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Prophets and Kings
Chapter 34: Jeremiah
For forty years Jeremiah was to stand before the
nation as a witness for truth and righteousness.
Among those who had hoped for a permanent spiritual revival as the result of the reformation under Josiah was Jeremiah, called of God to the prophetic office while still a youth, in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign. A member of the Levitical priesthood, Jeremiah had been trained from childhood for holy service. In those happy years of preparation he little realized that he had been ordained from birth to be "a prophet unto the nations;" and when the divine call came, he was overwhelmed with a sense of his unworthiness. "Ah, Lord God!" he exclaimed, "behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child." Jeremiah 1:5, 6. {PK 407.1}
In the youthful Jeremiah, God saw one who would be true to his trust and who would stand for the right against great opposition. In childhood he had proved faithful; and now he was to endure hardness, as a good soldier of the cross. "Say not, I am a child," the Lord bade His chosen messenger; "for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not [408] afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee." "Gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For, behold, I have made thee this day a defensed city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee." Verses 7, 8, 17-19. {PK 407.2}
For forty years Jeremiah was to stand before the nation as a witness for truth and righteousness. In a time of unparalleled apostasy he was to exemplify in life and character the worship of the only true God. During the terrible sieges of Jerusalem he was to be the mouthpiece of Jehovah. He was to predict the downfall of the house of David and the destruction of the beautiful temple built by Solomon. And when imprisoned because of his fearless utterances, he was still to speak plainly against sin in high places. Despised, hated, rejected of men, he was finally to witness the literal fulfillment of his own prophecies of impending doom, and share in the sorrow and woe that should follow the destruction of the fated city. {PK 408.1}
Yet amid the general ruin into which the nation was rapidly passing, Jeremiah was often permitted to look beyond the distressing scenes of the present to the glorious prospects of the future, when God's people should be ransomed from the land of the enemy and planted again in Zion. He foresaw the time when the Lord would renew His covenant relationship with them. "Their soul shall be as a watered [409] garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all." Jeremiah 31:12. {PK 408.2}
Of his call to the prophetic mission, Jeremiah himself wrote: "The Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." Jeremiah 1:9, 10. {PK 409.1}
Thank God for the words, "to build, and to plant." By these words Jeremiah was assured of the Lord's purpose to restore and to heal. Stern were the messages to be borne in the years that were to follow. Prophecies of swift-coming judgments were to be fearlessly delivered. From the plains of Shinar "an evil" was to "break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land." "I will utter My judgments against them," the Lord declared, "touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken Me." Verses 14, 16. Yet the prophet was to accompany these messages with assurances of forgiveness to all who should turn from their evil-doing. {PK 409.2}
As a wise master builder, Jeremiah at the very beginning of his lifework sought to encourage the men of Judah to lay the foundations of their spiritual life broad and deep, by making thorough work of repentance. Long had they been building with material likened by the apostle Paul to wood, hay, and stubble, and by Jeremiah himself to dross. "Refuse silver shall men call them," he declared of the impenitent nation, "because the Lord hath rejected them." Jeremiah 6:30, margin. Now they were urged to begin building wisely and for eternity, casting aside the rubbish [410] of apostasy and unbelief, and using as foundation material the pure gold, the refined silver, the precious stones—faith and obedience and good works—which alone are acceptable in the sight of a holy God. {PK 409.3}
Through Jeremiah the word of the Lord to His people was: "Return, thou backsliding Israel, . . . and I will not cause Mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God. . . . Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you." "Thou shalt call Me, My Father; and shalt not turn away from Me." "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." Jeremiah 3:12-14, 19, 22. {PK 410.1}
And in addition to these wonderful pleadings, the Lord gave His erring people the very words with which they might turn to Him. They were to say: "Behold, we come unto Thee; for Thou art the Lord our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. . . . We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God." Verses 22-25. {PK 410.2}
The reformation under Josiah had cleansed the land of the idolatrous shrines, but the hearts of the multitude had not been transformed. The seeds of truth that had sprung up and given promise of an abundant harvest had been choked by thorns. Another such backsliding would be [411] fatal; and the Lord sought to arouse the nation to a realization of their danger. Only as they should prove loyal to Jehovah could they hope for the divine favor and for prosperity. {PK 410.3}
Jeremiah called their attention repeatedly to the counsels given in Deuteronomy. More than any other of the prophets, he emphasized the teachings of the Mosaic law and showed how these might bring the highest spiritual blessing to the nation and to every individual heart. "Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein," he pleaded, "and ye shall find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:16. {PK 411.1}
On one occasion, by command of the Lord, the prophet took his position at one of the principal entrances to the city and there urged the importance of keeping holy the Sabbath day. The inhabitants of Jerusalem were in danger of losing sight of the sanctity of the Sabbath, and they were solemnly warned against following their secular pursuits on that day. A blessing was promised on condition of obedience. "If ye diligently hearken unto Me," the Lord declared, and "hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain forever." Jeremiah 17:24, 25. {PK 411.2}
This promise of prosperity as the reward of allegiance was accompanied by a prophecy of the terrible judgments that would befall the city should its inhabitants prove disloyal to God and His law. If the admonitions to obey the [412] Lord God of their fathers and to hallow His Sabbath day were not heeded, the city and its palaces would be utterly destroyed by fire. {PK 411.3}
Thus the prophet stood firmly for the sound principles of right living so clearly outlined in the book of the law. But the conditions prevailing in the land of Judah were such that only by the most decided measures could a change for the better be brought about; therefore he labored most earnestly in behalf of the impenitent. "Break up your fallow ground," he pleaded, "and sow not among thorns." "O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved." Jeremiah 4:3, 14. {PK 412.1}
But by the great mass of the people the call to repentance and reformation was unheeded. Since the death of good King Josiah, those who ruled the nation had been proving untrue to their trust and had been leading many astray. Jehoahaz, deposed by the interference of the king of Egypt, had been followed by Jehoiakim, an older son of Josiah. From the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, Jeremiah had little hope of saving his beloved land from destruction and the people from captivity. Yet he was not permitted to remain silent while utter ruin threatened the kingdom. Those who had remained loyal to God must be encouraged to persevere in rightdoing, and sinners must, if possible, be induced to turn from iniquity. {PK 412.2}
The crisis demanded a public and far-reaching effort. Jeremiah was commanded by the Lord to stand in the court of the temple and speak to all the people of Judah who might pass in and out. From the messages given him he must diminish not a word, that sinners in Zion might have the [413] fullest possible opportunity to hearken and to turn from their evil ways. {PK 412.3}
The prophet obeyed; he stood in the gate of the Lord's house and there lifted his voice in warning and entreaty. Under the inspiration of the Almighty he declared: {PK 413.1}
"Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever." Jeremiah 7:2-7. {PK 413.2}
The unwillingness of the Lord to chastise is here vividly shown. He stays His judgments that He may plead with the impenitent. He who exercises "loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth" yearns over His erring children; in every way possible He seeks to teach them the way of life everlasting. Jeremiah 9:24. He had brought the Israelites out of bondage that they might serve Him, the only true and living God. Though they had wandered long in idolatry and had slighted His warnings, yet He now declares His willingness to defer chastisement and grant yet another opportunity for repentance. He makes plain the fact that only by the most thorough heart reformation could [414] the impending doom be averted. In vain would be the trust they might place in the temple and its services. Rites and ceremonies could not atone for sin. Notwithstanding their claim to be the chosen people of God, reformation of heart and of the life practice alone could save them from the inevitable result of continued transgression. {PK 413.3}
Thus it was that "in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem" the message of Jeremiah to Judah was, "Hear ye the words of this covenant,"—the plain precepts of Jehovah as recorded in the Sacred Scriptures,—"and do them." Jeremiah 11:6. And this is the message he proclaimed as he stood in the temple courts in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim. {PK 414.1}
Israel's experience from the days of the Exodus was briefly reviewed. God's covenant with them had been, "Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you." Shamelessly and repeatedly had this covenant been broken. The chosen nation had "walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward." Jeremiah 7:23, 24. {PK 414.2}
"Why," the Lord inquired, "is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding?" Jeremiah 8:5. In the language of the prophet it was because they had obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God and had refused to be corrected. See Jeremiah 5:3. "Truth is perished," he mourned, "and is cut off from their mouth." "The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their [415] coming; but My people know not the judgment of the Lord." "Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the Lord: shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" Jeremiah 7:28; 8:7; Jeremiah 9:9. {PK 414.3}
The time had come for deep heart searching. While Josiah had been their ruler, the people had had some ground for hope. But no longer could he intercede in their behalf, for he had fallen in battle. The sins of the nation were such that the time for intercession had all but passed by. "Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me," the Lord declared, "yet My mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth. And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them. Thus saith the Lord; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity." Jeremiah 15:1, 2. {PK 415.1}
