Exiled in America...Pearl Jam compass

MK106165

cincybearcat wrote:

Anything about those leftwing nut jobs...Olbermann, Maddow, etc in that book?

Amazingly enough...only a few things about Maddow. She's probably the best JOURNALIST out there on cable TV. Anyone who doesn't use FACTS is a nutjob to me. I left Keith out of it...except to call him on the carpet for an incident that occurred on Football Night In America.

MK106165

TriumphantAngel wrote:

MK106165 wrote:

[I don't care whether you are liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican or in between....learn the difference between socialization and education. Challenge assumptions, probe, ask questions, do research...get the skills to think for yourself. Don't believe what ANYONE tells you, including me. Check it out for yourself.

if that's what you are teaching your students then high five to you. nice to see you are passionate enough about your job to encourage your students to think outside the square. i love that.

and i wish you all the best with your book.

Thanks very much. I appreciate it.

MK106165

OK... I am changing the product description on both Amazon and the Buy Books on the Web site. I heard some good points of view on this. It was just prior to the midterms and perhaps I was overly emotional...lol...sort of...;)

Better?


For Books to Buy on the Web description (not sure how long it will take to change...maybe a few days)

A critical examination of the rise of right-wing radicals--enabled by corporate interests-- and their impact on the political, cultural and religious landscape. Blends journalism and academics to respond--sometimes viscerally-- in the tone of George Carlin. Puts to bed the notions of a liberal media and liberal bias by exposing rampant conservative corporate rule in all facets of our lives. All the evidence you will ever need to challenge the willfully ignorant, reclaim facts, our history and our country. Challenge everyone—including yourself.

This will be the new Amazon description in day or so...better?

A critical examination of the rise of right-wing radicals--enabled by corporate interests-- and their impact on the political and cultural lives of all Americans. Blends journalism and academics to respond--sometimes viscerally-- in the tone of George Carlin. All the evidence you will ever need to beat back the willfully ignorant intent on driving this country off a cliff.

Boxes&Books

MK106165,
welcome to the community. You seem like a stand up guy......

I'll buy your book and also buy an extra to give to one of my hard-core conservative friends.

I'll also share the link...

Thanks for your contribution to our society and all the best with your book!

MK106165

tonifig8 wrote:

MK106165,
welcome to the community. You seem like a stand up guy......

I'll buy your book and also buy an extra to give to one of my hard-core conservative friends.

I'll also share the link...

Thanks for your contribution to our society and all the best with your book!

Thanks very much. I appreciate it. I would also welcome any feedback you might have after you read it. There is also a Facebook community page for the book under Exiled In America where I post pretty much daily. Really appreciate the welcome and the comments. Take care and Happy Holidays!

Byrnzie

Best of Times wrote:

You are all the reason I need to NEVER send my kids to Penn State. Another left-wing whack job indoctrinating young minds w/ your statist ideologies... So fresh

............ :problem:

Byrnzie

cincybearcat wrote:

Probably not going to get this book...ok, definitely not going to get this book.

Not a big fan of the personal attack on the author, but ti certainly rasies a good question about the people that are teaching at universities. I have a good friend that is a professor at a University and it amazes me every day that she can't see that she is spouting off her opinions and teaching them as fact to her students.

It takes a special kind of person to teach certain subjects without injecting your own personal beliefs. I hope this author is one of those special people.

God forbid anyone teaching at a university has an opinion on anything!

I suppose you'd prefer state-controlled drones teaching the nations youth?

Byrnzie

cincybearcat wrote:

Teachers obviously have their own beliefs, opinions, biases, etc. And it would be hard to keep them out of your lectures I would think. Especially if you are very passionate about them...passionate enough to say, write a book.

Why should teachers keep their beliefs out of their lectures? University courses are based on a number of books which are read and understood by the student. The lecturer is there to help them and guide them through those books whilst at the same time providing the frame-work of his own interpretation of the material as a means of teaching the ideas at hand. The students are then free to either agree or disagree with the lecturer.

Still, if you opt to study a subject such as Continental Political Philosophy, and you know beforehand what the syllabus will consist of - in my case Foucault, Adorno, and Marcusse - then you'll hardly be surprised to discover that the lecturer is of a left-leaning political bent.

unsung

maj4e wrote:

and no one wants to truly take their guns..

