After I posted an entry earlier today, I found out about the horror in Connecticut.
Everything else is nothing to all parents.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Logos, legacies, and language
In a comment on the tempestuous teapot surrounding the University of California's now abandoned new logo, a UC alum and former employee provided this perspective in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
" In my judgment, the new "brand" is evidence that the values and mission of those who run (not lead) the University have changed from "Let There Be Light" and the proud tradition of excellence in public higher education to a pervasive and crass commercialism fit better for a department store than for a University.
I find absolutely nothing in the new "brand" that represents teaching, research or public service.
Those who made the decision to adopt this new "brand" will find this writer's heretofore public advocacy silenced and open wallet closed."
While my similar past connects to another university, I wonder at the proportionality of this, and much contemporary discourse.
For this person, apparently a beneficiary of major public investment in education both as a student and an employee, the appearance of a graphic is sufficient to withhold both public advocacy and philanthropy. Of course, the graphic logo is intended to be more than a decoration. It is iconographic and, like all such things connected to institutions, corporations, or religions, a representation of much, much more.
Even so, to abandon one's alma mater, to be convinced of the moral bankruptcy of a group of people who are very likely to be working as hard as they can to extend the benefits the comment's author has enjoyed to a new generation, seems to fit right into fiscal cliffs, makers and takers, and evolution and creation.
I'm not very fond of the new UC logo either, but I am committed to do all I can to support affordable higher education, raise awareness of the value of research and public service, and advocate for the single best investment in support of civilization.
If any community had grounds to turn their backs on an institution, it is the Penn State family. Most of those folks have renewed their membership and committed their support, both advocacy and money, to the benefit of those who follow. I understand that charitable giving to PSU is up.
Cutting off UC because you don't like a logo seems extreme to me.
Merry Christmas. Advertising says we deserve it.
Addison Steele
" In my judgment, the new "brand" is evidence that the values and mission of those who run (not lead) the University have changed from "Let There Be Light" and the proud tradition of excellence in public higher education to a pervasive and crass commercialism fit better for a department store than for a University.
I find absolutely nothing in the new "brand" that represents teaching, research or public service.
Those who made the decision to adopt this new "brand" will find this writer's heretofore public advocacy silenced and open wallet closed."
While my similar past connects to another university, I wonder at the proportionality of this, and much contemporary discourse.
For this person, apparently a beneficiary of major public investment in education both as a student and an employee, the appearance of a graphic is sufficient to withhold both public advocacy and philanthropy. Of course, the graphic logo is intended to be more than a decoration. It is iconographic and, like all such things connected to institutions, corporations, or religions, a representation of much, much more.
Even so, to abandon one's alma mater, to be convinced of the moral bankruptcy of a group of people who are very likely to be working as hard as they can to extend the benefits the comment's author has enjoyed to a new generation, seems to fit right into fiscal cliffs, makers and takers, and evolution and creation.
I'm not very fond of the new UC logo either, but I am committed to do all I can to support affordable higher education, raise awareness of the value of research and public service, and advocate for the single best investment in support of civilization.
If any community had grounds to turn their backs on an institution, it is the Penn State family. Most of those folks have renewed their membership and committed their support, both advocacy and money, to the benefit of those who follow. I understand that charitable giving to PSU is up.
Cutting off UC because you don't like a logo seems extreme to me.
Merry Christmas. Advertising says we deserve it.
Addison Steele
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Not so grumpy, not so contemporary!
After the election, the biggest pleasure is not having to tune out bloviating (my new favorite word ) bile peddlers. I take little pleasure in the election results in terms of the potential for adult behavior regarding the country's economy and solvency.
I'm a baby boomer (if you haven't already guessed) and I've decided that the whole financial mess is our fault. We are arguably the richest generation of human beings ever to inhabit the planet. We may also be known for having the highest material standard of living and resource consumption rate our species will ever see.
