Iran
One way to begin any discussion of war with Iran is with a recognition that the country is larger and more populous than either Iraq or Afghanistan. And that the U.S. isn’t finished with either of George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s wars in those countries. So it’s hard to fathom any claim of easy or instant victory, at least on the terms in which the U.S. has fought its existing wars.
How could this time be different? Could it be that when Donald Trump threatens obliteration and “overwhelming force,”[1] he means nuclear force?
Peter Beinart, “The Question the Iran Hawks Haven’t Answered,” Atlantic, June 24, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/iran-hawks-owe-americans-some-answers/592390/
Erin Cunningham and Ruth Eglash, “Trump warns Iran of ‘overwhelming force’ in the event of an attack on ‘anything American,’” Washington Post, June 25, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iran-says-path-to-diplomacypermanently-closed-following-us-sanctions/2019/06/25/636b48e6-96b7-11e9-9a16-dc551ea5a43b_story.html
Brexit
We’re actually back to talking about Brexit. Yes, actually Brexit. Which probably means that the Tory power struggle is all but settled in favor of Boris Johnson, at least until he actually wins the Tory contest, when he will need to secure a confidence vote in Parliament.[2]. Of course, nothing else actually has changed. The backstop is unavoidable, no matter what the Tories fantasize.[3] A hard Brexit remains the default.[4] But the new government could well collapse, failing even to secure an vote of confidence.[5]
Jessica Elgot, “New PM faces losing Commons confidence, Tory MPs warn,” Guardian, June 21, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/21/next-tory-pm-will-face-serious-challenge-trying-to-secure-commons-confidence
Daniel Boffey, “However you look at it, the logic of a Brexit backstop refuses to yield,” Guardian, June 24, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/24/however-look-logic-brexit-backstop-refuses-to-yield-irish
Peter Walker, “Boris Johnson ‘could face Tory coup’ over no-deal Brexit stance,” Guardian, June 24, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/24/boris-johnson-tory-coup-deal-brexit-tobias-ellwood-jeremy-hunt
Student loans
I remember telling my students not to be oblivious to the student loans they were racking up, but to consider that this is a middle class issue, and that some kind of relief was all but inevitable. In fact, this was manifest with Barack Obama’s steps on income-based repayment but there’s an argument for considerably more. The trouble will lie in that relief, especially for those like myself who racked up huge loans in graduate school, will often flow to those unlike myself who are most able to repay.[6]
I think my own view is that student loans are only one part of the problem in academia. First and foremost, a neoliberal takeover of institutions must be reversed, restoring universities to something somewhat closer to what they are supposed to be, and moving away from job training. Universities are supposed to be centers for the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge; not all knowledge fits neatly with the capitalist profit motive and though we forget this under neoliberalism, there is much, much more to life than the neoliberal particularization and essentialization of human beings as economic units of production and this latter creates severe social problems which also need to be, but are increasingly rarely, addressed as social science programs and humanities programs seem caught in a downward spiral.
Second, athletics need to be divorced from universities. Athletics programs help feed the administrative lust for money, which largely goes to overpaid and self-aggrandizing administrations, and increasingly less toward faculty and research. Visit the University of California, Berkeley, or Stanford on the day of a big game and you see what universities have become really about. Alumni don’t care about current students (except their own children) and they don’t care about what universities are about. It’s about the football, baby. And that needs to end, decades ago.
Third, that anything like two thirds or three quarters of faculty hiring is for woefully underpaid adjuncts should be a scandal. But neoliberalism seemingly makes it all okay. Because despite all these “ivory towers,” we’re anti-intellectual. We just use universities to lie to ourselves about that.
Fourth, that success in attracting grants covering not only the cost of research but helping to defray the administratively-inflated costs of academic programs seem increasingly essential in securing tenure-track faculty positions should be a scandal. Again, neoliberalism, baby, as scholars are particularized and essentialized as economic units of production rather than as what they’re supposed to be: contributors to knowledge.
Fifth, the notion of academic disciplines in the social sciences deserves a very hard look. Right now, they are centers for empire building. They function as blinders as the boundaries between them are arbitrary and ambiguous and scholars inevitably transgress them but lack the preparation to do so. This is deeply damaging to scholarship as the silo walls are reinforced under a neoliberal assault and transdisciplinary scholars such as myself are excluded.
Finally, we need to understand the university, with its mission properly understood, as a social good in and of itself. That we do not informs us that the political and economic elite are not interested in actual solutions to or even in actually understanding problems but rather in pandering to whomever and whatever protects their position.
Steven Johnson, “‘No Exceptions, No Questions Asked’: Progressives Propose Legislation Canceling All Student-Loan Debt,” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 24, 2019, https://www.chronicle.com/article/No-Exceptions-No-Questions/246553
Horse abuse
John Cherwa, “Bill allowing horse racing to be suspended approved by California Legislature,” Los Angeles Times, June 24, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/sports/more/la-sp-gavin-newsom-chrb-california-horse-racing-20190624-story.html
- [1]Erin Cunningham and Ruth Eglash, “Trump warns Iran of ‘overwhelming force’ in the event of an attack on ‘anything American,’” Washington Post, June 25, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iran-says-path-to-diplomacypermanently-closed-following-us-sanctions/2019/06/25/636b48e6-96b7-11e9-9a16-dc551ea5a43b_story.html↩
- [2]Peter Walker, “Boris Johnson ‘could face Tory coup’ over no-deal Brexit stance,” Guardian, June 24, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/24/boris-johnson-tory-coup-deal-brexit-tobias-ellwood-jeremy-hunt↩
- [3]Daniel Boffey, “However you look at it, the logic of a Brexit backstop refuses to yield,” Guardian, June 24, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/24/however-look-logic-brexit-backstop-refuses-to-yield-irish↩
- [4]Jack Maidment, “Theresa May’s deal defeated again by 58 votes – PM hints at general election to break deadlock,” Telegraph, March 29, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/03/29/brexit-latest-news-theresa-may-final-push-mps-prepare-vote-withdrawal/↩
- [5]Jessica Elgot, “New PM faces losing Commons confidence, Tory MPs warn,” Guardian, June 21, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/21/next-tory-pm-will-face-serious-challenge-trying-to-secure-commons-confidence; Peter Walker, “Boris Johnson ‘could face Tory coup’ over no-deal Brexit stance,” Guardian, June 24, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/24/boris-johnson-tory-coup-deal-brexit-tobias-ellwood-jeremy-hunt↩
- [6]Steven Johnson, “‘No Exceptions, No Questions Asked’: Progressives Propose Legislation Canceling All Student-Loan Debt,” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 24, 2019, https://www.chronicle.com/article/No-Exceptions-No-Questions/246553↩