James Goetsch

James Goetsch

@profjrg.bsky.social

Retired Professor of Philosophy. Author, Vico's Axioms:The Geometry of the Human World "Evils are many and good things are few" (Plato). Corollary: Goodness is real. Lectures from the Plague Year: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqspNDnbuiVApX6PjI_mFDA

324 followers24 following1.6K posts

James Goetsch reposted

Will Stancil
@whstancil.bsky.social

I do think when historians look back the period the exact moment where it flipped and started going the other way won’t be anything any politician did but my Minneapolis neighbors weathering the worst of the regime in the streets, rallying together, fighting back, and winning

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

I met Walter Koenig at a Star Trek convention in 1985, and he was so kind, signing my program and talking with me. How cool it was to thank him for the memories of Ensign Pavel Chekhov, who so impressed my ten year old self back in the late sixties. R.I.P.

James Goetsch reposted

The Mouthy Renegade Writer
@mouthyrenegade.bsky.social

Add Karen Smith to my list of badasses whose mouthy approach I respect. Actions usually speak louder than words. This is a hero, Y'all. Well done, Ma'am. You're gonna kick ass in your new position. ✊📖

James Goetsch reposted

Rafa Sales Ross
@rafiews.com

In his acceptance speech, Lula says he will work to regulate digital platforms in Brazil. “Digital crimes must be dealt with like real-life crimes.” This comes after Meta directly interfered with the Brazilian elections, favouring Flávio Bolsonaro.

James Goetsch reposted

Michael Clemens
@mclem.org

Liberal democracy remains a towering achievement of humanity and it is worth fighting for.

The Associated Press@apnews.com

The long-serving strongman leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has conceded defeat in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting his government.

bit.lySerbia’s strongman leader Vucic concedes defeat to student-led movement in seismic political shiftThe long-serving strongman leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has conceded defeat in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting his government.
James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

So beautiful.

MadGreek 🧿@madgreek2024.bsky.social

This is the America I believe in. When barriers go up, our young people don’t back down—they organize, they mobilize, and they show up to vote. Proud of the students at North Carolina A&T, UNCG, Bennett, and Greensboro College who marched miles to the polls. Thank you students. 🙏🏻 VOTE BLUE.

James Goetsch reposted

Asha Rangappa
@asharangappa.bsky.social

“I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I’ve come close to defining it: a lack of empathy.... Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.” — Dr. Gustave Gilbert, U.S. Military Chief Psychologist in the Nuremberg Trials, Nuremberg Diary

This post is unavailable.

James Goetsch reposted

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD
@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social

The fact that Amy Acton was removed from her mother’s care and went on to obtain an MD and flourish in public health makes her even more of a hero in my eyes. This type of trauma never really goes away. Yet when there was a fork in the road, she chose the one where she helps others. Hero.

James Goetsch reposted

emi gennis
@imemi.bsky.social

obviously many more important takeaways from the French approach to protest, but much respect to the absolute varsity level Whimsy of throwing a whole ass piano at the cops

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

@levostregc.bsky.social and his posts on tech dystopia has put me in mind of this passage from Jacques Ellul "Following Hegel, Marx, and Kierkegaard, I have often said that we show our freedom by recognizing our nonfreedom. But this is no longer a philosophical or theoretical matter of the mind.

View full thread
James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

"but always after the model of development from a source and by the sole aptitude for astonishment, we profit from the existence of little cracks of freedom, and install in them a trembling freedom

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

"which is not attributed to or mediated by machines or politics, but which is truly effective, so that we may truly invent the new thing for which humanity is waiting." (Jacques Ellul, The Technological Bluff, p. 411)

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

@levostregc.bsky.social and his posts on tech dystopia has put me in mind of this passage from Jacques Ellul "Following Hegel, Marx, and Kierkegaard, I have often said that we show our freedom by recognizing our nonfreedom. But this is no longer a philosophical or theoretical matter of the mind.

View full thread
James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

"Even without nuclear war or an exceptional crisis, we may thus expect enormous global disorder which will be the expression of all the contradictions and disarray.This must be made to cost as little as possible.

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

"To achieve that, we must meet two conditions. We must be prepared to reveal the fracture lines and to discover that everything depends on the qualities of individuals. Finally, if we know how little room there is to maneuver and therefore, not by one's high position or by power,

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

@levostregc.bsky.social and his posts on tech dystopia has put me in mind of this passage from Jacques Ellul "Following Hegel, Marx, and Kierkegaard, I have often said that we show our freedom by recognizing our nonfreedom. But this is no longer a philosophical or theoretical matter of the mind.

