Regular readers may have noticed that I have been off my usual very-nearly-daily blog schedule the last few days. The reason for this is that I had one last exam to mop up; I finished that today. I am flying back to the United States tomorrow, and so am packing and preparing for that today. Regular blogging should resume on Thursday. I should note that, starting right this very moment, I also plan to make a stylistic change–I will be writing these posts in American English rather than British English. American English is the style I grew up with; I was writing in British English not to be pretentious as some of you might have thought, but because I was writing essays and exams in British English for the University of Warwick. As of today, I no longer have any more exams or essays to write for Warwick–next year I become a grad student at the University of Chicago. In consequence, I will be writing all of my papers in American English henceforth, and that includes these blog posts. I thank you, the reader, for your continued readership, and promise to endeavor to make it well worth your while when I return on the 30th.
Author: Benjamin Studebaker
Puritans and Libertarians
Within the hallowed halls of academia, there is a terrific and vibrant discussion about ethics and morality, about how we should conduct our lives and what the best way to live a good life is. There are utilitarians, contracturalists, rights theorists, all kinds of fun thoughts flitting about. However, amongst the wider population, this great conversation fails to penetrate. Among the wider population, the moral debate is a mere shadow of what goes on at the universities. Increasingly I observe a contest among young people in the public sphere between two equally simplistic, poor moral conceptions–the puritanical ideology, which is under decay, and the libertarian ideology, which is on the rise.
Islam and Terrorism
The other day, there was a terrorist attack in Woolwich, London. Lee Rigby, a drummer in the army, was attacked and stabbed by two assailants. This has brought up the subjection of the relationship between Islam and terrorism. It has also raised the question of whether or not permitting Muslim immigration leads to terrorism. Today, I’ve decided to weigh in on the whole mess.
A Critique of Conspiracy Theories
Increasingly just about any time anything tragic happens there will be some number of people who will immediately jump to the conclusion that the government did it. 9/11? An inside job. Newtown school shooting? A government plot to take our guns. Boston Bombing? A false flag operation. The most recent one that spurred this post is the killing of Ibragim Todashev, a Chechen immigrant whom the FBI chose to question as part of its investigation of the Boston Bombing. He was questioned by an FBI agent and two state troopers. The FBI says that Todashev attacked their agent, presenting an imminent threat to that agent’s life, and as a result the agent chose to shoot him. Corroborating the FBI’s account, the agent was hospitalised with injuries. Regardless, the FBI is investigating the incident.Yet, despite this, some people think that the FBI just went into Todashev’s home and killed him for some reason, or no reason, and that this incident suggests that our government is totalitarian and just goes around shooting people all the time. Why do people believe these conspiracy theories?
Obama and Personal Responsibility
Last weekend Barack Obama gave a commencement speech at the historically all-black, all-male Morehouse College. Why we still have colleges that are segregated on race/gender lines is beyond me, but that’s not my topic today. My topic is what Obama said and the positive reaction it has gotten, despite the indisputable fact that if someone like Mitt Romney went to Morehouse College and gave the speech Obama gave, we would all be apoplectic.
Benjamin Studebaker 