Daily Literature of the Revolution

• Democracy:  When modern democracies fall short, it is often because of anxieties surrounding the "counter-majoritarian difficulty." Another equally weighty problem was on display at both the Republican and Democratic National Convention (watch short videos here and here to see the stories unfold). A democratic state must figure out a how to package and present decisions to the people. When it comes to anointing a serious candidate or deciding what policies are given serious consideration, the parties operate like tyrannical oligarchies. These conventions how real kratos (power) is plenty divorced from the demos (people). For a while, the vast majority of people seemed content with this arrangement. But as Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie argue in their book, The Declaration of Independents, people are becoming increasingly (albeit slowly) disabused of the Team Red versus Team Blue windmill jousting. There are exogenous reasons such as increased customization in our culture (less Kodak vs. Fujifilm, more Instagram; less Major News Networks, more political blogs). There are also endogenous reasons such as {the banal and baneful similarities between the two parties and} the equal vigor with which both parties crush our civil liberties. If citizens come to apprehend this predicament, there is a strong chance that elected officials will start to represent independent people rather than special interests.
• Public Education: I came across this story and figured it would be a good opportunity to touch briefly on teacher union abuses. Public teacher unions create problems all the way down, but, as seen in the LA Times pieces, the really culpable graft tends to occur near the top. This short video (4:30) is a good explanation of why pension-spiking is a predictable consequence of the teacher union machine. One can hope that these audits throw a wrench in the pension-spiking operation. It would be better to remove the incentive structure that is the fuel for this type of corruption. 

• Free Speech: Remember Citizens United? Well, for a moment, forget about who can give which kind of money and how much and where it can go. An often forgotten part of that case, as the Institute for Justice's Make No Law Blog points out, is Justice Thomas' lone partial dissent (Thomas is often at his best when acting alone). The other 8 justices signed off on the forced disclosure of certain types of anonymous political advocates. Are we living in the dystopian world of Eric Blair?....err, George Orwell, as we now know him. Maybe not, but as Thomas notes in his dissent, forced exposure hampers free expression by inviting two types of retaliation. The most troubling example is of the political incumbent who seeks revenge on those who were silly enough to support the challenger. Sitting politicians have always wanted to hunt down their anonymous critics. Today, forced disclosure is pleasantly cloaked as a common-sense fight against monied interests. But the 1st amendment stands as a reminder of the value in anonymous speech. Anonymous speech was there at our beginning, as Publius (Madison, Jay and Hamilton in the Federalist Papers) duked it out with the Federal Farmer and other pseudonymous writers in the Antifederalist Papers over whether to adopt a new constitution. Publication and circulation are part and parcel of effective political speech. If the financial backers of a modern day Publius remain anonymous, what exactly is the problem? Shouldn't we judge based on content? The people can take into consideration the unknown origins of this or that piece of information. But as long as advocates can be forcibly unmasked, this tool will be used to intimidate those who would loudly question the status quo. Moreover....shouldn't we encourage the haute bourgeois to use their money and new forms of productive forces so they can unwittingly usher in a proletariat paradise? Or am I mixing up my Marx and Hegel? 

• Quebec Politics: Quebec had its provincial elections on the 4th. I’m a novice in Canadian politics, but I've yet to be won over by any major party and I'm not holding my breathe (the provincial parties are even less appealing than the national ones). The separatist Parti Quebecois came away with enough seats to form a minority government. The Coalition for Quebec's Future (CAQ) may have played the spoiler role in their first election. I admire the rebel spirit of the their leader, François Legault, but he also wants to intern "keep" Quebec-educated doctors from leaving the province. The hot-button issue of the election was (is) the fracas over tuition hikes. I will have an article on this juicy issue when the time comes. For now, Jacob Levy speaks my mind (more intelligently, of course) concerning the silliness and subtleties on both sides of this issue. My favorite line: "'special law' is every bit the contradiction in terms that 'student strike' is.” If people truly appreciated these two concepts..well, si ça arrive, je vais péter le feu!Yoga: 

• Yoga:  Speaking of Quebec, if you've ever been to a Cirque du Soleil, then these silk hammocks may look familiar. I'm glad to see that aerial yoga is proliferating. I think it will be attractive to a diverse set of students. For those who've lost some mobility, there is a lot you can do in the hammock with limited effort and a little guidance. And, let me tell ya, just hanging upside-down can feel amazing for your achy back. For thrill-seekers and people who missed out on joining the circus, I recommend finding a studio with high silks. I really enjoyed this new studio back in San Diego. After seeing the extraordinary Cirque du Soleil routines, it was a little intimidating, but it is actually fairly simple to learn a few tricks that will get you airborne in no time.