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The Gadfly
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60 College Avenue Annapolis, Maryland 21401 sjca.gadfly@gmail.com www.issuu.com/sjcgadfly www.facebook.com/sjcagadfly Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the student newsmagazine distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus. Opinions expressed within are the sole responsibility of the author(s). The Gadfly reserves the right to accept, reject, and edit submissions in any way necessary to publish a professional, informative, and thought-provoking newsmagazine. Articles for the next issue should be submitted by Wednesday, February 20, at 11:59 PM to sjca.gadfly@gmail.com. Staff Nathan Goldman • Editor-in-Chief Ian Tuttle • Editor-in-Chief Hayden Pendergrass • Layout Editor Sasha Welm • Cartoonist Jonathan Barone • Staff Andrew Kriehn • Staff Robert Malka • Staff Sarah Meggison • Staff Charles Zug • Staff Contributors Jacob Kilgore Raymond Lau Catherine Moon Cara Sabolcik Painter Bob
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e'd like to extend our congratulations to this year's senior class on the completion of their essays. In celebration of your achievement and in honor of your upcoming oral examinations, the Gadfly will be profiling seniors throughout the rest of the semester, asking a few brief questions about their essays. Check out page 5 in this issue for our first spotlight, as well as some wise words from staffer Jonathan Barone on a particularly key bit of senior oral etiquette. Please also note that tutor Daniel Harrell, who is profiled in this issue, will be delivering the weekly lecture, entitled “Does Music Move?”, this coming Friday. !
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n the rather unlikely event that you neither closely read Ms. Waters’ emails about next year’s campus neither housing. nor attended last Tuesday’s CSL meeting, here is an overview of the campus housing situation. For the 2013-2014 school year, everyone (with few exceptions) who currently resides on campus will be required to stay on campus. What has changed from last year is this: now any senior who desires to live off campus will not be automatically allowed to do so. As it stands now, only a handful of students with compelling reasons will be given permission to live off campus. Examples of compelling reasons are extreme financial burden and/or health problems. The more specific one is about his or her circumstances, the more likely it is that he or she will be given permission to live off campus. The reason why so few students will be granted permission to live off campus next year is that the current freshmen class is fairly small (107 students on campus), and the incoming freshmen class looks as if it too is going to be quite small. However, if the number of incoming freshmen increases, then so too will the number of students allowed to live off campus. Therefore, if you do not have a compelling reason to move off campus, or your request was denied, there will be an off-campus housing lottery held on Wednesday, February 27th, from 2:15 to 3:45. I was not given an exact percentage of how full the dorms need to be in order to satisfy the school’s budget, but I was given the impression that the answer was just about every room. So, since most of the people reading this article will be living on campus next year, know that there are still pods as well as the Loft available. For those who do not know, the Loft is on Paca 4th and is meant for five people. I find the layout slightly difficult to describe, but essentially (with the proper situating of curtains) there is enough room for two singles, a triple, and a common room with furniture included. Applications for pods and the Loft are due Wednesday, February 13 by 4:30 pm. If you are not applying for a special kind of housing, then you will choose your lottery number for room selection on Wednesday, February 20th from 2:15 to 3:30. Actual room selection will not occur until April 8th, 9th, and 10th. On a final note, we all pay so much money to eat, live, and got to school here for what is the majority of the year, so if you have questions, concerns, or suggestions, please say something to me, your R.A., or Ms. Waters. For example, if something is broken or living in your dorm room that ought not to be, let someone know in addition to a work order, because things can fall through the cracks, and we want everyone to have the best living experience on campus as is possible. Catherine Moon, Polity Attorney
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The student newspaper of St. John’s College
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e would like to congratulate the winners of the Greenfield Library book collecting contest: Jezebel St. John, A’15 (first prize), Alexandria Hinds, Assistant Director of Admissions-On Campus, A’10 (second prize), and Day Harper, A’15 (honorable mention). Contestants were judged on the creativity and thoughtfulness in developing their collection, cohesion of the collection, and the significance of the collection to the owner. The Library is exhibiting books from each of the collections in the Lillian Vanous Nutt room through March 31st. The winners’ essays are also available to read. While checking out the book collections, students should “Kiss and Tell.” Starting Tuesday, February 12th, students can pick up a paper heart at the Library’s circulation desk and “tell” others why you love the Library. All participants will receive a Hershey’s Kiss and the paper hearts will be posted on the Library’s basement wall. Come out and tell us what you love about the Library! Cara Sabolcik, Public Services Librarian
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!"#$%&%#'#()* Mr. Daniel Harrell
