In the beginning ...

“In the beginning … the earth was formless and void” (Genesis, 1; commentary by JMS, in the beginning there was chaos and the void and things have not changed much since, except that entropy has been increasing, which is paradoxical) “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast the understanding. Who determined the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who stretched the line upon it? Whereupon were the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner-stone thereof” (The Book of Job, 38) “O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying! The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. All our knowledge brings us nearer to death, But nearness to death no nearer to God. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Brings us farther from God and nearer to the Dust” (Choruses from the Rock, T. S. Eliot) What is reality and what can we know? I know that the square root of 2 is not a rational number. So much for rationality. I learned from my father than the ancient Hebrews had to approximate the value of  in order to build the temple in Jerusalem. We can approximate irrationality … well, the truth is that we embody irrationality. I believe that everything I see is real but what I see is what probably existed a few nanoseconds ago. Why believe the future will resemble the past? What evidence can exist to establish that the future (that which has not been experienced) will resemble the past (what has been experienced)? We think time moves in only one direction, yet in space we can walk back and forth, pacing, trying to understand who we are and why we are here. But we are told that time and space are interrelated … there is just space-time … and, by the way, it is curved. Why does HE/SHE/IT/THEY keep throwing curve balls? Why should there be light? Well, maybe HE/SHE/IT/THEY is faster than a speeding bullet but not faster than the speed of light … only nothing can go faster than the speed of light … remember that beginning … there was nothing … just chaos and the void … moving faster than the speed of light … OR, maybe in the beginning there was stuff and nonsense and things have not changed much since. Somewhere long ago I read that creation stories exist in many different cultures and religions around the world … is that not odd? I now suspect that rumors can travel faster than the speed of light. Who could know what there was in the beginning? What does ‘the beginning’ even mean? I met a girl and thought it was the beginning of something special. I might have been mistaken. But there is no mistake in my proof that the square root of 2 is not a rational number. Why should irrational numbers exist? Do they exist? I can count the pages in a book and determine whether there is an odd number or an even number of pages. Things that can be numbered must be odd or even. Must? How about the number of grains of sand on Pensacola Beach. Grains of sand, while small, can be counted and numbered, so the number of grains of sand on Pensacola Beach must be odd or even. Who will do the counting and how long will it take. Meanwhile, the tides come and gp while the “women come and go talking of Michelangelo” (my apologies to T. S. Eliot). Grains of sand are deposited on the beach and some are swept away while the counting continues. Sometimes, numbers are not only irrational … they are irrelevant. Where were you while I was counting the grains of sand on Pensacola Beach and measuring out my days with coffee spoons (I just can’t get J. Alfred out of my head). Wittgenstein said that what was mysterious (i.e., unknowable) was why there was anything at all (Tractatus, 6.44). The world … why should it exist … created in six days followed by a day of rest in some traditions … the Tractatus consisting of 6 propositions (with sub-statements) followed by the remarkable conclusion that what we cannot speak about [meaningfully] we must pass over in silence (see https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5740/5740-pdf.pdf). When one starts out in life (I started out much younger, by the way), one has no idea how it will end. I wonder, if there is a God who got things going, did HE/SHE/IT/THEY know how it would end or if it would end. Must it end? What happens when entropy reaches infinity? (Who could know? Some questions have no answer.

The rise and the fall

My older and wiser brother (Daniel Earl Spector, born Dec 19th in 1942, now resting in peace for several years) was one of the very few people I know who read The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (a six volume treatise by Edward Gibbon which is critical of Islam, Judaism and Christianity and ultimately blames both the rise and the fall on Christians although many factors contributed to the fall, including corruption, invasion, slave labor, economic problems, and the rise of Eastern empires – all currently existing factors). Were my brother still with us and available to advise those in and out of power, his advice would probably be to read Gibbon’s work and learn from history that greed and lies do not a stable society make. “Notice how the chest rises when praising one’s own accomplishments.” “Notice how the jaw drops when blaming others for real and imagined ills.” “Brow beating and chest pounding do not a truth make.” The unfilled need to be praised is betrayed by the fake news that one embraces. I remember my brother telling me more than 60 years ago that what happened in Nazi Germany could happen in America. I did not believe him then but have since come to my senses. It is happening here. And now. In plain sight. With no shame but lots of blame to go around and around and back again. I used to think the path to insight and knowledge was through logic and philosophy. My brother thought it was through memory and history. Someone said "It's not the earth the meek inherit ... it's the dirt" ... If one's worth is judged by the number and quality of one's friends, then I am amazingly wealthy. ... And yet in the midst of racism, intolerance, injustice, greed and hate there is beauty and innocence and grace ... and yet there is hope for this species called the race to the bottom ... mike see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceX5jJ5fggs also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a23945btJYw

