Author: Justin Tosi Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0190900164 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 208
Book Description
We are all guilty of it. We call people terrible names in conversation or online. We vilify those with whom we disagree, and make bolder claims than we could defend. We want to be seen as taking the moral high ground not just to make a point, or move a debate forward, but to look a certain way--incensed, or compassionate, or committed to a cause. We exaggerate. In other words, we grandstand. Nowhere is this more evident than in public discourse today, and especially as it plays out across the internet. To philosophers Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke, who have written extensively about moral grandstanding, such one-upmanship is not just annoying, but dangerous. As politics gets more and more polarized, people on both sides of the spectrum move further and further apart when they let grandstanding get in the way of engaging one another. The pollution of our most urgent conversations with self-interest damages the very causes they are meant to forward. Drawing from work in psychology, economics, and political science, and along with contemporary examples spanning the political spectrum, the authors dive deeply into why and how we grandstand. Using the analytic tools of psychology and moral philosophy, they explain what drives us to behave in this way, and what we stand to lose by taking it too far. Most importantly, they show how, by avoiding grandstanding, we can re-build a public square worth participating in.
Author: Isaiah Lewis Publisher: ISBN: 9781645444022 Category : Languages : en Pages : 100
Book Description
It's often common practice for books to be written from pundits, experts or from the perspective of people who have mastered a particular skill set to the degree in which they can convey it into a book or novel. This book challenges that. In lieu of the current dispensation of divisive politics and partisanship, Isaiah Lewis draws from his experiences as an undergraduate as well as his brief stints working in municipal government in order to give a bird's-eye view, or rather, "bleacher's point of view" perspective, on how power and democracy are playing out in society. This book seeks to bridge the gap of understanding among people working from the ground, up to people who are making some of the most important decisions in our world. It speaks truth to power in a very peaceful yet impactful way. By sharing his personal experiences, setbacks, and inefficiencies, he seeks to help others understand their self-value and how all our actions shape the true meaning of what a democracy should be. The goal of this book is to shed light on the idea that power and democracy transcend government and political tribalism. It also highlights how the aesthetic (or appeal of power) shapes not only our democracy but our lives as well. The author looks to illustrate the importance of not discounting your own experiences and how it is very important to not allow your self-worth or value to be determined by your title or position. Moreover, this book shows that change starts with personal practice and not just policy.
Author: Justin Tosi Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA ISBN: 0190900156 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 249
Book Description
We are all guilty of it. We call people terrible names in conversation or online. We vilify those with whom we disagree, and make bolder claims than we could defend. We want to be seen as taking the moral high ground not just to make a point, or move a debate forward, but to look a certain way--incensed, or compassionate, or committed to a cause. We exaggerate. In other words, we grandstand. Nowhere is this more evident than in public discourse today, and especially as it plays out across the internet. To philosophers Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke, who have written extensively about moral grandstanding, such one-upmanship is not just annoying, but dangerous. As politics gets more and more polarized, people on both sides of the spectrum move further and further apart when they let grandstanding get in the way of engaging one another. The pollution of our most urgent conversations with self-interest damages the very causes they are meant to forward. Drawing from work in psychology, economics, and political science, and along with contemporary examples spanning the political spectrum, the authors dive deeply into why and how we grandstand. Using the analytic tools of psychology and moral philosophy, they explain what drives us to behave in this way, and what we stand to lose by taking it too far. Most importantly, they show how, by avoiding grandstanding, we can re-build a public square worth participating in.