How did you come to be a tutor at St. John’s? I was appointed in 1998. For a couple of years prior, I was teaching part-time at a college in Atlanta, Oglethorpe, while finishing my dissertation in philosophy at Emory. But I was growing disillusioned with the possibility of philosophy in an academic setting, as well as with my own prospects at making any kind of serious life out of trying to succeed in such a setting. I wasn’t interested in publishing, found lecturing to be mostly a pain and somewhat dishonest, and anyway felt as if I was gaining a doctorate without having become particularly well educated. I had known about St. John’s both from a professor of mine in graduate school who had since become a tutor at the College (Mr. Page), and from a fellow graduate student and friend who had graduated from the college (and has since become a tutor, and now the dean, in Santa Fe). And what I understood of the place from them made it seem almost too good to be true—the sort of place I wish I had attended. Still, I hadn’t given any real thought to becoming a tutor here, mostly in thinking I wasn’t old enough or distinguished enough to put myself forward like that, and partly in supposing I would have a hard time suffering the disappointment if I tried to become a tutor and failed. But then the professor who hired me at Oglethorpe mentioned hearing that St. John’s was looking for prospective tutors for the coming school year (1998–1999), and strongly encouraged me to send a letter of interest to the dean at the time (Mr. Flaumenhaft). Which I promptly did, and this led to my being interviewed, which led to my being appointed (to my surprise, since, besides my own qualms about my age and experience, I thought I had been too nervous during the interview as well as too quick to make sweeping claims about such things as the nature of philosophy and the possibility of moral knowledge, coming off more opinionated than thoughtful). What classes are you teaching this year? I happen to be on a sabbatical this year, so I’m not teaching. What was the biggest adventure you’ve ever had? Sigh. I’m not really one for having adventures. I never travel, for example, except out of necessity; and I tend to think— though maybe this rationalizes something in me that should be criticized and corrected for—that talk of adventures and adventure-seeking usually confuses the having of experiences with the gaining of experience. From that point of view, one’s life isn’t made of adventures, big or small, which makes the question ill-formulated (hence my sigh). Still, I think “adventure” could mean something else, that I’d consider a necessary part of any life worth living: the willingness to put oneself at risk of failure in the attempt to succeed or (maybe a better word) to achieve. In this sense, a sense that underlines the
“venture” part of “adventure,” adventures could include things like going up to the blackboard to do a proof in a mathematics tutorial when you’re unsure of how it will go, or thinking out loud in front of others at the risk of being unclear or uncertain—just to pick on two examples that show how the College asks its students to learn, in this sense, by adventure. And by that measure, I suppose my “biggest” adventure would be the writing and delivering of my first Friday Night lecture (even though I failed on that occasion, I think, writing something that really needed to be read rather than heard to be understood, and not addressing the questions in the question period as thoughtfully as I was hoping to). What is the single most important piece of advice you would like to give to freshmen (or upperclassmen)? Just based on my experience with what can dissatisfy students at the College, to the point of getting in the way of their learning pretty quickly and early, I would give this advice (not very pithily): go into a classroom as if what happens in it were the most important part of your education at the College, but leave the classroom as if it were the least important part. Or to put this another way: treat the classroom as if its centrality to your education justifies your engagement with it, but not your dissatisfaction with it. I say this because it seems to me that students can get stuck when a class isn’t meeting their expectations, and do just the opposite of my advice, taking the importance of the class to their education, as they see it, to justify dissatisfaction and criticism rather than redoubled engagement and work. (I should add that I myself can be guilty of this, and could therefore use the advice I just gave.) Behind my advice too, I think, is my sense that classes at St. John’s are genuine adventures in the way I described in my answer to the question about adventures above. And they are likely to fail in one way or another most days, precisely because of the kind of success or achievement being aimed for, which is rare rather than common. What is your favorite seminar book and why? I’m taking “favorite” not to mean “best,” but something closer to the right mix of profit and pleasure. For about ten years, my favorite book of seminar in this sense was probably Middlemarch. I know that there are people (including some tutors) who find the book unconvincing, even to the point of wanting to get it off the Program list (and they don’t read it in Santa Fe), and that they would say there is far more intellect than perception at work in Eliot’s narrative, by comparison with what you would find in any novel, say, of Austen’s. But for me the book has always seemed perfectly balanced between intellect
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and perception, and wholly compelling. That said, I’ve also had a suspicion that novels in general are defective expressions of the selfhood, or at least the interiority of being human, that is more fully and even properly realized in musical works. And after teaching the music tutorial in Santa Fe for a year— this was back in 2009—my favorite “book” of seminar became Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. I used to hate the opera, and disliked operas more generally; but having to study that opera in Santa Fe caused me to listen to it repeatedly over the course of two months; and at a certain point, the opera suddenly started to make sense, all of it, right up to the cadence at the end that the entire work was pointing to and preparing for. It was the most convincing experience I’ve ever had of conclusiveness, and along with this the most convincing sense I’ve ever had of dramatic form, and it immediately justified for me everything Wagner claimed for his notion of a complete work of art.
a reader of that vision inwardly rather than outwardly; which is to say, I doubt its ability to carry a reader into that vision, and make it something that can be truly inhabited and shared rather than simply studied and admired.
