A striking line from German-American historian Walter Laqueur on early 20th-century transformation of the arts: “The painters were fascinated by ugliness; the composers threw harmony overboard, gradually moving towards dissonance; the poets and playwrights were preoccupied with the madness of great cities, parenticide and rats emerging from rotting corpses.” (Laqueur, Walter. Weimar: A Cultural History, […]
“Fascinated by ugliness” Read More »
1. Batista first came to power in Cuba by being elected to office. He ran as head of the Democratic Socialist party, a coalition supported also by the Cuban Communist Party. The image is of an election poster. (History lesson: Beware of democratic socialists. They’re often wolves in sheep’s clothing.) 2. The US-embargo means there
Two tidbits on Cuba: Batista, embargo excuse-making Read More »
My 20-minute talk for the City of Ideas festival in Puebla, Mexico is online here. In English with Spanish subtitles. I use four examples — two good and two awful — from the history of medicine to frame my recommendations for transforming education.
Entrepreneurial Education — Medici, Locke, Rothschild, Semmelweis Read More »
I’m in Rapid City, South Dakota today, speaking at 2 p.m. local time on “Democratic Socialism for Beginners.” The full FreedomFest lineup of speakers and sessions is here.
FreedomFest today: Democratic Socialism for Beginners Read More »
In response to a question about some forms of feminism — including Andrea Dworkin’s and Catharine MacKinnon’s — and their connections to postmodernism and censorship. Why Radical Feminists Censor Porn. Four-minutes: Related: This long-form response to two sets of critics of Explaining Postmodernism:
Why Radical Feminists Censor Porn Read More »
Excerpt from my interview with The Reason We Learn.
Should we hero-worship teachers? Read More »
In this unit of the Atlas Intellectuals course on Slavery: Was slavery economically negative, not only for the slaves but the slaveowners and/or slave societies in general? Two broad positions have dominated the history of economic thought with respect to chattel slavery. A Fine coverage in Jeffrey Hummel on Slavery as Economic “Deadweight Loss”. Jeffrey
Jeffrey Hummel on Slavery as Economic “Deadweight Loss” [Atlas Intellectuals] Read More »
I was interviewed by Will Knowland, who was sacked from his teaching position at England’s prestigious Eton College over a Woke-controversial lecture. Our theme: Educate or Indoctrinate? Here’s a two-minute excerpt: Is everything just power? And here is the full interview (list of questions and topics is below): (Here are two pieces of journalism on
Will Knowland (fired from Eton) interviews Stephen Hicks Read More »