A refusal to heed the invitation of mercy that God was now offering would bring upon the impenitent nation the judgments that had befallen the northern kingdom of Israel over a century before. The message to them now was: "If ye will not hearken to Me, to walk in My law, which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened; then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth." Jeremiah 26:4-6. {PK 415.2}
Those who stood in the temple court listening to Jeremiah's discourse understood clearly this reference to Shiloh, [416] and to the time in the days of Eli when the Philistines had overcome Israel and carried away the ark of the testament. {PK 415.3}
The sin of Eli had consisted in passing lightly over the iniquity of his sons in sacred office, and over the evils prevailing throughout the land. His neglect to correct these evils had brought upon Israel a fearful calamity. His sons had fallen in battle, Eli himself had lost his life, the ark of God had been taken from the land of Israel, thirty thousand of the people had been slain—and all because sin had been allowed to flourish unrebuked and unchecked. Israel had vainly thought that, notwithstanding their sinful practices, the presence of the ark would ensure them victory over the Philistines. In like manner, during the days of Jeremiah, the inhabitants of Judah were prone to believe that a strict observance of the divinely appointed services of the temple would preserve them from a just punishment for their wicked course. {PK 416.1}
What a lesson is this to men holding positions of responsibility today in the church of God! What a solemn warning to deal faithfully with wrongs that bring dishonor to the cause of truth! Let none who claim to be the depositaries of God's law flatter themselves that the regard they may outwardly show toward the commandments will preserve them from the exercise of divine justice. Let none refuse to be reproved for evil, nor charge the servants of God with being too zealous in endeavoring to cleanse the camp from evil-doing. A sin-hating God calls upon those who claim to keep His law to depart from all iniquity. A neglect to repent and to render willing obedience will bring upon men and women today as serious consequences as came [417] upon ancient Israel. There is a limit beyond which the judgments of Jehovah can no longer be delayed. The desolation of Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah is a solemn warning to modern Israel, that the counsels and admonitions given them through chosen instrumentalities cannot be disregarded with impunity. {PK 416.2}
Jeremiah's message to priests and people aroused the antagonism of many. With boisterous denunciation they cried out, "Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord." Jeremiah 26:9. Priests, false prophets, and people turned in wrath upon him who would not speak to them smooth things or prophesy deceit. Thus was the message of God despised, and His servant threatened with death. {PK 417.1}
Tidings of the words of Jeremiah were carried to the princes of Judah, and they hastened from the palace of the king to the temple, to learn for themselves the truth of the matter. "Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears." Verse 11. But Jeremiah stood boldly before the princes and the people, declaring: "The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard. Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will repent Him of the evil that He hath pronounced against you. As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet unto [418] you. But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the Lord hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears." Verses 12-15. {PK 417.2}
Had the prophet been intimidated by the threatening attitude of those high in authority, his message would have been without effect, and he would have lost his life; but the courage with which he delivered the solemn warning commanded the respect of the people and turned the princes of Israel in his favor. They reasoned with the priests and false prophets, showing them how unwise would be the extreme measures they advocated, and their words produced a reaction in the minds of the people. Thus God raised up defenders for His servant. {PK 418.1}
The elders also united in protesting against the decision of the priests regarding the fate of Jeremiah. They cited the case of Micah, who had prophesied judgments upon Jerusalem, saying, "Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest." And they asked: "Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the Lord, and besought the Lord, and the Lord repented Him of the evil which He had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls." Verses 18, 19. {PK 418.2}
Through the pleading of these men of influence the prophet's life was spared, although many of the priests and false prophets, unable to endure the condemning truths he [419] uttered, would gladly have seen him put to death on the plea of sedition. {PK 418.3}
From the day of his call to the close of his ministry, Jeremiah stood before Judah as "a tower and a fortress" against which the wrath of man could not prevail. "They shall fight against thee," the Lord had forewarned His servant, "but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible." Jeremiah 6:27; 15:20, 21. {PK 419.1}
Naturally of a timid and shrinking disposition, Jeremiah longed for the peace and quiet of a life of retirement, where [420] he need not witness the continued impenitence of his beloved nation. His heart was wrung with anguish over the ruin wrought by sin. "O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears," he mourned, "that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them." Jeremiah 9:1, 2. {PK 419.2}
Cruel were the mockings he was called upon to endure. His sensitive soul was pierced through and through by the arrows of derision hurled at him by those who despised his messages and made light of his burden for their conversion. "I was a derision to all my people," he declared, "and their song all the day." "I am in derision daily, everyone mocketh me." "All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him." Lamentations 3:14; Jeremiah 20:7, 10. {PK 420.1}
But the faithful prophet was daily strengthened to endure. "The Lord is with me as a mighty terrible One," he declared in faith; "therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be really ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten." "Sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord: for He hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers." Jeremiah 20:11, 13. {PK 420.2}
The experiences through which Jeremiah passed in the days of his youth and also in the later years of his ministry, taught him the lesson that "the way of man is not in [421] himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." He learned to pray, "O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in Thine anger, lest Thou bring me to nothing." Jeremiah 10:23, 24. {PK 420.3}
When called to drink of the cup of tribulation and sorrow, and when tempted in his misery to say, "My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord," he recalled the providences of God in his behalf and triumphantly exclaimed, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." Lamentations 3:18, 22-26. {PK 421.1}
Click here to read the next chapter: "Approaching Doom"


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Home News Pensioner reunited with wallet he lost in French bar as a student – 55 YEARS ago
NTI_LEECH_WALLET
Bill Leech taken 1960 (SWNS Group)
Collect picture Bill Leech taken 1960. Bill Leech aged 73 from Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire is reunited with his wallet that he lost in a pub in Grenoble, France in 1960. A grandfather has been reunited with a wallet he lost down the side of a bar in the French Alps – 55 YEARS AGO. See NTI story NTIWALLET. Bill Leech, 73, was an 18-year-old French Language student at Grenoble University in 1960 when he mislaid the brown leather wallet while drinking in a pub at a ski resort in Chamrousse. He doesn't remember losing it but after he went back to the resort and couldn't find it he shrugged his shoulders and returned to the slopes. Incredibly, it had fallen down a gap in the counter where it remained untouched for over half a century. It was found by a carpenter earlier this year as he was remodelling the old bar counter, after it was moved 77 miles to a different pub. In August, Bill was stunned to receive a call out of the blue from a Welsh lady living in Grenoble who knew the carpenter and offered to send it back to the UK by post. But Bill – who is chairman of Henley Parish Council – couldn't resist the chance to return to his old stomping ground and last week (5/10) he flew out to retrieve it himself.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


There is a modern, communal shower and toilet block, with hot showers and disabled facilities.
A barbeque area and outside seating is also available.
The kitchen includes a toaster, kettle, cooker and fridge.
Separate laundry area with washing machine, dryer and washing lines.
There is a modern, communal shower and lavatory block, with hot showers and disabled facilities.
The communal kitchen includes a toaster, kettle, microwave cooker and fridge.


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Search Results for colleges
An Economic Day of Reckoning for America's Colleges
Interesting video from The Chronicle of Higher Education showing speakers and attendees at the Chronicle's Leadership Forum, held on June 7-8 in Washington, D.C., hashing over the question of just how worried colleges ought to be about the economy, and how they ought to respond to the crisis.
Their bottom line: Brace for serious change.
The words of Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University and popular blogger at The Marginal Revolution, are particularly noteworthy and compelling:
Even if the economy doesn't get worse, for higher education it will get worse in two years' time. If the economy gets even worse, that's yet another problem. And I'm even assuming the economy stays okay.
The key is to make tough decisions in good times. When bad times come, your hand is forced. You don't have that many easy cuts to make. When it feels like you don't have to make cuts, that's when you need the discipline.
….I think right now people are behaving as if everything will be the way it used to be, and they're not putting enough aside in reserve funds, and they're engaging in short-term behavior just like our banks were doing two years ago. And so there will be major cuts coming for 2011. Or even if we have another stimulus, that stimulus won't last forever. It will only postpone this day of reckoning. And it will happen. Right now we're a bit blind. Short-termism.
Also see my three-part series about the future of America's colleges in a world that has entered a quasi-permanent and fully apocalyptic economic crisis:
America's Colleges at a Crossroads – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Posted in Economy, Education
Tags: apocalypse watch
America's Colleges at a Crossroads – Part 3
You might want to catch up on Parts 1 and 2 of this series before reading this final installment, although this one, like the others, can stand on its own.
In the first post in this series, I talked about the economic crisis that will force and is currently forcing the realignment and, in many cases, the wholesale revisioning of many U.S. college and university plans. The overwhelming majority of America's higher education institutions will have to make major changes — raising tuition, eliminating faculty, staff, and entire programs, shutting down campuses, cutting back on student and staff services, and much more — in order to survive the new depression. Many — such as in Washington, Louisiana, and California — already face major decisions. Many won't succeed, and many that come out alive will do so in a vastly altered form.