What is your favorite non-Program book and why? For about the last four years my favorite non-Program “book” has been The Mastersingers of Nuremburg, another opera of Wagner’s, that he wrote right after Tristan. I think it’s even better than Tristan (and for certain famous admirers of it, like Jan Paderewski and H. L. Mencken, the greatest work of art ever made). And in many ways I think it a better choice for senior seminar (and a good alternative to The Magic Flute for the music tutorial). For one thing, the subject of the opera is, explicitly, music, and its relation to nature on the one hand and art on the other, as well as its role in strengthening yet also subverting the bonds holding together social and poWhat is your least favorite seminar book and why? litical communities. For another thing, the opera is self-conThis question is hard for me to answer, because last year, after sciously diatonic and organized around set pieces like arias an especially difficult time in sophomore seminar with both and chorales, which makes it, I think, more digestible than the Calvin readings and the Summa readings after the first Tristan. But since this favorite non-Program book comes from night on that work, I decided that my least favorite books of a comparatively recent change of heart about Wagner, I’ll also seminar are really the result of displeasure with having to read mention a favorite non-Program book of longer-standing for them excerpted rather than whole. And it goes beyond a mat- me: The Realms of Being by George Santayana, which I suster of preference for me: I’ve come to the pect (not having read every such book conclusion that excerpts are a betrayal of to know rather than merely suspect) is I’ve come to the conclusion the College’s commitment to liberal eduthe wisest book of philosophy written in that excerpts are a betrayal cation, because they effectively decide the 20th century, and almost certainly for the student in advance what is imof the College’s commitment the most beautifully written such book portant about a book, rather than letting to liberal education, because in English, even though it is nowadays them make this decision for themselves. rarely read or discussed. they effectively decide for Indeed, the excerpts cast a doubtful light the student in advance what on the choice of the book itself, since it What is your biggest pet peeve (that usually reflects some in-advance notion students do) in class? is important about a book, of why the book is so important that we My biggest pet peeve, I think, isn’t somerather than letting them make thing that I see students do in class, but are better off reading it excerpted rather this decision for themselves. than reading something shorter whole. rather something they say, or more exSo we read Calvin excerpted, say, since actly, a kind of thing they say, where they we need some “representative” of Protestant thought in the are careless with the names for things at the College. To give Program, and Calvin is better than Luther for reasons x, y, z, the two examples of this I encounter most: students will reguetc. But to me this is a wrong-headed way of thinking about larly refer to their language tutorials as a “Greek” or “French” the role of books in the Program, what justifies their place on tutorial, or even just “Greek class” or “French class,” or even the seminar list, and treats that list as if it were like a profes- even just “Greek” or “French”; and they will (even even) even sor’s syllabus in a survey course. In any case, if I then had to talk of the language tutorials that way in their don rags, where choose a least favorite seminar book that we read the whole one might think the proper names would prevail, and often of, I’m afraid I would have to pick the Divine Comedy. When without correction from the language tutor. The second exI reread it last year for sophomore seminar, I was hoping to ample involves various alternatives for “sophomore enabling” be more compelled by the work than I’ve been in the past, such as “enablement” or—even worse—“disenablement.” My since some things had happened to me in the interim to make irritation at this has reasons behind it—there’s a point to the the fate of Dante the Pilgrim more real to me. And I fooled true names that makes the alternatives false—but it is also just myself for a time into thinking that yes, I was finally getting irritation, and a stronger reaction to the misuse than I’ve seen what what made this work so great. But by the time I finished in most other tutors. Hence my sense that it’s a pet peeve. Paradiso I had to admit otherwise to myself, and that I still had the same issues with the work I’ve always had. I find the book What is your favorite St. John’s tradition and why? thoroughly and frustratingly undramatic, more like sculpture Hands down, the dinner for seniors that happens the Friday than like music. And it seems to me the work doesn’t really before their Commencement on Sunday. It’s true that I find speak for itself in the end, as all the greatest books should, re- the gathering in the Great Hall beforehand awkward and the quiring rather than merely inviting all the commentary it has finding of a table to sit at afterwards even more awkward; but left in its wake on what it means down to the last detail. So once every one is seated I think the occasion is just lovely (a while I don’t doubt its greatness in expressing a kind of thor- word I rarely use for anything), and organized in such a way oughgoing vision of the whole of things, and in terms of their Continued On Pg. 09 ultimate value no less, I do doubt its greatness in convincing
