Monastic Musings

"Richistan" by Robert Frank

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:29:00 +0000

Members of different social classes are different, and just about any sociology class spends time spelling out the differences of opportunity and outcomes. Most of the material, though, omits the top levels of the income pyramid, focusing on the poor, the working class, the middle class and, to some extent, the upper middle class.

Then most textbooks present a small amount of information about the wealth gap along with a comment: "Much less is known about the lives, attitudes, and culture of the upper class because they rarely agree to be studied."

So Robert Frank was not the first to notice that little was known about the upper classes. He was well positioned to do something about it: as a writer for the Wall Street Journal, he probably had some connections and credentials that would open doors, and perhaps some experience that would help him fit in as a cultural observer. So he began to write a daily blog, The Wealth Report, for the Wall Street Journal. Each posting offered a window into the "life and culture" of the wealthy.

In gathering information for one of those blog posts, on the booming sales of large yachts, he had a conversation that generated one of those lightbulb, AHA! moments. Here's how he reported it on his blog:

The title comes from a chance meeting I had a few years ago at a yacht show in Florida. I was walking along the docks, marveling at hundreds of giant boats parked in the marina. I had seen plenty of yachts before, but never so many at once. I got to talking with a yacht owner from Texas, and as he looked out over the boats he said: “You look at all these boats and you’d think everyone was making loads of money. It’s like it’s a different country.”

The same fact reported in all the sociology books and sparked his blog, the ability of the wealthy to live apart from the rest of society, formed an analogy: the wealthy were like another nation. Its boundaries were economic, not geographic. Thus was born his book, Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich. While he focuses on those who earned fortunes in the booms of the 1990s and 2000s, their interactions with the "Old Rich" and their transformation of social institutions also comes into play.

I had a chance to "read" Richistan with the Richistan audio-book version. Narrator Dick Hill does an excellent job with the material: his tone is just right for narrating a travelogue to this foreign land within our shores, and he is able to convey aspects of personality without seeming hokey. I really enjoyed the book.

Richistan is certainly not a scientifically designed ethnography, but it goes far beyond simply telling stories about rich people. For instance, Frank realized that there are classes even among the very wealthy; he compares the members of Lower Richistan (barely wealthy, sometimes crossing in and out of Richistan with the vagaries of business), Middle, and Upper Richistan. He details patterns of interaction required simply to manage all the money, and the impact of wealth of family life. He is able to describe themes, cultural artifacts, language, attire, behavior - much as one would expect from an academic ethnography.

I certainly recommend the book: interesting to read, and informative.

Yellowstone River at Pompeys Pillar

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:21:00 +0000

Yellowstone River at Pompeys Pillar, originally uploaded by Edith OSB.

I spent the day traveling through Montana. This is certainly the long way around to get to my destination in Colorado, but I am enjoying the trip.

Today's discovery was the Yellowstone River. It's been here all along - played an important role in the exporations of Lewis & Clark - but somehow, I never realized just what a big river it is: long and wide, curving back and forth so that a wide swath of land can be used for fertile farmland.

This photo was taken on the banks of the Yellowstone River at Pompey's Pillar National Monument, south of Glendive, Montana on Interstate 94.

Pompey's Pillar was itself a surprise: I had never heard of it, although it provides the only physical evidence to support William Clark's records of his expedition with Lewis. Seeing the drawings of Native Americans on the rocks, he carved his name and the date into the rock as well - and recorded the fact in his diary.

Pompey's Rock turns out to be the last remnant of an ancient seashore of the vast inland sea whose sediment enriched much of this land before it drained away.

Great Egret in North Dakota

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:54:00 +0000

Great Egret, originally uploaded by Edith OSB.

Yesterday, I drove across North Dakota on US-2 (the northern-most route across the state).

One of the joys of driving on a US-Highway, rather than an interstate: it is legal to pull off on the shoulder to capture a photo when something interesting or beautiful comes along.

Like this beautiful Great Egret, one of a pair that was sharing a small patch of wetland with some ducklings. Or like a family of moose, having a late-afternoon snack by the side of the road:

I also passed through the Geological Center of North America: halfway between the North Pole and the equator, and between the two coasts.

Mike Seeger, R.I.P.

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:58:00 +0000

I heard that Mike Seeger - much younger half-brother of folk singer Pete Seeger - died last week. I met him once, years ago, at the Chicago Folk Festival - what a character! - and have always appreciated his humor and his dedication to recovering music that was almost lost - our American folk heritage - not only songs, but stories and history.

At the Folk Festival, he played an amazing range of instruments - banjo, autoharp, guitar and more - and sang not only the songs of the South but also the style.

In the last year, we've seen the death of several people who enriched and changed our sense of America as a nation, and of what it means to be American. Whether it is John Hope Franklin's careful historical work that brought African Americans fully into the history books, or Studs Terkel's decades of interviewing people from every walk of life - and especially those whose lives rarely reach the limelight - or Mike Seeger's quiet recovery of the cultural roots of earlier times, each has given us a broader and richer sense of our national identity. They will be missed.

