anti-beliefs, anti-intuitions: August 2011

Sunday, August 28, 2011

a la John Rawls (1971)

"Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust" (1971, p.3).

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

민주주의의 적은 민주주의

미국, EU, 한국 모두 정치학자들이 얘기하는 "unequal democracy"의 경향이 나타나는데... 민주주의의 적은 사회주의가 아니라 불평등한 민주주의....라고 얘기하면 좌빨이 되는 현실이 참...;;

this seems like a good idea

http://www.allourideas.org/
http://www.physorg.com/news198835507.html

프린스턴의 Matthew Salganik이 학부생들 데리고 개발하는 web-based project

좋은 의견 모으는데에 실용적일 것 같긴 하다...(물론 한계는 명백..;;;ㅋㅋㅋ)

그래도 이런거 해서 구글에서도 돈 받고 사회학치곤 아주 fancy하구만...-_-;;;

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

optimists vs pessimists

간의 가장 큰 차이는...

안좋은 결과에 대해..

낙관주의자는 그 원인을 일시적인 것으로 보고 (temporary cause)

비관주의자는 영구적 원인이 거기에 깔려있다고 보는 것(permanent cause)

이라 하네...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism

White on learned helplessness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness#Extensions

The American sociologist Harrison White has suggested in his book Identity and Control that the notion of learned helplessness can be extended beyond psychology into the realm of social action. When a culture or political identity fails to achieve desired goals, perceptions of collective ability suffer.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

아이오와 코커스

아이오와 코커스에 대한 재미있고 정보가 많은 사이트ㅎㅎ:

http://v.daum.net/link/4005492
http://nec1963.tistory.com/91
http://nec1963.tistory.com/115
http://nec1963.tistory.com/214
http://nec1963.tistory.com/262

Evictions in Beijing

Conflict between police and residents erupted in Laogucheng, where residents say they are being unlawfully evicted by real estate developers working and local government.

Filming China's Dark Side

Zhao Liang's films, which explore the relationship between the Chinese government and its citizens, have received critical acclaim abroad but are not screened in China.

certainty

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. - Voltaire

10 Of The Craziest Things Michele Bachmann Has Ever Said

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/06/16/246618/bachmann-craziest-quotes/

Our guest blogger is Elon Green, a freelance writer living in Brooklyn.

Earlier this week, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) announced she had filed the papers to run for President. It’s not a frivolous pursuit: She is extremely well liked by the Republican base and is an unusually effective fundraiser, taking in more dollars in the last election cycle she than any of her Congressional colleagues.
Still, Bachmann’s candidacy is not without potential landmines. Over the last decade, she has taken positions that are dangerous, stemming from her radical ideology. To Bachmann’s credit, she is aware of this, lamenting to Glenn Beck, “I have experienced that throughout my political career, being labeled a kook.”
ThinkProgress has assembled 10 of the nuttiest things Bachmann has ever said:

(1) BACHMANN WARNED ‘THE LION KING’ WAS GAY PROPAGANDA: At the November 2004 EdWatch National Education Conference, Bachmann said the “normalization” of homosexuality would lead to “desensitization”: “Very effective way to do this with a bunch of second graders, is take a picture of ‘The Lion King’ for instance, and a teacher might say, ‘Do you know that the music for this movie was written by a gay man?’ The message is: I’m better at what I do, because I’m gay.”

(2) BACHMANN CLAIMED ABOLISHING THE MINIMUM WAGE WOULD CREATE JOBS: While testifying in front of the Minnesota Senate in 2005, Bachmann said, “Literally, if we took away the minimum wage — if conceivably it was gone — we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.” This isn’t remotely true. Even simply reducing the minimum wage would, as Paul Krugman noted, “at best do nothing for employment; more likely it would actually be contractionary.”

(3) BACHMANN CLAIMED THAT SCIENTISTS ARE SUPPORTERS OF INTELLIGENT DESIGN: During a 2006 debate, Bachmann said, “There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes, who believe in intelligent design.” This was, and is, not true.

(4) BACHMANN CLAIMED TERRI SCHIAVO WAS ‘HEALTHY’: Not long after Terri Schiavo died, Bachmann said she would have voted for the Palm Sunday Compromise because Schiavo “was healthy. She had brain damage — there was brain damage, there was no question. But from a health point of view, she was not terminally ill.” An autopsy found that Schiavo had suffered irreversible brain damage and her brain, said the medical examiner, was “profoundly atrophied.”