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To Avoid a Faux Pas: Senior Oral Etiquette Jonathan Barone
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s you may or may not know, we’re entering a new phase of the year. Seniors have handed in their papers, the culmination of a month (give or take) of hard work. I’m sure I speak for all of them when I say ringing the bell and walking out of McDowell was an incredible experience. Thanks to all of you who made that night special. But I digress. Starting next week and running through about the end of the year, the seniors will be having public oral examinations on their essays in the King William Room. They run exactly an hour long, and all are welcome to attend. There are more aspects to it and more stipulations regarding what you should and should not do, but you’ll most likely be getting an email about that. And I’m sure you’ll be able to follow all the rules and regulations—but I’m not here to talk about that. I’m here to talk about a faux pas you won’t expect, a faux pas that no one ever tells you about. I’m here to warn you against falling asleep in a senior’s oral. “That’s it? Not falling asleep? I think I can handle that,” you’re probably thinking. Let me tell you, I’ve attended my fair share of senior orals over the years, and I can say with confidence: You’re wrong. You’ll likely be going into these orals on a typical college student’s night’s sleep, and you won’t be prepared for the thermostat cranked to ungodly sleep-inducing temperatures. (I’m super serious. They really crank it. And it makes the room mad warm.) You won’t be prepared for the incredibly comfortable chairs. You’ll suddenly find yourself nodding off as you listen to a conversation in which you cannot participate, and when it happens, there’s not much you can do about it. You can’t get up and start doing calisthenics, that’s for sure. So here’s some advice to reduce your chance of public shame. First of all: Plan your week ahead of time. The list of orals for the upcoming week comes out weekly, so you have ample to time to prepare and plan your schedule if there’s an oral you really want to attend. Second, and most importantly: After you plan your week, make sure you get a good (or at least a decent) night’s sleep before the day of the oral. It really makes a difference. Third: This is a personal preference, but I prefer to sit in the wooden chairs, as opposed to the cushioned ones. If you can stay awake better in the cushioned ones, the more power to you, but I know I can’t. Besides, the wooden ones are not Johnnie chairs (i.e., they’re fairly comfortable). I can just stay more engaged that way. Fourth: Sit beside someone and tell them to nudge (or smack) you if you start falling asleep. It’s a tried and true method, and being held accountable always increases your desire to succeed. Fifth: Posture. Make sure you’re sitting up straight. Don’t rest your head against the back of the seat. And for God’s sake, don’t let your head drift downward. That is the path straight to Hell, my friends. Sixth: Make sure all the lights are on in the room before the oral. Often tutors will turn on the lights if they’re off before they enter, but they don’t always do this. Better be safe than sorry: turn on the lights before the tutors even get there. Trust
me, it makes a world of difference. Last: This is totally optional, but if you can, read the essay in the library before you go to the oral. It’s a big investment: it takes a lot more time, but you’ll understand and follow the conversation much better. The précis before the oral helps a bit, but you’ll follow the conversation much better if you read the actual arguments made in the paper. If you want to get the most out of the senior oral, this is the way to go. That about sums it up. I highly encourage you to check out some senior orals. By and large, they’re hit and miss, but it’s very rewarding to see a good conversation between people who know what they’re talking about. Have fun, and stay awake (especially you, seniors)! !
!"#$%&'())*+'!,%-.$/0-1 Michael Fogleman Title/topic? “Knowing Phaedrus, Remembering Ourselves” Why this work/topic? I chose to write on Plato because he is Plato. In the Phaedrus, Socrates describes a philosophical rhetoric that can adjust its speech to the soul of the audience; if Plato’s writing does this, then it is the Phaedrus that speaks most directly to my soul. I wrote about Phaedrus and self-knowledge because it would allow me to talk about Phaedrus as a character and self-knowledge as an aspect of philosophy. Advisor? Mr. Dink Writing Period strategy? I kept a regular schedule: waking up early, meditating, eating, going to bed. During the day, I would read, think, and write. And I went to writing assistance! Advice? Start thinking about picking an author, book, and/or question sooner than later. Re-read the book frequently. Go to writing assistance early and often, not just for your Senior Essay but for other papers. Think of thought as inner speech, and have good conversations not just with others but with yourself.
!"#$%&'"!!()' *(&+)',-./0' â&#x20AC;&#x153;And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.â&#x20AC;?
