to calling for the elimination of our systems of public education or for the elimination of our militias. Our founders, my 7th-great-grandfater, Justice James Wilson, would have called you out for these indiscretions.

I implore you sir, cease at once this indiscretion and learn a little about the magnitude of ramification your actions will wreck on us all.

I might suggest you inform yourself on the economic principles of Coase theory and the problem of "free-riders" in economics—it might give you the perspective you need pertaining to "free-riders" and the necessary place the government has in this market. If you are so keen on a public military, and not merely a collective of private military companies who rule our state with an iron will, then I suggest you also notice the dangers of public media that does not embody the fundamental principles of nation states.

Divine Engineering: On the Importance of Rhetoric

Divine Engineering: On the Importance of Rhetoric

On the Importance of Rhetoric

On the Importance of Rhetoric

Language and the Survival of Democracy in the Republic

by Christopher Brown

There exists a pleasurable sensation of being proven correct. Not necessarily the power to gloat over one's adversaries, which is a psychological coping mechanism and a means to attack those who have hurt or wronged you, but the power of closure—reconciliation—that you have been righted, justified, in your world view. Your striving has netted a positive result—an accurate (or more accurate) representation of reality than your peers, or at least, an important contribution to that great world view we call life.

It has been in this way that I have been justified. Rhetoric is a subject that offers tools and methods by which its pupils may better harness language to their benefit—striving to master language in an effort to enact some purpose: convince a person, clearly explain a position, affect or move a person in some fashion. There are many ways in which rhetoric is useful in our daily lives, yet it is seldom taught.

Rhetoric taught me to understand the importance of thesis statements. First that they are in fact statements, what a 'statement' is, and how one should endeavor to use a thesis in understanding and writing on a topic, a question, a problem, or an issue.

Obviously, understanding and stating your topic clearly, concisely, and precisely is vital to effective use of language; yet, few students master the art.

We should endeavor within a society which prides itself on its democratic principles to encourage the widespread teaching of rhetoric—both for the preservation of the Republic, but also for its betterment. For, Democracy cannot survive without an educated body of citizens—the Polis. This body consisting of all citizens within a nation or society—depending on how said society binds itself together—relies upon its ability to communicate effectively with itself and with other members of our world. 

Language—as we humans are language modeling beings—derive our perspective of reality greatly influence by and through our language and use of language. Without a firm grasp upon the reigns of language, we might be thrown asunder, as from a wild mount. It is the duty of each citizen to master the art of language, and with it, rhetoric, that we may present a mass of learned men and women as the penultimate defense against ignorance, bigotry, and the vitriol arts that seek to control and eventually enslave us to the will of a select and fearsome few. Our survival rests upon our ability to use language to illustrate the dangers these bands of despots present to the safety and sanctity of the Polis, and to the general welfare of our species within our Polis or the world at large.

Science In the Toliet: Recession, Unemployment, Poor Education, Competition

Have Doctorates in Theoretical Physics become worthless?

After having nearly given up on my plan, because people think I'm crazy, I am now reinvigorated by the discovery that "I'm not alone". Science requires much of people, often that in our modern world the lack of education in science and the coveted desire to earn as much money in the shortest time possible, to teachers who lack the fundamental understanding of the subjects they teach, leading to "hand-waving", also known as "this is true; just shut up and accept what I'm saying as true, slaves!". I feel more of the latter category.

It appears, however, that I'm not the only person. Scientists of the higher order appear to fall into my category. I believe science is one of those horrible disciplines that has moved into the beast of corporate society. In order that we might make companies more profitable, we are asked, as scientists, to focus purely on the applied. The problem here stems from the nature of scientific discovery. You don't get to create new theories without discovery and without people to take seemingly "magical" formula in the archaic language of mathematics and utilize this to formulate highly advanced models of reality. The problem comes from these absolute noobs (your household business executive, or your run of the mill politician or general) and their inability to understand the value of experimentation.

In the early 1990's, Congress halted construction on the Superconducting Super Collider, the largest supercollider ever constructed. Wikipedia


I've written on this before, but it was canceled, because Congress was allowing NASA (a highly political organization) to be involved in the International Space Station. Since this was in all regards a "diplomatic" enterprise, Congress saw the value less in terms of science, something they undoubtedly could not fathom, but instead in terms of the political capital they could garner from the US populace.

What were the eventual costs?

The livelihoods of an entire generation of American particle physicists and theoretical physicists who were studying in preparation of the multitudes of jobs that would result from US research at the SSC.

