Mental Bursts

Political scientists do not understand nationalism

postulare — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:39:43 +0000

I just read the book Discourse Theory in European Politics and was quite aghast to read that, in political science, it is apparently not so obvious that “to make sense of nationalism one has to understand the ‘passion’ in the creation of collective identities.”

I am really wondering how people can be so aloof. This is so banal, I can’t imagine anything more commonplace. I mean, just watching sports or the occassional burnings of flags on TV will tell you immediately how passionate this whole thing is, even if you were an alien.

The finest micro level of society

postulare — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:35:06 +0000

Social scientists distinguish between macro and micro, e.g. macroeconomics (how to run a country) and microeconomics (how to run a business). But I think the finest or lowest micro level that is socially related is actually aesthetics, because aesthetics – and by that I mean the rules by which one designs meaning – is the compression of the codes of a culture.

Essential elements of an elevator pitch

postulare — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:43:31 +0000

I stumbled upon this long time ago, but couldn’t remember the exact “formula”. Found it again at Newt Barrett’s blog:

It must contain a benefit for the potential member of the audience, that is, his imaginary elevator companion.
It must contain the word you, meaning the audience.
It must contain some reference to emotion, because emotion is more engaging and memorable than intellectual information.

Academic books in literary prose

postulare — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:38:00 +0000

I am currently reading Migrancy, Culture, Identity by Iain Chambers, a book that deals with the effect of migration on identity. And, although the topic is interesting, the style is quite annoying: it is written in semi-literary, semi-academic prose:

“On southern Californian highways, around Tijuana close to the Mexican border, are road signs usually associated with the encounter of nature and culture: symbols of leaping deer or prowling bears that warn us to look out for them crossing the road.”

That’s how the book starts – it could be a novel! And it goes on like that. Totally useless for someone who is writing about migration and wants to capture the info in straightforward manner. Well intended, but I think academics should write an actual novel, if they want to use literary prose.

New media makes presidential PR more difficult

postulare — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:40:24 +0000

In the current edition of the Time magazine (March 15), Michael Scherer reports that nowadays it is quite difficult for the White House to communicate to the public as the media landscape has become more diverse: Whereas “30 years ago”, the White House only needed a “handful of reports and producers” to reach 50 million viewers, an Obama prime-time news conference on “NBC, CBS and ABC” will reach only 24.7 million.

China policy of the EU

postulare — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:54:42 +0000

Just read the following in the Time magazine: “Washington and Beijing may squabble from time to time, but the U.S. has a reasonably well-articulated China policy: engage economically, encourage democratically, and criticize on human rights when appropriate. What’s the E.U.’s China policy in a few words?” (March 8 edition, Simon Robinson)