Month: December 2012

Media, PoliticsLeave a comment

Of Persons and Things

Podritske

Associated Press has reported that: Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ is the person or thing that has most influenced the culture and the news during the past year for good or for ill. The Person For 2008 and for 2012 Time named Barack Obama. While that is certainly its prerogative I might interpret the selection quite differently, using Time’s own criteria. First, what exactly has Barack Obama influenced? The culture? Hardly. Obama is an icon. He is the choice of the culture. A nation’s culture is the sum of its intellectual achievement, the dominant ideas generally accepted. Since the dawn … Continue reading Of Persons and Things

Politics1 Comment

Afterthought

Podritske

In my last post I made a reference to Barack Obama and vague political references, something at which all politicians become adept. I just think President Obama is better at it than most. However, the goal and impact of such palter was never better captured than in this quote from a great American iconoclast: The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. —H. L. Mencken ©Copyright 2012 Edward Podritske Continue reading Afterthought

Ethics, Media1 Comment

In Mourning: No Media Please

Podritske

This is a terrible time to watch broadcast news media. Grieving over the horrific loss of life in Newtown, CT is a private affair for the family and loved ones affected. Those affected in a tertiary sense, troubled by the cultural basket-case which the US has become, will also be best served by private suffering and contemplation. It is not a time for media saturation with “public grief” and for speculation about gun control or collectivist solutions to alleged mental illnesses. The griever-in-chief, Barack Obama, did not start this virulent and collectivist emotionalism but he certainly enables it with his … Continue reading In Mourning: No Media Please

Ethics, Rights1 Comment

Obligation to Work

Podritske

It is a characteristic of human nature that man must work in order to survive. That is, man does not possess physical advantages to forage for survival nor does he have an instinct to guide him in self-preservation. The defining attribute of man is his mind. He must think and act in accord with a chosen path of productiveness in order to survive. Anything that obstructs or impairs him in this quest that is not present in nature is destructive and evil. Barriers placed in the way of man’s creativity and productivity by other men are immoral. One must keep … Continue reading Obligation to Work