All the President's Men

Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against.- W.C. Fields

President and the Challenger

I have a confession- in the American Presidential elections, arguably the most important in the world, I want Barack Obama to lose. It is that sort of a visceral hatred that can stem only from a dream gone sour, or high altar of hope and change metamorphosising into pettiness reserved only for the ordinary. And Obama's Presidency has been an ordinary one.

 My earliest recollections of American Presidential elections was of 2000, when Governor Bush won with the help of an accommodating Supreme Court after having lost the popular vote (America choses it President by electoral college, where a state-winner takes all the electoral votes with tiny exception of two states). What I didn't realise was that this was the period of increasing polarisation in America, where political differences gave way to almost absolute moral positions- either you were pro-choice or anti-abortion, big government sponsor or a manic budget slasher, supporter of gay rights or a staunch defender of traditional marriage. Politics then didn't only mean the essential give-and-take but some sort of a moral crusade, where people with different opinion than yours were branded in a villainous caricature. Washington then seemed a place of intrigue, hopelessly pocketed by lobbyists, interest-groups and full of vitriolic hatred. Obama promised to change that.

Obama's story is impressive and in spite of tomorrow's election, will remain inspirational for generations to come. His dark skin, exotic background (a Kenyan father, childhood days in Indonesia, birth far from American mainland in Hawaii), a muslim-sounding middle name of 'Hussein', supreme confidence and self-assuredness (he managed to defeat two of the biggest players in American politics- Clintons in Democratic primary and Republican juggernaut in Presidential elections) were a sort of stuff that dreams are made up of. But it was the message that won converts- rhetoric of hope and bi-partisanship by someone who essentially was a Washington outsider.

It was 2008, it will never be again

America and the world drooled over this young and hopeful man, who after dreadful years of unilateral Bush Presidency was the best that American dream boasted. 2008 was a time that came in a generation, when even in a remote corner of India, this writer felt pride in being able to feel this momentous turn of history. Yes, we can- we all were Americans that day!

Probably it is the nature of dreams to be muffled by the dread of politics. Obama's has been a mediocre presidency. The economy is sluggish with stubbornly high unemployment, Guantanamo bay is still open, government debt and fiscal deficit are alarmingly high, almost nothing on immigration reforms or climate change, and the new-deal in foreign affairs has been met with cold-shoulder almost everywhere-- from middle-east to Russia. The country is as bitterly divided as ever. A President who is so naturally eloquent was surprisingly unable to get his message- from (admirable) universal healthcare to consensus on taxation and spending- across to the voters and to the other side. He did indeed inherit the worst financial catastrophe since the great-depression, yet he seemed unable or unwilling to make tough choices, sort of which define great Presidencies. One of the most damning (and true) criticism of his has been his inablitiy to understand that great engine of American growth- its business and entrepreneurship.

Spoiling the party: Tea party and its discontent

His Republican challenger Mitt Romney confuses me. Personally I thought of him as a pragmatic businessman (he was a founder of Bain capital), a good manager (CEO of Salt lake winter olympics) and a decent governor (of Massachussets- a solidly Democratic state). Right from the primary elections I wanted him to win, consoling myself that any sane person in Republican primary has to say some rather silly things on the staple of 'Guns, God and Gays' before being selected. The Republicans look mad- tea party (of 2010 Congressional election fame) has taken it too far to the right. 

Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up

And Mr. Romney has taken too many u-turns on important policies, though in the matter of economy I think he will be a much better President than Barack Obama- short on rhetoric and good for business. I would vote for that pragmatic man, who was slightly visible in the first Presidential debate. Unfortunately, in so many faces that Mr. Romney has, it is hard to find what he truly looks like. Romnesia, eh!

This is probably the closest Presidential race in living memory. It has been a rather entertaining one, if a little disturbing and bitter. At stake is the nature of American state and a certain vision of the country. We, the world, are eagerly watching.

Liberal Education, Great Books and my Reading Plan

"It matters little to me whether my pupil is intended for the army, the church, or the law. Before his parents chose a calling for him, nature called him to be a man...When he leaves me, he will neither be a magistrate, a soldier, nor a priest; he will be a man."- Rousseau

Having convinced myself of the benefits of continuous learning, it was a happy coincidence to have found a magisterial work- Great Books of the Western World. Established as a project by University of Chicago, the 54 Volume set (later expanded to 60 sets) aims to compile books with 'The Great Conversation' about the great ideas and their relevance in today's world.

I picked up the first volume- The substance of a Liberal Education. 

Hutchins (left) with Benton of Encyclopædia Britannica

The substance of a Liberal Education

It is here that Robert M. Hutchins gives a comprehensive rebuke to sociological determinism- a belief that intellectual activity is always relative to a particular society, so that if society changes in an important way, the activity becomes irrelevant. It is this determinism which has led to decline of education through Great Books, and by extension, through ideas which owe their development to centuries of intellectual wresling. Why shouldn't everyone study Shakespeare, or Newton, or Milton- he asks. The moral and intellectual impoverishment that their absence create is for real. He despises the all pervasive belief in education system to make it superficially relevant and easy, which has limited the scope, as well as the depth of understanding education is expected to provide. 