We have benefitted from:
I'm a baby boomer (if you haven't already guessed) and I've decided that the whole financial mess is our fault. We are arguably the richest generation of human beings ever to inhabit the planet. We may also be known for having the highest material standard of living and resource consumption rate our species will ever see.
We have benefitted from:
- Affordable higher education
- Parents who paid higher tax rates
- Unbelievable advances in health care
- Equally stunning consumption of prescription and recreational drugs
- A national highway system we now think of as geological features for our personal pleasure
- Cool toys
- Contraception, sex, and guilt
- More "stuff" (in the George Carlin sense of the word) than anybody else
- More personal and social safety as a people than most of the world, past or present
....to name just a few. All of these things are returns on investments our parents and their parents made. We appear to be unwilling to pay the costs either for ourselves or any one else. We also appear unwilling to constrain our own consumption to control costs being passed to or borrowed from others.
I have no solutions except the third rail ones. Pay more. Consume less. Easy for me to say. I have my stuff.
To paraphrase Louis Black, if you think Democrats or Republicans are going to fix things, you're nuts.
There are some glimmers that we, as a people, have the collective will to try, and that's an encouraging thought. Shucks, there's even a very popular movie running now about Abraham Lincoln! Go figure.
Addison Steele
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Filiopietistic
After reading popularized cosmological theories stating that the universe is really information on some kind of weird surface - a kind of hologram if you will - I've decided that all existence has been evolving to create episodes of the Big Bang Theory which will gradually become the only thing on broadcast TV, and then eventually, the only thing period.
My theory was perversely proven by my stumbling on the word filiopietistic in a Chronicle of Higher Education piece by Thomas A. Underwood about Harvard University. The word means an excessive regard for ancestors and tradition.
Some days, I'm a practicing filiopietist grump as well as a contemporary one.
Seriously, I'm still thinking about my professor of literary criticism, an astonishing man who managed to display contempt for everything and convince everyone that it was an act of love and encouragement. We were all smarter in his classroom.
He said, casually, "the word is not the thing. No matter how many words are written or spoken, they cannot be the thing." Filiopietistic is striking, poweful proof of those words. It's a good word. Maybe not so useful for Words With Friends, but useful for green velvet, leather chairs, pipe smoke, and ideas as pleasure.
The universe as hologram? I'll believe that when the Large Hadron Collider spits out a really good episode of the Big Bang Theory.
Addison Steele
PS - It's all Chuck Lorre's fault. I blame the day I found ALL of his postscripts online.
My theory was perversely proven by my stumbling on the word filiopietistic in a Chronicle of Higher Education piece by Thomas A. Underwood about Harvard University. The word means an excessive regard for ancestors and tradition.
Some days, I'm a practicing filiopietist grump as well as a contemporary one.
Seriously, I'm still thinking about my professor of literary criticism, an astonishing man who managed to display contempt for everything and convince everyone that it was an act of love and encouragement. We were all smarter in his classroom.
He said, casually, "the word is not the thing. No matter how many words are written or spoken, they cannot be the thing." Filiopietistic is striking, poweful proof of those words. It's a good word. Maybe not so useful for Words With Friends, but useful for green velvet, leather chairs, pipe smoke, and ideas as pleasure.
The universe as hologram? I'll believe that when the Large Hadron Collider spits out a really good episode of the Big Bang Theory.
Addison Steele
PS - It's all Chuck Lorre's fault. I blame the day I found ALL of his postscripts online.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Compelled to Blog
One reason to vote absentee is to expunge the feeling that the systematic propaganda being funded by sinister forces includes information that one know. I believe there are some simple facts that aren't open to debate, at least in a civil society.
Taxes are part of the price we pay to enjoy the benefits of a society. If you feel that you shouldn't pay taxes, move someplace where there are no services.
The fact that we want stuff we won't pay for shouldn't surprise anyone. More importantly, it's idiotic to blame anyone for that fact. That's why we have the rule of law and representative government, or at least we're supposed to be represented by people who can assume responsibility for the health of our democracy.
I don't think either of those things are true anymore.
Addison Steele
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