Northern North Dakota

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:38:00 +0000

North Dakota Morning, originally uploaded by Edith OSB.

I'm traveling to Colorado by an extended route - taking US Highway 2 as far as possible before dropping south. The route carried me through Bemidji, MN (home of Paul Bunyan), across the Mississippi at a point where it's not much more than a stream, through Crookston, MN and on to Grand Forks, North Dakota.

I am finding that this part of North Dakota is amazingly beautiful in a very subtle way. Not with grand vistas and certainly not bustling cities. The contour of the land is subtle; beautiful little wet lands with shining deep blue water, bright green cattails, and dozens of little ducks dot the landscape.

This is breadbasket territory. The soil is amazingly dark and fertile - and a variety of crops are grown. I saw several fields of corn, but they might prefer the longer growing season further south. Most of the fields seem to have one or another type of grain, a few fields of sunflowers.

The towns are very small - a few dozen houses with only a few stores. Larger towns have regional high schools and fulfill the commercial needs of the people. I stopped in the town of Doyen, home to one of our sisters, and found a place so small that there was no Post Office, just a mailbox on the main street of town.

I've lived in cities all my life - Duluth is the least populous place I've ever called home. I wonder what the way of life is like in these small towns - and how it compares to, oh, 50 years ago. I'm sure that the advent of satellite TV and Wal-Mart stores have had an impact. I suspect there was more vibrant community life before the new amenities arrived. Still, I'm glad to have a chance to see it.

I'm also on a hunt for Carnegie Public Libraries - already found two - so look for those photos too.

St. Teresia Benedicta (Edith Stein)

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 06:41:00 +0000

Image by jaime.silva via Flickr

Wise advice from a woman who rarely had an un-busy moment:

"If no outward calm can be achieved, if you have no room to which to withdraw, if unavoidable duties preclude a quite hour, then at least close yourself off inwardly for a moment against everything else and flee to the Lord. He is there, and in a single moment can give us what we need."

Anti-Christian Violence in Pakistan

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:28:00 +0000

On Friday, Catholic nuns look inside a burned house that was attacked by a mob in Gojra, Pakistan. Police questioned more than 200 people to determine if the rioting that killed eight Christians in Gojra last weekend was spontaneous or planned by a militant group. The attack came after rumors spread that some Christians had desecrated a Quran, local authorities said. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)

Christian citizens are a minority - a very small minority - in many Islamic countries. But often, they are also Christians of long duration, with traditions extending back to the earliest days of the faith. While the news often focuses on violence between different extremist groups among Muslims, the Christians living in Iraq, Pakistan, India, and other areas of the Middle East or South Asia have experienced increasing episodes of violence based on rumor or suspicion.

Who needs husbands, anyway?

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:04:00 +0000

One side effect of the trend towards non-marriage (later age at first marriage, cohabitation, child-bearing outside of marriage, etc.) seems to be a portrayal of men - especially husbands - as dumb or useless.

Sarah Haskins collected clips from a variety of advertisements - contrasting the ones where men are husbands with their sexier pre-marriage portrayal.

Death and Taxes 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 06:16:00 +0000

Image by Scott Ingram Photography via Flickr

The new poster showing the 2010 budget was just released from WallStats. This year, they provided a demo that allows people to view segments of the poster. For anyone who teaches, this is a great resources.

End of Phase One of the Apostolic Visitation

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 06:49:00 +0000

The Vatican initiated an Apostolic Visitation of women religious (aka "Sisters") in the United States, and appointed Mother Clare Millea to organize the effort. The first of three phases - "to look into the quality of apostolic religious life in the United States" - is just coming to a close. Mother Clare has met with 127 religious superiors and heard from another 50 by letter. She reports,

"I believe that some of the finest Catholic women religious in the United States have shared their stories, hopes, dreams and concerns about the sisters they love and the congregations to which they have generously given their lives."

The news of the Visitation was not greeted with joy by many religious, as evidenced by the widespread commentary precipitated by the article U.S. Nuns Facing Vatican Scrutiny in the New York Times and Sister Sandra Schneiders' letter, originally private, which was published in NCR.

I was glad to read the notes and testimonials written by sisters from many different religious communities after their visit with Mother Clare Millea. There are some signs of the anxiety expressed by many, but the reader gets the feeling that most of the sisters came away with a sense of having been listened to at a deep level, and of having encountered someone with a deep respect for the charisms of their communities.

A Visitation is always a nervous experience - somewhat like going for a check-up to the doctor - and all the more so if the check-up was imposed from outside. Equally, though, it is always an opportunity for communities and for individual members to reflect in a profound way on the core elements of their religious life. As many communities of women religious suffer a shortage of vocations, closing apostolates or shifting from carrying out the apostolate (teaching, health care, etc.) to the "ministry of sponsorship" there is an often unspoken question: what is God doing here? Why are so few women coming to join us?