To give you an understanding of the attributable undertakings involved, when the project was canceled in 1993, the facility's 87.1 kilometres (54.1 mi) and 80 TeV per proton. The SSC's planned collision energy of 80 TeV was almost pentuple the 14 TeV of its European counterpart, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva.

The associated $12+ billion in development was mostly on account of the massive civil engineering costs associated with building the 87.1 kilometer tunnel.

The US had no facility of this kind. At this point the US is running way behind and depending solely on Europe to develop high level research, something never before known.

We instead chose a purely diplomatic issue, something Americans could see and touch (in a way) as opposed to this vastly unusual project no one seems to understand. We spent $2 billion dollars building the supercomputer mainframe facility, hiring staff, etc. What followed by the cancellation was the toileting of 1/6 of the construction costs and providing nothing in return.

The US instead chose to budget for stealth planes and the like, costing over $60 billion.

In the end, we put out of work an entire generation of scientists (theoretical and experimental) on the cutting edge of research, who now must compete with scientists in Europe for positions at CERN.

If Americans want to look at the problems in our research and development, and understand how our science community is broken, just look at how we weight science in the community of our peers. It's value is only in what we can see and touch, and is completely outside the weight of objective form.

Congress, as recently as the Cybersecurity bills, SOPA and PIPA has demonstrated a complete lack of understanding where science is concerned.

It is in the opinion of this humble member of Occupy that the scientists, educated students and those with an inclination for science should begin to involve themselves in the political arena, for the only way Congress will seek to improve, is if we "bring in the nerds" as one Congressmen recently commented (Rep. Jason Chaffetz) during the hearings for PIPA. Congress has no idea what it is doing, and the attributable costs are immense. With the consequences science has for our development as a society, it seems only logical to have those with the understanding making the decisions , as "fundamental" understanding is necessary, and these people don't understand half of what the scientists mean when they "dumb it down" for them. This is a bad sign.

Scientists! Get your law or political science degrees (or both!) and start running for political office! We need you! Stat!

Imagination Series: Essay no. 2

Essay no. 2

by Christopher Brown

As a child entering puberty, I recognized the tomfoolery of man and his adult world.

Man, unlike child is willing to give up his imagination for the sake of 'industry' or 'practicality'. There is a better word to describe this 19^th century ideal, but it alludes me.

This adult sacrifices the spirit of imagination for the 'practical' world he thinks he will enter in doing so—abandoning 'dreams' and 'imagination' in single, broad strokes. He does not see the necessity of 'waking dreams', nor the conception (notion) that the adult is merely the continuation—or extension—of the child. What is to the one must inevitably be to the other. The clouds of creation to go with the hand that hath the means to build the dreams to stone and iron—bring the clay to life in the kilns of fire.

Man neglects this and more.

He sacrifices his very essence, throwing away his very center—the locus of his power to reason. Our ability to model external creation is built upon our capacity to dream. What better way exists to strengthen that skill than through the waking dreams of youth? Why must this sport only be for children? Are not the 'sports' of youth made fully developed in adulthood? Do we not become fuller players of the great American pastime of Baseball? How then can one expect the art of imagination to be any different—follow any different a path? Would not this be asking us to do no less than go against our very nature?

Man (or very much so woman) is blessed with dreams of waking slumber. We can experience in our minds the worlds of plenty or few—explore all that is, could be, or never will be. That we throw this blessing away at a very youthful age to “fit-in” is madness. Parents tell their kids to “stop living in the clouds”, [through] that age old insult to Socrates by Aristophanes in his play The Clouds.

We somehow believe adulthood must be the absence of childhood fun as opposed to its fruition. Imagination is the blooming of a flower and the ripening of its fruit that we may all enjoy together.

Have we not reached an age where man is “mature” enough in experience to see the folly of Aristophanes and his peers? We need imagination and must look to our childhood to find it.

Imagination Series: Essay no. 1

Essay no. 1

by Christopher Brown

The importance of imagination: when a child dreams for their first time of the waking of wonder while their body is very much alive, they experience the power of God's greatest gift. The storyteller's gift—imagination.

Unlike other gifts, this allows us to explore strange new worlds, seek out what is unknown and overall experience the power of creation.

The differences are that when God does it, the creation is made real, whereas man or woman only have—possess the power of mind. We may externally create our worlds bound within the confines of natural law, but are limited in our modes of childhood expression.