(5) BACHMANN LIKENED VISITING IRAQ TO VISITING MALL OF AMERICA: In 2007, Bachmann returned from a junket to Iraq and told her colleagues, “[T]here’s a commonality with the Mall of America, in that it’s on that proportion. There’s marble everywhere. The other thing I remarked about was there is water everywhere.” As ThinkProgress documented at the time, the comparison was preposterous.

(6) BACHMANN CLAIMED THAT CARBON DIOXIDE IS ‘HARMLESS’: In 2008, a Stanford scientist revealed “direct links” between increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and “increases in human mortality” — globally, he found that as many as “20,000 air-pollution-related deaths per year per degree Celsius may be due to this greenhouse gas.” The next year, Bachmann, who is not a scientist, said that “carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.”

(7) BACHMANN CALLED FOR A CONGRESSIONAL WITCH HUNT: Pivoting off the news of Barack Obama’s alleged relationship to former Weather Underground member William Ayers, and his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Bachmann accused the candidate of having “anti-American views.” She then suggested that Congressional liberals — including Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid — ought to be subject to “an exposé” by the media because of their views. “I think people would love to see like that,” she told a stunned Chris Matthews.

(8) BACHMANN SUGGESTED GAY SINGER SHOULD REPENT AFTER GETTING CANCER: Bachmann saw Melissa Etheridge’s cancer as a teachable moment: “Unfortunately she is now suffering from breast cancer, so keep her in your prayers,” she said in November 2004. “This may be an opportunity for her now to be open to some spiritual things, now that she is suffering with that physical disease. She is a lesbian.”

(9) BACHMANN BOASTED ABOUT BREAKING THE LAW: In advance of the 2010 national Census, Bachmann told The Washington Times that she would break the law by not completing the forms. “I know for my family, the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home,” she said. “We won’t be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn’t require any information beyond that.”

(10) BACHMANN CLAIMED THAT GLENN BECK COULD SOLVE THE DEBT CRISIS: During a February trip to South Carolina, Bachmann told a South Carolina audience, “I think if we give Glenn Beck the numbers, he can solve this [the national debt].”

Friday, August 19, 2011

상황

시대상황과 학계상황,
두 가지의 상황에 의해 내 공부가 영향을 받는 것 같다.
좋다면 좋고 아니라면 아닌..

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

무상급식

요즘 트위터에만 들어가면 무상급식 얘기가 하도 많이 있어서 계속 노출이 안될수가 없는데...
예전부터 나의 생각은 (전면)무상급식은 차선책이라는 것이다.
최선책은, (기준이 어찌됐든간에) 형편이 어려운 아이들에게만 지원하되,
학교에서 학부모가 돈을 어떻게 내고, 애들에 대한 정보는 어떻게 거두고 하는 일련의
과정들에서 그 내용이 철저하게 애들간에는 모를 수 밖에 없도록 원천적으로 정보 채널을
통제하는 방식이다.
학교에 급식비 내는 것도 지로나, 계좌이체나 무통장 입금으로만 진행시키고,
학부모와의 연락도 교사가 애들과의 정기 면담을 통해서 하거나 학부모에게 다이렉트로
연락하고... 적절한 젊은(?) 학부모에 해당되는 보호자가 없는 경우에는 그 정보가
계속 그 학생이 진학하는 동안 시스템상으로 inherit되도록 해서 애 귀찮게 할 필요가
없게 하도록 하고... 등등.

쩝...;

보수쪽도 좀 머리가 잘 안돌아간다고 생각되는게, 무상급식에 대해 복지망령이니 망국적
포퓰리즘이니 이런식의 반감 일으키는 레토릭을 쓰느니, 현행 체계를 유지하면서
그 부작용을 원천봉쇄할 수 있는 방법을 새롭게 제시하면 되는 것을....쯧쯧

암튼간에 이런 방식이 잘 현실적으로 이뤄지기 힘들다면,
밥 먹는건 지원해줘야 한다고 본다. ㅆㅂ밥 못먹으면 얼마나 서럽겠나.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Eminem, "Not afraid"

진짜 간만에 에미넴

It's not a budget problem, but a...

problem of insanity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/opinion/credibility-chutzpah-and-debt.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general

나는 궁금하다. 또 묻고 싶다.

상식적으로 이해가 안되는 수많은 미국사람들의 티파티 지지와 엄청난 부자감세에 대한 지지등은 어디에서 오는가?

또 누가 댓글에서 잘 지적했듯이, 크루그먼이 너무 budget deficit을 아무렇지도 않게 얘기하는데 좀 이상하다... federal deficit뿐 아니라 state 들의 debt까지 보면 미국은 지금 낼 모레 몰락한다고 해도 (이미 많은 주들이 몰락했지만) 별로 이상하지가 않다.