There are dozens of answers provided by secular social science; they are all at least partially accurate. Where religious life was once the only or the best path to college education and professional life for many women, that option is now available to any woman with the diligence and brains to pursue it. Consumerist and hedonistic culture makes the gap between secular life and "poverty, chastity, and obedience" into a seemingly insurmountable gulf. The demographics, with the median age in many communities at or over 80 years old, presents a daunting prospect to younger women. And so on.

And still: religious life has never been easy, and marriage & family has always been the first choice of the majority of women - but many heard the call of a religious vocation nonetheless. The population of the U.S. has continued to grow in numbers, but fewer women are knocking on the doors of convents and monasteries. Some communities have declared, with Sister Sandra Schneiders, that they have "given birth to a new form of religious life." Others - or even members within those "new form" communities - sense that a pendulum of change after Vatican II swung far enough, and needs to return to more temperate zones. While some of the rigid traditions had lost their initial meaning and effect, their complete abandonment has other negative effects.

Sisters formed within those confines had a solid sense of their spiritual identity, one which carries them along in their religious life. From that vantage point, the new ministries and new forms make tremendous sense. For those who consider religious life - from a secular world that questions the validity of this choice - the amorphous, constantly changing nature of the life is harder to understand and less appealing. The desire for visible signs of religious commitment, for a clear sense of what it means to be a "sister" and not simply an active lay person in a parish - these are real and pressing desires.

A Visitation may be helpful, especially across generational divides. If there are gaps between the spirituality of older and newer members, in the desire to be a faithful or a prophetic voice in the Church, in the symbols and rituals used to forge religious identities, the Visitation is an opportunity for people with these very different viewpoints to hear each other, perhaps to understand each other better - and - we hope - to move into the future in ways that will carry their charisms forward.

Demographic Bomb - sequel to Demographic Winter

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:40:00 +0000

Last year, the documentary Demographic Winter was released. Based on data drawn from a wide variety of sources and interviews with some of the leading social scientists, it highlighted the sharp decline in birth rates - below replacement level in most developed nations, and falling in most nations of the world. Aging societies are an obvious result; the video played out the consequences and looked for the reasons for the dramatic decrease in birth rates.

I wrote about the sequel when it was released in early July; the trailer is now available.

Minnesota - #2 state in the nations for kids

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:25:00 +0000

The Annie E. Casey Foundation released the 2009 Kids Count Data Book. This is a great resource for people interested in indicators related to children's well-being. They collect data from state and national government agencies and other reputable source. They do provide printed copies of the reports, but - even easier - they also have PDF files available.

For people who like to poke around in the data, the interactive Kids Count Data Center lets you look at information by state, by particular indicator, or across the nation - with links to each source of information.

New this year are widgets like the one below. Click on the "Next" button to see:

how Minnesota compares to the rest of the nation
the change since 2000 in Minnesota
the change since 2000 in the nation

Interested in other states or variables? Click through to check out the data yourself!

All Eyes - photos of the day

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:22:00 +0000

Last week, I discovered a news feed that features nothing but stunning photos from news services around the world: All Eyes, from TampaBay.com, the photo blog of the St. Petersburg Times. Many of the photos are standard news - fires, crowds, local events - but chosen because they are stunning examples of their craft. NOTE that if you go to the link, you'll only see one photo per day: you have to click on "See more photos" beneath the lead photo for the day.

As an aspiring photographer, I enjoy the photos as quick inspirations - my most common thought is, "I would never have thought of taking it that way!"

As someone who just loves to have a window onto the world - a normal day somewhere else - All Eyes just hits the spot.

Learning Wikis

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:19:00 +0000

Earlier this summer, I was one of 17oo people (!!) to respond to an invitation from PBworks Summer Camp for educators. I'll be honest: I had looked at wikis earlier, and knew that people used them for teaching - but I didn't understand what they added beyond a blog with comments. I figured I'd sign up for the training program in order to find out.

The experience of being part of the Summer Camp was, itself, a demonstration of what can be done with wikis. With good planning, 1700 people were able to participate, not as a horde, but grouped by the type of school where we teach.

Even though many of us didn't know much about wikis when we began, within a short period of time, we could see how students could use wikis for group projects, to review each other's work, to build a common knowledge base, to set up a subject-oriented wiki for the general public, and even how to use security settings to have a private journal / grading / communication page with each student.

So now I'm a still-wet-behind-the-ears PBworks Certified Educator. That is enough license to be dangerous. I will be making use of my year-long premium wiki space for my courses in the fall - Watch for links!