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Staff writer Robert Malka profiles alumna Margaret Winter, the Associate Director of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, and winner of a 2012 Alumni Award of Merit. Robert Malka
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hat Margaret Winter (SF’66) lacked in career ideas care. “You can’t see what I’ve seen and talk with hundreds of after graduation, she made up for in grand ambitions: prisoners about their lives without concluding that we’re all “St. John’s taught me to think big and to want to do things on part of the same human family,” she said. “You meet with the a heroic scale,” she said. Just out of the Johnnie bubble, she full range of humanity in prison. Just like in the free world, landed in a tumultuous world where the powerless many were you encounter nobility and generosity as well as cruelty and demanding from the powerful few. One day, a stay-at-home selfishness.” mother of an infant, she met a young black woman with two She has had too many major victories to list them here. To young children who attended Howard Law School, who told name a few: A couple of months ago, she won a class action her, “If I can go to law school, so can you.” Winter entered law against the state of Alabama for segregating all prisoners with school a year later. Fast forward: In 1996 she argued before the HIV just because they had the disease. In 2011, she won a conSupreme Court and won. Unanimously. sent decree banning solitary confinement for all Mississippi See? Things might not be so bad after graduation. Like her, youth convicted as adults. In 2008, she won a case against the you might even be the future winner of the Alumni Award of self-styled “toughest Sheriff in America,” over conditions in Merit. one of the biggest jail systems in the nation. In 2006, she won To be sure, the first few years in the real world were chaotic a decree that reduced the population of Mississippi’s superones: “I didn’t come out of St. John’s prepared for law school max prison by eighty percent. In 2004, she won an appellate in any obvious way,” she said: she admits her law school career decision on behalf of a gay Texas prisoner who sued prison was mediocre (she didn’t write for the Law Journal, among officials for not protecting him from gang-run sexual slavery. many other missed opportunities). But she realized later the In 2002, she won a class action challenging grossly inhumane power of the St. John’s experience. “How can you not think conditions on Mississippi’s Death Row. big,” she said, “when you’ve spent four years discussing HomBut the Supreme Court case is especially memorable for her. er, the Bible, Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Dostoevski with Some backstory: Prison is a business everywhere. Oklahoma your classmates?” came up with the idea that, in order to keep She developed the legal skills she needbeds full, they would let a model prisoner ‘How can you not think out when the prison was overcrowded, and ed in the heat of battle. “I took on very big big,’ [Winter] said, ‘when then haul him back in once a bed opened up cases early on. I don’t think I ever took a case that didn’t have a big theme,” she said. you’ve spent four years again. If Oklahoma succeeded, other states It was the action that guided her: wherever would follow. discussing Homer, the that was for her, she was in the fray. Oklahoma started with one particularly Bible, Shakespeare, CerAnd big action she got. Not many years well-behaved prisoner, who was 20 years vantes, and Dostoevski into a life sentence for murder. They freed after law school, she was suing the FBI— with your classmates?’ him into the community under supervision; successfully—for its counter-intelligence programs against Vietnam-era antiwar ache got a job and an apartment and soaked tivists. For the past eighteen years, she has focused on pris- in his freedom. Five months later, they suddenly announced oners’ rights, and rarely has there been a better time to do so. that he must report back to prison the next morning—not for For at least the last fifteen years, the U.S. has been on an incar- breaking any rule, but because there was an empty bed. He ceration binge, fueled by prison industry lobbyists. Today the went back to prison, but took the state to court. When the United States is the greatest incarcerator on the planet, with tenth circuit sided with the prisoner, the state appealed to the 2.3 million Americans behind bars. “One in every one hundred Supreme Court. Ms. Winter was appointed as his attorney. Americans is behind bars,” Winter explained. “The majority “It was terrifying to appear before that Court,” she said. “The of prisoners are there on drug-related crimes, and very many justices argue among themselves through you, shooting queshave untreated mental illness. Overwhelmingly, they’re poor. tions at you at machine-gun speed. But it’s an incomparable The prison industry consumes vast resources that should go experience, one that few lawyers ever have.” to education and treatment for drug addiction and mental illIf I may say so myself: what a ride. I had one final question: ness. The nation’s addiction to incarceration is warping our for all she went through in her starting years, would she go to society, and everyone should care about that.” St. John’s again, if she had the chance? “Oh, for sure,” she said, It is hard, once you hear the horror stories she relays, not to “I’d just be a more serious student.” !
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!"#$%&%'()"*+"#*,,(+%&-"#*,./%,)+&0 Anonymous
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o you ever wonder what people really think of you? Well, you’re in luck: a new Facebook page has commenced for the use of anonymous Johnnies who wish to express publicly (i.e., to the SJC population on Facebook) what they really think of you. Cruel, rude, and generally inappropriate comments are, of course, not part of the objective. Or are they? A wise tutor of mine recently mentioned in class how what isn’t written is as important, if not more so, than what is. After all, Socrates is “wise” because he at least admits to not knowing anything. When it comes to knowing what is, it’s just as important to know what isn’t. Or, in this case, who isn’t. Sure, it’s nice to see somebody write something kind about you, but it’s not that simple for most of us. What does it mean if your name hasn’t come up? What is it that people might have to say regarding what they really think of you that isn’t appropriate for public eyes? “Hateful or rude remarks will be completely disregarded,” the page description reads; is that why your name