Towards a General Model of Thought and Behavior Part 4: Hiearchical Text and Integration of Subject Object Interposition and The Nature of Control.

In any given system, general control arises as a joint, direct and inverse integration of the Greatest Common General Circumstance of Subject or Object Occurrence to the Least Common Individual Result of Subject Object Integration.

Control begins as a necessity of error in perspective and illusion such that, error as any change in general system equilibrium, is part of the process in establishing the the Subject as Inherent. The Thermodynamic exchange of variables of heat, is the second part. Establishing a field of counter-inter-positional elements of that which is, that which is not that which is, and that which binds them both while being defined by neither is the foundation of that which is inherent.

.

  The Subject, that which is inherent is Necessary.

Object, that which is constructed from that which is inherent, is Probable. This General Model is the basis upon which all systems derive overall control.

For an understanding of specific control we are left with the Concept of Constancy.

 We know, because of the Third Law of Thermodynamics, Absolute Zero cannot exist Heckert 2006. Therefore heat is a constant. We also know that because of Newton's Inverse Square Law and the equivalence principle Wikki 2010, gravity too is a constant. However, in terms of  general system occurrence we know we can infer cause and effect as a continuum.

"Cause and effect: there is probably never any such duality; in fact there is a continuum before us, from which we isolate a few portions - just as we always observe a motion as isolated points, and therefore do not properly see it, but infer it. The abruptness with which many effects take place leads us into error; it is however only an abruptness for us. There is an infinite multitude of processes in that abrupt moment which escape us. An intellect which could see cause and effect as a continuum, which could see the flux of events not according to our mode of perception, as things arbitrarily separated and broken - would throw aside the conception of cause and effect, and would deny all conditionality (Nietzsche 112).  

Therefore, as a continuum in much the same fashion as the perception of color, there is a Constancy of Occurrence of either Subject or Object in every system where there is a Necessity of Error in perspective and illusion.

A reading of Wittgenstein, in part, gives us this formulation:"...We use the word composite...in an enormous number of different and differently related ways...what are the simple constituent parts of which reality exists...what does it mean to say that we can attribute  neither being nor non being to elements...it makes no sense to speak of an element's being (non-being) when everything we  call destruction lies in separation...of elements...the concept of 'number' is defined s the logical sum of...individual interrelated concepts...it need not be so...For I can give the concept 'number' rigid limits...but I can also use it so that the extension of concepts is not closed by a frontier... (46, 47,50,68)

The Constancy of Occurrence, then, in relation to the idea of integration suggested by our number model (-1 0 1) is where we also derive our argument for the Joint, Direct and Inverse sub parameters of Subject Object integration as an ongoing and eternally reoccurring Interposition

At  this point, the question of textual production and power must be addressed. In doing so, we must first establish what we further argue are the general parameters common to all thought and behavior.


Therefore, we have, foremost, the concept of text and textual production. First I affirm Margaret Paternak's observation regarding Michel Foucault namely that:

"...at his best, Fouccault  is one of the most powerful critics of liberal practices...but...where liberalism equates the political and legal dimensions of power with the state...Foucault fuses the social and political dimensions of power with the apparatus of the state (1987).

Yet, what Foucault does accomplish for our argument is to furnish us with an armature of external structure for our General Theory of Thought and Behavior. As the following diagram illustrates is, according to his reading of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon :

...from the enclosed disciplines...an immediately generalizable mechanism of panopticism...serving as an intermediary between them, linking them together...making it possible to bring the effects of power...to the most distant elements...(235)

This external structure then, provides for us an understanding of The Greatest Common General Circumstance of Subject or Object Occurrence as a joint, direct and inverse possibility in the constitution of what is and is not perceived about that structure as well as the actuality of  integration facilitated by all avenues of power and probable power at work within a given system.
Again, in reference to to the model, our concept of The Least Common Individual Result of Subject Object Integration comes to us from a reading of Jaques Derrida's Archive Fever wherein the author describes and discusses his concept of The One.

...The One as self-repetition can only repeat and...affirm and...engage itself in this repetition...it orders to promise...self confirmation in a yes, yes...the anarchive in short...carries the law in its tradition...the substrate and the subject of law...(78).Although apparently counter intuitive, the fundamental cornerstone of control in any system of thought and behavior , is to a greater or lesser degree, a negation of that which is in relation to that which is not that which is.This brings us back to our original diagram of inherency .

Namely, that which is must always oppose that which is not. In any given system then, when we speak of Control, we must first realize that all systems are controlled first according to this basic precept. Whenever we seek to exert external control in any system then, we must first come to grips with that element, also inherent in any given system, that contains neither counterpostional element, yet both are in whole or in part defined by.

Applications

When we talk about a General Model of Thought and Behavior we, at least I am, tempted to plunge back through history and literature and take a another look at what supposedly happened and decide for myself if I do indeed agree and why or why not. As tempting as that project sounds, we will save that journey for future posts. Instead, for the purposes of this post we will close by briefly discussing contemporary issues and their relevance to the theory we have discussed.

Cutting thriough all the jargon and references, ultiamtely what we are saying here is that:
1) All situations are the result of a existing system.
2) All situations as the result of a system of interrelation have at their core, one central issue around which the entire situation evolves and exists.
and 3) Control in any situation is dependent upon isolating that core element and effectively moderating its direction of effect to the overall system.

