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There’s a lot at stake in this week’s jam-packed podcast. First up we’ve got Byron York (he of the Byron York Show on this very network) to update us on the administration that sees crises everywhere – except for the one at the border. Then the hosts get to chat with Andrew Gutmann, the New York parent who made waves recently for a publicized letter excoriating the fancy Brearly School for prioritizing wokeness and “safety” over education. Plus James gets to exhale as Minneapolis calms down, and Rob and Peter reflect on the late Walter Mondale.
Music from this week’s episode: Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) by Pink Floyd
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My favorite thing about higher education was reason Magazine’s Nick Gillespie interview of Thaddeus Russell of Renegade University. It’s a podcast from about 2017. Accreditation is a scam that needs to be exposed. Particularly in this era. They need to atomize is the whole system.
The AZ story had some nuance… not sure how it resolved after this part of the story hit the news…. https://www.newsmax.com/us/chloroquine-fish-tank-cleaner-murder-arizona/2020/04/30/id/965362/
Healight initial testing had positive results and is still being tested last I heard.
Byron York is the best political reporter in America, bar none. Also, his voice is super-dreamy.
You misspelled Kim Strassel and Dan Heninger.
Nope, sorry. Kim Strassel’s fine, but Byron’s got her beat. (I admit that I generally prefer dudes.)
I thought Heninger was more of an opinion guy, not a reporter.
I’m a bit obsessed.
Reminds me of the professor who was horrified to hear students say things such as, “Well, of course I dislike Hitler, but who am I to tell him how to run his country?” What did the fool expect when his students have been taught “situational ethics”, that there are no moral absolutes, and the nonsense of cultural relativism?
This ^^. Trump gives the dishonest media the ammunition all the time. His Covid briefings were a disaster. He should have stuck with carefully scripted speeches and let the medical people talk about treatments. But then he wouldn’t be Trump.
Thanks. Very enjoyable. You might be interested in more–much more–on these topics. See Noesis, the book. Noesis, the book
Never did Pink Floyd’s “We Don’t Need No Education” come across more appropriately…
If you want to know how to start a school – one that will thrive and multiply – then contact Dale Ahlquist of the American Chesterton Society. He is a former fellow parishioner of mine who started the Chesterton Academy in a Minneapolis suburb. (Full disclosure – I taught art there for its first two years). His school went from being a literal one-room schoolroom in a former public school building, to a thriving institution that has spawned similar academies across the country and even overseas. The curriculum stresses an orthodox Catholic, classical education. Regardless of this being a Catholic institution, Dale’s expertise here is relevant to anyone seeking to create an alternative to the woke education establishments.
By the way, Trump appointed Dale Ahlquist to serve on the National Board of Education Sciences.
They’re great, but they’re columnists, not reporters.
Strassel does some reporting.
And thank you!
(Lots more where that came from. Over an hour of Hume alone!)
Only a few points I am capable of addressing:
First, Dennett is in the reductionist camp. The eliminativists (Paul and Patricia Churchland, Peter Unger) say consciousness is an illusion. Dennett just tries (and fails) to show consciousness is a thing explainable in merely physical terms.
Second, Husserl is pretty cool!
Third, I think there is some merit in Heidegger’s thought. (The “Letter on Humanism” is a lot of fun, and the critique of “onto-theology” is good.)
Fourth, I think of Rorty as the bastard child of American Pragmatism–his mother is John Dewey, but his father is Friedrich Nietzsche. Rorty wants what Dewey wants but thinks what Nietzsche thinks about the universe–not a healthy combination.
Fifth, I also got lots of videos on James’ early writings (Rumble now, YouTube later). But not so much on the Varieties. And over on YouTube, I have a series of Dewey videos starting in a week.
Speaking of education, my friend Mark Eckel is someone to keep in mind.
http://markeckel.com/
Resources for Christian educators there. Applicable in any setting.
My sister and brother-in-law’s three children have all attended a K-12 private Christian school that uses a classical curriculum much like what Mr. Gutmann described, except with a Christian worldview and emphasis. Students are required to take Logic, Philosophy, and Latin, amongst other topics that are unheard of in public K-12 schools. The two eldest have graduated and are doing well. The third is a junior and will graduate next year. The eldest is breezing through her studies at a public university, while working part-time, and is regularly complimented by her instructors on her writing ability.
Mr. Gutmann could use this type of school as a model, except for the Christian emphasis.
That was a fantastic interview with him. I very much admire his courage.
Bring back the Trivium. (My first post!)
If the relativists were consistent, they would concede that knowledge comes in all shapes and sizes. They would be humbly grateful for the practical skills of those who can, for example, rid their dwellings of wasp infestations. They would not judge themselves superior for knowing how how “vespe” turns up in Dante (once). They would not insist that everyone, yes, everyone should sit in a classroom (or its ZOOM equivalent) until well into their twenties. No, their relativism is limited to claiming that it’s not important to know within four centuries when Dante lived, as long as one knows that Beatrice must have been a lesbian.
Is it coincidence that they emphasize something that destroys the whole story?
You should read that Babylon Bee piece again.
They might be more upset that Germany allowed SMOKING!!! And would have gone to war for THAT.
I’m not sure that hearing more of Herr fauci would have made me feel better.
I must say your videos are marvelous. You have a gift. Don’t stop.
Thank you.
No. Me either. You’d think we could find some decent scientists. We are stuck with Fauci who should be long retired, that hysterical hack at the CDC and that other woman who broke her own rules.
Rob’s Trump + Bleach was…awful. He owes Ricochet an apology.
As to PC and schools. I went to a Jesuit Prep school and a Jesuit college. I was exposed to Dan Berrigan S.J. in and outside of the classroom in both places. I was also exposed to PhD’s who survived Bataan as well as professors who were BIG activists for Goldwater AND LBJ.
Not a one of them imagined a scenario in which any one of them could be cancelled, or could cancel the opposite—IN FACT we were the diversity that we craved–is craved today!— and celebrated!
What better defines the difference between 1960 vs 2021 America? What shows how much we have lost?