View full thread
James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

"Yet not really, for the system does not stop growing, and thus far we have no examples of growth that does not reach the point of imbalance and rupture. For the last twenty years balance and cohesion have been increasingly difficult to maintain. Not really,

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

"for as we have seen, the gigantic bluff is self-contradictory and it leaves a margin of chaos, it covers gaps without filling them, it gives evidence of mistakes, and it has to multiply deceptions to veil the absence of feedback in the system.

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

@levostregc.bsky.social and his posts on tech dystopia has put me in mind of this passage from Jacques Ellul "Following Hegel, Marx, and Kierkegaard, I have often said that we show our freedom by recognizing our nonfreedom. But this is no longer a philosophical or theoretical matter of the mind.

View full thread
James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

Nothing is more certain. Are we then shut up, blocked, and chained by the inevitability of the technical system which is making us march like obedient automatons thanks to its bluff? Yes, we are radically determined.

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

"We are caught up continuously in the system if we think even the least little bit that we can master the machinery, prepare . . . and plan everything.

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

@levostregc.bsky.social and his posts on tech dystopia has put me in mind of this passage from Jacques Ellul "Following Hegel, Marx, and Kierkegaard, I have often said that we show our freedom by recognizing our nonfreedom. But this is no longer a philosophical or theoretical matter of the mind.

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

"It is no longer a matter of debate between the servile and the free will. Our back is to the wall. We must not cheat or think that we can extricate ourselves by talk.

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

"Seeing the Hydra head of trickery and the Gorgon face of hi-tech, the only thing we can do is set them at a critical distance, for it is by being able to criticize that we show our freedom.This is the only freedom that we still have if we have at least the courage to grasp it.

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

Beautiful!

Barbara Waxer 🌈 @barbara-waxer.bsky.social

When Grammy-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens begins playing “Old Corn Liquor,” a traditional Black American folk tune, acclaimed Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man recognizes similarities to Chinese pentatonic music and spontaneously joins in. The joy on their faces says it all.

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

This is beautiful.

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social

Students from North Carolina A&T can be seen marching back to their HBCU after voting on the first day of early voting in the state. The Guilford County Board of Elections voted to remove the school’s on-campus polling site. (video via Todd Simmons) greensboro.com/news/local/g...

James Goetsch
@profjrg.bsky.social

Ever since I became aware of Native American history and particularly the testimony of Black Elk who witnessed Wounded Knee, the horror of American barbarity has always been as it were live streaming (the past informs us NOW) right into my mind and heart and filling me with angry sadness.

James Goetsch reposted

Peter Jukes
@peterjukes.bsky.social

While most other journalists ran with the Arday story as their summer sport, we've been looking at Cambridge for years, and @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social's investigation into the impact of Arday's death on his students and fellow academics is fearless and also heartbreaking. Genuine reporting

Hardeep Matharu@hardeepmatharu.bsky.social

The story of Jason Arday is the story of James Orr. Of the ideology which has found a foothold in Cambridge University, fostering the sorts of ideas that formed the undercurrents – sometimes explicit; sometimes unconscious – against Arday. I returned to my alma mater for an in-depth exploration 👇

bylinetimes.comThe Two Professors and a ‘War On Ideas’The different stories of the Cambridge academics Jason Arday and James Orr reveal the wider cultural and ideological forces around hierarchies and structural power – and who gets to belong in our inst...

James Goetsch reposted

Euan Healey
@euanhealey.bsky.social

Edinburgh University created the first ever Chair in Celtic in Scotland in 1882 (Donald Mackinnon of Colonsay). This is a cultural retreat happening before our eyes where there was once leadership.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social

Celtic (UG), Chinese & Russian (UG), Contemporary History, Economics & Statistics (joint degree), Inclusive Education (MSc), Intellectual History, Italian & Classics (joint), Law & Social Policy (joint), Medieval History, Persian Studies (UG), Portuguese (UG), Psychology & Economics (joint)....

heraldscotland.comFull list of the 90 programmes earmarked for closure at leading Scottish universityManagers say the cuts are necessary “to protect our world-leading reputation and resilience in research and teaching” but staff members have hit…

James Goetsch reposted

Tammy Duckworth
@duckworth.senate.gov

I pushed for independent oversight. Now, for the first time, we have an official glimpse at the damage—and it’s still an underestimate. Resources drained. Munitions depleted. Diplomacy wrecked. Troops exhausted. The American people deserve the full truth. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

washingtonpost.comIranian strikes have damaged hundreds of structures at U.S. bases, watchdog saysThe report by the Pentagon's inspector general also detailed the extent of munitions shortfalls in the first comprehensive public accounting of the cost and military impact of the war with Iran.