I actually thought the swearing in Deadwood was effective insofar as it conveyed the idea that this was a rough-and-tumble frontier town. If obscenity or nudity serves a purpose, I don't have a real problem with it. I just don't want to be bludgeoned by boobies because some producer thinks it's edgy or something.
To be clear, my criticism was mainly directed at HBO's adaptation, which seems to be self-consciously positioning itself as an "edgy, adult" alternative to traditional fantasy. Martin's books share some of the those flaws, but to a much lesser extent.
As for the books themselves, I'm not altogether sure why I didn't love them. Part of it may have to do with his writing style. Part of it is summed up in this old post from Alan Jacobs (the comments are also worth reading):
Compared to most Western countries, the United States is an extremely diverse place. You can imagine a scenario in which a culturally homogeneous country does a better job of educating a smaller ethnic minority because of certain second-order effects stemming from its favorable demographic position.
For example, if you have a class with 20 Anglophone Australians and two immigrants, teachers can devote a disproportionate amount of time and resources to the immigrant kids because the Australians have already developed the habits of good students and require little hands-on attention. In the United States, a class of 10 white kids and 10 ethnic minorities would not enjoy similar advantages.
That said, I know little about Australia, so maybe its level of ethnic and cultural diversity there is comparable to the United States' (I kind of doubt it, if only because there's no Mexico on the Australian border). I'd be interested to read a breakdown of Australian student achievement along ethnic lines. Taking a look at the performance of certain minorities within the Finnish school system (there's a fairly substantial community of Somalian refugees in Helsinki) would also be revealing.
Right, that's my point. These countries' successes are attributable to underlying cultural factors, not the architecture of their public school systems.
Just to follow up, I'm not talking about any small, culturally homogeneous country. I'm talking about high-trust, highly cooperative, culturally homogeneous Western European societies. Societies like Finland's, in other words.
Here's the acid test for the culture question: Why don't liberals support modeling Sweden's voucherized system instead of Finland's heavily-unionized alternative? The answer, I think, is that everyone knows that these countries succeed because they're dealing with a school-age population that is already very amenable to teaching. People opportunistically cherry-pick Nordic countries that have implemented some of their preferred policy choices all the time, knowing full well that underlying factors we can't model and don't understand are what really make the difference.
On a related note, I recommend checking out Matt Yglesias and Noah Millman's Bloggingheads dialog on school reform. About 20 minutes in, they compare Finland's success to a rich jurisdiction using zoning ordinances to keep poor kids out of their schools. I think this is exactly right.
I'm thinking of songs that would fall under the latter category - that's what I took Jaybird's "musically accessible" condition to mean. And yeah, I think there's something to be said for music that transcends a particular cultural moment.
I thought of that issue right after I wrote my comment, but re-reading it, the question of what actually led to a decline in crime rates is somewhat tangential to the central debate over current incarceration policies.
I'm not a criminologist, so all of this is terribly speculative. But I think we can distinguish between a 'tough on crime' policy that emphasizes increased police presence and a 'tough on crime' policy that relies on draconian sentencing and punitive measures. There is some empirical evidence that validates this:
That said, the paper also suggests that locking people up worked. I tend to think that our disproportionate rate of incarceration coupled with the fact that other countries experienced similar falling crime rates indicates that locking people up is not *the* critical variable. But I could be wrong.
That's interesting, but it seems to validate my larger point - underlying cultural factors have a tremendous impact on student achievement levels. I suppose I should have added the qualifier that all homogeneous cultures aren't necessarily good at transmitting educational values.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Battle of Marathon Casualty List”
This is badass
On “Tits! Swords! Edginess!”
I actually thought the swearing in Deadwood was effective insofar as it conveyed the idea that this was a rough-and-tumble frontier town. If obscenity or nudity serves a purpose, I don't have a real problem with it. I just don't want to be bludgeoned by boobies because some producer thinks it's edgy or something.
"
To be clear, my criticism was mainly directed at HBO's adaptation, which seems to be self-consciously positioning itself as an "edgy, adult" alternative to traditional fantasy. Martin's books share some of the those flaws, but to a much lesser extent.
As for the books themselves, I'm not altogether sure why I didn't love them. Part of it may have to do with his writing style. Part of it is summed up in this old post from Alan Jacobs (the comments are also worth reading):
http://theamericanscene.com/2009/05/11/a-farewell-to-malazan
On “Toward a norm of humanitarian intervention”
A great post that I totally missed until now. Serves me right for not reading my own damn blog.
On “Our man in Fukushima”
I checked their twitter feed last night and didn't see anything, so that's great news.
All credit to Jaybird for remembering Carr lives in Japan, by the way.
