The university of vanity, said my friend, treats everyone like a child. As everyone is assumed to be a denizen of vanity, nobody is trusted to know what they are doing. No decision can be made without interference, sometimes known as “mentoring.” Standard advice abounds, and is reiterated whether or not it actually fits. It … More Elementary

The sky is still luminous. In these weeks since the Shadow lifted, life has felt easy-easy. Easy, as it once did long ago. One of my friends who reads this blog says I am sitting here grieving, and this is true, but life still feels easy-easy, because I am here again. And I know many … More Mais um para Oxalá

Once when Operation Rescue sieged clinics in New Orleans I spent an intense Labor Day weekend producing a movement newsletter with Xavier, a very gay English professor from another institution, and Little Robert, an anarchist. He was known as Little Robert because he was short, mild-mannered, and very young. Every kind of activist had converged … More On Seeing Your Oppressor

What are your very best techniques for convincing graduate students that: a) their theses and dissertations should have a well defined scope: they should be narrow enough, and then deep; b) their committees should include the people in the department whose expertise most closely matches their topic; c) each project they undertake can only address … More Calling All Professors

In his famous “On the Question of Free Trade,” a speech made before the Democratic Association of Brussels on January 9, 1848, Marx quotes David Ricardo, who had said: “If instead of growing our own corn . . . we discover a new market from which we can supply ourselves . . . at a … More Karl Marx IV

Now it is once again time to vote. I have changed my banner to its original cool colors, with writing/image manipulation by Nezua. The warmed-up version, also by Nezua, is definitely staying on Z Blackground, where it is gorgeous. My last readers’ poll indicated that the warmer version should be here as well. Do you … More Karl Marx III

I am motivated to post some excerpts from Marx because I got a new secretary in the media laboratory which, for reasons I can explain but do not understand, I seem to supervise. The former secretary, a person after my own heart, had printed out the Communist Manifesto and hung it on the bulletin board. … More Karl Marx II