This statement is so far from true. But I'll leave that for a topic of its own, I don't want to hijack the thread.

On topic: I used to have concern about liberal professors spouting their beliefs on impressionable young minds. Then I realized that once these youngsters grew into adults and had to get jobs and pay bills/taxes most see the light of day and reality kicks in.

gimmesometruth27

i have no problem with professors injecting their belief system into their classes. i was kind of an ignorant fuck with my viewpoint until i went to graduate school and i learned things that changed my point of view and the way i see things. had i not gone to grad school i would never have learned objectivity in media and how to scrutinize and think critically about situations and see two or three sides to an argument or situation.

for those of you that don't like professors introducing subjective information and their own thoughts into the material, if you have a professor like that, just play ball until the semester is over then go back to your old way of thinking. it is not that fucking hard...

not everyone is trying to indoctrinate you or your precious kid's precious young mind....yeah...just like obama was doing in his back to school speech, right?? :roll:

MK106165

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

i have no problem with professors injecting their belief system into their classes. i was kind of an ignorant fuck with my viewpoint until i went to graduate school and i learned things that changed my point of view and the way i see things. had i not gone to grad school i would never have learned objectivity in media and how to scrutinize and think critically about situations and see two or three sides to an argument or situation.

for those of you that don't like professors introducing subjective information and their own thoughts into the material, if you have a professor like that, just play ball until the semester is over then go back to your old way of thinking. it is not that fucking hard...

not everyone is trying to indoctrinate you or your precious kid's precious young mind....yeah...just like obama was doing in his back to school speech, right?? :roll:

Nice post. Just a brief reply to some of the recent comments on here. I think the real trick is to be able to introduce points of view (including my own) that are backed by evidence, but in a way that doesn't negatively impact the class in terms of grading or class climate. I always tell my students I am not grading you on your beliefs, but HOW YOU SUPPORT THEM. The point is to give them the tools to shape their own voice and a road map to finding it! Every student deserves to have that educational discovery and I am not there to take it away, but to enable it. At the end of the year, I give my students a speech (after critiquing and listening to theirs all year) and I end with this quote from PJ: "All that's sacred, comes from youth. Dedications, naive and true. With no power, nothing to do. I still remember. Why don't you?"

PS.. I still think this segment of Colbert's the Word (which I also show in class prior to speeches to set the tone about hearing different points of view in the upcoming speeches) still applies the best to some of the issues raised here. If I don't reply for a days (if someone asks me a question)...don't be put off..I am off to Mom's for the holiday! Peace out!

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colber ... ted-debate

MK106165

Byrnzie wrote:

Best of Times wrote:

You are all the reason I need to NEVER send my kids to Penn State. Another left-wing whack job indoctrinating young minds w/ your statist ideologies... So fresh

............ :problem:

By the way...love the D.B. Cooper sketch!

gimmesometruth27

MK106165 wrote:

At the end of the year, I give my students a speech (after critiquing and listening to theirs all year) and I end with this quote from PJ: "All that's sacred, comes from youth. Dedications, naive and true. With no power, nothing to do. I still remember. Why don't you?"

i have never read that line from "not for you" in this context and i gotta say it completly applies when it comes to educating people. nice touch for the end of the year.

MK106165

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

MK106165 wrote:

At the end of the year, I give my students a speech (after critiquing and listening to theirs all year) and I end with this quote from PJ: "All that's sacred, comes from youth. Dedications, naive and true. With no power, nothing to do. I still remember. Why don't you?"

i have never read that line from "not for you" in this context and i gotta say it completly applies when it comes to educating people. nice touch for the end of the year.

Thanks!

Jeanwah

TriumphantAngel wrote:

MK106165 wrote:

[I don't care whether you are liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican or in between....learn the difference between socialization and education. Challenge assumptions, probe, ask questions, do research...get the skills to think for yourself. Don't believe what ANYONE tells you, including me. Check it out for yourself.

if that's what you are teaching your students then high five to you. nice to see you are passionate enough about your job to encourage your students to think outside the square. i love that.

and i wish you all the best with your book.

I agree. There's not enough young people who think critically and, especially, asking questions about everything. Kudos to you MK106165, and congrats on your book. Best of luck!

whygohome

I teach English and Writing at a university. I know the stereotype: lefty, idealist academics who preach their statist/socialist views from their soapbox, quoting Chomsky and Foucault, while collecting a paycheck from the state. We all live in a vacuum, or we all look down on the world as we are comfortably perched in our ivory towers. We have no connection to the "real world," only an idealized fantasy that we project onto young, impressionable minds.