Just remembering

A comment by Curt Bonk about my Legends and Legacies video got me thinking about so many impressive scholars I have had the pleasure of knowing … and I am thinking about one trait they all shared … namely, a willingness to listen and accept the views of others without ever showing an ounce of arrogance or self-importance … I am specifically recalling many meetings with Bob Gagné, Bob Tennyson, Dave Merrill, Charlie Reigeluth, O. K. Bouwsma, Ed Allaire, Stuart Spicker, Walt Davis, Rich Mayer, Bob Kozma, Dick Clark, Paal Davidsen, Norbert Seel, Sanne Dijkstra, Ton de Jong, and so many others whose names escape my aging mind … and then I think about so many others I have met who are into self-promoting and boasting about their accomplishments so much of the time … I am too much like the latter group and too little like the former … so I am now wondering if humility is an indicator of wisdom … and, I should add that two of those luminaries called me stupid in front of others for something I said … of course both Gagné and Spicker were right … I had said something stupid … but their words and guidance helped me through the fog of my arrogance …

Shallowness and superficiality are pervasive

I am finally stopping. No more listening to empty-headed news reports. With the exception of Rachel Maddow, the reporters and interviewers seem to be aiming for headlines – some simple-minded thing to put out to the equally mindless public. The obsession with headlines, deadlines, redlines, and battlelines is disturbing … no, meaningless … no, just plain mean … with so little emphasis and analysis given to foodlines and lifelines. Where is the humanity lost in information ... in misinformation ... where is that voice that spoke to Job and asked where Job was when the mountains and rivers were created? Where is the humility?

Thoughts on the value of repetition in learning and instruction

Time changes things. Technologies change. Technologies change what people can do and are doing. Technologies change what people will want to do. And, technologies can also change what people will want to avoid doing. That is one of my mantras. A second on is this: It is not about the technology; it is about learning; it is about the use of technology to support learning; and what counts as learning is a stable and persistent change in what a person knows and can do, as Gagné and others have said on many occasions. Do it again, the coach says. Say it again, the language teacher says. Read it again nearly every teacher says. Watch it again the movie enthusiast says. I omit the things my parents used to tell me for the sake of brevity. Repetition seems to be an important principle of learning (see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228318502_Repetition_is_the_First_Principle_of_All_Learning ... and https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/ed/10/01/repetition-repetition-repetition and many more) … but, repetition can lead to boredom … as noted in the first reference … but bringing new eyes and ears to the same activities and resources can deepen one’s understanding … SO … the critical factor may not be the same or different activities and resources but wide eyes and tuned in ears … aka, an open mind … just a passing thought. I think of things I have read multiple times … such as Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and Camus’s Myth of Sisyphus and Gagné’s Conditions of Learning … and each time I stumble across something new or puzzling, such as “We picture facts to ourselves” (Tractatus 2.1) and yet many often picture things that are not facts to themselves … or “One must imagine Sisyphus happy” … why is that when his fate is endless and tiresome labor … or why was Gagné so intent on separating verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitudes when they seem so often interconnected. Gagné and Merrill did write about enterprises which involve interconnected kinds of tasks. Keep reading and keep thinking. Read it again. Discuss it again with a colleague. Insights seem to happen irregularly and at unexpected moments. To understand Tolstoy, one should read A Confession. To understand Wittgenstein, it is important to look into his family life after reading Tractatus 7 … “whereof one cannot speak, whereof one must remain silent” and then he goes on to write extensively about language games. Why? Repetition can lead to boredom but it can also lead to improved memory and performance and occasionally to important insights. What matters? The technology? What matters is the learning. What matters? What one already believes or knows. Learning involves a persistent and stable change in … if no change … then no learning. Children are masterful learners as they do not typically let their beliefs and prior knowledge get in the way of learning something new, and they are generally open to change. As T. S. Eliot notes in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands That lift and drop a question on your plate; Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea. … Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. … I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. … I grow old ... I grow old ... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. … That poem is something else I have read perhaps a 100 times or more, and each time I seem to focus on somewhat different parts of that remarkable poem. In the shuffle and scuffle of life, I have learned that I know very little even though I have had the remarkable pleasure of having had amazing teachers and mentors. “Whereof one cannot speak, whereof one must remain silent.” Why is it so hard to remain silent?

Yom Kippur – 16 September 2021

I have to say this on this day of atonement and forgiveness … I ask forgiveness for my country. I ask forgiveness for the blind ones who want to condemn a general who helped avoid a war with China … General Milley should be praised and not condemned … the world is upside down thanks to #45 who put himself on top of all things and crushed so many of those who did not agree or jump on board the Trump train. For the critics of General Milley, a Princeton graduate with a graduate degree from Columbia University and a distinguished military career … can any of the records of his attackers hold a faint candle to his record? The stone throwers trip over the pebbles of their lives while trying to diminish others. Okay … I have my own shortcomings to admit and seek forgiveness. I have not been such a great parent or spouse or sibling … too many things to mention specifically … I have helped some students but not helped others in need of help … I anger too easily, and I often say what I am thinking without considering better ways to express myself. I make jokes about serious issues to draw attention to things I regard as stupid or wrongheaded. Sometimes my jokes are offensive or in bad taste. Bite my tongue. I have lapses of memory and sometimes forget that I have lapses of memory. The point is that I am a skeptic at heart … a person in search of meaning and truth and admitting to knowing less than I sometimes pretend to know. Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance, All our ignorance brings us nearer to death …. All men are ready to invest their money But most expect dividends. I say to you: Make perfect your will . I say: take no thought of the harvest, But only of proper sowing … The desert is not remote in southern tropics, The desert is not only around the corner, The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you, The desert is in the heart of your brother. The good man is the builder, if he build what is good. (from T. S. Eliot’s “Choruses from the Rock”) I have no great words or thoughts of my own … I steal from others who have gone before. Most often from Bob Dylan: "It's never been my duty to remake the world at large, nor is it my intention to sound the battle charge." Before I go I can at least say that I have not killed another person … I have not caused physical harm to another person … I have loved and been loved … mostly by my children and grandchildren … and I have had amazing friends who live in various places across this threatened planet that we can temporarily call home.