The beginning of the end of China's one-child policy

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:14:00 +0000

Image by Thomas Tribe via Flickr

It's been more than 30 years since China instituted its one-child policy - whose enforcement led to charges of forced abortions, the abandonment of vast numbers of girl-babies to orphanages or death, the practice of sex-selective abortion, and, in rural areas, permission to have a second child if the first was a girl. Where politicians in Western democracies support abortion as part of a woman's "right to choose," China's policy made abortion widely available but took away the choice. The program was always defended as a necessary protection against over-population.

So it was a surprise to read, this week, that the city of Shanghai, one of China's largest and most crowded, is now actively encouraging couples to have a second baby. Why? Because of "he growing demographic imbalance in the city and fears that the younger generation will not be able to support the aging population."

“We advocate eligible couples to have two kids because it can help to reduce the proportion of the ageing people and alleviate a workforce shortage in the future,” said Xie Linli, the director of the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission.

Shanghai is already a city where 1 in 5 residents is an elderly person, a figure that is expected to rise to 34% by 2020. Some say that China is a country "destined to grow old before it grows rich" which makes the care of the old a burden that cannot be sustained. The U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that, by 2050, there will only be 1.6 working age adults to support each person age 60 or above.

The cost (in time and effort as well as money) to support the elderly, though, is making the option of a 2nd child less attractive. Many Shanghai couples say they will forego the new option, because "it costs so much just for one child" and - in one of China's most prosperous cities - choosing to have a second would, for some, cut into a consumerist lifestyle that they are just coming to enjoy. An unscientific online poll came out against the policy, usually citing the reason that "there are already too many people in China.

Comments to the online poll were divided among those who supported or opposed the new policy. The common thread, though, was the fact that decades of the one-child policy has undermined the centuries-old focus on family life in China. Even those who are aware of falling populations in western Europe and their impact still say that it's just not worth it to have another child.

Becoming Fire - daily readings with the desert fathers

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:47:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

The sayings of the ancient desert fathers were perhaps my first introduction to monastic life. I remember picking up a used copy of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers not too long after Benedicta Ward SLG had published it. While their ascetic way of life in the wilds of the Egyptian desert seemed completely alien, the intensity of their desire to put God at the center of their lives spoke to me.

The sayings - wise words given by an elder to help another along on the spiritual path (and sometimes to pull him back from the brink of departing or going astray), parables that had become part of the tradition, or stories of former Abbas and Ammas passed along to inspire newcomers - are short, sometimes pointed, and usually thought-provoking. Many are also unforgetable: they capture some foible of human nature or some aspect of Christian life so completely that they come back again, unbidden, when a similar situation arises.

But reading the books - many have followed that first translation - is like trying to sip wisdom from a firehose. Some compile the sayings of each Abba or Amma; others organize them around topics or geographical locations. No matter: these sayings were not meant to be read one after another after another. Each was intended to be pondered and savored.

This is what makes Tim Vivian's new book, Becoming Fire: Through the Year With the Desert Fathers and Mothers, just right. A recognized patristics scholar who has participated in excavations of the ancient monastic sites, he presents one, or perhaps a few, logoi (words) for each day of the year. He has organized them according to the liturgical seasons and the calendars of saints - yes, several Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Anglian calendars are noted.

In this format, these logoi, wise sayings, give us something of the experience of the ancient monks to whom they were first addressed: a short word or story, easy to remember, that may serve as a guide or light on our Christian path throughout the day. Unlike books that tell us about the wisdom, we have to discover it for ourselves - an ancient method indeed.

Norm Pellegrini - WFMT's founding vision - R.I.P.

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:54:00 +0000

I heard a few days ago that Norm Pellegrini had died. I probably heard his voice as often as that of my own parents when I was growing up: ours was a WFMT household, and he was the primary announcer in those years. WFMT, in the 1950s and 1960s, made sure that its listeners understood the nuances of the music, its place in history, the performers - in short, we became a well-educated audience, like it or not. Norm Pellegrini's knowledge of classical music was self-taught. With the likes of Studs Terkel, who died last year at the age of 96, Norm Pellegrini created a pillar of culture that endured for decades at WFTM radio.

One commentator called Norm Pellegrini The Last of the Great Oaks, and that is probably accurate. As the founding generation gradually faded into retirement, the station was melded with public television. The quirky genius of those visionaries became a set of regular programs. The quality is still good - far above many stations - but the unique personality is not there.

Norm Pellegrini hosted The Midnight Special show, probably my first exposure to folk music - and to the kind of dry academic wit that is hard to find in broadcast media. Not many children grow up hearing things like Severn Darden's Metaphysics Lecture, or laughing at sketches like "Football Comes to the University of Chicago" (the over-academic students just don't get the sport; when the coach tries to explain that some players are called "ends" he is interrupted by a student athlete who asks where the beginnings are for those ends, because Aristotle says all ends must have beginnings). He was the first to introduce me to Pete Seeger, whose version of Malvina Reynold's song "Little Boxes" (see below) was something of a counter-culture anthem in my friendship circle. His willingness to play songs that were just plain funny - whimsical - weird - like the Ladies of the Harem of the Court of King Caractacus (see below) was, perhaps, my first model of an adult who could be serious and professional - and also wacky and fun.