This is bull shit. I have never, nor have any of my colleagues to my knowledge, pushed an ideology onto a group of students. As other posters have stated, it is our duty to engage students in an intelligent, engaging discourse. We preach critical thinking in a world where, as someone else has said, critical thinking has "gone the way of the Dodo." In the age of celebrity worship, zombie-like trances in front of the boob tube, talking heads spouting unintelligible nonsense (and passing it off as news), and the socially regressive nature of social networking sites, critical thinking is needed now more than ever. The art of communication is on its deathbed: no civility, only polemics. It is heartbreaking to see students who cannot put together a 3 page essay; it is heartbreaking to see students who cannot analyze the written word. Someone along the way has failed them: teachers, parents, society - pick one.

I acknowledge that there are some in my profession that do take advantage of having a forum. If you take a close look at every profession in this country, you will see that there are always groups of dissenter - those who fail to embrace the true morality of their profession. This is not a flaw that only academics sometimes fall prey to. Not every investment banker is Bernie Madoff.

As far as the accusation of academics being out of touch, I will say this: the men and women that I am around, those that I converse with on a regular basis, devote their time to the study and research of society, culture, psychology, philosophy, human rights, politics/political theory, sociology, anthropology, among other disciplines. In other words, they are fully engaged in the real world. We do not just sit around dissecting Act III, Scene II from Hamlet. We are invested in the well-being of the individual and of the collective, and we spend our lives doing the best we can with one goal in mind: the enrichment of the mind.

And, for those that accuse us of living in a fantasy world, first, read the previous paragraph again, and then answer me a few questions: if we do not live in the real world, then who does? Is it the people who are more concerned with celebrities dancing on TV or TV karaoke "talent" shows. Is it those who spend their lives on the couch? Is it those whose main concern is rushing, while trampling their fellow man, into the mall for a Black Friday sale. is it those who have no concept of what it means to be part of a society? Is it those whose extent of reading is People or US Weekly?

Who is more involved?

A final word: congratulations to the OP MK106165. I will surely be picking up your book, as it looks like an interesting read. I am fearful that American society is heading in the direction of the cyborg; though, we may be there already.

Also, to Unsung, concerning your statement: "On topic: I used to have concern about liberal professors spouting their beliefs on impressionable young minds. Then I realized that once these youngsters grew into adults and had to get jobs and pay bills/taxes most see the light of day and reality kicks in." This is incredibly inaccurate, and it exhibits the rhetoric of hate and misinformation directed at the Left. I have many friends and family member that consider themselves Liberal, or who say they lean Left, that are incredibly hard-working and successful. This is in the fields of finance, banking, real estate, computer science, and engineering to name a few. My most liberal friends work on Wall St. and make $500 K a year. They donate their time and money to charities, and they realize that they are a part of a society, and they do what they can to give back. Once again, an empty generalization falls flat.

cincybearcat

whygohome wrote:

I acknowledge that there are some in my profession that do take advantage of having a forum. If you take a close look at every profession in this country, you will see that there are always groups of dissenter - those who fail to embrace the true morality of their profession. This is not a flaw that only academics sometimes fall prey to.Not everyone investment banker is Bernie Madoff.

This is true. My only point was that it does happen and that teachers have a higher responsibility based on their profession and that I think it can be very hard to even realize when you are crossing that line.

gimmesometruth27

whygohome wrote:

I teach English and Writing at a university. I know the stereotype: lefty, idealist academics who preach their statist/socialist views form their soapbox, quoting Chomsky and Foucault, while collecting a paycheck from the state. We all live in a vacuum, or we all look down on the world as we are comfortably perched in our ivory towers. We have no connection to the "real world," only an idealized fantasy that we project onto young, impressionable minds.

This is bull shit. I have never, nor have any of my colleagues to my knowledge, pushed an ideology onto a group of students. As other posters have stated, it is our duty to engage students in an intelligent, engaging discourse. We preach critical thinking in a world where, as someone else has said, critical thinking has "gone way of the Dodo." In the age of celebrity worship, zombie-like trances in front of the boob tube, talking heads spouting unintelligible nonsense (and passing it off as news), and the socially regressive nature of social networking sites, critical thinking is needed now more than ever. The art of communication is on its deathbed: no civility, only polemics. It is heartbreaking to see students who cannot put together a 3 page essay; it is heartbreaking to see students who cannot analyze the written word. Someone along the way has failed them: teachers, parents, society - pick one.