In preventing children from experiencing childhood, you do not allow them to make for themselves their own worlds. It is the worlds of great fiction that arise from great imagination or experience.

The pain of youth must be real enough to evoke a visceral expression of the external world. Our model building is only as good as our [capacity to imagine]. As a child, I swore off the world of grownups and other people to protect my imagination—its vividness.

People are so willing to pass off [their] 'fantasies' of youth for the 'models' of adulthood, only for them to discover if they search hard enough and long enough that those are the same—if, perhaps, built on a little more evidence.

Science is fantasies brought to life through mathematics and experimentation. The models we build are still childhood fantasies. The grand delusion of waking man is to believe they are something else—reality--for the only thing 'real' is the conversation(s) between people, everything else is a fantasy produced in the mind to make the external sensory input make more sense. We do not know what is really out there, beyond what we can talk about, describe and agree upon. We not even know if there is a 'real' world out there, or if the external is simply our false perceptions. Reality may in fact be very different then we can dare to imagine.

The child can understand this, why then can't the adult? Are we really so different?

Analyzing Teaching as a Subversive Activity

Analyzing Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner

by Christopher-Titus Mark Vanderwall-Brown

In Postman's themed chapter entitled "Crap Detecting"¹, he focuses on the idea that within any system of modern education it is the due obligation of said institution to focus not on subverting the masses to their preceptor's indomitable will, but instead, to focus teaching the majority, the mass of humble stricken bodies lost amidst the confused notions of the new age, how to deal with new ideas, new systems of belief, the influx of technology which has changed our world -- made it into something we have never before imagined -- and now it is with much effort we have focused our attention on producing within our young the methodologies necessary, the internal systems whereby our children are capable of detecting the "crap" perpetuated by our society. This may sound as though we are asking for the impossible, but we are not. Postman looks forward at this rare secular forest, not to abolish creation, but instead to fabricate a system whereby it may exist in the fullness and pleasures of its complete form.

It is strange to think that so simplistic a subject as "education" could transform itself into the overwhelming conception of being that it could permeate every portion of my very existence; I've often wondered if the reason I have so many problems in education, has nothing to do with the very nature of education, but instead, with myself. But then I wake up, realizing it is not I who is the problem with my ability to learn, but those who claim that holy title of -- teacher.

An interesting problem brought forward by Postman is the idea within the media society, where ideas are being blasted at the speed of light to every single cornea receptor of the optical nerve faster than anything that has come before in the past two millennia, changing every aspect of what it means to be human, what it means to possess knowledge, and how one goes about coping with this overwhelming force, bombarding our brain's with more simplistic information in an overtly "sensational" way than our bodies are capable, nor designed, to handle. It is in this way that Postman challenges us to deal with future problems, not in a ragtag method, but instead in a methodical process, whereby society is capable of finding a reason based solution to the unexpected changes always brought about by the influx of new ideas and technologies.

As Postman continues, we see his discussion move from the major description of the chaos in which society has propelled itself through the latter part of the 20th century, homogenized into an almost gruesome macabre picture, where individuals lumbar about loss and confusion about where their next meal ticket will be coming from, to a detailed discussion of the very nature of our problem and perhaps a logically constructed set of solutions. Of course this “meal ticket” is not to say society is "starving" per se, but moreover that, it is within this idea of a "meal ticket" that we are craving something sensually tangible, for we have a starvation of imagination; it is not the knowledge of information we crave, but the knowledge defined by the term 'wisdom'. Wisdom, of course, meaning knowledge gained through experience, which teaches us how to deal with knowledge of information. Sometimes this term is referred to in more scholarly journals as knowledge gained a posteriori or knowledge from experience.

I do not wish to drone on about concepts that seem pointless to the average person, but it is important to note that Postman intentionally utilizes great vernaculars of an academic standard, a romantic standard, which Postman prefaces. The varying nature of his discussion, for Postman and Weingartner described themselves as romantic educators, men whose sole desire is a fulfilling the belief that problems which exist in society, tangible problems, are capable of being solved through education. He quips they may indeed be leading to the mental instability of the nation for this, but that it is their hope these problems which do exist, yet me only theoretically be resolved, could be solved through education.

1. Here Postman constructed upon a quote by the great adventurous writer Ernest Hemingway when questioned, "Isn't there any one essential ingredient that you can identify [necessary to being a "good writer"]?" he replied, "Yes, there is. In order to be a great writer a person must have a built-in, shockproof crap detector."