(In fact, in the handful of days during which I have organized this post, new info has come flooding across the transom about colleges cutting and planning to cut programs and staff, raising rates, and so on in response to budget emergencies:
Students pay more, may get less — The Arizona Republic, May 16
Georgia State U cutting 300 staff positions — WALB, May 18
Financing Gap Leaves Uncertain Future for U. of Texas' Online Arm – The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 18
Utah Disbands E-Learning Consortium — The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 18
Higher education cuts could mean double-digit tuition hike — Minnesota Public Radio, May 18
University of Washington slashes athletic budget — Philadelphia Daily News, May 14
And so on.)
In the second post I talked about the distinction between education, properly conceived as the inculcation of a certain literate, critical, and sensitive cast of mind, informed by important thoughts and ideas, and job training, which over the past several decades has come to serve in America's high schools and colleges, and also (just as importantly) in standard public thought and discourse, as a counterfeit substitute for true education. I did this in response to the claim, which I have had personally addressed to me, that the death of many higher education institutions will be a good thing since "college is useless" insofar as it requires people to engage in economically unhelpful things like studying Shakespeare (for instance) instead of preparing them for the "real world" of work-job-career.
In this final installment I'll continue with the themes broached in the second one by exploring further — in a more free-form and rantish manner — the muddle of principles and motivations that characterizes the current higher education system and leads directly to our current quagmire.
Revisiting the uselessness of Shakespeare
The bard as he appears to modern consumer-centric sensibilities
When I recently expressed the aforementioned thoughts about Shakespeare and the distinction between vocational training and a liberal education etc. to an online community, one of the responses that came back was this, which I repeat in closely paraphrased form:
"But I'm an accountant and have never had to quote Shakespeare while preparing tax returns. Sure, knowing the humanities might be a good thing as general preparation for living a meaningful life and all that, but I don't think colleges ought to require students to read Shakespeare etc. in order to earn a technical degree. When I was going to college I had to pay my own way, and I didn't appreciate being forced to spend money on classes that didn't specifically teach the knowledge and skills that would advance me in my chosen professional path. That doesn't mean I'm a Philistine. I'm middle-aged now, and I read Shakespeare, Dante, Dostoevsky, and so on for personal enjoyment. The thing is, I also enjoy fishing, too, but I wasn't required to take it in college. Nor should I have been. And the same holds true for the humanities."
I think this line of thought is hugely helpful and valuable, because it hits right at the heart of what's wrong with how we have collectively come to think and talk about "the value of a college education," and have come to redefine and reorient our higher education institutions accordingly.
Should purely academic subjects like literature, history, philosophy, higher mathematics, etc., be required studies for people who are pursuing post-secondary training programs for specific job and career fields? The answer, in a nutshell, is "Hell, no!" — unless those career fields are somehow specifically related to those studies.
But should those subjects be required studies for earning what used to be considered a standard bachelor's degree? The answer, in another nutshell, is "Hell, yes!" — unless we're happy to abandon completely the ideal of a liberal education and the type of person it produces — that is, the type of person represented by, say, our founding fathers or Martin Luther King, Jr.
The near universal muddling of this distinction has done incalculable harm to our collective educational situation.
Our educational (and cultural) tragedy
Our problem is that we have tried to collapse the two functions, providing a liberal education and providing job-and-career training, into a single higher education system that never should have been about job training at all, or at least not like it is today. The principle-level conflict was embedded deep in the situation right from the start. Think about it. It's obvious. How can a college or university justify recruiting somebody for, say, a marketing degree, and then charge them outrageous and always-inflating tuition prices (which interface nicely with the always-inflating textbook prices) while forcing them to take survey courses in British literature or Western philosophy? The answer, of course, is that it's not justifiable at all. Training in marketing methods or any other purely commerce-oriented field doesn't require a knowledge of the neorealist poets or 18th century continental philosophers.
But the really tragic thing isn't that so many people are forced to spend time and money on classes that they truly don't need to take as practical preparation for their chosen career paths. Rather, the real tragedy, which is considerably more insidious, is simply this: that our current ridiculous practice of forcing those academic classes on people who are only going to college for post-secondary job training (as distinct from pursuing an authentic education) works in tandem with the overwhelming commerce-and-consumerism focus of our insane American culture to make it seem as if literature etc. really are vestigial traces of a now-defunct old way of doing college, and that they ought to be dropped in favor of the business courses and other technical job training. In short, Shakespeare comes to seem inherently useless when the raison d'être for college is redefined in terms of a value system (job training for corporate consumerism) according to which it really is nothing but a waste of time when you're forced to read the Bard for college credit. This is the height of idiocy. And it's what we've been doing with increasing intensity for decades.
To state it another way: For many years the traditional liberal arts have been finding themselves forced with increasing frequency to justify their continued existence and relevance in economic terms. I'm talking about all of the marketing chatter by religious studies departments and philosophy departments and literature departments about their wonderful track record of teaching people to think and write well, and their oh-so-inspiring claims that these will be really valuable skills for getting top-notch, high-paying jobs in — wait for it — the corporate world!
To which I say: Er . . . what? So, let me get this straight. If I'm fascinated by, say, religion, and am passionate about studying the anthropological, sociological, historical, philosophical, and general cultural phenomenon of it all, or if I'm fascinated by Shakespeare and want to devote four years to studying and writing about his life and works, then I'm supposed to be thrilled at the supposed utilitarian value of this passion for gaining me a job as a communications assistant at a bank? Methinks there's something rotten here.
A further problem: How long can these programs and departments continue justifying themselves on such grounds when their very faculties don't really believe or agree with them, since these very subjects of study tend, if allowed to speak for themselves and really get under a person's skin, to inculcate a cast of mind that rejects or at least sees the vapidity of the whole über corporate-consumerist lifestyle?
Over the years this inbuilt contradiction in the philosophical principles that underlie the current shape of our higher education system has steadily hollowed out its soul and rightfully raised all kinds of objections and hard feelings. And that's where I get around to agreeing, in much qualified form, with those who hail the onset of major crises in that system as a positive boon. I keep hoping that the current world-shifting troubles will act like dynamite on this whole bloated structure of stupidity that is our educational establishment, and will thereby force the culling of so very many things that it will prove impossible to avoid making very hard decisions, and that in the process our colleges (and high schools) may rediscover their own souls.
And that's the crossroads that America's colleges and universities find themselves standing at now, with no guarantees about which way they'll decide to turn.
To college seniors: Everything you have been taught is wrong — thank God
That's enough from me. As you finish reading my words, why not leave here and go read Sharon Astyk's recent, brilliant (and hypothetical) college commencement address, "As you go out into the world" (May 15)? Ms. Astyk envisions telling an assemblage of graduating college seniors the following:
It is, I believe, conventional at college graduations to begin from the premise that those graduating are about to embark upon life in the "real" world – a venture that is supposed to be radically different than their carefree college years. The assumption is that the institution in question has given you what you need to embark upon a meaningful and productive future – you are wiser than when you came in, and perhaps more ethical, certainly fitted to the world of work. Now, I have been chosen to give you your very last bit of wisdom, something to carry with you into the future. So here is the sum total of that wisdom:
"Everything you have been taught to expect is wrong."
She then goes on to talk about the exigencies involved in living through the new depression and the onset of the era of peak fossil fuels, diminished resources in general, and deindustrialization.
Also check out the commencement address delivered (in actual fact) a couple of weeks ago by renowned environmentalist, entrepreneur, visionary, and author Paul Hawken to the graduating class at the University of Portland. Hawken said, among other amazing thing:
Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation — but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.
. . . . When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.
. . . . This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn't stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn't ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn't make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.
The very fact that somebody really said such things very publicly, and that similar passionate insight is blossoming everywhere, may be grounds for expecting more than the worst.
See the previous installments in this series:
Tags: college, consumerism, Shakespeare
If you haven't read Part 1 yet, you might want to go back and catch up before reading this one.
Trashing education
A few weeks ago I posted a link to the article that forms the backbone of part one of this series — which, again, is "A Straight-Talk Survival Guide for Colleges" by Peter A. Facione — at a very popular online doomer forum. (For the uninitiated, that's a forum devoted to discussing economic collapse, peak oil, global warming, the nexus of famine and water shortage and disease due to ecological overshoot in the human population, and other cheery topics clustered around a central theme of possible civilizational doom.) It sparked a lively discussion in which many participants expressed their disdain for the corporatization of America's higher education system.
This is a criticism with which I heartily concur, but then it became apparent that a number of participants in the conversation were expressing their disdain not just for college in its current American form but for the idea of a college education at all. One person even mentioned that, as a professional accountant, he/she had never been obliged to "use" the knowledge of Shakespeare that he/she had gained in college literature courses, and therefore those classes "were a waste of time and money." Some other people vigorously responded in protest, but the ideological meme was still out of the bag, and the idea that the imminent partial implosion of many of America's colleges and universities is something to rejoice over because college is just a useless diversion from "real life" — and is inherently nothing more than this — was an in-my-face claim that demanded a response.