We live in an age where democracy provides for each adult to exercise complex choices of economics, politics, law, governance, religion and philosophy. And yet, the democracy does a poor job of providing adequate training for this monumental task. We are constantly bombarded by propaganda, half-truths and shallow treatment of important issues. From shrill political cries of what nature American state should take to silly studio discussions we have in India about the communal identity, the nature of debate that an average 'educated' person should participate in has declined. 

"Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state." —Noam Chomsky

"As the principle of an aristocracy was honour, and the principle of tyranny was fear, the principle of democracy was education."- Montesquieu

For a great time in our history, a large section of society was deliberately kept-off from the decision making process because of their isolation from ideas which guide intelligent decision making. Now politics gives everyone the power to make the decision. But if we believe that an education system is a society's attempt to perpetuate itself, education should make us responsible citizens and not half-zombie automatons. It should stand up for ideals which are universal in spirit, and essential in function- human rights, liberty, freedom of expression, rule of law, individual freedom, et cetra. The sort of cultural provincialism and narrow jingoistic outlook that we see on display is probably one of the greatest damnation of our educational system.

But even beyond the regular calling of a democracy, this education through books is still fundamental to our definition of what constitutes humanity. A person should use his mind, broaden his intellectual experience anddevelop his highest powers, for in its absence he would cease to be a person. And a free man will only want to live in a society which makes an attempt to develop his faculties, and provide him an opportunity to work towards the development of his fellow men. This, Hutchins says, is the best defense of nations- the character and intelligence of its people and comprehension of values of what nation stands for.

Great Books collection :)

Great Books and my Reading Plan

So I have decided to spend next 10 years with the Great Books of the Western World. The only compunction I have is my shameful ignorance about my own culture. I don't know about the rest, but I have often wondered if this rootlessness is because of my education or in spite of it. I would come back to what India has to offer sometime in my life. Wouldn't it be a wonder for someone to have made a compilation of our very own Great conversation by then- ideas which every Indian should know of? In our times of Hindu vs Musalmaan, Brahmin vs Dalit, Bihari vs Marathi vs Madrasi, this can be a useful beginning for a question we often forget to ask- what makes us Indian?

Here is my reading plan for [the end of] October, November and December of 2012:

1.  Robert Hutchins’s The Great Conversation

2.  Plato’s Apology, Crito

3.  Aristophanes’s Clouds, Lysistrata

4.  Plato’s Republic [Book I-II]

5.  Aristotle’s Ethics [Book I]

6.  Aristotle’s Politics [Book I]

7.  Plutarch’s The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans [Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Lycurgus and Numa Compared, Alexander, Caesar]

8.  Augustine’s Confessions [Book I-VIII]

9.  Machiavelli’s The Prince

Some thoughts on Education

One of the benefits of being an educator is that if you ponder deeply enough, you get wonderful insights on what (your) education was, or rather, ought to be. Unsurprisingly, we take education as a means towards a greater end- a flashy career, a worthy spouse. Like individuals, nations obsess over their investments in education; systems and school districts which can provide quality (as measured by standardized testing) and a reasonable equality of access to the local community at the least price are paraded as the hallmarks of excellence. 

The purpose of this article is not to debate this. Surely everyone agrees from personal experience that education goes beyond the 3 Rs (Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic). We would not want our students to learn the facts or simply be content with basic literacy (was it boy Einstein who said that one can always look facts up in books? Give me ideas). We would want education to go beyond the narrow confines of one-size-fits-all testing, and concentrate more on skills we deem important- collaboration, integrity, dedication, tolerance, et cetra.

In our quest to create the most ‘efficient’ public schooling, we have laid a great emphasis on the Return on Investments. There are prodigious report-cards of school systems available, detailing how they fare in global battle of educational standards and per-pupil expenditure. But we have paid comparatively little emphasis on what goes on inside our schools, in idyllic classrooms where next Kalidasas and Shakespeares are being reared (to be fair, we in India make a mess of providing basic literacy to our children, let alone the broad-based experience that education should be). If a child’s brain is naturally inclined to learn new things, what is so stubborn about our system that kills the joy of learning? The question is pure rhetoric. Our schools do a terrible job of making learning enjoyable- not for a test, an exam, an evaluation- but for the simple pleasures of learning. 

There is no royal road to Geometry :)

A youth who had begun to read geometry with Euclid, when he had learnt the first proposition, inquired, "What do I get by learning these things?" So Euclid called a slave and said "Give him threepence, since he must make a gain out of what he learns."

I do not wish to emulate the famous Euclid. As every teacher knows, the art of teaching consists in large part of interesting people in things that ought to interest them, but do not. But if everything that I have taught my students were to be naught, reduced to a single sentence, it would surely have to be- Learn, for learning sake! Because once they do it, their labour will never be commoditized, their skills never irrelevant.

They would have understood then what it took their Bhaiya so many years- that education is an end in itself, and so it must continue for life.