On “Friday Night Jukebox”
I can't find any contact info on his blog's "About" page. And the entry about the disaster doesn't sound good.
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Oh, shit. I forgot he writes from Japan.
On “The IDF’s “mystique””
Fair point, but the IDF ended up winning the Yom Kippur War pretty decisively.
On “Subsidiarity and public education”
A quick point about Australia:
Compared to most Western countries, the United States is an extremely diverse place. You can imagine a scenario in which a culturally homogeneous country does a better job of educating a smaller ethnic minority because of certain second-order effects stemming from its favorable demographic position.
For example, if you have a class with 20 Anglophone Australians and two immigrants, teachers can devote a disproportionate amount of time and resources to the immigrant kids because the Australians have already developed the habits of good students and require little hands-on attention. In the United States, a class of 10 white kids and 10 ethnic minorities would not enjoy similar advantages.
That said, I know little about Australia, so maybe its level of ethnic and cultural diversity there is comparable to the United States' (I kind of doubt it, if only because there's no Mexico on the Australian border). I'd be interested to read a breakdown of Australian student achievement along ethnic lines. Taking a look at the performance of certain minorities within the Finnish school system (there's a fairly substantial community of Somalian refugees in Helsinki) would also be revealing.
On ““September,” Earth, Wind, and Fire”
I don't get that reference, but I will heartily endorse the Neutral Milk Hotel suggestion.
On “State Dept Spokesman: Bradley Manning’s Treatment “Ridiculous and Counterproductive and Stupid.””
Counterproductive and stupid, sure. But you get the sense that Crowley sees this as a bad PR move, not a morally horrendous decision.
It is fairly stunning that an Administration official would publicly admit to as much, though.
On ““September,” Earth, Wind, and Fire”
That's a really good suggestion.
On “Subsidiarity and public education”
Right, that's my point. These countries' successes are attributable to underlying cultural factors, not the architecture of their public school systems.
"
Just to follow up, I'm not talking about any small, culturally homogeneous country. I'm talking about high-trust, highly cooperative, culturally homogeneous Western European societies. Societies like Finland's, in other words.
Here's the acid test for the culture question: Why don't liberals support modeling Sweden's voucherized system instead of Finland's heavily-unionized alternative? The answer, I think, is that everyone knows that these countries succeed because they're dealing with a school-age population that is already very amenable to teaching. People opportunistically cherry-pick Nordic countries that have implemented some of their preferred policy choices all the time, knowing full well that underlying factors we can't model and don't understand are what really make the difference.
On a related note, I recommend checking out Matt Yglesias and Noah Millman's Bloggingheads dialog on school reform. About 20 minutes in, they compare Finland's success to a rich jurisdiction using zoning ordinances to keep poor kids out of their schools. I think this is exactly right.
On ““September,” Earth, Wind, and Fire”
I'm thinking of songs that would fall under the latter category - that's what I took Jaybird's "musically accessible" condition to mean. And yeah, I think there's something to be said for music that transcends a particular cultural moment.
On “Cultural artifacts from the age of fear”
I thought of that issue right after I wrote my comment, but re-reading it, the question of what actually led to a decline in crime rates is somewhat tangential to the central debate over current incarceration policies.
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Which also happens to be the one classical text I keep waiting for Rufus to cover.
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Dirty Harry is another great example. As for the rest of this, it deserves a separate post . . .
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Damn. I really want somebody to pay me to write an article about this stuff so I can watch all these movies guilt-free.
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It occurs to me that a debate about declining crime rates would make for a great Cato Unbound topic . . .
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Interestingly enough, that book about "super-predators" I link to was also published in '96. I guess they were both lagging indicators.
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Fantastic example. Can't believe I forgot about The Warriors.
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I'm not a criminologist, so all of this is terribly speculative. But I think we can distinguish between a 'tough on crime' policy that emphasizes increased police presence and a 'tough on crime' policy that relies on draconian sentencing and punitive measures. There is some empirical evidence that validates this:
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittUnderstandingWhyCrime2004.pdf
That said, the paper also suggests that locking people up worked. I tend to think that our disproportionate rate of incarceration coupled with the fact that other countries experienced similar falling crime rates indicates that locking people up is not *the* critical variable. But I could be wrong.
On “Why does the Finnish public school system work?”
Decentralize is not a synonym for de-unionize.
Turku is a lovely town, by the way. We lived in Kauniainen, out by Espoo.
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That's interesting, but it seems to validate my larger point - underlying cultural factors have a tremendous impact on student achievement levels. I suppose I should have added the qualifier that all homogeneous cultures aren't necessarily good at transmitting educational values.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.