I don't claim any special revelatory knowledge that qualifies me to offer such a response, but here goes:
As somebody who taught high school English for six years, currently teaches reading and writing at a community college, and has been building a career as a writer of fiction, reviews, essays, blogs, and scholarly work for the past 10 years or so, I'm painfully aware that the "Shakespeare is a waste of time" comment opens a proverbial can of worms that can't easily be dealt with. I don't know that anybody really has an answer to where the divide should lie or the divisions be made between education as job training and education as the informing and shaping of a person's soul. But this difficult division is definitely the issue to which the claim in question points.
What's not controversial, or at least it shouldn't be at this late date, is the recognition that education in America at both the high school and college levels has been definitively conquered and shaped by two reigning ideologies: first, the attitude that equates education with job training, and second, the market-driven consumerist model, which mainly reigns at the college level.
Both are a form of brainwashing when applied universally and uncritically the way they are now. They have resulted in (so-called) educational institutions that are not only administered according to business-and-market principles but are administered for and by these principles. To run a college or university according to sound economic principles is necessary. To run it as a business and let its fundamental mission and outlook become market-driven is the death knell for real education.
The school of economic indoctrination
As a minority of the population already knows, the education-as-job-training meme was established at the public school level in the early 20th century. The model of today's American public school system — with its strict age and grade divisions and its warehousing of kids into institutional settings where they're isolated in separate rooms and moved around at the ringing of a bell — comes to us via a joint effort between the federal government and big business in the early 1900s that invented a system to assimilate immigrants, domesticate rustic farm kids, and prepare all of them for the drudgery and rigors of urban living and factory work. The idea that public schools are properly about job training has dominated our collective thinking ever since, and was given a huge boost by the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act under LBJ in the 1965, which really was the defining moment in solidifying the policy-based idea that everybody ought to graduate from high school (even though in actual practice this had already taken root in the immediate wake of the Great Depression, when economic recovery and advancement became linked for many people to the idea of a high school education). Before that, the stigma of not having a high school diploma was much less intense, and the relative economic value of such a diploma was much higher, owing to the simple workings of supply and demand. More high school diplomas means less value attaching to each one of them.
Then the idea arose from the 1970s up to the present day that, just as everybody ought to graduate from high school, everybody also ought to go to college or at least "some form of post-secondary training" (to quote the formulation that politicians repeat ad nauseam these days) in order to advance his or her economic status and help "keep America competitive in a global economy." (Note that the "global economy" was only born circa 1970 anyway, largely due to policy decisions in the Nixon administration. But that's another — but closely related — story.) Naturally, this devalued the high school diploma even further by transforming and demoting high school to the status of preparation for the real job training that was to come later.
Education vs. training
Just as significantly, the idea that what comes after high school — even four-year college degrees — is primarily about job training represents the most serious revisioning of collective attitudes toward education that has ever happened in this country. It's emblematic of the total subjugation of our sense of self and our national identity to the market-driven, money-and-economy-centric model of life on earth. And since our brand of economics is pure consumerism, higher education has become the embodiment of that.
You don't have to fancy yourself a bookish intellectual to recognize that the takeover of higher education by market models and values really is at odds with the idea of the traditional "liberal education." This is a huge loss. In fact, as Albert Jay Nock argued so powerfully in the early 20th century, it really isn't even correct to call such an approach "education," since "education" properly means the inculcation of a certain sensitive, critical, and able cast of mind, informed by important and profound ideas, and this is an entirely different animal from education-as-job-preparation, which ought to be called what it is: training, not education.
Moreover, Nock offended militant democratic sensibilities everywhere by arguing that not all people are educable in that higher sense. The thing is, he was right, and that's no slam to the uneducable, nor is it some special praise to the educable. It's just a fact. Some people, it seems, are suited and even intended, via their natural abilities and inclinations, for education in the proper and high sense. Others aren't. And our collective, robotized "send everybody to high school and college" attitude is absolutely toxic to the ideal of true education, and effectively kills the chance of its happening at either level, except as an exception. Real education in the current system happens not because of the system but in spite of it, among individuals whose need and desire and capability to be truly educated can't be wiped out by a system that earnestly seeks to do so while refusing to see or acknowledge this unfortunate truth about itself.
(Note that I say this in full awareness of the damnable dangers and difficulties involved in trying to distinguish between people along these lines, and also in full awareness of such things as Earl Shorris's brilliant work that led to the establishment of the still-astonishing Clemente Course in the Humanities, which exposes the cultural and institutional mechanisms that serve to maintain a permanent impoverished underclass in America by denying some people access to a liberal education and shunting them instead toward job training with fatuous "good intentions." See Shorris's classic 1997 essay for Harper's, "On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As a weapon in the hands of the restless poor.")
Not incidentally, there's a wide field of worthy writings about this very subject that ought to be ingested by anybody who wants to think about it with breadth and accuracy. Some of the ones that have informed my personal thoughts and feelings about this issue in a big way, and to which I direct interested all-comers, are:
Morris Berman, The Twilight of American Culture. Berman has a good blog post from early last year that delves into some of what he talked about regarding education in that book: The Purpose of a Humanities Education.
Albert Jay Nock, "The Value of Useless Knowledge" (1934), "American Education" (1931), and more.
Mark Edmundson, "On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students" (1997).
John Taylor Gatto, The Underground History of American Education (2001).
J. Peder Zane, "Lack of Curiosity Is Curious" (2005), about the rise of intellectually incurious students in American colleges due to the job-and-economy-related insecurities of consumer culture and economic globalization.
Paul Trout, "Student Anti-Intellectualism and the Dumbing Down of the University" (1997), about the inevitable dumbing down of university standards in the face of the impossible-to-deal-with flood of unprepared and disinclined high school graduates who really aren't college material.
Note that Berman's book contains the single passage that stands as the most compact and quintessential statement of the problem with current American educational ideology and praxis. It's one that longtime readers of The Teeming Brain will remember from my previous references to it. And it's one that confronts the "Shakespeare is useless" claim head-on.
Berman describes a job interview that he had for the position of publications editor with a large national education organization (almost certainly the NEA, as he only barely avoids stating outright) that proudly states its overall mission in terms of preparing students for social action and whatnot — a move for which it receives heavy corporate funding. The interview was conducted by the organization's president. Berman says at one point in the interview he brought up the idea of knowledge for its own sake, "of knowing what makes oneself, and society, tick." The president opined that such knowledge could only be useful as preparation for a contemplative and withdrawn life, which would of course conflict with the organization's goal of encouraging an education that produces engaged citizens. In response, Berman proceeded to explain — "Much as I might have to explain it to a college freshman," he says — that he didn't think this type of knowledge and the type of education designed to inculcate it is useless at all, since its goal is to expand and deepen a person's sensibility, so that he or she can then participate vigorously in life but with a much better and broader understanding of the big picture and how he or she fits into it. He describes how the interviewer became almost angry at this and obviously couldn't comprehend it. And he concludes:
This woman is a leader in the field of higher education, and she has literally no idea of the deeper meaning of a liberal education. Whereas my influence on higher education is nonexistent, hers is enormous. It's not that through her influence students learn to scoff at a nonutilitarian notion of liberal education; rather, they never get to learn that such a notion even exists.
Coda: The upside of destruction
As for me, I can personally verify from my aforementioned six years in public high school teaching that nearly all teachers and administrators — but with a wonderful minority of dissidents — are caught up in the mindset Berman describes. (I can also verify that the students are as well, and this applies to my current college students, too.) When asked if they really think money and material comfort and making a living are the be-all, end-all of life, they vigorously say no. But their guiding attitude toward education, and toward the goals they articulate for their students or themselves as a result of this so-called education, belies that denial. And who can blame them? Economic times truly are difficult for so many people, and students really do want and need something to lift them out of their troubles. And the merciless assault of the propaganda about "improving education" (defined as raising test scores) in order to "increase/maintain/preserve America's economic competitiveness in a global economy" is practically impossible to resist.
Still, I'm hoping that some of this attitude may be knocked out of the education scene by the convulsive economic troubles that have descended upon it. That's the positive result we can hope, root, and work for, as distinct from the attitude that says, "Shakespeare is useless, college is stupid, let's blow 'em all up and get back to what's really important: Getting a 'good job' in the 'real world.'"
But more realistically, I expect colleges, universities, and public schools to respond initially by continuing to play their market-oriented game, and to make all of their decisions amid the economic turmoil based on their tightly held self-image as big businesses instead of educational institutions properly conceived.
See the other installments in this series:
Tags: Albert Jay Nock, Clemente Course in the Humanities, college, Morris Berman
This is the first of a three-part series. (Also see parts 2 and 3.)In this post I'll simply point to the problem and refer to a couple of recently published pieces that lay it out in bleak detail. In the next two, to be published over the course of this week, I'll lay out some of my reactions.