Norm Pellegrini always ended the Midnight Special with "You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley" - but I suspect that, when he crossed to the other side of that valley, Studs and his long-time buddy Ray Nordstrand and dozens of others were waiting to greet him.

Every Family Matters - British Report

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:51:00 +0000

A British think tank, The Centre for Social Justice, issued a lengthy report, Every Family Matters along with a 20-age Executive Summary that presents recommendations for family law reform grounded in an in-depth analysis of the current status of family life in Britain. It's a hard-hitting report, growing out of concern that arose from Breakdown Britain, an earlier study of families. Ian Duncan Smith, MP, spoke:

"In these reports we presented evidence of dysfunctionality and fatherlessness across a range of incomes and social backgrounds, but most acutely in our poorest communities. This family breakdown fuels Britain’s social breakdown - breakdown which destabilises society and is becoming more entrenched every day."

After detailing facts on the rise of single-parent families, both because of divorce and non-marital childbearing, the report considers the impact of cohabitation on family life. They baldly state that "it has long been assumed that cohabitation and marriage are separated only by a signature on a piece of paper." The report counters that assumption with a barrage of evidence that cohabiting relationships break up much more often than married couples, and that cohabiting couples are more likely to break up after the birth of a child while married couples become less likely to break up after the birth of a child.

They were surprised that recent polling evidence showed that 84% of people polled thought it was important for law to support marriage, and 60% thought the LAW should promote marriage in preference to other kinds of family structures such as cohabitation. Collaboration between Labour and Conservative MP's is grounded in this finding that there is support among members of both parties for legislation to strengthen family life.

The recommendations of the report include some that will surely not arouse any controversy - for effective and early community support for families, and for a growth in accredited marriage preparation opportunities. Others would represent a major change to family law that, while not returning to the old fault-oriented divorce procedures, would nonetheless introduce steps into the divorce procedure with an eye toward healing and saving marriages where possible:

We recommend binding pre-nuptial agreements as part of an overhaul of divorce financial provision.
The family legal system should introduce mandatory referral to information before the commencement of court proceedings, and in due course, a mandatory attempt at resolution in children matters before proceedings.
Where a married couple initiates divorce proceedings, we recommend a three month period of reflection and consideration at the outset.
We reiterate calls for the government to value the uniqueness of marriage in the tax and benefits system.

Rather than focusing on the recommendation of greater social services, the unique feature of this report is its emphasis on the legal structure of marriage. The last reform of marriage laws responded to traditionally-oriented laws of the 1950s and 1960s that had negative consequences - most especially in the fault-and-blame orientation of divorce and property provisions that seemed to lock people into hopeless and sometimes abusive marriages. The combination of legal change to a more "no-fault" oriented system amplified cultural changes that have had a negative impact on the structure of family life, according to the report.

People are usually quick to want legislation to match whatever the current social trends are - as when, in the upsurge of the 1970s women's movement, existing divorce laws were found to be antiquated and were replaced with those that seemed to match the times. We are less quick to recognize the unintended consequences of past legal changes, and least open to changing legal structures to shift, rather than support, current practice. The Centre for Social Justice's report, though, certainly makes a strong argument for just that approach, in the face the crumbling fabric of family life in Britain.

The Rule of Law - a Western Phenomenon?

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:51:00 +0000

Listening to Judge Sotomayor answer the questions of members of the Senate Judiciary Committee reminded me of the tremendous benefit of living in a nation where the rule of law is very strong. Both the questioners and Judge Sotomayor assumed that laws should be passed for the common good, criminal and civil cases be solidly grounded in the evidence, and the laws applied in a just and fair way. Even the most heated exchanges accepted this foundation; what disagreement existed revolved around the method of achieving fairness.

It is not so everywhere. A group at the World Bank developed measures of governance, one of which was the strength of Rule of Law within a country, defined as "the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, including the quality of contract enforcement and property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence."

Even among the developed nations of Europe, the Rule of Law is not evenly distributed. It is noticeable that the Rule of Law is weakest among many of the poorest nations, as described in Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion,but the Rule of Law is only moderately present throughout much of the world. We hear stories of tourists jailed for years for seemingly small (or non-existent) offenses, or the unconscionable treatment of political dissidents, ethnic minorities, or other groups, and shudder. We wonder how such corrupt and dysfunctional systems continue to exist.

The numerical evidence - and that of history - provides a different perspective. The strong Rule of Law is a major achievement in a nation. It can exist only to the extent that most members of society abide by the laws, support the punishment of those who do not, and public disclosure of proceedings so that oversight is possible. While we bemoan swindlers like Bernie Madoff, or episodes of police brutality and corrupt officials, the very act of having publicity about investigations and convictions reinforces the Rule of Law.