A New Direction for a Troubled Nation: Head North … or escape to Bali

A New Direction for a Troubled Nation: Head North … or escape to Bali Horace advised youth to head West to find a new beginning. Perhaps that can be modified to head North, perhaps to Greeley, Colorado … perhaps to escape Hurricane Ida … or perhaps to escape rabbel rousing rebels and trumplicans seeking to resurrect a lost war, a lost election and return to a time of sedition and slavery. Those were the days, my friend. But then the one road we have traveled since 1619 has shattered and split. There are actually some who are advocating for every American adult to own and carry a gun … as if that will reduce gun deaths in the country with one of the worst gun violence records on the planet – the worst among developed nations. Go NRA. Give me an AR-15 or give me death … be sure to include an unhealthy supply of bullets … preferably at least 1000 rounds of 5.56x45mm M193 NATO certified 55 grain bullets. Head North – take your friends and family – a house divided against itself cannot stand. All those from whom I am fleeing are allegedly followers of Abraham Lincoln and give some recognition to the original Abraham as well, who heard “get thee up and go to a far place” and he went. I want to escape the nonsense, the hatred, the racism, the false patriotic venom, but I stumble on as do most – “Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship, My senses have been stripped, My hands can't feel to grip, My toes too numb to step, Wait only for my boot heels to be wandering.” A song to pass the time … a dream to avoid the ugliness … but hurricanes come and go at an increasing and intensifying rate … large scale human tragedies continue unabated … no large scale solution seems on the horizon … education for all? A dream .. critical thinking development for youth … another dream … echoes of the choruses from the rock stick in my mind - “Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” What can one small and old person do to improve the human condition … the answer is simple – “When you see your neighbor carrying something, help him with his load, and don’t go mistaking paradise for that home across the road.” Or, according to Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, a devout Jew, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” … the wealthy and privileged few … Or, according to Rabbi Hillel, “if one is not for oneself, then who will be, but then if one is only for oneself [like so many wealthy and privileged people I happen to know] then what is one, and if not now, then when?” And, there is the lesson my father, Rabbi Joseph Spector, left me when I decided not to take a rabbinical fellowship and break the long line of rabbis in my family dating back at least to Rabbi Yitshak Elkahan Spektor – my father’s advice “was to be the voice that encourages, the ear that listens, the eye that reflects the hand that guides, the face that does not turn way … be a teacher.” “With one hand waving free” … “a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across the floors of silent seas” … mike spector

Life as Usual

Life as Usual The advice I keep getting is to ignore what is happening around the world and in this troubled country and just focus on your family and your job. Such advice sounds reasonable, and, if followed, might well lead to reduced stress and less anguish. However, I find such advice impossible to follow. I am living in a state where the governor wants to outlaw mask mandates and punish organizations that impose such mandates. I live in a state of denial. It is not a person’s individual right to endanger others, or so I was taught. Those who knowingly endanger others are acting irresponsibly and if others die as a result of that irresponsibility, then those persons are guilty of murder… in the highest degree and in the court of human kindness and understanding. The defense at the Nuremburg trials that “I was just following orders” did not exonerate anyone. Following orders that result in avoidable and unnecessary death is being an accomplice to murder. How can I ignore such stupidity in my own country? Elsewhere, we seem to be saving our own but putting our allies in Afghanistan at high risk. I used to be an Air Force officer, an intelligence officer who was not especially intelligent about keeping my views to myself, but I think we have obligations to those who have helped us in the past. Is that not what friends and allies do? Pointing fingers at others is no excuse for poor performance. But … why were we there and what were we fighting for? A few of us thought we should have left long ago or should never have gone … but memories and images of 9-11 are hard to ignore. Meanwhile, acts of random violence seem to be increasing. But the acts are not so random. They are aimed at those least able to defend themselves. Minorities continue to be oppressed in this land of the free and home of the brave. Immigrants are no longer welcomed as tired, and poor and huddled masses yearning to breathe free … they are accused without evidence of being criminals and carriers of COVID-19 … while the wealthy white class continues to denigrate the non-wealthy and non-white people who do the daily work and provide the daily bread for us all. Life cannot be as usual for me anymore. I see nonsense and stupidity all around. Mike Spector A disappointed citizen

Meanwhile …

While the earth is on fire … while storms are increasingly ravaging the planet … while seas are rising … while hopes are falling ... while people are starving and dying … Meanwhile, the big lie continues to thrive and Trumplicans are inciting hate and vitriol … meanwhile, we sit back and watch in disbelief as democracy is dying … while people are lying … while people are vying for power and profits … while the real thieves are not wearing masks … meanwhile … In the time it took me to write this short note, about 50 persons in the USA were killed by guns, about half that number died needlessly from COVID-19 in the USA, countless children are starving and separated from their families at the border, meanwhile, we sit back and watch … “it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” ((https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56964/speech-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow)… How could Shakespeare have known?