America is in the midst of a real economic crisis. That's not news. What may be news to some (although it probably isn't) is that America's colleges and universities are staggering right through the center of it.
According to education consultant and former university professor and administrator Peter A. Facione, America's higher education institutions are going to have to buckle down and make hard decisions if they want to survive.
Note the stark emphasis: Colleges are in a fight not just to thrive but to survive. That's how serious the crisis really and presently is, as argued by Facione in "A Straight-Talk Survival Guide for Colleges" (The Chronicle of Higher Education online, March 20, 2009).
He begins by diagnosing the situation in unflinching terms:
It is time for some straight talk, starting with the realization that organizations that can't or won't adapt will fail. This recession has caused many of the nation's largest retailers, banks, airlines, manufacturers, and brokerage houses to do so. Millions of Americans have lost jobs and homes. Why would we think colleges, and those employed by them, would be exempt from the same fate? The market sorts itself out at times like these. Industries realign.
….[H]igher education is part of the larger economic system. There will be casualties, just as commercial businesses will fail and other worthy nonprofit organizations will go broke. If a state's tax revenues fall by large percentages, given that the priorities of the states are usually public safety, unemployment support, transportation, basic services, and a balanced budget, then something will have to go. Often that something will be support for higher education.
….If you as a college administrator think you are in a sailboat during a gale, you are right.
Then he offers his prescription, which consists of a long list of recommended action steps, attitude shifts, institutional reorganizations, and policy changes for college and university administrators, faculty, and staff to make if they want to survive. These are fairly dramatic and include suspending programs, reducing salaries, imposing freezes on hiring and searches, closing campuses, and more.
Not incidentally, Bloomberg agrees about the severity of the problem, as explained in detail in a May 1 article:
[T]he American system of higher education is in turmoil….Independent colleges that lack a national name or must-have majors are hardest hit. Many gorged on debt for construction, technology and creature comforts. Now, as endowments tumble and bills mount, they're struggling to attract cash-strapped families who are navigating their own financial woes. Such mid-tier institutions may be forced to change what they do to survive. In the best case, they'll merge with bigger schools, sell themselves to for-profit organizations or offer vocational training that elite colleges eschew, says Sandy Baum, a senior policy analyst at the College Board. In the worst case, they'll shutter their doors for good ("Colleges Flunk Economics Test as Harvard Model Destroys Budgets").
Briefly, and in anticipation of what I'll talk about in the next post in this series, I'll say that when I read this kind of thing I can't help thinking of what the likes of, e.g., Kunstler and Greer and Berman have been saying off and on for years about the non-future of the American higher education scene in its current form. I also can't help noticing that Facione and the Bloomberg reporter naturally think and talk in terms of market conditions, competition, the market "sorting itself out," and all of that. I know, of course, that it really is necessary to devote attention to this "nuts and bolts" end of things — but I also keep hoping to read something in a mainstream publication like The Chronicle or Bloomberg that doesn't just talk the same old tired economic language of business as usual but recognizes the need for an explosive paradigm shift away from the higher education world's pervasive current model of college as a purely market-driven enterprise.
But I'll say more about these matters in the next installment. Check back in a couple of days.
See the next installments in this series:
Tags: college, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Called to academe: The university's monastic ideal in a neoliberal age
Here's media studies scholar Siva Vaidhyanathan making the case for recognizing the reality of an academic/scholarly calling — in the authentic religious vocational sense — in the midst of a neoliberal age obsessed with the economic and political concerns of the so-called "real world":
In the United States, and increasingly in the world at large, we tend to reduce the conversation about the value, role, and scope of the scholarly life to how it serves short-term and personal interests like career preparation or job training. Sometimes we discuss higher education as an economic boon, attracting industry to a particular location or employing thousands in a remote town. Or we probe it as an engine of research and innovation. And sometimes we use academia as a tableau for satire or social criticism when we expose the excesses of the lazy and self-indulgent professoriat or giggle at the paper titles at the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association.
But none of these appraisals of the life of the mind gets at the real heart of the matter: the now quaint-sounding matter of the university's "mission" — the bigger-picture question of what our institutions of higher learning do for and with the world.
. . . Within every great American university, even MIT, there is a monastery. It's at its core. Sometimes the campus walls and spires make that ancestry undeniable. More often, the stadiums, sweatshirt stores, laboratories, fraternity houses, and career-placement offices mask the monastery. But it's still there. European universities emerged from the network of monasteries that had accumulated, preserved, copied, and catalogued texts and scrolls over centuries. The transformation from cloistered monastery to slightly less cloistered university occurred in fits and starts over three centuries. But by the eighteenth century, universities throughout Europe were able to converse about this new thing called science and reflect on the meaning and utility of ancient texts that bore new meaning at the dawn of an industrial age.
Early American colleges and universities were likewise religious institutions built to train clergy to serve a sinful people. Soon they took on an additional role: exposing idle sons of the landed gentry such as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson to dangerous books coming over from Europe.
. . . [But today] When we scholars explain our passions — the deep satisfaction we feel when we help a nineteen-year-old make a connection between the Mahabharata and The Iliad, or when our research challenges the surprising results of some medical experiment that the year before generated unwarranted headlines — many of our listeners roll their eyes like my fellow students did back in that classroom in 1995. How embarrassing that people find deep value in such uncountable things.
It's been a couple of decades since any American faculty member could engage in the deep pursuit of knowledge untethered from the clock or calendar. But many of us still write for the guild and the guild only, satisfied that someday someone might find the work a valuable part of a body of knowledge. But if that never happens, so be it — it's all part of the calling's steep price of admission.
MORE: "Mind Games: Making the Case for an Academic Calling in a Neoliberal Age"
Image: "Medieval writing desk" [Public Domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Tags: college, monastic option, vocation and calling
Teeming Links – August 30, 2013
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Today's opening word is actually double: two opening words. The first is from John Michael Greer, writing with his typically casual and powerful lucidity. The second is from international studies expert Charles Hill, who writes with equal power. They're lengthy, so please feel free to skip on down to the list of links. But I think you'll find something interesting if you first read these excerpts, and ruminate on them, and see if you can spot a deep connection between them.
First, from Mr. Greer:
Plunge into the heart of the fracking storm . . . and you'll find yourself face to face with a foredoomed attempt to maintain one of the core beliefs of the civil religion of progress in the teeth of all the evidence. The stakes here go far beyond making a bunch of financiers their umpteenth million, or providing believers in the myth of progress with a familiar ritual drama to bolster their faith; they cut straight to the heart of that faith, and thus to some of the most fundamental presuppositions that are guiding today's industrial societies along their road to history's scrapheap.
. . . The implication that has to be faced is that the age of petroleum, and everything that unfolded from it, was exactly the same sort of temporary condition as the age of antibiotics and the Green Revolution. Believers in the religion of progress like to think that Man conquered distance and made the world smaller by inventing internal combustion engines, aircraft, and an assortment of other ways to burn plenty of petroleum products. What actually happened, though, was that drilling rigs and a few other technologies gave our species a temporary boost of cheap liquid fuel to play with, and we proceeded to waste most of it on the assumption that Nature's energy resources had been conquered and could be expected to fork over another cheap abundant energy source as soon as we wanted one.
. . . [T]he fact that Wall Street office fauna are shoveling smoke about, ahem, "limitless amounts of oil and natural gas" from fracked wells, may make them their umpteenth million and keep the clueless neatly sedated for a few more years, but it's not going to do a thing to change the hard facts of the predicament that's closing around us all.
— John Michael Greer, "Terms of Surrender," The Archdruid Report, August 28, 2013
Second, from Dr. Hill:
This vast societal transformation might be called "The Great Virtue Shift." Almost every act regarded in the mid-20th century as a vice was, by the opening of the 21st century, considered a virtue. As gambling, obscenity, pornography, drugs, divorce, homosexuality, abortion and sneering disaffection became The New Virtue, government at all levels began to move in on the action, starting with casinos and currently involving, in several states and the District of Columbia, an officially approved and bureaucratically managed narcotics trade.
The Great Virtue Shift has produced among its practitioners the appearance of profound moral concern, caring and legislated activism on behalf of the neediest cases and most immiserated populations at home and around the world. To this may be added the panoply of social agenda issues designed to ignite resentment and righteous indignation among the new "proletarian" elite. All this works to satisfy the cultural elite's desire to feel morally superior about itself regarding collective moral issues of large magnitude even as they, as individuals, engage in outsized self-indulgent personal behavior.
. . . There is a logic chain at work here, too: a lack of self-limitation on individual liberty will produce excess and coarseness; virtue will retreat and, as it does, hypocritical moralizing about society's deficiencies will increase. Widening irresponsibility coupled with public pressure for behavior modification will mount and be acted upon by government. The consequential loss of liberty scarcely will be noticed by the mass of people now indulging themselves, as Tocqueville predicted, in the "small and vulgar pleasures with which they fill their souls." We will not as a result be ruled by tyrants but by schoolmasters in suits with law degrees, and be consoled in the knowledge that we ourselves elected them.
