Calling all liberal arts graduates

[Fovea]

Historians, Sociologists, poli-sci freaks.

America suffers from an excess of instrumental thinkers-- narrow technocrats who see tusks, ears, legs, and a trunk, but cannot integrate it into a pachyderm

So what is desperately needed are visions, systems, nexii of economies, organizations, coalitions, and new goals for the twenty first century, which as the firesign theater said, is already in progress.
I spend a lot of my spoons thinking about transportation without oil. I think I have it worked out to within a few miles of the farm all the way to the dinner table.
I am a peek oil believer.

But what have you been thinking about obsessively?
What must change in America, and how can it practically be accomplished and integrated into American life?

[opihimoimoi]

1. I been working on an entry for the "SOUP TO NUTS "Contest....

Been at it for 17 years...almost finished...in the Incipient stage of implementing...

[Occam Bandage]

2. America actually suffers from an excess of liberal-arts graduates. The economy

is having difficulty accommodating them. There is, however, great demand for science and engineering degrees.

[Fovea]

7. i see it as under utilization

Business articles bemoan the lack of communication skills, bump technical experts into lower management, create a monopoly of MBA's in middle and upper management-- and the results are obvious.

Our debacle would been a lot more transparent earlier on had someone with enough historic sensibility had input. The only person I can think of in the past 20 years doing that consistently is Kevin Phillips-- ok and Robert Reich.

A sociologist might note that engineering and technical degrees are common in systems where education costs are minimal or absent. All our academic standards suck because flunk out students default on loans.
True Public education could require higher academic standards.

[JuniperLea]

14. Tell me about it...

My oldest son went to a math and science high school on a Cal State campus, won awards from the American Society of Chemical Engineers, applied to Cal Tech, had everything going for him, except for the fact that his parents' combined income was over $120k. With two other kids also headed for college, there was no way we could spend $30k+ for Son to go to said tech that first year... too much money, even with five people in the highly mortgaged house, to get scholarships, he passed all sorts of tests for grants with flying colors, still no go. The thought of graduating with $100k+ in student loans scared the hell out of all of us. It took Son a lot of extra time in a school not of his choosing to get his degree. We're all worn out busting humps to pay for that too.

You know it's a truly screwed up world when you have a genius kid who deserves the best school around, and you can't budge the system. I don't think I'll ever get over that. Sucks so bad.

[rosesaylavee]

3. We need something equivalent to Victory Gardens

to help people buy into the cultural changes needed to fight climate crisis. We will need to share resources a lot more - see a lot of bartering in our future. Knowing and working with our neighbors in resolving macro-local issues could be a coming change too. More like we were 100 years ago than 2007.

Glad to know someone appreciates my Liberal Arts degree.

[Fovea]

8. yes, i see a need for a lot more intesive agriculture

with less reliance on petrochemical stocks.

[rosesaylavee]

13. Have you heard about permaculture?

It encourages developing a sustainable yard or property with vegetation that is composed of fruits/vegetables but is also arranged to support itself by its placement to the other plants. I am probably not describing it as well as it can be - but I find it absolutely fascinating. It encompasses as much or as little as an individual can or will do with their yard or land. I think this is where we are heading eventually.

[asdjrocky]

17. Take a look at this-

Someone posted this link in the gardening forum, and I love the site-

http://www.pathtofreedom.com/

[Fovea]

19. My front yard

Wild Onion, chives, peppers, sweet potato, tomatoes, 5 kinds of mint, sage, thyme, oregano, roses, sunflower, yarrow, a wet zone and marigolds, lemon balm, catnip etc.

This in a 20x45 foot front yard with terrace. It looks messy in places, but mint and oregano are not really neat growing plants.

[BlooInBloo]

4. Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind....

To hell with all I'm-so-glad-I'm-a-delta single-faceted "thinkers".

[librechik]

5. I looked around after 9/11

and closed up shop. The atmosphere is anti-creativity.

I'm waiting till we no longer get charged with terrorism for carrying signs.

I'm waiting till censorship of all kinds shrivels up and blows away,

Until then, I don't have the stomach to even try.