Faith or Fate?

Faith or Fate? I am Jewish and was raised to believe that “The lord our G-d is one.” So why is there evil and suffering? Much evil and suffering is recorded in the Five Books of Moses. I asked my father, rest his soul, about this apparent paradox many times growing up in East Tennessee. His answer was a variation of this: It is up to us to make this a better world. That reminds me of T. S. Eliot’s remark that the “good man is the builder if he builds what is good.” Still, I wonder why G-d would create such wondrous creatures as elephants, buffalos, and whales to have them slaughtered for their tusks, skins and oil? Why would G-d create magnificent mountains and forests to have them burned and butchered for lumber and ore. Why would G-d create great rivers to have them polluted by uncaring people? Why would G-d create such diverse people to have them kill each other in senseless combat and hatred. I have wondered about such things for more than 60 years, and I have no better insight than what my father provided. “I should have been a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across the floors of silent seas.” Is it about gathering as much for yourself while those in nearby neighborhoods have no jobs, no food, and little prospects for living and thriving in the promised land? How much is enough? Why do people who profess deep religious faith care so little for others … for the poor and starving … for the planet? How much is enough? How much is too much? Ask the billionaire class. What is good? What good will last from what we do now and in the future? I have no clue. The future is unknown … and it seems particularly dark these days in the midst of a pandemic, pandemic deniers and the big lie that won’t die. There are some … many … who have managed to bring out the worst in people. I imagine that each of us can name a few. My father’s message was simple … your job as a human being is to bring out the best in others. Why did he leave me with such an impossible task?

Just heard from a friend

I just got an unexpected call from a friend who lives half a world away … in India. He called just to say hello and ask how I was doing. It is hard to estimate how much that call lifted my spirits … in the midst of a pandemic in which his country is not doing well, in the midst of pandemic stupidity in this country, in the midst of so much hate and vitriol, in the midst of so much suffering and so little empathy, in the midst ... of the big lie (fact check - he lost). My advice … call a friend just to say hello … call a friend just to say I care … and then get back to the business of making this a better world for all … not just for those who have it all. Call a friend. It is highly unlikely that the limits of your imagination conform to reality ... nor mine. "I'd rather be a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas" - from T. E. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (see https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45564/the-world-is-too-much-with-us)... and this from William Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much Us" - "... late and soon, getting andspending, we lay waster our powers ... little we see in nature that is ours" - see https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45564/the-world-is-too-much-with-us.

Random Thoughts on the Wisdom and Ethics of my Father

For some reason I find myself thinking about my father and some isolated conversations I seem to recall from the years preceding my bar mitzvah. I think I asked about the stories of so many in the Torah who were flawed or who committed bad acts. It starts of course with Cain but includes Abraham and Moses and so many others. My father said that the point of the records reported in Jewish liturgy is that all of us are flawed. We all have shortcomings, and the point of those stories is to understand that we all fall prey to bad inclinations on occasion but that we can strive to become less flawed. The one character in Jewish liturgy who was the least flawed suffered more than most – Job. As a result, I have long been fascinated with Job and that book. What sticks with me still today is G-d’s questions (or harsh reminders) to Job: “Where were you when I created the earth and set the stars in motion?” Today that seems like G-d asking Steven Hawking what he knew about things prior to the big bang. So I managed to gain two big lessons from my father that have stayed with me all these years. First, I, like everyone else, have flaws … more than I care to admit even to myself. Second, I, like everyone else, have limited knowledge. There are things I do not know, will not know, and can never know. Given those early lessons, I decided I could not follow in my father’s footsteps and become a rabbi … I was always amazed at how well he fulfilled the many duties and obligations of being a rabbi. So, I became a wanderer … drifting from place to place and profession to profession. If one concludes that all people have flaws and limited knowledge, then how should one interact with others and how should one conduct one’s life? Accumulating wealth and words of praise seems like the wrong thing to do especially when one realizes that so many have so little and when so many others have done so many things far more remarkable than anything I can do … where is my place and what can I contribute? I find myself asking but not answering … remembering but not doing … one can be a better person … I still try on occasion to be better … mostly with my children but I have no indications of success. Well, few indications. None of my children have become mass murderers … none have been convicted of criminal behavior … all have graduate degrees … and all have been loved. What more can one ask? To paraphrase Robert Zimmerman, “may they always do for others, and let others do for them.”

Who is responsible?