To retain liberty, or by now to repossess it, Americans must re-educate themselves in what has been made of Burke's precept: "Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed." Walt Whitman re-formulated this as, "The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws." Learning what liberty is and what it requires of us is the only bulwark, ultimately, against American decadence. Pay no heed to the determinists: The choice is ours to make.
— Charles Hill, "On Decadence," The American Interest, September/October 2013
If you made a Venn Diagram out of Hill's and Greer's respective ruminations, and if you meditated for a while on the shared middle ground between them, you might find something that would insightfully illuminate a lot of the material below.
Is America Addicted to War? (Foreign Policy, April 2011)
This exploration of "the top 5 reasons why we keep getting into foolish fights," written by Harvard international affairs professor Stephen M. Walt in response to the United States' military intervention in Libya's civil war, is obviously and pointedly relevant to what's going on right now with the Syria situation. "Why does this keep happening? Why do such different presidents keep doing such similar things? How can an electorate that seemed sick of war in 2008 watch passively while one war escalates in 2009 and another one gets launched in 2011? How can two political parties that are locked in a nasty partisan fight over every nickel in the government budget sit blithely by and watch a president start running up a $100 million per day tab in this latest adventure? What is going on here?"
The real threat to our way of life? Not terrorists or faraway dictators, but our own politicians and securocrats (The Guardian)
"Convinced national security is for ever at risk, western governments mimic the fanaticism they claim to despise."
The Leveraged Buyout of America (The Web of Debt Blog)
"Giant bank holding companies now own airports, toll roads, and ports; control power plants; and store and hoard vast quantities of commodities of all sorts. They are systematically buying up or gaining control of the essential lifelines of the economy. How have they pulled this off, and where have they gotten the money?"
Academy Fight Song (The Baffler)
This may be the most exhaustive, devastating, damning, dystopian, and dead-on essay-length critique of higher education in America that I've ever read. "Virtually every aspect of the higher-ed dream has been colonized by monopolies, cartels, and other unrestrained predators. . . . What actually will happen to higher ed, when the breaking point comes, will be an extension of what has already happened, what money wants to see happen. Another market-driven disaster will be understood as a disaster of socialism, requiring an ever deeper penetration of the university by market rationality."
Why Teach English? (Adam Gopnik for The New Yorker)
"No sane person proposes or has ever proposed an entirely utilitarian, production-oriented view of human purpose. We cannot merely produce goods and services as efficiently as we can, sell them to each other as cheaply as possible, and die. . . . No civilization we think worth studying, or whose relics we think worth visiting, existed without what amounts to an English department — texts that mattered, people who argued about them as if they mattered, and a sense of shame among the wealthy if they couldn't talk about them, at least a little, too. It's what we call civilization."
The Humanities Studies Debate (On Point with Tom Ashbrook)
A well-mounted, hour-long NPR radio debate. "Should American colleges and college students throw their resources, their minds, their futures, into the ancient pillars of learning — philosophy, language, literature, history, the arts. Or are those somehow less relevant, less urgent studies today in a hyper-competitive global economy? Defenders of the humanities say this is the very foundation of human insight. To study, as Socrates said, 'the way one should live.' Critics say: 'Crunch some numbers. Get a job.'
Paper Versus Pixel (Nicholas Carr for Nautilus)
"On the occasion of the inaugural Nautilus Quarterly, we asked Nicholas Carr to survey the prospects for a print publication. Here he shows why asking if digital publications will supplant printed ones is the wrong question. 'We were probably mistaken to think of words on screens as substitutes for words on paper' [says Carr]. 'They seem to be different things, suited to different kinds of reading and providing different sorts of aesthetic and intellectual experiences.'"
Japan Opens 'Fasting Camps' To Wean Kids Off Of Excessive Internet Usage (International Business Times)
"A government study found that up to 15 percent of Japanese students spend as much as five hours online everyday and even more time on the internet on weekends. As a result, the Tokyo government's education ministry will introduce 'web fasting camps' to help young people disconnect from their PCs, laptops, mobile phones and hand-held devices."
Cancer's Primeval Power and Murderous Purpose (Bloomberg)
"It is a fundamental biological phenomenon. A single cell 'decides' (for lack of a better word) to strike off on its own. Mutation by mutation, it evolves — like a monster in the ecosystem of your body. Cancer is an occupying force with a will of its own. . . . What from the body's point of view are dangerous mutations are, for the tumor, advantageous adaptations. . . . Susan Sontag called cancer 'a demonic pregnancy,' 'a fetus with its own will.' That is more than an arresting metaphor."
New Exhibit Explains Why We've Been Fascinated By Witches For More Than 500 Years (The Huffington Post)
"A new exhibit at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, aptly titled exhibition, 'Witches & Wicked Bodies,' is paying homage to art's heated affair with witches. The show dives into darker depictions of witches hidden in prints, drawings, paintings, sculptures and more, shedding light on attitudes perpetuated by everyone from Francisco de Goya to Paula Rego."
Beyond the Veil: Otherworld Experience as Archaeological Research (Prehistoric Shamanism)
"By ignoring trance experience of the otherworld, anthropologists could only understand part of the world shamanic people lived in. As it turned out, the otherworld and the existence of the spirits informed pretty much everything these people did. . . . The otherworld of the spirits that prehistoric people experienced is not made up, or a figment of a deluded mind, but is something wired into the brains of every human."
William Gaines and the Birth of Horror Comics (Mysterious Universe)
"Through comics, films and television, 'Tales From The Crypt' and EC Comics have proven to be an enduring pop culture franchise and one that's dear to the heart of many horror fans. Its legacy continues to manifest itself through the innumerable writers, directors and artists whose childhoods were shaped by nights reading those gloriously gruesome early comics by flashlight under the blankets."
Posted in Arts & Entertainment, Economy, Education, Environment & Ecology, Government & Politics, Health & Medicine, Internet & Media, Paranormal, Psychology & Consciousness, Religion & Philosophy, Teeming Links
Tags: cancer, collapse, college, comic books, Dystopia, horror, internet addiction, mind and media, music, occult, shamanism, terrorism, witches
Deadly pedantry: How (and how not) to murder art, literature, and H. P. Lovecraft
The "practical beginner's guide" to H. P. Lovecraft that I published here last month has received a lot of attention and traffic, but not all of it has been necessarily positive. One observer, Teeming Brain regular xylokopos, commented, "What is the point of this detailed, beforehand investigation into the man's life and correspondence[?] . . . . Doing any sort of online research in advance of reading the stories, will do the reader a major disservice. Why approach Lovecraft with already formed ideas about his themes and motivations?"
I certainly understand and sympathize with the criticism. Even before I clicked the "publish" button on that post, I noticed that I had given the prospective Lovecraft reader a fairly heavy load of introductory material. Chalk it up to my natural bent as a professional teacher of writing and literature, which leads me to focus on the undeniable fact that the very worthy work of a great many authors, and also of many other types of artists, isn't readily accessible to a lot of people's sensibilities.
Sometimes this hindrance is due to an inherent quality of idiosyncrasy, complexity, or some other sort of difficulty in the work itself. Sometimes it's due to the passage of time, which has made an author or artist's basic style, cast of thought, and/or cultural worldview remote and strange. Sometimes, as in the case of Lovecraft, it's because of all this and more. Lovecraft, in addition to living and writing nearly a century ago, deliberately wrote in an antique and even archaic style, and to call his basic tropes and themes "idiosyncratic" is a gross understatement. Many modern readers who have heard of him approach his work eagerly at first but then bounce off in boredom, incomprehension, and disappointment.
This is why I think there's definitely a place for the formal type of introduction that I laid out in my post. The "classroom"-type approach is intended to help a person by giving enough contextual information to facilitate an authentic appreciation and enjoyment of a given author, artist, or work of art or literature. Yes, when done poorly it can be insufferably pedantic, but when done well it can be a wonderful thing. Or at least it has been a wonderful thing for me personally, on the several occasions when I've been fortunate to have excellent teachers who introduced me to life-changing discoveries.
That said, I do take xylokopos's criticism to heart, and I'm perfectly happy to admit that I myself have had many wonderful literary and artistic experiences by skipping the classroom approach and simply diving right into someone's work.
