The final installment in our trilogy about Our Problems With Authority takes on the hard part: what do we do about them? No easy answers, but lots of references read and considered during this exercise that should be important to all of us. We need both freedom and authority, we need to regain a commonality among citizens
Tag: authority
TESTING ASSUMPTIONS: Our Problems With Authority Part II
Authority itself is inherently an act of imagination Richard Sennett By definition, an assumption is a belief or concept taken for granted. Testing assumptions generally only happens when circumstances contradict that which we have presupposed as rules and realities of life. Or we want to make sure that our current plans under those assumptions won’t […]
TESTING ASSUMPTIONS: Our Problems With Authority
Part I of III Part IA: AUTHORITY — Missing Person or Murder Case? The end of the world as we know it bleeds endlessly through my screens and newspapers. The ‘times’ in end times is plural, so fixing one particular day as the finale is tricky and there might yet be a rescue, but some cliffhangers do result in the heroes […]
Nothing to be done?
Wondering about authority in the aftermath of 11/06/2024 (and my personal prequel ‘Summer of Confusion’), I wandered thorough a few posts mainly as a reaction to all the pundits telling me why millions of people voted for a self-admitted sexual abuser also a convicted felon with a plan (Project 2025, which he glibly and unconvincingly […]
The InterWeb: Mechanism of Authority or Comfort Blanket?
In this post, we keep digging as to what the mechanism would be if this often repeated accusation that the voters heeded the messages from a right-wing sound system and that was why they ended up choosing a convicted felon, verified sex assaulter, and indicted insurrection inciter to be the 47th President of the USA.
Where Does Your Authority Live These Days?
A Mystery Story Series How Much Control Do We have Over Our Lives Anymore? And Do We Care? Is it the Internet? Part 1 Detective stories always appealed to me. Hardy Boys books were often a quarter or less at the used books dealer in the tented emporium known as Frankie’s Market in North Jersey, […]
Question Authority Because Authority Should Ask More Questions
In yesterday’s post, the issue of increasing disregard of the authority that is necessary to create a meaningful test occupied my daily rant. But even then the need to consider the other side of authority — whether those with the decision-making rights about educational measurement seek sufficient counsel from the people who actually take the […]
Are Problems With Tests Really Problems With Authority?
An unexpected telephone conversation this morning, on the 27th day of for this blog, exposed me to a loved one who trusts what Joe Rogan and his guests say about the pandemic. In other words, that person believes that those voices speak with authority. To do so requires a corresponding belief that the so-called official […]