At the end of "Night and Fog" Resnais asks "Whis is responsible?" as Nazi officer and Kapo one after another at the Nuremburg trials say he was just following orders - https://lisathatcher.com/2013/02/04/night-and-fog-resnais-asks-who-is-to-blame-and-reminds-us-we-have-to-know-film-review/ After the insurrection on Jan 6, 2021, we should be asking the same question ... who was responsible? We should be asking ... not answering ... but some do not even want to ask. Reminds me of the four sons and the four questions at the Pesach seder .... a wise son, a wicked son, a simple son, and one who does not know how to ask ... we have four or more groups in the USA ... some who are wise and want to understand, some who are wicked and were perpetrators, some who are simple and only accept simple-minded words, and some who do who want the others to even talk about the question. And then there are the daughters who become mothers and do not want their sons and daughters to die needlessly or in vain. We have not come far from that Birmingham Sunday in 1963 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ0y-vO9QLE For what it's worth, we have not learned much from history - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5JCrSXkJY Confucius - "He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger." Socrates - "If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it." Aristotle - "At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst." Nietzsche - All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth." Washington - ""It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one." Marx - "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." Camus - "One must imagine Sisyphus happy." Wittgenstein - "The world of the happy is not the same as the world of the unhappy." Mao - "The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history." Trump - "A little more moderation would be good. Of course, my life hasn't exactly been one of moderation." Well, then, who is responsible? The answer, from Jewish prayers asking for forgiveness, is that we all are responsible. We are all responsible for each other. See https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/confessing-our-sins/ and https://www.aish.com/h/hh/yom-kippur/guide/Exploring_the_Al-Chet_Prayer.html Enter, stage left, the chorus singing the words of the Rock - see https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/choruses-%C3%B4%C3%A7%C2%A3the-rock%C3%B4%C3%A7%C3%B8

the views of Majorie Taylor Greene ... and too many others ...

The news: https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/25/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-holocaust-outrage/index.html 

Night and Fog: https://vimeo.com/189672641 

 My older and wiser brother (hopefully resting in peace), said it could happen in America ... I did not believe him so many years ago growing up in East Tennessee ... now I believe him ... It could happen here as Trump's treatment of immigrants at the border suggests and as Marjorie Taylor Greene demonstrates ... she is Trump's Kapo ... 

 the problem of evil has been known for centuries ... see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil#:~:text=The%20problem%20of%20evil%20is,was%20popularized%20by%20David%20Hume. ... see also https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz-evil/ ... or just look around on this anniversary of the murder of George Floyd ... 

in America there has been systematic disregard for the sanctity of life since immigrants arrived here with slaves centuries ago ... and the fact that so many sanctimonious republicans are encouraging the destruction of this fragile democracy is so discouraging ... in a land "where seldom is heard a discouraging word" ... nonsense ... 

 we are not innocent ... as the Al Chet prayer at Yom Kippur suggests ... we are all responsible ... (see https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/6577/jewish/Text-of-Al-Chet.htm) I find it very difficult to focus on my little patch of existence when there is so much brutality , greed, and degradation of human life at such high levels in this country ... I am depressed ... 

as the donkey in Shrek said, I need a hug . .. 

 Afterthoughts: 

 Having now received a virtual hug from cousin Becky, and having thought more about what I was thinking I wanted to add the following:

First, it is not just brutality, greed and degradation of human life in high places ... it is all around at nearly every level in nearly every neighborhood. I live in the most violent country on the planet. 

 And, I think it was Epicurus who articulated the problem of evil and an all knowing, all powerful, and always benevolent supreme being - namely, if that being knows about evil but does not prevent it, then the notion of all benevolent is out the window ... if that being knows about evil but cannot prevent it, then out goes all powerful or perhaps that being is unaware of evil and there goes all knowing ... 

 The Greeks introduced this problem a couple of thousand years ago ... and along came Leibniz centuries later ... when I was a doctoral student at the Univ of TX a visiting professor came and offered a seminar on Leibniz and how Leibniz still defended this as the best of all possible worlds ... I do not recall that professor's name nor the details of the argument but it seemed like his defense of Leibniz relied on our ability to make this a better world ....of course I was impressed at the time ... but no longer .... 

 "the arc of justice" must be infinitely long ... or at least a lot longer than I can imagine ... but then my imagination is limited and reality may not conform to the limits of my imagination ...

 What seems a little surprising to me is that after all my years in higher education in the field of learning technologies is that things that happened to me some 50 years ago seem to dominate my thinking ... and I have a bad memory ... 

 "I should have been a pair of ragged claws ... Scuttling across the floors of silent seas." 

 Name that tune and you win an all expense trip to the nearest coffee shop ... 

 my name is michael, mechanical man .... drive me and steer me wherever you can ...

HOW THE TRUE WORLD ENDED

HOW THE "TRUE WORLD" FINALLY BECAME A FABLE

The History of an Error By Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)

A chapter from his book, The Twilight of the Idols, or How to Philosophize with a Hammer (1888). The following single page is the whole chapter.

1. The true world — attainable for the sage, the pious, the virtuous man; he lives in it, he is it. (The oldest form of the idea, relatively sensible, simple, and persuasive. A circumlocution for the sentence, "I, Plato, am the truth.")