I think the fact that this has all been on my mind in recent weeks may explain why two recently published essays that would have caught my attention anyway managed to catch it with extra sharpness. Each says something, and says it very well, about the danger of killing art and literature by playing the pedant and refusing to give the works a chance to speak for themselves. So of course I want to share them with you. Read the rest of this entry →
Posted in Arts & Entertainment, Education
Tags: art, college, h. p. lovecraft, humanities, music
Recommended Reading 40
In this installment: A report on the new type of futurism that's being spearheaded by highly regarded scientists and scholars for the purpose of studying the reality and scope of existential threats to human survival. The triumph of fear as a central motivating reality in contemporary geopolitics. The global plague of feral pigs. Renowned author George Saunders on what the Internet is doing to his brain. How writers pursue their passions for other activities as a means of inflaming and enriching their creative authorial inspiration. Why the real-world "bestiary" of extraordinary life forms on earth rivals or exceeds the wildest imaginings of fantastists. The Gothic as a "sublime contagion" compelling us to explore boundaries and transgression. Read the rest of this entry →
Posted in Arts & Entertainment, Environment & Ecology, Government & Politics, Internet & Media, Teeming Links, Writing & Creativity
Tags: apocalypse watch, gothic, horror, technopoly
Awake inside the American Nightmare
In his 2011 book Liberal Arts at the Brink, Dr. Victor E. Ferrall, Jr., president emeritus of Beloit College, examines the way in which America's liberal arts colleges, which have traditionally been based on "a uniquely American higher education ideal" embodied in "small classes led by professors devoted to teaching and mentoring, in a community dedicated to learning," and which "produce a stunningly large percentage of America's leaders in virtually every field of endeavor," have come under assault by the culture-wide shift toward vocational education. Here's the official description of the book and its argument by its publisher, Harvard University Press:
A former college president trained in law and economics, Ferrall shows how a spiraling demand for career-related education has pressured liberal arts colleges to become vocational, distorting their mission and core values. The relentless competition among them to attract the "best" students has driven down tuition revenues while driving up operating expenses to levels the colleges cannot cover. The weakest are being forced to sell out to vocational for-profit universities or close their doors. The handful of wealthy elite colleges risk becoming mere dispensers of employment and professional school credentials. The rest face the prospect of moving away from liberal arts and toward vocational education in order to survive.
Yesterday in a brief piece for Pacific Standard, Dr. Ferrall argued — compellingly, I think — that this trend has dire implications for an American polity already afflicted by a raging pathology: Read the rest of this entry →
Posted in Liminalities
Tags: college, Dystopia, jane jacobs, liberal education, Morris Berman, u.s. politics
Posted by The Teeming Brain
This week we bring you an exceptionally rich list of excellent reading and, in two cases, excellent listening. Topics include: the inherent — and ongoing — problem with financial institutions that are "too big to fail"; the siege of higher education in its traditional form by tech startups and the exploding online college movement; the overt, frightening, and thoroughly Orwellian/dystopian militarization of America's cities as domestic law enforcement is remade in the mold of a counterinsurgency operation; the sci-fi sounding but very real possibility of having your brain hacked and your sensitive data stolen via consumer-grade EEG headsets used in gaming and other activities; a brilliant interview with esoteric author Guido Mina di Sospiro by Teeming Brain columnist David Metcalfe at Reality Sandwich; research into the phenomenon of hearing voices and the ways that "normal" people can learn to speak to God; excellent new pieces on F. Scott Fitgerald's epic depression, H.P. Lovecraft's life and work (from the Smithsonian [!]), and the discovery of a copy of Frankenstein inscribed by Mary Shelley to Lord Byron; and two recent pieces from NPR on musical matters, the first examining America's interesting shift toward a craving for "sadness and ambiguity" in pop music over the past 50 years, and the second profiling John Cage on the hundredth anniversary of his birth.
Posted in Teeming Links
Tags: capitalism, collapse, depression, education, f. scott fitzgerald, Frankenstein, guido mina di sospiro, H.P. Lovecraft, horror, john cage, lord byron, mary shelley, music, religion, surveillance


text:
Speaking of Chicago....
Picture of life in a one party town....
Way too nice to Senator Markey
In honor?
Our war on ISIS?
Why funding for Planned Parenthood matters
The apparent state of climatology
.....it appears that the gang members arrested after a horrible murder in Mississippi were members of gangs founded in Chicago. Another account from Mississippi indicates that journalists were following leads assuming that those arrested were not Chicagoans, not Mississippians.
I'd thought it was mostly just the Crips and Bloods practicing "evangelistic thuggery", and that mostly west of the Mississippi, but I guess I am wrong. The question is whether the problem is the drug trade, or whether young men sent to the "safe south" by relatives in Chicago are bringing Chicago-style crime to their new home.
Courtesy Mr. Dilettante. It's worth noting that Jane Byrne probably is the most responsible mayor they've had in the past half century, and she's famous mostly for living in Cabrini Green and preventing the Chicago Fire Department from murdering Dan Goodwin by washing him off the Hancock Center with fire hoses.
Why nobody ever got prosecuted for that one is beyond me--it's certainly attempted murder, and it illustrates how pervasive corruption is in the Windy City. And prophetically, Goodwin, a.k.a. "Spider-man", was campaigning for improved firefighting techniques for skyscrapers. Remembering 2001, he seems to have been rather prophetic.
....was Dr. Judith Curry. Now, watching the video, I will grant that she made a lot of good scientific points in responding to Sen. Markey, but given that Markey's position was more or less the basic logical error of "appeal to authority" or "appeal to popularity", I think she was far too gentle on him. Here's how I would have responded:
Senator Markey, your question is a variant of the genetic fallacy called "appeal to authority", and as such it not only does not rise to the level of a compelling scientific argument, it also doesn't pass the basic logical tests that I was taught in elementary school as a way to recognize propaganda. Now as a lawyer and Senator, you should be ashamed of yourself for using such an illogical line of thinking.
Speaking as someone who has learned a bit of the history of science myself, I would like to remind you that in 1884, Albert Michelson opened the Ryerson Physics laboratory by claiming that future discoveries in physics would be made in the sixth decimal place. A couple of decades later, another Albert named "Einstein" shattered that idea. Around the same time, the hypothesis of the luminiferous aether as a medium for light propagation was the consensus position, and before that, the consensus position was that fire had something to do with a substance called caloric.
Obviously, scientific consensus has never defined truth and never will. Now if you would like me to address the data and evidence, I shall be glad to do so, but I will require that you stop these illogical fantasies of a 97% consensus establishing truth.
...of President Obama having told Parisians that mass killings don't happen outside the United States, his claim that the recent atrocity in California might have been just workplace violence, and in honor of his opening of all combat roles to women before a single woman passed the Marine Combat Infantry Course, I figured that the detachment from reality of the President could be well described by this Jimi Hendrix classic.
Either he's lost touch with reality, or maybe he needs to get himself to Sister Generose's building for something akin to narcissistic personality disorder, or maybe we were right back in 2008 when we warned that maybe, just maybe, we ought to take his associations with Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, and a host of other radicals seriously.
What color is the sun on your planet, Mr. President? You're cordially invited back to reality.
According to Dick Morris, it appears that the reason that we haven't been bombing ISIS oil tankers is because the President wants to avoid environmental damage--as if a regional war doesn't amount to exactly that.
Actually, it's worse than that. Since the tankers are being driven into Turkey, Iraq, and Jordan for the oil to be refined, what we have is the Obama administration utterly failing to persuade the Turks and Iraqis to close the border to uncertified oil. Here's a map of the approximate areas controlled by each group, It wouldn't take that much effort to interrupt the flow of money to ISIS.
For reference, one would assume that preventing ISIS from getting its oil to market by closing borders would reduce the environmental impact even more. This is a failure on the part of the President that makes his comments about mass shootings in Paris look positively intelligent in comparison.
And given that we've only how given the OK to kill ISIS leaders, it's getting harder and harder to argue against the idea that we've actually been supporting them. Certainly we've not been waging any serious war against them.
Lost in the debate over whether government funds ought to be given to Planned Parenthood is exactly what it achieves. Proponents would argue that the large amount of prescriptions written for contraception, pap smears performed, and referrals for mammograms indicate that Planned Parenthood is not, indeed, all about abortion.
Let's look at the statistics, however. Planned Parenthood's Guttmacher Institute estimates approximately 1800 abortionists in 2008, 38% fewer than in 1995. The same source notes that a 1st trimester abortion cost about $470 in 2009, and it's well known that not too many abortionists do second and third trimester infanticides.
So what we have, more or less, is revenue of about half a billion dollars (maybe twice that including 2nd and third trimester abortions) spread among close to 2000 abortionists; somewhere between $200k to $500k per abortionist. After you subtract the costs for buildings, staff, and the like, that's not much left for the average gynecologist's $250k salary. Averaged for medicine in general, your doctor takes 10% or less of your medical bills--so the cash flow for abortion is in a really bad place.
We would infer that the median abortionist would need a second job in order to make ends meet; after taxes, school debt, and the like, they often will not have the option to take a lower wage to be "charitable". That runs into a problem; an awful lot of people, even those who aren't particularly pro-life, don't want to patronize doctors or even clinics or hospitals that provide abortions. So doctors who perform abortions find their career options limited, especially outside of large metropolitan areas.
