Author Archive for Timothy McGettigan
Tim McGettigan is a professor of sociology at Colorado State University – Pueblo. The Socjournal is an outstanding resource for all things sociological. Too often, the media examines social issues from a singularly economic perspective. If you really want to understand how the social world works, it's better to use a broader, clearer lens. In this column, I will discuss a variety of forces (technological, scientific, political, cultural, and, yeah okay, economic) that are currently reshaping the globe. Whether or not the world is changing for the better is an open question — and, thus, it's a question that I look forward to debating at length in this column.
Holy Megabucks, Batman! The Astounding Popularity of Superhero Films
Big bucks in buff bods and super-powers. Collectively we have a fantasy, a fetish perhaps, with notions of super power and hidden divinity. From the X-men to Superman to The Hulk, perhaps there is something more than the the mere dust and detritus of human existence. As Bruce Cockburn once sang, “Behind the pain fear, etched on the faces, something is shining like gold, but better…” As Dr. Tim says, let fantasy lead where science fears to tread.
Coming to (Digital) Terms: The Work of Art in the Age of Non-Mechanical Reproduction
Despite this author’s reliance on EPMO, the work represented here is quite interesting. The author is basically issuing a challenge to our academic notions of plagiarism. In a digital work where it is so easy to COPY, and where the copy is not degraded from the original in any way, maybe we should put aside notions of “ownership” and “acclaim” and instead embrace the COPY and fashion a new work from the foundation provided. COPY FREELY and COPY OFTEN. GNU-COPYLEFT and Wikipedia as the epitome of this truly post-modern ethic! Bravo Dr. Dornsife.
AI and IQ: The Right Answer to the Wrong Question
So what is intelligence? What is IQ? What makes one person smarter, and thus more deserving of reward, then another. Well, as Tim points out, and according to many psychologists its a magic number. Like a gypsy’s gaze into the crystal ball, this number, derived with suitably esoteric and “unbiased” (not!) scientific instrumentation, reveals all. Or does it? And, as Tim asks, can it? Can a simple number like 42 really reveal all the secrets of the human experience, or is just (as Douglas Adams has suggested) a big joke.
There Be Dragons: Science as the Realization of Fantasy
It’s not often you get a honest account of the foundation of modern science. To be honest, accounts of science, especially those given to second year initiates” is often more polemic and ego that it is science and rationality. But here’s an account that exposes the irrational roots of our rational inquiry. Science, it seems, is as much founded on the irrational (and often egoic and competitive) pursuit of fantasy and imagination than the cold hard facts of reality. And in fact that’s a good thing because, as Tim points out, without fantasy and imagination to drive us, we’d not have achieved the technological wonders of the modern world. It is interesting though. If imagination can bring us the technological world of Captain Kirk, can’t it also bring us the social world of the future as well, a world where money is abolished, everyone is provided for, and nobody suffers or goes hungry. Perhaps you’ll say its just “human nature,” but perhaps its really just a failure of imagination!
Conquering the Beast Within
Are humans basically good, or basically bad? Some people, like Freud, Hobbes, and Foucault, say bad. We’ve got a beast within and the only way to control that beast is to beat it down and repress it. You want proof? Just look at how badly the adults in this world act. They are greedy, selfish, violent, and brutish. But is that the result of human nature, or is it simply the result of toxic socialization? Personally, I think its the latter. Take one giggling, innocent, bubbly, effervescent child, subject them to two decades of disregard and abuse (statistically, rates of child abuse are high), and turn them loose damaged, angry, and desperate! It’s no wonder we live in the world we do. But is it human nature, or should we fault our The System and its agents of socialization? It’s up to you to decide. But be careful, the choice you make determines the society we build.
iPad Delusions: The Curious Appeal of Workaround Computing
When I was a kid I was always disappointed by the toys I got. They never lived up to the crazy expectations generated by dissembling advertisers as they manipulated my soft and malleable child-mind. I remember, and now I tell my own kids to watch out because the toys they see on television are never, ever, ever as good as they appear in the commercials. Well I guess not everybody remembers their childhood disappointment because now we have a new generation of older children who, dutifully obeying the media manipulators, buy the lie and live with disappointment. But then, at least they get to live. Can’t say the same for the workers at the Foxconn (where Apple builds its iPads) are so disappointed with the way the company treats them they’ve actually had to install nets outside the windows to prevent the workers from jumping out and killing themselves as a result. Thanks S. J. for a job well done! – Mike Sosteric
Osama is Dead, but What Have We Learned?
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my years of watching the U.S. is that government always precedes some big, mind numbing global intervention (war, invasion, occupation, nuclear bomb, etc. etc.) with some sort of diversion. Like any magician knows, you can do a lot by diverting someone’s attention. And so here we have the latest diversion, a magical invocation guaranteed to catch consciousness and steer it away from whatever is coming next. Keep an eye out. Something wicked this way comes. Ed.
Nuclear Nightmares: Damned Lies about the World’s “Safest” Energy Source
Implausible as it may seem, as the Fukushima Daiichi disaster has grown ever more cataclysmic, nuclear energy advocates have come out of the woodwork to tout the virtues of nuclear as a “safe” form of energy. Safe? Are you kidding me? Last night, rain containing measurable levels of radiation from Fukushima Daiichi fell on the [...]
Where No One Has Gone Before: Renewable Energy Frontiers and Obama’s Sputnik Moment
A sociologist looks at energy. Not oil, not nuclear, but renewable. Solar panels, wind, geothermal, these are all part of a decentralization of power generation. When every home has its own energy generating power plant we won’t be dependent on big power producers. This may mean less mega profits for a few, but the decentralization and democratization of energy needs to happen.
It Couldn’t Happen to a Nicer Guy: The Final Days of the Gadhafi Regime in Libya
Colonel Muammar Gadhafi’s days as Libya’s overlord are fast coming to a close. For an astonishing 41 years the people of Libya have been subjected Gadhafi’s abusive reign. However, seizing upon the revolutionary fervor that is sweeping through North Africa, the Libyan people have surged into the streets to demand an immediate end to the Gadhafi regime. Three cheers for the good people of Libya!
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