by Dr. Richard Florida

2002, Basic Books, 325 pages

“If America continues to make it harder for some of the world’s most talented students and workers to come here, they’ll go to other countries eager to tap into their creative capabilities—as will American citizens fed up with what they view as an increasingly repressive environment.”
— Dr. Richard Florida,
The Flight of the Creative Class

From this quote you can see immediately the sort of society Dr. Florida wants. Me, too. What’s puzzling is he doesn’t explicitly attach his shiny new cart of creativity to the thoroughbred of peace and political liberty.

In particular, you’d expect him to lambaste the Neocon Usurpers for launching expensive wars for isolated benefit of the Carlyle Group. Is he pulling his punches so Rush Bimbaugh won’t accuse him of Bush-bashing? In general, why doesn’t Florida boldly oppose the bonecrushing machinery of government per se? Continue reading →

by Neil Postman
The surrender of culture to technology

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end. — Thoreau

Neil Postman is the prophet of the Second Enlightenment, the one that “builds a bridge” to the First Enlightenment of the 18th century. The former chair of the department of communications arts and sciences at New York University has a thing about technology and language. Reading any of his books—and I did review his Building a Bridge to the 18th Century—gives one the pure joy of seeing a first-class literary mind wrestling conceptually with the neverending stimulus-response “stuff” coming at humankind through the unchecked machinery of wretched excess. Continue reading →