Judge Sotomayor's confirmation hearings dominated much of the news for a week. Even those people who did not follow the questions and answers closely were nonetheless affected. They knew that the appointment was based on qualifications - even if senators disagreed about which were most important - and not on payoffs or influence peddling. The attention paid to the process gave, in itself, a boost to the Rule of Law.

As we hear about other nations struggling with pockets of lawlessness or generalized corruption, it is worthwhile to recognize the blessings we take for granted from this adherence to the Rule of Law, and the fragility of the process. It does not take a large number of people to threaten it, but it cannot be overturned unless the majority fail to come to its defense.

The next time the Governance Matters group at the World Bank posts its map, let's hope that more nations have moved into a stronger Rule of Law - and that the processes in the U.S. have stayed strong.

Our Lady of Fontenay

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:40:00 +0000

Our Lady of Fontenay, originally uploaded by jimforest.

Don't the warmth and playfulness of this statue grab your heart? Jim Forest visited Fontenay Abbey, founded by St. Bernard himself - one of the oldest Cistercian abbeys in the world. While monasteries may have several images of Our Lady, there is often one that is special to the place - hence the title, Our Lady of Fontenay.

So often, the Virgin Mary is shown gazing at her Son with a somber adoration; I'm sure she did contemplate the fullness of the Mystery. But she is also a mother, and Jesus lived as a fully human child. I am sure that the Mystery included not only the Father's grand plan but those moments, common in any family, when mother and child simply gaze on each other with delight - and smile.

How wonderful to have that moment captured nearly 1000 years ago, and sent our way. Thanks for sharing, Jim!

Abp Chaput on the Media

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:40:00 +0000

It's not uncommon for public figures to speak - even to complain - about the news media. Few have been as analytical as Archbishop Chaput of Denver. Even more unusual is the even-handed way in which his critique hits journalists and consumers of the news alike.

Last week, speaking to a meeting of the Legatus Group in Colorado Springs, he focused on the relationship between Catholics and the "Fourth Estate" - but his words are worthwhile for anyone to consider - especially anyone who would like to influence the press.

How "the media" work

He began with the reality that real human beings are behind every news stories: "These people select and frame the news. And when we read their newspaper articles or tune in their TV shows, we engage them in a kind of intellectual intimacy in the same way you’re listening to me right now."

There is an important difference however. When people listen to him - or, he said, to George Will or Paul Krugman - they have a good idea of the opinions and biases of the author. They may listen because they agree or because they want to know what the other side thinks. Either way, they can gauge the choices and strategies that went into creating the stories.

We have a harder time with the rest of the news. Archbishop Chaput did not claim that most stories are tainted or biased - merely that choices are made. Should a story be long and filled with details, or short? Place on the front page or buried in the middle? Which sources should be quoted and emphasized?

"Like it or not, most of us define the “news” by what receives the most attention from a handful of major media. When we learn key phrases or statistics about issues of public importance, it’s through their repetition in those same news media," he said.

While most journalists "try to be diligent and fair," not all succeed. And some "don't even try." How are we to respond to this situation?

Our responsibility

Archbishop Chaput was direct: "When we don’t recognize the personal chemistry of the men and women who bring us our news ... then we fail the media by holding them to too low a standard. We also ... fail ourselves by neglecting to think and act as intelligent citizens."

Strong words! How do we fail, and why? Archbishop Chaput presented an extended analysis of the difference between our modern TV/radio/internet news - often prepared in a short period of time and broadcast in short blips of sound bites- and the news media of the past. "They thrive on brevity, speed, change, urgency, variety and feelings."

Print media, and the print culture that goes with it, develops habits of mental and intellectual discipline, a culture which is fading away.

Contrasting the requirements of a modern democracy with the eye-grabbing tactics of high-tech media, Archbishop Chaput said: "Thinking requires the opposite. Thinking takes time. It needs silence and the methodical skills of logic. Today’s advances in technology have increased the sources of human information that the average layperson can access. That’s a good thing. But they’ve also undermined the intellectual discipline that we once had when our main tools of communication were books or print publications. This is not a good development. In fact, it’s a very dangerous thing in a democracy, which is a form of government that demands intellectual and moral maturity from its citizens to survive."

Beyond the need for intellectual discipline to develop a full view of the news, Archbishop Chaput stated that journalists also need a "right spirit" that justifies the Constitution's protection of free speech - along with religion - in the First Amendment. According to President Thomas Jefferson, the purpose of freedom of the press is "the reason and truth needed for self-government." When Jefferson wrote, the majority of Americans had a strong belief in natural law; that has eroded today. This is especially true among journalists.

