Category Archives: Politics

Three Thoughts on the Nomination of Hillary Clinton

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Timothy Burke

1. This is simple. If Hillary Clinton loses the election to the possibly the most unpopular, polarizing and vulnerable Presidential candidate in American history, I will not blame her. I will, however, blame her supporters, aides and the Democratic party … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 26 Comments

On the Arrival of Rough Beasts

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Timothy Burke

One of the things I find most interesting about the history of advertising is the long-running conflict between the “creatives” and their more quantitative, data-driven opponents within ad agencies. It’s a long-running, widespread opposition between a more humanistic, intuitive, interpretative … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Oath for Experts, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System, Politics | 1 Comment

Cost Control Is a Progressive Value

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Timothy Burke

If you are a long-time reader of this increasingly intermittent blog, you know I have some recurrent frustrations and fascinations that I return to again and again. Sometimes in fact the blog is intermittent because I am afraid I am … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics | 2 Comments

Opt Out

Posted on February 23, 2016 by Timothy Burke

There is a particular kind of left position, a habitus that is sociologically and emotionally local to intellectuals, that amounts in its way to a particular kind of anti-politics machine. It’s a perspective that ends up with its nose pressed … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System, Politics | 4 Comments

“Dates Back Millennia”

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Timothy Burke

You know, I have less of an unqualified hatred for the “dates back millennia” line than I used to. I’m thinking this as I see my feed fill up with friends and colleagues complaining about Obama’s use of it in … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics, Production of History | Comments Off

On the Eating of Lotuses

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Timothy Burke

Wary as I might be (like most historians) of historical analogies, there’s an obvious one out there that could stand some use. I think about it every time I read a story about how young and innocent men and women, … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 5 Comments

Putting Out Fire With Gasoline

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Timothy Burke

I appreciate what Sady Doyle is trying to do in this essay on humor, culture and politics. Primarily the essay is addressed to artists and performers (and their audiences) who object to what they perceive as “politically correct” censoriousness. (One … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Popular Culture | 5 Comments

Don’t Panic! Leave That to the Experts

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Timothy Burke

In many massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), players who are heavily invested in the game (sometimes just in terms of time, but occasionally both time and money) often group together in organized collaborations, usually called guilds. Guilds pool resources and … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 4 Comments

We Are Not Who We Will Become

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Timothy Burke

One of the things about the reaction to Allison Bechdel’s Fun Home by a small subset of incoming Duke undergraduates that is important to grasp is that I think it’s a deliberate–and possibly even coordinated–re-deployment of activism about the content … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics, Swarthmore | 10 Comments

Joke’s On You

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Timothy Burke

Here’s my contribution to the DONALD TRUMP HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE sweepstakes: Donald Trump is polling well for the same reason Bernie Sanders is polling well. Sort of. They’re not at all the same in the sociology of their attraction, … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 3 Comments