My last article, "Tumbling Towers," about the new addition to the Denver Art Museum and how it challenges contemporary architecture, went to print in July 2001.

That was just a little to synchronistic for me. After the Towers Tumbled in September.

In 2005 Eric Fischl made a broze sculpture of a falling nude man and placed it in the lobby of a building near ground zero, which had commissioned it. Too many people complained it was too soon.
They removed it.

This alternative universe I'm living in is just too cruel for art.

I know, I should get over it and use my art for the future, as a commentary.

Maybe. Still thinking about it.

Talk me down.

MFA in Sculpture and Art History 96

[Fovea]

9. I understand

I am a post 911 photographer.

How do we deal with the twin requirements of creating a livable (not gray or 'soviet') spaces.
How do we fit those needs into the reality of lower energy input structures?

DOes the future look like blade runner, or hobbitton?

My suggestion-- remember that out biggest mistake was to let real estate developers dictate
transportation policy and land use. public transit anchors communities and commercial development
to the geography in rational ways.

[CTyankee]

15. Read, or get the DVD of, "The Power of Art" by Simon Sharma.

You can youtube it also in individual sections by artist. It speaks directly to some of your questions, dealing with artists and their relationship with the times in which they lived.

I had the most amazing trip to Spain recently (see my post down thread) and was struck by the influence of the Spanish Civil War, especially in art. Studying "Guernica" at La Reina Sofia Museo in Madrid and hearing so much about that war everywhere I went in Spain, I pondered the bloody crossroads of art and politics. I am now reading Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia," another study done in literature by a non-Spaniard. Goya's depictions of the disasters of war are also apt and are incredible to see (in the Prado).

So your post struck a chord in me and has me thinking of the art of 9/11 and what has/will emerge from it in the art world.

[CTyankee]

6. I don't know about spoons but I spend a great deal of time in museums.

Most recently in Spain, in the Prado, the Reina Sophia, in Bilbao the Guggenheim, in Barcelona, the Gaudi House and the Picasso.

What must change in America? People have to get off their butts and travel to other countries. Treasures await them!

Also, we must restore Civics to our public school curriculum! No excuses. Do it now!

[Fovea]

10. Sorry, in joke

http://butyoudontlooksick.com/the_spoon_theory/

[Ladyhawk]

11. Liberal Studies Degree, 1989; Teaching Credential, 1990

Most of my "career" has involved battling a tenacious, chronic illness. The last eight years certainly haven't helped. I'm of the opinion that fear and misery eclipse creativity. Hope engages it.

I finally stopped watching the world go to hell in a hand basket a little over a year ago. For the sake of my health, I boycotted the news, TV, everything. It was interesting how my creativity, dormant for twenty years or so, finally came to the surface. Mostly, it's been about my art, my music, my ability to express myself. I hate feeling like I have to impress others.

Since Obama's win, I find myself looking outward and thinking this over and over: "Ask not what Obama can do for you; ask rather what you can do for Obama." I need to find a cause, a way to help others. It's not something I can enter into lightly because my faith in humanity has nearly been destroyed. I'm not sure how to proceed from here.

[Waiting For Everyman]

12. I'd like to see renewable energy for each home (and cars of course).

Instead of having new grid networks built for renewable energy, so that utility companies can go on supplying it as we have now, I'd like to see the invention of independent stand-alone renewable units of some kind that could power each home. That way, we'd be freed from energy bills entirely forever. The new generation of cars could be recharged from that too.

Imagine if there were no energy or fuel costs to pay. Not ever, anymore. Imagine how much more of everyone's income could be used toward bettering their own lives?

Energy needs to become free.


* And then if we could get the banks, lawyers, and corporatists off our backs, we'd have it made. :)

[slackmaster]

16. You believe in peek oil, I use only LSD oil

At least in the rear differential of my SUV.

[Fovea]

24. yoda yoda yoda

When a stroke you have had, not so good a proof reader you will be.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

18. Anti-intellectualism must die.................

Ignorance is killing this country and making us a laughing stock throughout the world. How can it be changed? I wish I knew.

edit: BA in anthropology.

[Silent3]

20. "peek oil"?