"Here’s my point," said Archbishop Chaput. "The news media, despite their claims of impartiality, and despite the good work they often do accomplish, are just as prone to prejudice, ignorance, bad craftsmanship and tribalism as any other profession. But unlike other professions, the press has constitutional protections. It also has real power in shaping how we think, what we think about and what we like, dislike and ignore. "

Well, you might be thinking - along with the business leaders at the Legatus meeting - what does he expect us to do about the press?

First, he said, "What we can do is refuse to be stupid ... to be sandbagged by our news establishment." Listing a number of views often heard from pundits, not about facts but about what "will" happen or what issues are "settled" - although still widely debated - he called on his listeners to "render to Caeser what is Caesar's, and to God, the things that are God's." The press, he says, cannot help with that task because it doesn't know - often does not want to know - the difference.

Rather than passively receiving the news and living by it, he said, "Our moral witness needs to be formed ... by learning and living an authentic Catholic faith." This path leads to the ability to take positions founded on our own values, not those that have shaped and styled the news we receive.

The result?

If we refuse to be stupid, if we take the time to educate ourselves not only on the issues of the day, but on the philosophy and teachings that allow us to understand them, we can develop a position that is in line with the deepest beliefs of our faith. Then, according to Archbishop Chaput, "we’ll be the kind of citizens who can appreciate the genuine service our news media provide to society. We’ll also be the kind of citizens who demand that our news media act with the sobriety, integrity, fairness and honesty their vocation requires."

(Legatus is an networking organization of Catholics in the business world, portrayed by a few as a cult or powerful cabal, a view promoted by a smear campaign against Keith Fimian, candidate for a congressional seat in Virginia in the 2008 election.)

College of St. Scholastica - history

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Well, our college has pulled together some interesting materials from their archives, along with the monastery archives, showing the history of Tower Hall, our first building. I suspect the upcoming 100th anniversary of the College of St. Scholastica has something to do with it...

Robert McNamara and The Fog of War

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:41:00 +0000

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Robert McNamara, defense secretary under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, died on Monday. He was a complex man, one of "the best and the brightest" gathered by JFK to form his cabinet: the one whose name is forever linked to the war in Vietnam. Although he went on to work at the World Bank and contribute to the developing world, little of that is remembered.

McNamara was silent about Vietnam for a quarter of a century. By the time he published his memoir,In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam in 1995, an entire generation had grown up who would not really understand the mindset of the Cold War and the real fear of the Domino Theory - that all of Southeast Asia was poised to "fall to communism," needing only one country to start the cascade. He - and JFK and LBJ - were determined that it would not be Vietnam. When he did speak out, he said that he and his colleagues were "wrong, terribly wrong." His anguish comes through - deep sorrow and a sense of responsibility for the thousands of young lives lost, and awareness that Americans' deep cynicism and lack of trust in government has its roots in the mistakes and deceptions of the Vietnam War.

A decade later, he agreed to 20 hours of interviews with filmmaker Errol Morris, resulting in the movie The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. It is a painful movie to watch. First, we see McNamara's involvement with General Curtis LeMay in World War II, and especially carrying out the fire-bombing of Japanese cities. His emphasis on scientific management was used in the war; he stated with accuracy that "In that single night [in March 1945], we burned to death one hundred thousand Japanese civilians in Tokyo. Men, women and children." Asked by the interview if he was aware this would happen, he replied, "Well, I was part of a mechanism that, in a sense, recommended it."

He said, "LeMay said if we lost the war that we would have all been prosecuted as war criminals. And I think he's right. He... and I'd say I... were behaving as war criminals. ... But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?" His tone of voice was hard to categorize - in part, reporting facts, in part incredulous that an act could be acceptable for the victors but not the defeated, and just the hint of awareness of the unimaginable grief of 100,000 deaths in a single night.

In the film, he struggles to draw and express lessons - and many of those "lessons" seem valid in the present - our current world circumstances might be different had we followed them. Both the film and the commentary that we have heard since his death focus on the viewpoint and decisions of a few people - with McNamara and the presidents at the center. That view is accurate, but partial.

McNamara articulates the lesson to "know your enemy" - to know how the world looks from a different perspective, to understand the goals and motives of the person you are fighting. This realization, after Vietnam, was perhaps the first glimmer to Americans of what would become globalization. Up until that period in the early 1960s, much of the world was, in essence, seen as European: the nations of Africa and Asia were still in the process of becoming nations, not colonies, and Central/South America seemed like off-shoots from the European tree. The error was real, and tragic, but it was not McNamara's alone.

All of the discussion, and McNamara's own ponderings and anguish, do not fully contemplate the impact of the tools available upon the builder. The U.S. had won in WW II through military power, and had stockpiled newer and more technologically sophisticated weapons over the years of the Cold War. Not only did they think in terms of enemies and dominoes, the most obvious tools at hand were ones of war. The most obvious thing to do, when a group of people seem to threaten one's security is to eliminate them - usually by killing them. It is a lesson of multiple episodes of trying to kill off the enemy only to find that, in many battles, each death recruits more to the cause. The tools of diplomacy, of understanding the tremendous impetus in the less developed world to share the goods and lifestyle of the wealthy west: these were not yet fully developed and not yet on his radar screen.

