Book Review: On the Social Contract

Title
On the Social Contract (Du Contrat Social)

Author
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Publication Date
1762

Publication Information
Dover (Dover Thrift Edition); 97 pages

Reason for Reading
In keeping with my goal of learning more of the American Revolution and the era in which it took place while simultaneously focusing on political theory to better understand the political system installed at that time, I picked this book by Rousseau discussing social contract theory. Given the time of publication, I would hazard a guess that many of the founding fathers of America (at least those involved in drawing up the new Constitution) would have read this. Whether or not it had any direct influence on either the Articles of Confederation or the Constitution I’m not certain. The little I’ve looked up online seems to indicate its effects on America’s founding were negligible, but it may have been more influential in the French Revolution. Regardless of this, the text remains noteworthy in the field.

Memories, Events, and Society: Not at the same level

Our minds: not prepared for today’s dialogue. Does it hurt our society?

Recently, Greg Miller from “Smithsonian.com” sat down and discussed how our brains make memories with Dr. Karim Nader from McGill University (neuroscientist). Nader talks about how memories can actually be changed each time we recall them, making accurate memories less likely with each recollection. Anecdotally, he says he remembers on 9/11 viewing on the television that night footage of the second plane hitting the second world trade center building. He later found out, footage of the incident did not become available until 9/12. But the traumatic event was played over-and-over on television and in his mind during discussion with friends and relatives that his brain actually re-wired to include that 9/12 footage into his 9/11 memories.

Now let’s apply this concept to something else. On June 15, 2010 President Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office on live TV. His speech lasted a total of 17 minutes. However, the night and days following his 17 minute speech CNN, FoxNews, and MSNBC spent numerous hours discussing what the President did and didn’t not say, what he actually did say actually meant, and what he didn’t say says about his ideology in dealing with big business and how he handles national crisis.

Going back to Dr. Nader and what we now know about memories, it is quite possible that millions of people watching the aforementioned shows will remember Obama saying are not saying something he actually did not or did say. They will most likely remember what commentators think his words meant then the actual words the President used.

This is our mind: this is our media culture in the 21st century.

Source:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/How-Our-Brains-Make-Memories.html?c=y&page=1

Immigration through the eyes of an intellectual (Chomsky per usual)

I'm linking to a talk he gave at Brown where he goes into a history lesson on how NAFTA had the effect to, while helping its creators (wealthy), make the US a more attractive place to the bludgeoned poor of Central and South America economically. Therefore, our own actions during the Carter and Reagan years has made us more prone to illegal immigration.

He goes on to discuss that while since the late 19th/early 20th century, the 14th amendment rights for corporations as people have greatly expanded (due to their intrinsic power applied as legal appeal), the rights of illegal immigrants have been greatly reduced so that they are no longer consider people (slippery slope anyone?). He ties this in with the recent Arizona law where anyone who appears Latino has to carry around documentation of citizenship, in effect purporting a pro-white agenda in that state.

SB 1070

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBfHD2n13OA (50 mins duration)