2. The true world — unattainable for now, but promised for the sage, the pious, the virtuous man ("for the sinner who repents"). (Progress of the idea: it becomes more subtle, insidious, incomprehensible — it becomes female, it becomes Christian.)

3. The true world — unattainable, indemonstrable, unpromisable; but the very thought of it — a consolation, an obligation, an imperative. (At bottom, the old sun, but seen through mist and skepticism. The idea has become elusive, pale, Nordic, Königsbergian.)

4. The true world — unattainable? At any rate, unattained. And being unattained, also unknown. Consequently, not consoling, redeeming, or obligating: how could something unknown obligate us? (Gray morning. The first yawn of reason. The cockcrow of positivism.)

5. The "true" world — an idea which is no longer good for anything, not even obligating — an idea which has become useless and superfluous — consequently, a refuted idea: let us abolish it! (Bright day; breakfast; return of bon sens and cheerfulness; Plato's embarrassed blush; pandemonium of all free spirits.)

6. The true world — we have abolished. What world has remained? The apparent one perhaps? But no! With the true world we have also abolished the apparent one.

(Noon; moment of the briefest shadow; end of the longest error; high point of humanity; INCIPIT ZARATHUSTRA.)

 

Here is the revised Trumpian version (2021) – follow the links down the rabbit hole:

1. The true world — attainable for the sage, the pious, the virtuous; they live in it, they are it. (The oldest form of the idea, relatively sensible, simple, and persuasive. A circumlocution for the sentence, "truth crushed to earth shall rise again.”)

2. The true world — unattainable for now, but promised for the sage, the pious, the virtuous (for those awaiting a rebirth of wonder).

3. The true world — unattainable, indemonstrable, unpromisable; but the very thought of it — a consolation, an obligation, an imperative. (For those who live in the world of fear and trembling).

4. The true world — unattainable? At any rate, unattained. And being unattained, also unknown. Consequently, not consoling, redeeming, or obligating: how could something unknown obligate us? (The cat in the cradle escapes into the canticle for Leibowitz).

5. The "true" world — an idea which is no longer good for anything, not even obligating — an idea which has become useless and superfluous — consequently, a refuted idea: let us abolish it! (Long live the Big Lie!).

6. The true world — Trumplicans have abolished it. What world has remained? The apparent one perhaps? But no! With the true world we have also abolished the apparent one. (What remains? Deception and duplicity   … and fealty to DJT).

(Noon; moment of the briefest shadow; the end of democracy; low point of humanity; INCIPIT THE DONALD.)

End of Semester Thoughts (EOST)

 

Given the delay between the spring semester and the start of the summer semester, I have been thinking about a number of things, such as how my students have progressed, the situation with regard to the pandemic, and things I thought I understood but had reason to doubt my thinking. A common thread runs through those things and it is encapsulated in what is known in the instructional design community as the ADDIE (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation) model. ADDIE is a generic process thought to be useful in addressing challenging problems and it is used in a number of disciplines. Sometimes, ADDIE is applied in a rigorous manner that discourages innovation and can result in less than optimal solutions. I vaguely recall writing that one might better think of ADDIE as a guide, like a caddie in golf who can assist the golfer and help the golfer improve. The extra ‘c’ at the beginning of CADDIE might be thought to stand for ‘continuous’ or ‘comprehensive’. An effective problem-solving process is an ongoing enterprise that often revisits earlier stages and revises the plan as things evolve and the plan unfolds – whence ‘continuous’ for the initial ‘c’. Or, an effective problem-solving process is comprehensive in that the entire context surrounding the problem is taken into consideration. To be truthful, I cannot recall why I added the initial ‘c’ and dubbed instructional design processes as CADDIE. I grow old and my memory grows weak.

I think about advice I often give my graduate students, which is a version of advice I was given. Identify a central problem, examine what has been done to address that problem, select an under-addressed small part of that problem, and try to contribute something useful to make progress in that specific area – i.e., examine, understand, plan, and act – oh, a new acronym – EUPA … sounds almost like yippee … as in finally something I can do. Or perhaps it is a strange variant of eureka, which is Greek for “I found it” which is allegedly what Archimedes said when he fell into a well and discovered a solution for calculating the volume of an irregularly shaped body. Who knows if any of that is true? Who still cares about truth these days? We should all care about truth these days. Definitions only lead to other definitions – I think I read this in one of Wittgenstein’s posthumous publications. Facts, on the other hand can lead to other facts and eventually to a deeper understanding of something puzzling. Truth … well, truth shows itself in what one does, as Bouwsma wrote in an unpublished journal, “Surely your life will show what you think of yourself,” and as Ruth’s words to Naomi reflect, truth shows itself in Ruth following Naomi into an uncertain future. Truth is not something personal …. It is something others can see and understand and judge, which is what I have gathered from Wittgenstein, Bouwsma and Ruth. It seems to me that many are off course with regard to truth, facts and definitions, but then I am off course in these remarks about CADDIE.