I am not the one who will judge Robert McNamara's life; he has fallen into the hands of a loving and merciful God. Alongside his errors, I think God will also see his struggle to honestly see and express those errors, even at cost to himself, to try to prevent others from making them. His honesty and deep searching as he deals with the past are, perhaps, his best and most enduring legacy.

Robert S. McNamara, may you rest in peace.

Morris Dance comes to the big screen

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:16:00 +0000

In my distant past, I was a Morris dancer - but it was never this exciting!

Paying to (seem to) have an education

noreply@blogger.com (Edith OSB) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:31:00 +0000

I'm spending my time this summer developing a new all-online statistics course. Most of my effort is going into developing the presentations and assignments, trying to use a variety of techniques that will help my students become competent at statistics without a teacher present.

When I found out about the web site "JustAnswer" I realized I needed to focus on the quizzes and homework with as much attention, for different reasons. Students are paying to have their homework and quizzes done. And bona fide academics are doing the work.

JustAnswers is something like eBay in reverse. People with questions - not only homework, but also medical, automotive, computer, legal - post their question and a dollar amount will pay for an acceptable answers. "Experts" can read the questions and accept ones that are "within their skill set." For instance, someone was willing to pay $14 to get some help with a math quiz. I decided to take a look at the quiz.

I was surprised to find that the quiz comes from MyMathLab, a popular online homework program. MyMathLab has built-in tutorials that step a student through a problem and a number of homework problems with hints. It usually includes an electronic copy of the student's textbook, and links back to it. In short, it's like having an excellent and patient homework partner. At the end of a unit, a teacher can have it generate a quiz that must be submitted. This person was asking someone to simply do the quiz and send her the answers - so I presume that, for whatever reason, she hadn't made use of MyMathLab's other tools.

Curious, I clicked on the document and found it was an MS-Word document with a meticulous screen shot of each of the questions on the quiz, which appear to be from a basic algebra quiz. I wondered how long it had taken the student - whose identity was protected by JustAnswer but immediately visible on the document he uploaded - to take each of those screenshots and create the document? She must really have trouble with math, if it was worth the time to do all of that work.

It was also immediately clear why "experts" would undertake this work. The "Math Experts" - one had an M.A. and taught high school and college math - could do questions like this at high speed. Even though this is material I don't often use, I was sure I could finish in under 30 minutes (for a $28/hr rate of pay) - and I bet the Math Experts could do it in 10 or 15 minutes, in their spare time.

I saw an interesting contrast, however - the one that prompts me to focus on the assignments I design for my online class. Someone posted a request for help with data analysis - my field - so I clicked on the questions. An expert named Elizabeth had looked at the question, which included a list of statistics that were to be provided, and asked the student, "Where is the data?" After a few exchanges - she pointed him towards MediaFire as an upload site for the spreadhseet - all of the information was available to her.

The assignment, though, linked to previous work, to examples, to lectures. It did an excellent job of challenging the student to pull together the knowledge of the chapter to do a practical piece of work. It also made it nearly impossible for the student to simply turn the work over to an expert - although he is still hoping someone with a different "skill set" will come along and take the question.

There is an aspect of this that is sad. The exchange between Elizabeth-the-Expert and the students revolved around organizing the material and coming to an understanding of the task at hand. It's exactly the sort of exchange that professors have with students - built into the cost of tuition - when they ask questions. So often, though, they don't want to look dumb to the professor - so they won't ask - and perhaps they pay someone to give them help they could get from their own teacher.

The people seeking homework help on JustAnswer - some even looking for their people to do their dissertations! - are probably students in regular face-to-face classes as often as online. Someone will say that students have always cheated, and I'm sure that is true, too. Paper-mills have been around for quite a while. The Internet, though, takes it to an entirely new level, creating a market in individualized answers and papers.

JustAnswer connects people to a source of advice about their cars, their health, and their legal affairs - knowledge they can use without passing it off as their own. The Experts who work in those parts of the site are really just expanding the boundaries of their offices or workshops.

The academic experts, though, are different. If Luz gets the answers to her math quiz, she will submit them as her own and - if she keeps up the pattern - walk away with a grade on a transcript that certifies her competence in handling numbers: competence she does not possess. A person who pays for legal advice does not get credentialed as an attorney, but someone who pays for a quiz is, eventually, credentialed as an academic at some level. The "experts" rob society of its ability to accept the validity of academic degrees as indicators of knowledge.

I hope the downturns of the economy do not have experts of higher and higher levels giving way to temptation and participating in JustAnswer and its ilk.