Author: John Keane Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1847377602 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 717
Book Description
John Keane's The Life and Death of Democracy will inspire and shock its readers. Presenting the first grand history of democracy for well over a century, it poses along the way some tough and timely questions: can we really be sure that democracy had its origins in ancient Greece? How did democratic ideals and institutions come to have the shape they do today? Given all the recent fanfare about democracy promotion, why are many people now gripped by the feeling that a bad moon is rising over all the world's democracies? Do they indeed have a future? Or is perhaps democracy fated to melt away, along with our polar ice caps? The work of one of Britain's leading political writers, this is no mere antiquarian history. Stylishly written, this superb book confronts its readers with an entirely fresh and irreverent look at the past, present and future of democracy. It unearths the beginnings of such precious institutions and ideals as government by public assembly, votes for women, the secret ballot, trial by jury and press freedom. It tracks the changing, hotly disputed meanings of democracy and describes quite a few of the extraordinary characters, many of them long forgotten, who dedicated their lives to building or defending democracy. And it explains why democracy is still potentially the best form of government on earth -- and why democracies everywhere are sleepwalking their way into deep trouble.
Author: Sherrie Tucker Publisher: Duke University Press ISBN: 0822376202 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 447
Book Description
Open from 1942 until 1945, the Hollywood Canteen was the most famous of the patriotic home front nightclubs where civilian hostesses jitterbugged with enlisted men of the Allied Nations. Since the opening night, when the crowds were so thick that Bette Davis had to enter through the bathroom window to give her welcome speech, the storied dance floor where movie stars danced with soldiers has been the subject of much U.S. nostalgia about the "Greatest Generation." Drawing from oral histories with civilian volunteers and military guests who danced at the wartime nightclub, Sherrie Tucker explores how jitterbugging swing culture has come to represent the war in U.S. national memory. Yet her interviewees' varied experiences and recollections belie the possibility of any singular historical narrative. Some recall racism, sexism, and inequality on the nightclub's dance floor and in Los Angeles neighborhoods, dynamics at odds with the U.S. democratic, egalitarian ideals associated with the Hollywood Canteen and the "Good War" in popular culture narratives. For Tucker, swing dancing's torque—bodies sharing weight, velocity, and turning power without guaranteed outcomes—is an apt metaphor for the jostling narratives, different perspectives, unsteady memories, and quotidian acts that comprise social history.
Author: Robert E. Norton Publisher: Mohr Siebeck ISBN: 3161598288 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 666
Book Description
Robert E. Norton offers the first comprehensive study in any language devoted to Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923) and his activities during the First World War. Troeltsch was one of the most famous figures of his day, a renowned historian, philosopher, sociologist, and theologian. But he did not just comment on events, he also actively served in a number of public roles before, during, and after the war. Throughout the last decade of his life, Troeltsch was a central participant in many of the most significant political debates and struggles that took place in his country, and in the process he became one of the most forceful and committed proponents of democracy in Germany. Tracing the gradual rise and growth of democratic thought during the war, Robert E. Norton shows how democracy itself emerged as the pivotal question within German domestic politics around which everything else came to revolve. In this process, Ernst Troeltsch emerged as one of the most eloquent and persuasive voices advocating for democracy and peace, and always promoting the ideals of freedom and human dignity for all peoples.
Author: Robert Shepherd Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc. ISBN: Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 517
Book Description
If we are to be part of a democracy, then let us be united. And if we are to be a member of the United States democracy, let us be united and unite others. God will guide. We are a World People, seeking to know ourselves, together. All religions, with others, not of religion--united: do it and be it. It will take work and effort in social economic and political adjustment, for God's paradigm. God's Spirit at work.
Author: Carol Lacy Publisher: iUniverse ISBN: 0595462448 Category : Bibles Languages : en Pages : 228
Book Description
Not only did God leave us the Holy Spirit to walk alongside us during our earthly pilgrimage, He also surrounds us with those who "were commended for their faith"-"a great cloud of witnesses," or as Williams translates Hebrews 11 and 12, a vast "crowd of spectators in the grandstands" to encourage us in our walk of faith. These are stories of some of these people told by those who knew them best-friends, relatives and, in one case, an enemy-who knew them when they were not wearing their public masks, walking on earth just like us, and who were often misunderstood, ridiculed, persecuted, sometimes killed, and always making mistakes. Yet they persevered and endured, gaining a place in the Hall of Faith.