is not on that page? Or worse still, what if people don’t have anything to think about you at all? What if, at this tiny little liberal arts college where identity is crucial, no one can recall anything about you? If you’re silently thinking to yourself, “Well, Johnnie, you’re in the clear; someone’s already posted something ‘nice’ about you,” think again. This group has the potential to affect everyone negatively, even the populars. Let’s propose a scenario. A friend of mine is very handsome indeed but hasn’t really got much of a brain. Since this person is my friend, I would like to “share the love,” but also not lie. I write something along the lines of, “Johnnie is the most gorgeous person on campus!” Meanwhile, this comment is posted among one hundred others describing how “intelligent” or “strong” some other people are. Is Johnnie silently worrying to himself that he’s somehow inadequate with respect to these other fine attributes? Is he also silently scolding himself for being so cynical and sensitive over something so seemingly good-natured and loving? Well, sure he is! And why in the world, if you apparently feel so strongly about Johnnie in this way, would you want your proposed compliment to backfire entirely? Or maybe it didn’t backfire, and that’s exactly what you wanted to say to him. I have myself been tempted to throw a few spiteful remarks into the mix: “Despite everything, Johnnie, I care about you!” or “Johnnie, I always feel smarter, classier, and more beautiful in your presence!” “Hateful or rude remarks will be completely disregarded”? Think again, Johnnie. You’re smarter than that. If you know someone, and I mean really know them, why would you cowardly write something about them anonymously? This is the online equivalent of that needy kid in high school who goes around trying to hug everybody, complimenting peoples’ shirts, because he hopes to God somebody will one day return the favor. If what you have to say is something genuinely true and good, why not say it to their face? Communicating face to face is what fosters real relationships and genuine friendships. Don’t you feel somewhat cheated when
someone tries to be heartfelt via social media? Not to mention, if you feel strange saying your compliment to the person’s face, chances are, you don’t know them well enough to say what you’re saying anyway. If what we aspire to be for each other amounts to nothing but cowardly, distant friends, this group will flourish. But our souls will not. A final note to those of you still left skeptical. Maybe you’re thinking, “Whoever wrote this article is nothing but a sad and insecure hypocrite.” It’s all true. Nobody wrote anything about me on this Facebook page. There are fewer compliments about me on that page than the number of times qua is used correctly in an Aristotle seminar. I am insecure. And I’m not attaching my name to this article. But like I said before, everyone is affected by this page, those mentioned and those not. And for the record, everyone’s a little insecure. We all strive every day for virtue and for truth. Or maybe we just try to get through the day, hoping that there are people out there who care about us enough to be vulnerable and tell us what they really think, face to face, human to human.And why should I not attach my name to this article? It’s not addressed to anyone in particular, and it’s not written by anyone in particular. In the words of Ms. Brann, listen not to me, but to the logos. !
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as to make it so. I like the combination of formality and informality, the conviviality, even the nostalgia induced by it. For a gathering of that size there is still a sense of intimacy, and the giving of toasts poses a unique sort of challenge for students (and tutors), which compels them to say things about themselves and about the College they might otherwise not say. And while I have come to dislike the phrase “a community of learning” as a characterization of the College’s nature and integrity (mostly because I think that learning happens in the soul rather than in any community), the aptness of this characterization is reflected most, I think, in the senior dinner. What is your favorite class to be a tutor for and why? Senior mathematics, I think. For one thing, there is more than enough time to do everything that needs to be done without rushing, or feeling the burden of the schedule. And within each semester there is a genuine line of inquiry being pursued, without the division into distinct if related topics or readings that is more often the case in classes at the College. In particular, there is a sense of patient exploration animating the first semester’s study of non-Euclidean geometry that I haven’t found so strongly or clearly in any other class I’ve been a tutor for. Finally, there is something genuinely elementary yet also recollective about the way that both semesters of the tutorial begin, in the first with a kind of renewed beginning in geometry, and in the second with a similar kind of renewed beginning in physics. !
The Gadfly
10
!"#$%$&'()*"%&$+,&$-.)&/0)1$2&"0)34)50+$&' Raymond Lau
M
A’16
y mother had always tried to cultivate humility in me. ments, and skills amount to anything more than what society There is always a mountain higher than the one you con- allows? Just as we grant Euclid the grounds for his achievequered, she would say, warning me not to revel in my achieve- ments, our achievements only have significance insomuch as ments. At once trying to nip arrogance—that obnoxious excess we grant it to them. To the extent which we acknowledge the of self-importance which separates one from peers—in the mountains we have surmounted, we never become more than bud and to press me to excel, she unfortunately did not build human for climbing them. In that sense, we never become the intellectual foundation for humility which would have more than anyone else. won me entirely over. From her I learned that society scorned I now take what I say, as well as what anyone else says, the arrogant; the stories she told and the movies we watched tentatively. I hesitate to accept claims promulgated by peotaught me arrogance marked the foolish sidekicks and the ar- ple who do not show similar humility, because I have come chetypical villains. Yet, my greatest lesson in humility was not to believe arrogance obscures the truth. This applies to selftaught through her admonitions or generrighteous campaigns (often conducted by al social pressure, but through my studies I now take what I say, as well religious, political, scientific, or cultural at St. John’s College. leaders), which often make no effort to as what anyone else