Rainn Wilson speaks out

Check out Rainn Wilson's ("The Office") editorial comments on CNN regarding the persecution of Baha'is in Iran.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/17/wilson.faith/index.html

Buffett admits tax rates are unjust

Warren Buffett (third richest man in the world) acknowledges that the rich should be paying more taxes. Watch as he discusses the unjust taxation system by referring to people in his reception office who pay 32.9 % in taxes compared to his rate of 17.7%. He also calls out the hedge-fund operators. This guy is amazing.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIi3vXj1jUQ&feature=related

To be denied education, makes us all "incomplete"

Being a graduate student for many years has made me slightly jaded. Tired of late night study sessions and the stress of being constantly evaluated, I look forward to the rigors of a 9-5 job, and collecting a secure salary.

Of course I am well aware of the adage that it is not the final destination I need to appreciate, but the journey along the way.

However, this offers me little solace as I naturally take for granted that I live in a society in which people can gain access to post secondary education if they posses the ability, interest and material resources.

Certainly university is expensive and this places restrictions on a number of otherwise qualified candidates. Yet, despite the fact that I have experienced the burden of a student loan, I never really stopped to think of the privileges that are associated with education.

I was recently awoken from my ignorant slumber when a friend informed me of a number of incidents in Iran, where many students have been denied education due to their religious beliefs. Religion is certainly never something I imagined governments would use against their own citizens.

For well over a quarter of a century, Iranian Baha'is have been denied the opportunity to participate in post secondary education. To this day, the Iranian government covertly manages to discriminate against Baha'is, despite the fact that the United Nations, academic departments and human rights organizations around the world continue to place pressure on the State to desist from asking applicants about their religious affiliation.

Roughly 800 of 1000 Baha'is who wrote entrance exams in 2007 have been given notice that their files were "incomplete."

The Iranian government continues to systematically label many qualified Baha'i applications as "incomplete" and thus they are unable to register and attend university.

This "incomplete" designation is but one more tactic in a long list of human rights violations in which the Iranian government denies higher educational access to its largest religious minority; a minority whose only crime is their fundamental belief in the oneness of humanity, the equality of men and women and the elimination of all forms of prejudice.

From a moral perspective, denying higher education based on religious discrimination is fundamentally wrong. Furthermore, from a pedagogical approach, it is also deeply flawed.

Silencing the voice of the Baha'i youth in Iran not only stifles the growth of a whole people, but it also denies those who are not Baha'i invaluable exposure to different cultures and belief systems.

Classroom learning is stagnant unless it is allowed to thrive in an environment that appreciates diversity. Does the spark of truth not emerge from the peaceful clash of differing opinions?

Being aware of this situation, I have come to see education not as a privilege, but as a universal human right. To be denied this right, makes us all "incomplete."

At the Crossroads of Science and Religion

A superficial glance at the relationship between science and religion may suggest that they are polar opposites. Renowned scientists such as Sigmund Freud and Richard Dawkins have viewed religion as delusional. Freud thought religious ritual was nothing more than the collective manifestation of an infantile obsessive neurosis while Dawkins argues that religion is not only irrational but also deadly. However, a closer look at religion and science tells us that they have much in common regarding their potential benefits and harmful consequences.

Humans have a longing to make sense of the world, to derive meaning in the face of chaos and uncertainty. Many turn to science and religion as a means to construct and comprehend a predictable and ordered reality. These two universal frames of reference need not be at odds with each other but can peacefully live in harmony. The intellect takes pleasure in investigating both spiritual and material reality. The modern philosopher Immanuel Kant notes, "Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe -- the starry heavens above me, and the moral law within me."

Both science and religion are subject to faulty human interpretation and self-interest, and both can be overly romanticized, villainized and susceptible to eroding into dogma. On some level, both require a leap of faith and at times, both are forced to turn to the discourse of analogy and metaphor to describe phenomena. Science is not always objective and bias-free nor cold and unimaginative, while religion is not always superstitious and irrational or benevolent and selfless. They each continue to generate knowledge that makes the world a better place to live and allow us to transcend the monotony of everyday life. Unfortunately, both can also be utilized to do harm, degrade humanity and bring about untold suffering. As a result, we must be ever cognizant and hopeful that together, with moderation and care, science and religion can coexist together in assisting humanity in carrying forward an ever-advancing civilization.

Ironically, the science of physics, which is traditionally viewed as the discipline most dedicated to the study of matter, provides us with conclusions that are akin to what many of the world religions have been telling us for thousands of years. The scientific findings originating from quantum physics reveal a universe that is mysterious, beautiful interdependent and poetic. We have scientific evidence that separateness is not a true representation of reality, but that a vast web of interconnectedness and unity underlie the ordering of the universe. Eastern and Western religions have always spoken to these relatively recent scientific insights.

Experiments suggest that subatomic particles are not separate, but blend into a field of energy with each particle behaving as a part of a larger interconnecting whole. Under observation it appears as if each particle knows what all the other particles will do as they all move together in unison. Physicist David Bohm explains these results through the metaphor of a hologram. A hologram analogy suggests the universe operates in such a way that when divided into separate parts, each segment still contains information characteristic of the whole. Subatomic particles move in awareness of each other because they are fundamentally one in nature and to envision them as separate is an illusion.

Yet how can we account for all the distinct separateness we see in the world if everything is unified at the subatomic level? Subatomic particles also house an individual diversity that is embedded within their overall unity. How then are we to understand the paradox of unity in diversity? Bohm compares this to whirlpools in a river. They appear to be separate as they possess many individualistic attributes. But a closer look tells us that they are an expression of the river and in no way can you determine where the whirlpool ends and the river begins. The hologram, represented by a seamless whole of interconnectedness, is an analogy in which religion can also share. Is to view each other, nations and faiths as separate not part of this same illusion? Is humanity not waves of the same ocean?

The expression of love toward others is a reflection and projection of the interconnectedness that is inherent within matter, society and at the core of our very being. When we harm each other we harm ourselves. Let us not neglect our human interconnectedness through the misuse of science or religion. For these are the very tools that can assist us in better understanding the fundamental principle of oneness deposited in our own hearts as well as within the heart of creation itself.

Why can't sociologists be more like economists?

Just look at 'Public economics' if you want to see the benefits of engagement (Notice how silly this term is as economics has always been part of the public policy landscape). With the steep economic downturn in the US you have economists left, right and center of the ideological spectrum offering research and context for public consumption at an unprecedented rate. From Fox, with their anti-Keynesian, neo-liberal ideology to MSNBC and their public intellectual guests criticizing the damage of the "invisible hand" and corporate welfare--- It is fantastic, a buffet of diverse opinions competing for legitimacy in the public sphere, while simultaneously making the overall discipline stronger, regardless of the 'uncertainty', 'reliability' and diversity of its knowledge base. They are not sitting around wondering the unintended consequences of their normative biases and promotion of a 'flawed' economic-sociological imagination. Regardless of their motives, their nation is in trouble, the people are hungry for understanding, and many of them are contributing as they see fit regardless of their ideological bent. Rather than look at a public sociology as arrogant, that we have the answers, let us see it through a humble sociological eye. We acknowledge we do not have the solutions, but we offer a number of competing perspectives and trust the public not only separate the wheat from the chaff, but contribute to the dialogue and assist in making sociology relevant to a peer-review that is not threatened by lay expertise or getting it wrong from time to time. Perhaps there is a reason Malcolm Gladwell's three pop.sociology books are best sellers? Underestimating the public and the potential we possess will further insulate us, create inertia and make our most important asset (students) look somewhere else to make sense of it all.
-BK