The thought I had involved my excursion into system dynamics when I was in Bergen, Norway, which is home to the Wittgenstein archives, by the way. Anyway, I learned from folks such as Pål Davidsen and Erling Moxnes that when a system dynamicist goes about creating a system dynamics model of a complex situation an initial step is to create a causal loop model or influence diagram of the situation. This proceeds by asking key people involved with the situation four questions: (a) what factors influence this situation, (b) how would you describe each factor, (c) what relationships exist among these factors, and (d) how would you describe those relationships? Should we create an acronym for these questions, such as FDRD (try pronouncing that with a mouth full of pebbles). Those four questions seem applicable to a wide variety of problems and can help guide a problem solver to an effective solution approach, which is how I thought about CADDIE. The name of this game is helping problem solvers develop good solutions. What is a good solution? One that works … one that can be replicated … one that can be sustained and applied to similar problems – a good solution is scalable and sustainable – IMLTHO (in my less than humble opinion, which is pronounceable … try it on for size). 

Back to the thought that drove me to make notes. I was thinking about how different people think about the purpose of education, and then how those different conceptions might be put into a system dynamics model. I am certainly not the first to have such an idea; see for example, Jennifer Sterling Groff’s model). My thought has a twist, however, which is how I like my gin and tonic, with twist of lemon or lime … and it is okay to hold the gin as I am no longer drinking alcoholic beverages, unlike in my misbegotten youth growing up in East Tennessee.

There is of course an issue involving groups of people as opposed to working with individuals, but there do seem to be patterns. Do you remember the four questions – not the ones recited at the Passover Seder but the ones mentioned earlier?

So, how might a parent with children describe the purpose of education:

a)      Key factors are include finding a rewarding job, being qualified to pursue higher education, getting accepted into a reputable university, looking to future job requirements, satisfying inclinations and desires, having a liveable income, and so on. Keeping the list to about ten or so key factors is important.

b)      Factor descriptions – these vary from parent to parent and also from child to child and teacher to teacher so I leave this an exercise for those bored with this discussion (there goes my audience).

c)      Key relationships – again this will vary somewhat but looking for those relationships that seem to be most influential is worthwhile and probably revealing.

d)      Relationship descriptions – well, what counts as a liveable income will vary a lot … for a despicable few, enough is never enough … but again building this causal influence diagram is a worthwhile activity for parents, educators, students, teachers, administrators, and policy makers.

If one has multiple such causal influence diagrams for different constituencies, the twist I wish to add is to see what commonalities might exist across different constituencies. I do not consider my own case to be at all representative. I wanted to pursue a career as a philosopher professor so I would have summers off to go hiking and camping in the mountains, but there were no jobs and those that did exist certainly did not lead to job security or the accumulation of wealth. So I gave software engineering and programming a try having been through IBM’s programming school in Kansas City. That did lead to jobs but they were not exactly satisfying. So I tried teaching computer science for a number of year with limited success and discovered expert systems and artificial intelligence which led to a position at the Air Force Human Resources Laboratory and long-term and well-funded projects involving efforts to automate parts of instructional design and development, again with some success until labs were consolidated; then I escaped to the University of Bergen, initially on a Fulbright research fellowship. The point of this short sketch of my own case is that education is an ongoing process and an individual’s educational and life goals can and do change.

SO … so, the real question is how best to educate youth for a changing future. That is not how folks generally think about education. Let’s develop an educational system that helps improve a child’s chance for a good job, or helps improve the nation’s likely productivity in years to come, or helps improve our children’s ability to lead happy and satisfying lives. So what is it going to be? Build wealth or live happily? Of course it is not that simple. It is what Bouwsma wrote: “Surely your life will show what you think of yourself” and “the world may gladden your heart, but it will surely make you cry.” Or as Wittensteint wrote: “the world of the happy is not the same as the world of the unhappy.”

Here is another quotation from T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Profrock:”

And indeed there will be time

For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,

Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;

There will be time, there will be time

To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;

There will be time to murder and create,

And time for all the works and days of hands

That lift and drop a question on your plate;

Time for you and time for me,

And time yet for a hundred indecisions,

And for a hundred visions and revisions,

Before the taking of a toast and tea.

 

The truth, however, is there is not time … one must choose, one must live, and one ought to live a life in pursuit of truth, according to verifiable and widely accepted facts, and aligned with a definition of a person as an individual with a mind capable of rational thought and a body capable of caring for others.

 

Mike Spector

May 5, 2021

election reminders

 

Bush vs. Gore - 2000

Bush won 271 electoral votes (270 required to win) but lost the popular vote by 543,895 votes AND after a recount Bush won Florida, the deciding state, by only 537 votes after a recount, and Gore accepted the split decision of the Supreme Court a little more than a month after that historically close election.

 

Trump vs. Clinton – 2010

Trump won 304 electoral votes but lost the popular vote by 2,868,686 votes and Clinton accepted the loss the day after the election.

 

Biden vs. Trump – 2020

Biden won 306 electoral votes and won the popular vote by 7,052,770 votes and yet months after the election and after an insurrection aimed at disrupting the final approval of the votes and after the inauguration of Biden, Trump still maintains that he really won.

