As I was scrolling through my past posts (admittedly, looking for something I could cannibalize during my recovery), I came across the “Last Lecture” I gave ten years ago. The Last Lecture is an annual address to the faculty by a member who is tasked with explaining the life experiences that shaped that member’s philosophy and perspective.
It occurred to me that readers of my daily rants are also entitled to understand how I’ve come to the conclusions I share each day.
This speech from ten years ago is long, and probably irrelevant to many of you, so feel free to skip the full linked version, but here are a couple of introductory paragraphs that help explain my development into the crotchety blogger you’ve come to know…
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I think I have always been a “political” person, in the sense that the question that has always fascinated me is: how should people live together? What sort of social and political arrangements are most likely to nourish our humanity and promote—in Aristotle’s term—human flourishing? If the old African proverb is right, if it “takes a village to raise a child,” what should that village look like, and how should its inhabitants behave? How do we build that kind of village? Is the human community headed in the right direction, or are we on the wrong road? My conclusions have been shaped by my life experiences as much as by my scholarship, and for the last several years, some of them have been keeping me up at night.
Let me begin with an important caveat: unlike so many of you in this room, I am not a scholar in the traditional sense; in fact, I have been a lifelong dilettante. (I do prefer the term “generalist,” but as Popeye said, “I yam what I yam”…) I’ve done a lot of different things over the past 50+ years, and the result is that I know a little about a lot of things, but depth isn’t my strong suit. Over the years, however—probably as a defense mechanism—I’ve convinced myself that there is value in casting one’s intellectual net rather widely. In my case, at least, it has allowed me to connect some seemingly unconnected dots, even when my own mastery of the subjects involved is tenuous or superficial.
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What struck me as I scrolled through this ten-year-old speech was the extent to which our current dysfunctions were already emerging–the rejection of reason and science that was already laying the groundwork for today’s disasters. For those of you willing to slog through the whole speech, I’ll be interested in your comments…..
In the past 30-40 years, traditional and now social media has found that appealing to amygdalas is easier, catchier, and more profitable for all media than appealing to prefrontal cortices.
I still love the quote about reality not caring about your opinion…I use it quite often when dealing with MAGA cult members. Late-night news hosts are doing an excellent job of pointing this out frequently, especially on Comedy Central. Jon Stewart doesn’t pull any punches about the daily stupidity we have to endure.
The past forty years have seen a consistent and steady decline. As we all know, Reagan was a blatant racist. His dog whistles to the Confederate States are well known. The mob also controlled him, and most of his ideas were planted in him by Lew Wasserman.
They say it gets darker before the dawn, but we aren’t at the darkest point yet. Not by a long shot. What I do like seeing is the occasional report of a Republican politician getting lambasted by their constituents during town halls while they are on break. It’s hard to handle real people and not just some fake news emanating from Fox News.
We need a new law that forces media companies to note that their news is meant for entertainment purposes only if only 25% is committed to actual journalism. What will be our lowest point? When Trump gets a Nobel Peace Prize or institute martial law to prevent voting in 26 or 28?
Todd, a Nobel Peace Prize, for what, peace in Gaza while we are kidnapping our own immigrants? All our ancestors were immigrants unless we are Native Americans. Or what do we do if he does declare martial law before the elections? We seem to be helpless to change anything that has happened.
jacobonmag.com
a society governed by whiney(ass) rich people throwing tantrums.
by Meagan Day 7/30/25
if ya take the blubbering trash from the news scene we are bombarded with(trump)
target whos really in charge now in running our country.,, the rich.
behind the whole affair is the money that bought congress and its lackeys who want to cash in on our GDPs. wall street, hey thats in NYC, and billionaire ackman is pissy because of a liberal talking about change in NYC. now if Mandami talks about who, maybe we can see some change. the fact is, most news and content is just noise. supreme noise maker trump needs to be turned off. no pics,no voice overs,nothing but 2nd page news. just write the travisty and ignore him. get on with taking notice of who else and what else is in charge now. seems there a plan to use drones as a “safety” tool for America. try seeing it as total surveillance.(NoDak is a test bed,we build,train and kill from here) and with ice becoming a threat to America,ask,whos next? dissent maybe come risky. sure we may have already entered this rhelm,but dont ignore it. social media can be raked over quite well, by its own billionaire leaders..
Bumper sticker.: yea i get bored,but hey?
theres a new drink at Mar a Logo.
its called eugenics..