Does this mean our oil has been spying on us? ;)

[Fovea]

22. Blush

So much for proofreading.

[kevinds13]

21. How can we change America?

I think fostering a society based on civil service is the best thing we could do, especially during such an economic hardship. I doubt we could do something on such a scale, but something like the Works Progress Administration of the New Deal would be good, and we could have it be used solely as a green work force working on hybrid technologies, etc.

Also, I really like Obama's idea of college students getting tuition for community service. Fostering a society that comes together helps people, helps the economy, and helps our political discourse.

Frankly, its the biggest mistake Bush made after 9-11 (well, Iraq was I guess) to not call people to service.

[Fovea]

23. I agree

part of what has to be rebuilt is respect for service in a money worshiping society.

I think the celebrification of American Culture has narrowed what not just our kids admire, but our adults as well.
We would do well to re-invent journalism, and start perestroika now.

We don't know how to fix something if we don't know how it's broken.
America is a land of smoke, mirrors, and spin.

Truth would help.

[kevinds13]

25. True that.

Improving your own lot in life has become more important than leaving the world a better place for the next generation in America, and thats not a society I really want to be a part of.

[Arugula Latte]

26. Lately I've been pondering how Americans, & people in general, have no concept of the sweep of time

From triassiclegacy.org:

If earth's history were compressed into one calendar year, earth forms, cools and develops an atmosphere during January. Late January into February sees global volcanic activity as oceans fill the great basins. Life begins somewhere in March. All of human history occurs in the last 7 minutes of December 31, and Columbus "discovers" America only 3 seconds before the clock strikes midnight (midnight = today).

If people had a better grasp of the enormous amounts of time that have gone before us on this planet alone, let alone the rest of the universe, I think it would change their perspective on many things, including religion. To me, the idea that after billions and billions of years, the idea that a human named Jesus Christ was born 2,000 years ago and happens to be the only magical being ever born on the planet and, oh, by the way, he's going to come back one day ... well ... sorry, but it's ludicrous. His ideas weren't ludicrous, but the whole supernatural component surrounding the Jesus mythology is ludicrous.

[Gman2]

27. Im a moldmaker, process eng., designer, cad/cam machinist etc.

and ever since Reagan, the USA has spit in my face. If you DO anything, you were scum. I havent seen a raise in twenty years. Even though productivity soared. People like me should be downleaded fast, before we all die. We must again provide for our own market needs. Make Alaska to Chile one trade zone, with Chavez and all his gang doing what they can to foment a middleclass. Maybe even Palin up in Alaska. The only chance we have is to get paid for stuff you can hold. And make all your stuff to last. Have the unemployable fix stuff.

[symbolman]

28. Sculpture major, won every award in college

created a book telling a story utilizing only international symbols to tell a story that can be read and understood by just about anyone on the planet, animated a section of it and won an award in Hollywood, beating out 640 Animators worldwide.. http://www.symbolman.com

Some would say that Stranger and I, inspired by the DU practically invented the online Flash political attack ad, Pre YouTube, when we joined forces and launched Takebackthemedia.com in 2000.. With over 40 ads we were hitting Bushco Hard.. Due to a Limbaugh boycott with the help of the DU I was invited to appear on the O'Reilly show, Scarborough's show twice, and once on Lou Dobbs.. I also pushed for Veterans rights on a few of those appearances..

Currently I'm working on acquiring an Agent for my book THE JESUS BOLT about my adventures in Alaska back in the 70's when I flew all over Alaska's North Slope prospecting for Uranium by Helicopter with a group of insanely reckless Vietnam Vet pilots.. I crashed in ANWR and was lost for nearly a week..watched a mother caribou give birth in the Deadhorse Oil Camp between barrels of oil in a pool of slag, both mother and baby foal died on the spot with black tongues while the oil workers laughed..

The Jesus Bolt I'm hoping can be a Culture Shifter in the vein of many 70's books, that's to be seen if I can snag a publisher, make a great movie as well.. :)

Other than that, like most Liberal art folks undiscovered I'm broke and starving :)

But I've given it one hell of a bloody GO..

[The Inquisitive]

29. you've led a very cool life

props for that!