I acknowledge that there are some in my profession that do take advantage of having a forum. If you take a close look at every profession in this country, you will see that there are always groups of dissenter - those who fail to embrace the true morality of their profession. This is not a flaw that only academics sometimes fall prey to.Not everyone investment banker is Bernie Madoff.

As far as the accusation of academics being out of touch, I will say this: the men and women that I am around, those that I converse with on a regular basis, devote their time to the study and research of society, culture, psychology, philosophy, human rights, politics/political theory, sociology, anthropology, among other disciplines. In other words, they are fully engaged in the real world. We do not just sit around dissecting Act III, Scene II from Hamlet. We are invested in the well-being of the individual and of the collective, and we spend our lives doing the best we can with one goal in mind: the enrichment of the mind.

And, for those that accuse us of living in a fantasy world, first, read the previous paragraph again, and then answer me a few questions: if we do not live in the real world, then who does? Is it the people who are more concerned with celebrities dancing on TV or TV karaoke "talent" shows. Is it those who spend their lives on the couch? Is it those whose main concern is rushing, while trampling their fellow man, into the mall for a Black Friday sale. is it those who have no concept of what it means to be part of a society? Is it those whose extent of reading is People or US Weekly?

Who is more involved?

A final word: congratulations to the OP MK106165. I will surely be picking up your book, as it looks like an interesting read. I am fearful that American society is heading in the direction of the cyborg; though, we may be there already.

Also, to Unsung, concerning your statement: "On topic: I used to have concern about liberal professors spouting their beliefs on impressionable young minds. Then I realized that once these youngsters grew into adults and had to get jobs and pay bills/taxes most see the light of day and reality kicks in." This is incredibly inaccurate, and it exhibits the rhetoric of hate and misinformation directed at the Left. I have many friends and family member that consider themselves Liberal, or who say they lean Left, that are incredibly hard-working and successful. This is in the fields of finance, banking, real estate, computer science, and engineering to name a few. My most liberal friends work on Wall St. and make $500 K a year. They donate their time and money to charities, and they realize that they are a part of a society, and they do what they can to give back. Once again, an empty generalization falls flat.

very well stated.

cincybearcat

Byrnzie wrote:

Why should teachers keep their beliefs out of their lectures? University courses are based on a number of books which are read and understood by the student. The lecturer is there to help them and guide them through those books whilst at the same time providing the frame-work of his own interpretation of the material as a means of teaching the ideas at hand. The students are then free to either agree or disagree with the lecturer.

Still, if you opt to study a subject such as Continental Political Philosophy, and you know beforehand what the syllabus will consist of - in my case Foucault, Adorno, and Marcusse - then you'll hardly be surprised to discover that the lecturer is of a left-leaning political bent.

The risk is that the students may only analyze their literature the way their professor does...the professor us grading them after all. It's a difficult thing to teach kids to think on their own when it's easier for them to just replicate what the professor says and thinks to get a good grade.

As long as students are truly free to disagree that is certainly a good start. Not sure that is always the case. I had a few experiences of my own that would say it is not.

Again, I think the subject matter is an important issue to discuss and ensure that universities are always keeping their eye on the matter. It's all dependent on the teacher of course. The best are able to do amazing things and help some amazing kids leanr how to figure things out on their own.

cincybearcat

Byrnzie wrote:

cincybearcat wrote:

Probably not going to get this book...ok, definitely not going to get this book.

Not a big fan of the personal attack on the author, but ti certainly rasies a good question about the people that are teaching at universities. I have a good friend that is a professor at a University and it amazes me every day that she can't see that she is spouting off her opinions and teaching them as fact to her students.

It takes a special kind of person to teach certain subjects without injecting your own personal beliefs. I hope this author is one of those special people.

God forbid anyone teaching at a university has an opinion on anything!

I suppose you'd prefer state-controlled drones teaching the nations youth?

Huh? Are you just making stuff up now to argue with me? It's been awhile since we've done this dance, but it seems familiar.

Where did I say professors could have opinions of their own?