 

In this century, thousands of Americans have voted twice for a person who won the popular vote but was not elected. Only once has a Presidential candidate in this century challenged the final vote count and decision, and that candidate persists in doing so a half year after the election. The example set by Al Gore who lost only by 537 votes in a contested election is lost in misinformation, bias and hubris.

Is this the land of the free and home of the brave or the land of greed and the home of hatred? Lost are the words of that lady of liberty standing proudly in Upper New York Bay: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" How long must we wait “for the American Eagle to really spread its wings and straighten up and fly right?”

A Confession

 

A Confession

Sometimes I recall things I have said or done which I regret … which make me feel ashamed. This usually happens when I am avoiding work. What came to mind was a bad habit I developed in my formative years (before and after my bar mitzvah) … a practice I devised to gain favor in the eyes of my father, Rabbi Spector. I observed that he was especially pleased when being asked questions about the Torah … the Jewish Bible. So I often tried to please him by asking question … most often questions that meant nothing to me.

That is perhaps why much later in life I made a distinction being asking questions and having questions. Asking questions is all too easy and all too often not in the search of understanding. Having questions is hard and begins with admitting one’s ignorance and is followed by committing time and effort in search of understanding, being open to alternative explanations, questioning one's assumptions, and revisiting the question and alternative explanations. So I eventually came to believe that the job of a teacher was to get others to have questions.

Anyway, I would ask my father many questions to gain favor in his eyes. That is something I now regret … pretending to be interested in the things I knew interested him. But sometimes there is a small positive bit that emerges from one’s shame. Occasionally, I asked a question about something I did not understand, for example why it is written in the book of Exodus that the sins of the father will be visited upon the children. That passage struck me as unfair and not at all becoming of G-d. My father’s answer was my first lesson in psychology. As I recall, he said the passage was merely describing what typically happens … children can learn bad things from their parents and bad things often lead to some kind of punishment. My father claimed the passage was not describing G-d … it was describing people.

Another one of my rare genuine questions to my father concerned the Al Chet prayer asking for forgiveness repeated many time during the high holy days – the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) – see https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/6577/jewish/Text-of-Al-Chet.htm. This prayer is the Jewish confessional. My question to my father was why was the prayer said in the plural using ‘we’ rather than ‘I’ – asking forgiveness for each of the sins WE have committed. My father’s response was my first lesson in sociology. He said that if anyone in the community had committed that sin, that everyone in the community was responsible for not having taught that person better. Or something along those lines. My aging memory is not all that reliable.

And I can add one more confession to these notes about my past. I memorized the speech I was to give following the Torah reading at my Bar Mitzvah. My haftarah – a reading from the Prophets – paired with a reading from the Torah. The Torah portion the week of my Bar Mitzvah was from Devarim (the sayings of Moses or Deuteronomy) – the early chapters that contain two remarkable things repeated elsewhere in the Torah: (1) the Shema (Hear O Israel, the Lord our G-d is one), and (2) the ten commandments. The haftarah paired with that passage from the Torah is from the Book of Isiaih beginning with Chapter 40 – comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith the Lord.

The haftarah reading did not seem at all connected with the Torah passage, so I asked my father why they were paired together. I could not find any obvious connection.

Then, skipping ahead a bit, it was my bar mitzvah day and I read the haftarah portion in Hebrew and also the passage from the Torah in Hebrew (without vowels – mostly committed to memory from so much practice), and then it was time for me to deliver the Shabbat sermon based on what I had learned during my bar mitzvah training. Just before I started to deliver my memorized speech, I looked at my little sister sitting in the front row of the synagogue and she made a funny face at me that erased my memory … my speech was gone. I coughed hoping it would return to memory but it was really taking a long distance vacation. What to do? I coughed again and then decided to pretend to be my father. I recalled as best I could his answer to my question about the connection of the two passages. It went something like this as best I can recall just now. Imagine Moses having led the Jewish people out of bondage under Pharaoh in Egypt and having wandered in the desert for 40 years before reaching the promised land … imagine all of that and then imagine Moses being told by G-d that he would not be allowed to go into the promised land apparently for having broken the tablet containing the gift given to him by G-d atop Mount Sinai containing the ten commandments in his anger at the people for apparently worshipping the golden calf. For losing his temper and patience with the people and for breaking the tablet, he was denied entry to the promised land. So, how did Moses react to such severe punishment? He sings the praise of the Lord with the words of the Shema – “Hear O Israel, the Lord our G-d the Lord is one” - see https://bibleproject.com/learn/deuteronomy/ . Moses is not angry hearing his punishment. Rather, he urges his people on to the promised land. He comforts and consoles. Is that the connection? I asked at the end of my impromptu speech. 

When I recall that explanation of the connection of the two passages, it brings to mind something else I do not understand – the closing words of Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus – namely, “one must imagine Sisyphus happy” – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Sisyphus#:~:text=The%20Myth%20of%20Sisyphus%20(French,his%20philosophy%20of%20the%20absurd.

The older I get the less I understand.