The end of...

(주의:요점 없는 글임)

세상에 많은 종류의 The End...시리즈가 있지만
The end of philosophy만큼 무게감 있는 것도 없을 것이다.
후쿠야마가 The End of History를 썼던 것이 1992년.
2009년엔 David Brooks가 The End of Philosophy라는 칼럼을 썼음.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/opinion/07Brooks.html?scp=1&sq=The%20End%20of%20Philosophy&st=cse

데이빗 브룩스는 물론 직업은 칼럼니스트 (NYT에서 어중띤 정치적 입장으로 포지셔닝된) 지만
그의 천성의 1/3쯤은 학자인 것 같다. 각설하고,
저 칼럼에서 moral psychologists, cognitive psychologists들의 발견들을 근거로
도덕을 설명하는데 있어서 철학의 역할은 종말이 다가왔다는 거의 진화심리학자가 다 되어 이야기한다.

진화심리학 싫어하는 사람들도 많은데 나는 그 별로 거부감 안들음. 문제는 사회학 하는 사람은
"가급적"이면 싫어해야하는게 맞음...ㅋㅋ 성별로 다른 심리적 장치가 태생적으로 장착되어 있다고
하는 sexist한 입장은 사회학자는 "도의적"으로 거부해야하는 거임..ㅎ

지방 정부 부채

미국만 문제가 아님.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%EC%A7%80%EB%B0%A9+%EC%A0%95%EB%B6%80+%EB%B6%80%EC%B1%84#q=%EC%A7%80%EB%B0%A9+%EC%A0%95%EB%B6%80+%EB%B6%80%EC%B1%84&hl=en&safe=off&prmd=ivns&ei=d5xBTp75BJChtwetg-W5CQ&start=0&sa=N&fp=1&biw=1333&bih=645&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.&cad=b

State Budgets Day of Reckoning (CBS News)

20101219 (60 minutes) State Budgets Day of Reckoning (CBS News)

차이코프스키5번 므라빈스키 영상

므라빈스키와 레닌그라드 필하모니의 1973년 연주

Saturday, August 6, 2011

몸과 머리

가끔씩 생각을 너무 많이 할 때나, 특히 글을 쓸때 (영어로)
몸까지 동원해서 생각을 하다보니 몸도 쑤시고 별로 안좋은 것 같다.
생각은 철저히 머리 끝에서만 미뤄지고 내 몸과는 별개로 빠르게 전개되도록 해야겠다. 별 것도 아닌데 몸으로도 생각하다보면 지치는 것 같기도 하고 생각이 빨리 전개되지도 않는듯.

....

말이 되는 얘긴지는 모르겠으나 저렇게 생각하는게 개인적으로는 실제로 효과가 있다...ㅎ

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

中 도시빈민 5천만명[사회과학원]

http://china.joins.com/portal/article.do?method=detail&total_id=5904634&

========
중국의 도시빈민이 5천만명에 달한다는 연구결과가 나왔다.

중국 사회과학원은 3일 '성시청서'(城市藍皮書)를 통해 도시지역 주민 가운데 빈곤층이 5천만명에 달한다고 밝혔다고 문회보(文匯報), 명보(明報) 등 홍콩신문들이 4일 보도했다.

성시청서는 2010년 '중국 통계연감'을 인용해 도시지역에 거주하는 중국인이 6억2천186만명에 달하며, 도시주민의 연간 평균소득이 1만7천175위안이라고 밝혔다.

성시청서는 도시주민 가운데 7.5∼8,5%가 연간 소득이 7천500∼8천500위안 수준의 빈곤층이며, 빈곤층의 인구는 약 5천만명에 달한다고 추정했다.

성시청서는 1990년대 후반 이후 도시화가 진전되면서 도시빈민의 수도 지속적으로 늘어나고 있다고 밝혔다.

성시청서는 농민공 시민화, 주택가격 급등, 대도시 교통난, 사회보장제도 미비, 도시빈민 등을 중국 도시가 안고 있는 문제점으로 꼽았다. (연합뉴스)
=============

중국 인구 약 절반이 도시에 사는데 (계산하면 대략 6억명?)
6억 중의 5천만이면...9%좀 안되는건데... 저 정도면 많긴 많구나.
역시 시골보다도 도시가 더 문제인건가.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

my wikipedia - master list

Like a rolling stone

유학와서 가장 '충격'적으로 접했던 음악/뮤직비디오라면 바로 이것일 듯...
원래 있던 유투브 비디오는 없어졌는데 누군가가 고맙게도 새로 업로드 해줬다...