That problem is solved as Planned Parenthood gets subsidies to provide care to the poor, who do not have a choice in where they get care. If we assume the three hundred thousand abortions committed annually by Planned Parenthood are paid at the ordinary rate, that's somewhere around a quarter billion dollars for 500 doctors--again, that doesn't pay the bills. Have them do a lot of contraception, pap smears, and the like and add in another half billion dollars (plus state subsidies and the like), and the business proposition makes a lot more sense.
In other words, government subsidies are about the only thing that keeps abortion available outside of large metropolitan areas.
Prominent among those attending this week's climate change summit is John Koskinen, head of the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Koskinen has even doubled down on his devotion to saving the planet by accumulating $5400 in limousine fees.
My friend Mr. Dilettante notes that he'll start believing in the majority theory when they start doing their meetings via Skype, and I tend to agree. But that said, it seems that we have an even more basic criterion; we can start taking the global warming hypothesis seriously when attendees are actually drawn from the pool of people able to significantly contribute to the discussion. My hunch is that Mr. Koskinen has even less expertise in climatology than he does on the ethics of tax collection--which is of course saying something.
Unless, of course, the point is his feedback on how to implement a carbon tax, that presumably without the consent of Congress. Which is, really, probably the point; control of the energy supply.


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__KEIN_INHALTSVERZEICHNIS__
Die Liste der Monuments historiques in Brasparts führt die Monuments historiques in der französischen Gemeinde Brasparts auf.

Liste der Bauwerke

|}

Liste der Objekte

 Monuments historiques (Objekte) in Brasparts in der Base Palissy des französischen Kultusministeriums

Literatur
 Le Patrimoine des Communes du Finistère. Flohic Editions, Band 2, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-84234-039-6, S. 893–896.

Weblinks

Brasparts

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Younger than Brandon Jenner by 16 years.
Younger than Brody Jenner by 13 years.
Younger than Kendall Jenner by 1 year.
Younger than Khloé Kardashian by 13 years.
Younger than Kim Kardashian by 16 years.
Younger than Kourtney Kardashian by 18 years.
Younger than Rob Kardashian by 10 years.
Younger than Jennifer Aniston by 2 years.
Heisman Trophy 1992, team University of Miami, as quarterback. Teams Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Indianapolis Colts. College Football Hall of Fame 2009. Florida Sports Hall of Fame 2011. Orange Bowl Hall of Fame 1998. Maxwell Award 1992. Walter Camp Award 1992. Davey O'Brien Award 1992. National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame. University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame 2003. Chic Harley Award 1992. University of Miami Ring of Honor 2008. Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award 1992.
Founder and member of boy band New Edition. Movie Crossover Hollywood Walk of Fame: A star at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard as a member of New Edition for contributions to the recording industry; ceremony: 23 January 2017.
A star at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard as a member of New Edition for contributions to the recording industry; ceremony: 23 January 2017.
Linebacker. Teams University of Arkansas, San Diego Chargers. Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame 1995. College Football Hall of Fame 2000. Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy 1982. Southwest Conference Hall of Fame 2015. Texas High School Football Hall of Fame 1989. University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor 1997.
Younger than Melanie Griffith by 3 years.
Movies Philadelphia, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, Evita, The Mask of Zorro, Frida, Spy Kids, Shrek 2 as the voice of Puss in Boots. Voice of Nasonex Bee in commercials. Hollywood Walk of Fame: A star at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard for contributions to the motion picture industry; ceremony: 18 October 2005.
Older than Alexis Arquette by 9 years.
Older than David Arquette by 12 years.
Older than Patricia Arquette by 8 years.
Older than Richmond Arquette by 4 years.
In original voice role as Charlie Brown in animated movies It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, You're in Love, Charlie Brown, He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown. Jailed for stalking and threatening two women, then sent to rehab for treatment.
Died 2 days after a heart attack and injuries in a crash just as he completed a race at an event named for his uncle.
Younger than Phil Spector by 2 years.
Lead vocals for the group The Ronettes. Song Be My Baby Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2007 as a member of The Ronettes.
The Vocal Group Hall of Fame 2004 as a member of The Ronettes.
Vocals and guitar. Grew up in Memphis. Band Bread. Songs If, Make It with You Hit Parade Hall of Fame 2008 as a member of Bread.
The Vocal Group Hall of Fame 2006 as a member of Bread.
Member of group The Righteous Brothers. Songs You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin', Unchained Melody. Died of heart problems mixed with cocaine drug use. See also Bill Medley Hit Parade Hall of Fame 2010 as a member of The Righteous Brothers.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2003 as a member of The Righteous Brothers.
The Vocal Group Hall of Fame 2005 as a member of The Righteous Brothers.
Anaheim / Orange County Walk of Stars: A star as a member of The Righteous Brothers for Show Business fame; ceremony: 15 October 2008.
A star as a member of The Righteous Brothers for Show Business fame; ceremony: 15 October 2008.
Outfielder, right field. Eleven consecutive 20-home run seasons. Teams Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Athletics, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees. Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame 2006. National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame. Hollywood Walk of Fame: A star at 6807 Hollywood Boulevard for involvement with team Los Angeles Dodgers; ceremony: 20 June 2008.
Song Big Bad John. Movie Diamonds are Forever in role of Willard Whyte. Sold "Jimmy Dean" sausage in ads on television. Country Music Hall of Fame 2010. Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame 1997. Texas Country Music Hall of Fame 2005. West Texas Walk of Fame 1984.
Older than Connie Stevens by 9 years.
Older than Debbie Reynolds by 3 years.
Older than Elizabeth Taylor by 3 years.
TV show Coke Time with Eddie Fisher. Movies BUtterfield 8, Bundle of Joy. Songs Any Time, I'm Walking Behind You, Oh, My Pa-pa, I'm Yours, Lady of Spain, Count Your Blessings. Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame 1988. Hit Parade Hall of Fame 2009. Hollywood Walk of Fame: A star at 6241 Hollywood Boulevard for contributions to the recording industry.
A star at 1724 Vine Street for contributions to the television industry.
Major definer of the "high lonesome sound" as a high tenor. Vocals and guitar with the Bill Monroe group Blue Grass Boys. Formed his own group Sunny Mountain Boys. Songs Ocean of Diamonds, Sophronie, Widow Maker, Sunny Side of the Mountain. International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame 1995.
Santa Clarita Walk of Western Stars 2006. Hollywood Walk of Fame: A star at 6660 Hollywood Boulevard for contributions to the motion picture industry.
Palm Springs Walk of Stars: A star at 200 S. Palm Canyon Drive; ceremony: 9 December 2007.
Group The Four Aces. Songs Three Coins in the Fountain, Love is a Many Splendored Thing. In Philadelphia he hosted a Saturday afternoon talent TV show, Al Alberts Showcase. Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame 1988. Hit Parade Hall of Fame 2009 as a member of The Four Aces.
Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame 1988 as a member of The Four Aces.
The Vocal Group Hall of Fame 2001 as a member of The Four Aces.
Third baseman, right field. Team Washington Senators. North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame 1975.
Movies Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Little Big Man, True Grit, Conan the Destroyer, Petticoat Politics. Blacklisted after testimony before the HUAC and did not work in films or television for 12 years.
Older than Maxine Jones by 4 years.
Movies The Story of Will Rogers, Little Fauss and Big Halsey, Walking Tall, Rocketship X-M. TV series Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, The Rockford Files in role of Rockford's father Hollywood Walk of Fame: A star at 7047 Hollywood Boulevard for contributions to the television industry.
Creator of a series of electronic guitars and amplifiers. Guitar Center RockWalk 1987. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1992. International Guitar Hall of Fame. Anaheim / Orange County Walk of Stars: A star for Show Business fame.
Irving Thalberg, until his earlier death.
Younger than Irving Thalberg by 1 year.
Role of Juliet in movie Romeo and Juliet (1936). Canada's Walk of Fame 2008. Hollywood Walk of Fame: A star at 6636 Hollywood Boulevard for contributions to the motion picture industry.
Movies Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Wizard of Oz in which he was the Tinman. Hollywood Walk of Fame: A star at 6435 Hollywood Boulevard for contributions to radio.
Younger than Harry Warner by 5 years.
Older than Jack L. Warner by 4 years.
Co-founder of Warner Bros. Credited with procuring the technology that enabled Warner Bros. to produce the film industry's first feature-length talking picture, The Jazz Singer. California Hall of Fame 2012. Hollywood Walk of Fame: A star at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard for contributions to the motion picture industry.
Republican. President of the US 1929-1933. First president born west of the Mississippi.


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Java > Java SE, EE, ME > java > text > NumberFormat _ Java API By Example, From Geeks To Geeks.
The getCurrency ( ) method returns a java.util.Currency object.
You can print it directly using System.out.println ( ) , as the toString ( ) method in java.util.Currency is overridden to return the Currency Code ( USD,.... ) .
If your current Locale is US, the following code will print " USD ".