I have, fairly recently, started to see the fight we are in in terms of the right to self define. That is, the right to find your authentic self. This had come to the fore in Transgender Community, with people who are non-binary and gender fluid. Non-binary, for those not in the know, means that gender is not a binary – you don’t have to be just feminine or just masculine. Of course, we’ve come a long way from that, or at least many women have. And some men, but not nearly so many as women. And gender fluid simply means that you don’t have to pick a single position between masculine and feminine. You can wander around in that space. But being your authentic self also applies to racial issues, class issues (most of the rules about how to behave as middle class are there simply to separate us from the lower classes), and many other categories. About divide and conquer. Harvard professor Margorie Garber, Head of the Culture Studies department when she wrote her book “Vested Interest”, said that the gender binary is “not just a category crisis of male and female, but the crisis of category itself.” If you think about it, the crisis of category is the crisis binaries. In fact I have recently heard on two different NPR programs that biologists have decided that there are no binaries in nature. And binaries are the tools that the patriarchy uses to divide us up, to divide and conquer. Project 2025 is designed to destroy our right to define for ourselves who we are, what it means for each of us to find our authentic selves.
“…no binaries in nature.” Thanks for that, Ann.
“It takes a village” is closely related to another African saying, “I am because we are,” from the Ubuntu people.
Carl Sagan wrote about the importance of a “Bullshit detector,” in fact devoted an entire chapter to the idea, probably some 40 years ago, and too many people have never bothered to read him, nor to understand, on their own, the need for having one; like a neighbor of mine. This woman “knew” that I took “phenomenal” photos, just based on the camera I carried around. She is a Trumper. then there is my cousin, who “knows” that I watch MSNBC, because, presumably, she believes that all Libs do so. Does Trump have a “thing” about MSNBC? I do not watch it. This woman is also a Trumper.
Sheila, I’m going to go read your address, and might be back later today.
Riveting and classic is how I would sum up your “Last Lecture”. Riveting because your course of thought and action build and hold together, and classic because your thoughts still ring true ten years later. Thanks for sharing.
A little off topic, but:
Indiana needs fair election maps. Indiana is about 60/40 Republican/Democratic. Congressional districts in Indiana are already gerrymandered to give Republicans 7 out of 9 districts–78 percent! I hear JD Vance is coming to Indianapolis on August 7, 2025, presumably at Trump’s behest, to try to pull a Texas takeover here. But the Indiana Republicans here have already beaten them to it. There is no way to pack and crack Democrats any further to give Republicans 8 out of 9 districts–89 percent. This administration does not want to win votes. They want to destroy the voting power of anyone who opposes them.
Robbie,
Bibi wrote a letter to the Nobel committee nominating Trump for the prize, and then the sociopathic Karoline Leavitt demanded it from her podium. Like Obama, Trump has done nothing to advance peace anywhere.
Anyone who advocates the theory of “peace through strength” and spends $1 trillion on a military apparatus does not deserve any medal except one with a warmonger on it. He’s just jealous because Obama has one.
And, all the protesters and the Democratic Party need to plan and rehearse for what to do in case of martial law, because Trump will declare it to stop the 26 or 28 elections. The number one item on my list would be to coordinate a unified work stoppage. Teachers can cause all kinds of damage if they refuse to show up to teach, but fast food workers and grocery clerks can as well. What about all government workers? We saw who the necessary workers were during the COVID debacle.
Withholding our production from the oligarchy IS where our power lies. We can also stop spending, but that one will be challenging to coordinate.
I’m back, and want to say that what Bill Groth wrote, in the first comment, back in 2015, goes for me, too.
G.W.Bush “had only the dimmest understanding of the First Amendment’s religion clauses.” Oh, but he was “Sent” to be POTUS, right?
“Common cause” and “social justice” have been, obviously, lost to too many of us.
One acquaintance recently told us that the only purpose of government was to protect us from international enemies and help businesses thrive. She’s also a Trumper.
I’m just going to put this here and let everyone think about this…
COGNIFY.
JD has family in Indianapolis, at least he did when he recounted his early life in Ohio. The only reason that he is showing up now is to insure an even more aggressive gerrymander so dump (or him when dump get put out to pasture by dementia or the 25th Amendment) will have a majority in the House when MAGA declares martial law.
Braun, in his infinite corruption, has allow Noem to showcase Indiana’s racist, xenophobic, misogynist side by turning Bunker Hill AFB into “the Speedway Slammer”, an insult not only to Speedway, Indiana, but to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, known to most as The Speedway.
We live in chaotic times when the most base characteristics rules the community.
Mitch, I hope you find refuge from the traitorous women around you.
Sheila, rest and refresh for the fights to come.
Fascism creeps in like “fog, on little cat feet.”
By the time those deluded notice, it is already too late.
An exceptional “Last Lecture”. It was a sheer pleasure to read, but I truly wish that your closing statement of hope comes true, to borrow from a Jewish prayer (different context), “speedily and in our lifetime”.