물론 밥 딜런은 가사를 알고 들어야 .....

Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone

Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you ?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone ?

You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but know you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone ?
You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone ?

Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They're drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts
But you'd better take your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone ?

Monday, August 1, 2011

Economist's article on inequality in China

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/05/inequality_china?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/obrotherwhereartthou

focusing in opportunity inequality!

Income gap rings alarm

http://china.globaltimes.cn/society/2010-05/535803.html

A plan to curb the yawning wealth distribution will be drafted, according to officials with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) who declined to give a timetable. The efforts come as experts warn that the nation can ill-afford a growing disparity in earnings.

Such a plan could be written into the country’s next Five- Year Plan for 2011-15, according to the 21st Century Business Herald newspaper.

State media outlets have featured intensive coverage on the issue, with the latest report appearing Tuesday in the overseas edition of People’s Daily, which commented that China is faced with a growing income gap and an accompanying sense of social inequality despite a steady growth since the 1980s in the national average salary.

...
..

Yang Yiyong, director of the Social Development Research Department at the NDRC, warned that China can't afford any further rises in the Gini Index, as growing disparity could result in social unrest and "could even cause distrust in the country's public-ownership economic system."

"Social problems, including migrant workers consecutively taking their lives and serial attacks on schoolchildren, are related to conflicts stemming from the income gap," Yang said.

Yang's words referred to seven unrelated attacks on primary school and kindergarten students in less than two months, in which more than a dozen children were killed. Also this week, the number of apparent suicides at Taiwanese company Foxconn hit 10.

The rural-urban income gap constituted a major part in the overall gap, Yang said, urging the free mobilization of labor and the implementation of equal pay for equal work, both of which are hindered by the current household registration system, or hukou.

People's Daily reported that the existing hukou system has helped push up the gap between the rich and poor.

Citizens with rural hukou cannot generally enjoy the same social benefits as urban residents, even though they live and work in cities.

The Most Interesting Ten Types of People in China

The following post is making the rounds of Chinese cyberspace. Translated by Yuanxi Huang:

http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2010/10/the-most-interesting-ten-types-of-people-in-china/

9. The most pathetic Chinese are farmers. In fact the IQ of rural farmers is no lower than urban citizens. Their shrewdness is definitely worthy of respect. Yet they can only struggle for a position of an annual income of over 100 RMB—the village head. Chinese farmers are born with a special identity. To get rid of this identity, they have to pay the price for their whole lives.
最可怜的中国人是农民：其实山村乡民的智商并不比城里人低，其精明程度绝对让人佩服。可他们却只能为一个年薪？只有一百多元的村长的职位而争斗。中国的农民一生下来就有了一种特殊的身份，为了抛弃这个身份，他们甚至要花去一生的精力。

"Amid China's economic transformation, many farmers struggle"

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-china-farming-20110707,0,2836392.story

A cabbage grower's suicide draws attention to the plight of 200 million Chinese farming households, many of which struggle to earn a profit even as global food prices rise...

Still, with global food prices rising, particularly in China's cities, conventional wisdom had it that Chinese growers must be enjoying a windfall. After all, some U.S. farmers are profiting handsomely selling pork, soybeans, nuts and other agricultural products to hungry Chinese buyers.

But in contrast to large, highly mechanized American farms, a typical Chinese farm is less than an acre in size and worked by hand. It's a legacy of communist reform, when the state seized control of China's farmland and subdivided it into tiny plots. Although this system has kept rural dwellers employed, it has slowed China's ability to boost their incomes.

Chinese farmers don't have crop insurance to protect them against disaster; government subsidies are minimal. Because they don't own their land, growers can't borrow against it and have little incentive to improve operations. Reliable market forecasts are hard to come by, leaving farmers to speculate about what to plant. Poor roads in many parts of the countryside force growers to sell their harvests locally or to middlemen who pocket much of the markup paid by city dwellers. Add rising costs for labor, seed, fertilizer and fuel, and many producers are seeing their profits squeezed even as retail prices soar.

"No one is going to get rich off farming," said Scott Rozelle, an expert on China's rural economy at Stanford University. "It's not going to happen until farm sizes get bigger. That's why millions of people are moving to the cities."

...

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중심

아주 이타적인 삶을 살다간 두 분에 대한 다큐를 (다시) 보았다. (기본적으로 종교인들이심...)

기가막힌 중심이 있으셨던 분들이었다.

내가 계속 찾고자 하는 것도 그런 중심이다. 그게 없으니 세상 모든 것이, 그리고 삶의 모든 것이 신기루처럼 느껴질 뿐이라...