says, Studying the “Great Books” which dispel the illusion of absolute confidence tentatively. I hesitate to western civilization is founded on humthey intend to exert. This confidence accept claims promulgated risks becoming foolish, and the foolishly bled me, but not in the same way looking by people who do not show confident are prone to making mistakes at tall mountains did. Euclid, Plato, and Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch are indisputwe sometimes willingly ignore, because similar humility, because I able giants on whose shoulders our modwe thirst for the confidence they exude. have come to believe arroern fields of mathematics, philosophy, and Never having been quick to ally myself gance obscures the truth. biology build upon, yes—but at St. John’s with any established dogma, learning huCollege we explicate the texts by bringing these otherwise mility made me even more cynical to ideas which time has untouchable figures into the realm of conversation. We try pushed up to incontestable heights. When capitalism, socialto scrutinize the validity of their ideas; we test their logic for ism, and all other –isms implore I be persuaded by the sheer hollow cavities, and question relentlessly what justifies each genius of their achievements or theory, I demand a confrontaclaim. Such proximity to their literature naturally allows us tion with them on even ground, and I demand an explication to better admire their genius, but we do not let their author- of their premises. I withhold my support until I understand ity carry more weight than the punch of their arguments. We what premises they must beg me to grant them, and then only beckon them down from their high mountain to talk on even if I grant them. Humility, in showing how lightly I should take ground. And it was here, where no past achievement counted, myself, shows me how to take others lightly as well. ! where I was only worth my grain of salt if Euclid did not pace circles around me, that I realized no amount of success puts one person above another. Nearly every classroom discussion ends with more ques! Painter Bob tions than answers. When there are answers, they only bring If I could write a poem, clarity over what the author says, and rarely if at all shower half as beautiful as you clarity over some universal truth. I learn that even the most rigorous attempts made by Plato and Aristotle to find the truth I’d take a bow, that all the world, rest on no solid logical foundation. There is no logic behind would come to worship me a priori principles. At a certain point, one is forced to accept but then, I’d strike a bargain, premises on no basis other than that they appear self-evidentwith the devil if need be ly true. What is self-evident relies on human experience—and to sell the rights for all its worth, our experiences are pathetically limited by our cognitive and for one second spent with you perceptive abilities. We build our mountainous achievements on a cloud we hope will hold true. for the bliss within that instant, This realization blew to dust my last iota of superiority. I would transcend infinity cannot claim I am a better or worse human than my peers and the dream within the dreamer when the judgement of “better” or “worse” is not staked in could remake reality any solid truth. To say I am better or worse at any particular till all the wishes ever wished, action, and then to proceed to take that difference in skill as should mean no more than this a measure of my worth as a human, would only show I exagthe consummation of one life gerate the importance of that action. When even Euclid must beg us to accept his postulates, for otherwise there can be no all wrapped up in a kiss... Euclidean geometry, how can I say my intelligence, achieve-
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The Gadfly
Ian Tuttle
11
A’14
Some Thoughts on the Passing Scene: •Hillary Clinton has stepped off the national stage (for the moment…) and passed the reins of the U.S. State Department to John Forbes Kerry, formerly Massachusetts’ senior senator and George W. Bush’s Democratic opponent in the 2004 presidential election. Just after his tenure at State began, it was announced that all State Department “tweets” written by Kerry himself would be signed “JK.” How fitting.
•When Jared Loughner opened fire on a crowd in Tuscon, AZ, in 2011, killing six and injuring 13 (including then-congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords), pundits laid the blame at the feet of former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her website’s “bullseye” campaign map, which “targeted” districts for the 2010 midterm elections. It’s a media reflex, in the aftermath of acts of potentially political violence, to blame the “heated rhetoric” of the American Right. Of course, of the dozen attacks that have garnered calls for the heads of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, et al., in just the past three years, none have actually turned out to have any connection to the “heated, apocalyptic rhetoric of the anti-Obama forces.” Enter Floyd Corkins. Corkins recently pleaded guilty to last August’s shooting at the Family Research Council, a conservative organization that promotes traditional marriage, that left a security guard wounded. Carrying three pistol magazines and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches, Corkins intended to “make a statement against the people who work in that building,” and, as CNN.com reported, he hoped to “smear [the sandwiches] in the dying faces of the staffers he expected to kill.” Strangely, Chris Matthews has avoided all blame.
•John Adams famously advocated “a government of laws, not of men.” That seems to have fallen out of vogue. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on immigration this week that will feature Jose Antonio Vargas, a Filipino-born journalist who appeared on the cover of TIME last summer. Vargas is also an illegal immigrant, who entered the country when he was 12 and never obtained permission to remain (he is now 32). He has been on the payroll of the Washington Post (in violation of federal law) and was arrested in Minnesota for driving without a valid driver’s license (he had previously obtained a Washington state license under false pretenses). Seated beside Vargas at the hearing? Chris Crane, head of the Im“The trouble is not that migrations and Customs Enforcement emtechnology can be used ployees’ union, which is suing the Obama administration for the rules that make it for both good and evil, but all but impossible for ICE agents to arrest that people in the age of illegal immigrants—like the one sitting technology may have real next to him.
