Blasphemers & Farmers

A casual observer of the media's celebration of benefactions by the Buffetts, Kochs and Hiltons of the world--each seemingly bigger and more ambitious than the last-- might well conclude that we've entered some sort of golden age of philanthropy, where those who have benefited the most from the flows of global capital are answering the call to irrigate the fields of those whose resources they have hitherto depleted. Of course, what makes this interpretation possible is the magnitude of exploitation that founds and facilitates the donors' largesse. I have posted before about the dirty secret of the charitable giving industry: that it functions primarily to recirculate wealth among and ensure the reproduction of the upper and middle classes. Because I work in higher education, I am especially agitated by the efficiency with which our colleges and universities perform this function. Harvard and Yale have recently recalculated their financial aid formulae to provide greater benefits for families earning up to $200,000 per year. At Yale,

Families earning less than $60,000 annually will not make any contribution toward the cost of a child’s education, and families earning $60,000 to $120,000 will typically contribute from 1% to 10% of total family income. The contribution of aided families earning above $120,000 will average 10% of income.

Yale also is increasing the number of families who qualify for aid, eliminating the need for students to take loans, enhancing its grants to families with more than one child attending college, exempting the first $200,000 of family assets from the assessment of need....

In reality, the population of Yale students from families earning less than $60,000 per year is almost hypothetical. The new financial aid policy is a benefit package for middle class students--those from families earning up to $200,000 per year. Now, given that Yale's undergraduate term bill for 2007-2008 is $43,050, families earning $200,000 might well need a break in order to afford a Yale student. But no one should be deceived about the purpose and beneficiaries of Yale's apparent generosity.

This op-ed piece in today's NYT gets it precisely right.

Disarming

This is an update to my post 'the Chrysanthemum and the Tulip'. More yet to come on the question of the proper role of anthropology in the military and the military in anthropology as the meeting of the American Anthropological Association (28 Nov-2 Dec) proceeds. The Chronicle article is maddeningly bland and 'even-handed', but it taken in parts it does offer some priceless gems. To wit:

Felix Moos, a 78-year-old professor of anthropology at Kansas who has trained several human-terrain participants, passionately supports the program. He has roughly a dozen different ways of saying "A better-educated military will kill fewer people, not more."

I expect I confess my naivete when I reveal that my overall impression had been that an unarmed civilian population has had better success with this objective.

'A dozen different ways of saying "a better-educated military will kill fewer people, not more"'. Any striking writers willing to take a guess? Not directly a propos, but I found some cynical alternative army slogans posted in 2001 on a site called 'Free Republic.com: A conservative news forum' that also deserve the broader audience we here at Punctum et Studium are proud to boast. Point being that if self-identified conservatives and (as it appears from the comments) members of the military are as clear sighted and unsentimental about their purpose and deployment as this-- then Moos and other apologists for the 'human terrain' initiative have even more--a great deal more-- for which to answer:

1. "Kill All That You Can Kill"
2. "Shower With Men"
3. "Knock Up Foreign Broads"
4. "All The Grits You Can Eat"
5. "Be A Flame Thrower, Not A Flame Broiler"
6. "Purple Hearts = Free Beers At Hooters"
7. "Whimsical And Human, Just Like M*A*S*H"
8. "Cubicles Are For Wusses"
9. "Napalm Means Serious BBQ"
10. "Over 1,000,000 Sheared, Beaten, And Worked Into A Sub-Human Fury!"
11. "Totally Beefcake and Proud of It"
12. "Beat Up Sailors"
13. "We Won't Screw Your Mind Up As Bad As The Marines Will"
14. "Kicking Nazi Tail Since 1942"
15. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Accessorize"
16. "Risk Your Life for Freedoms No One Appreciates!"
17. "Play Doom For Real"
18. "Sure Beats Lurnin'!"
19. "Because Terminators Are Real"
20. "Forget Nation-Building -- Let's Destroy One!"

Conditions of Utterance

So Times Select has released
Stanley Fish.
I think he's right, despite my previous comments.
Unfortunately that means I am going to have to figure out
another career objective.