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•For fans of the recent CBS hit Person of Interest, behavior-predicting software may soon be in a supercomputer near you. Defense contractor Raytheon has developed an “extreme-scale analytics” system that compiles social network data—Facebook posts, Twitter messages, GPS data trouble telling the differ- from Foursquare, etc.—which can be ana•“It is almost a false argument to say that lyzed to determine behavioral patterns. ence between the two.” we have a spending problem,” said Nancy The software (Rapid Information Overlay - Yuval Levin Pelosi on Sunday’s Meet the Press. “We Technology, or RIOT), has not yet been have a budget deficit problem.” That’s the sold, but Raytheon hopes that the profiscal equivalent of, “It is almost a false argument to say that gram will “help meet our nation’s rapidly changing security we have a cocaine problem. We have a withdrawal problem.” needs.” While data mining for law enforcement purposes is generally legal, privacy advocates are worried about the lack •One of the lesser-discussed facts of Obamacare, which is set of oversight for this type of covert data collection. to take full effect at the beginning of next year, is that the alAdd RIOT to the swelling list of technologies that may batross of a law will be a bear to implement. Latest example: well be central to the ethical questions of our day. Drone use California, where there are not enough doctors to manage (for combat, surveillance, etc.), cyberwarfare (a key tool of the expected crush of newly insured patients. Searching for the Chinese and non-state actors, such as the hacking group solutions, state lawmakers are considering allowing pharma- Anonymous), and the like have already begun to provoke cists, optometrists, and the like to act as primary care provid- questions about the increasingly indistinct lines between citiers, able to diagnose diabetes, high blood pressure, and other zen and state. But neither a revived Luddism nor a new Fuchronic illnesses. Think diagnoses are perfunctory now? Wait turism is the answer. As scholar Yuval Levin observes, “The until your regular physician retires and his patients have to trouble is not that technology can be used for both good and resort to the local eye doctor. evil, but that people in the age of technology may have real trouble telling the difference between the two.” •North Carolina State University’s website declares that “happiness is being a student at a campus that makes you feel • If you needed any assistance deciding whether ex-Nebraska anything but small.” But if that doesn’t turn your crank, the senator Chuck Hagel ought to be confirmed as America’s next school’s Union Activities Board recently purchased butt plugs, secretary of defense, the following statement should help to vibrators, dildos, edible underwear, and artificial female geni- make up your mind. Asked about the Obama administration’s talia for the institution’s “Dirty Bingo” event, during which policy on Iran, Hagel announced, “I support the president’s “certified educators” could use the items to demonstrate an strong position on containment.” A few minutes later: “I was array of “healthy sex practices.” In its defense, the school does just handed a note that I misspoke, that I said I supported the advertise that “Discovery begins at NC State.” Still, I’d bet this president’s position on containment. If I said that, I meant to wasn’t the “education” most parents had in mind. say that we don’t have a position on containment.” We’re doomed. !
The Gadfly
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The Music of Erik Neave (A’16) Jacob Kilgore
O
A’16
n a short visit just before his son’s January 30th performance at the Metropolitan, Erik Neave’s father said, “I’ve played for a long time and sound okay today, I guess. But Erik picked it up late and sounded better in three months than I ever have.” That Wednesday, about 35 students trekked through snow and rain down West Street in support of what was, for some, the band of a friend of a friend. Two hours later, they left together with more in common than wet weather and a long walk. They left with an understanding of what Neave’s father had meant. It would be difficult to classify Neave’s music: “folk” is inadequate, “indie” too cliché. Sometimes labels throw words at an album in the hopes of capturing the sound an artist: folk-acoustic-blues-indie-pop-rock. They never quite capture what they or the artist intend. In a word, though, Neave’s music is honest. Through melodies at once rowdy and calm, angsty and somber, Neave confessed before an audience and shared the frustrating questions he entertains through his art. Although the words of each song were the same as on his band Cedarwell’s albums, the intimacy between the artist, the work, and the witnesses enhanced the personal quality Through melodies at and communal aspect of the event. once rowdy and calm, He transported participants to a kind of otherangsty and somber, world, free of inhibition or pretense. It exhibited Neave confessed bethe quality of a vivid memory or dream, yet, espefore an audience and cially while singing along, the audience seemed shared the frustrating moved to a very real and tangible front porch on questions he enterthe prairie, singing blue grass tunes with ma and tains through his art. pa. He left the audience with questions like, “My love, where have you been?” and “Where is my God?”, as well as a resounding assertion: “Alone is not the only thing worth crying a tear.” Erik G. Neave is both the magician and the rabbit under the hat, shocked to be in front of an audience at all. Because of his performance and performances like his, we deal boldly and together with the struggles each of us face. Somehow, the music provides a forum wherein no fear taints our interaction, and nobody could be ashamed to identify. Perhaps because there is a courageous person on a stage, proclaiming and even re-creating his own struggle. !
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e’re pleased to remind the Polity that the deadline for Energeia, St. John’s’ annual literary magazine, has been extended! We have received only a few submissions, so dig through your files or sift through your notebooks and send in your work! We welcome a wide variety of submissions, including short stories, poetry, paintings, drawings, photography, translations, essays (academic, expository, or lyric), and even musical scores and mathematical proofs. If you’re not sure whether your piece qualifies, send it in—our goal is a professional, creative, and eclectic publication. We welcome submissions from all members of the community, including undergraduates, graduate students, alumni, tutors, administration, and staff. All submissions should be sent to our new Gmail address, sjca.energeia@ gmail.com, by the new deadline: 11:59 pm, Sunday, February 17, 2013. Please don’t hesitate to contact the editors at the above address with any questions. We look forward to reading your work! !