For example,  in the  Gulf Oil spill Crisis what is the central issue? In such a complex problem, depending on your approach and your needs at the time, there is more than one core issue involved in this situation.
The central issue in the Spill itself is the area being displaced at the point of eruption.

We know that the blowout preventer at the bottom of the ocean in that region is malfunctioning although relatively intact. We also know that the Blow Out preventer system is based on an Acoustic Pattern Recognition Software based operational system. Since the majority of the leakage is coming from damaged or ruptured riser lines, then it is safe to assume that in order to regain control of he Blow Out Preventer Device, we need to re enable that device to receive a new set of instructions.
Since the Core issue, is the Preventer itself, and the device is still relatively intact, repairing the hardware and software package to receive a new set of proper instructions, is one best way to go at this point. An engineering problem? No. An Electrical and Engineering problem? Most probably.
Recollection of the already spilled oil is another matter entirely. In this situation, our core issue is not the oil spill itself, it's the behavior of the oil while it is in the water that's the problem.
Control the flow of ocean current and you inevitably control the damaging effects of spilled oil in the environment.
An Emergency Oil Reclamation and Anti-Spill Device as depicted in the following illustration that would impede the current flow is the best way towards regaining control of the current situation in terms of environmental clean-up.

Another example of  focusing on the core issues of a given situation can be found in the current Arizona Border situation. In that particular instance, it is commonly believed that illegal immigration is the central issue. But in my theory of thought and behavior, illegal immigration is only one consequent of the overall reality of circumstance. In my opinion, the central issue invoved in so called illegal immigration is not in those who choose to come across the border no matter what the cost. It is in the BIG MONEY that finances those illegal crossings. That, in my opinion, is the central issue to the problem at the border. Stop the flow of big money there,and you stop the illegal flow of immigration at the Arizona border.

In my own personal narrative, I have been trying for quite some time to get a position as a student teacher in Speech here in Ann Arbor. As of this writing, sad to say there as been NO SUCCESS. However, in my general theory of thought and behavior, the central issue here, in my particular situation, is not in expecting the College  of Education at Eastern Michigan University to find a place for me, although, that wold be nice. The central issue here in my situation, is how committed I am to the profession of education.
According to my theory of thought and behavior, what I need to do is get involved and remain involved in anything remotely involving education. Volunteer: seek out any and all tutoring opportunities in my field. Actively look into Summer opportunities to get involved in Children's Theatre or any writing workshops that may be available.
Get enough real life experience, where you can, if you need to, go an alternate route towards Teacher Certification.

The point is, in the General Theory of Thought and Behavior I am proposing the one overriding element inherent in any situation we may come across, is that there is usually one inherent condition upon which the entire situation revolves.

Understanding what that core element is the key to control in any system of interrelation, we may encounter.

For our next post we will discuss the system of counteraesthetics which this general approach to thought and behavior strongly suggests.

Thank you and good night.

 

Towards a General Model of Thought and Behavior: Part 3 Subject Object Integration and Control Through Understanding The Counteraesthtics of Hiearchical Text and Integration.

Towards a General Model of Thought and Behavior, Part 3: Subject Object Integration and Control Through Understanding The Counteraesthtics suggested by Hiearchical Text and Integration of Imperative and Intuition.
Thomas Eugene Krawford Jr
Ann Arbor MI.

Any theory, whether that regarding the physical or the metaphysical world, is not a discovery: it is merely a successful general description of a fact of process already in place in the natural world. This general theory of thought and behavior is no different in that regard. That said, we have already some controversial assumptions pertaining to our overall discussion.

In prior posts, we  began our general model with the Nietzschean argument set forth in The Birth of Tragedy that: (in terms of art and life) there exists a necessity of error in perspective and illusion (10). We have attempted to redefine the general concept of error as any expression or act that alters the existing flow of change at work in any system of  energy exchange. Human systems, we have argued, are systems of energy exchange where  the exchange of "heat" is, I maintain, the most fundamental non-verbal language responsible for all aspects of communication, experience and memory.

In this sense then, as argued by Wittgenstein (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus; Philosphical Investigations), language remains an inherent system of establishing first internal, then exterior order in joint, direct and inverse expressions of understanding and order .

But we have gone further.

In order to make this transformation we have employed several positivist sub-transformations. Namely: the Second Law of Thermodynamics' Corollary of Deforming Potential applied to a given element of a given system:

(-1 0 1) where two counter oppositional elements are bound by a third element, neither contain, but both are defined by in terms of the the system' general identity.

The negative and positive elements will both deform their potential in relation to the zero element both are bound by, but neither contain. 

We have also employed the Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics to further establish our argument for the nature of that which is inherent in any given system, human or otherwise.

As this and the following diagram indicates, it is my general contention that for any given system where three elements that share at least one common vertice, this basic interrelation will exist and it will lend itself to an integration of its elements based solely on the defroming potential of the two counter opposing elements in joint, direct and inverse relation bound by a third element neither one is, yet both contain.
And as the second diagram suggests, the basic structure of inherency is determined by the nature of the the exchange of heat in terms of deforming potential, relative to that system integrity as a bound field of joint, direct and inverse relation. The result of which is the constitution of necessary subject.

From here, in terms of thought and behavior, we can safely say that there is a necessity of error in perspective and illusion such that the Subject, that which is inherent, is necessary. Furthermore, by implication we are also arguing that inherent nature as a closed natural system is also a capacity of inherent equilibrium.

At this point we revisit Hegel's concept of synthesis as that concept informs our next objective: the constitution of that which is probable; The Object constructed from that which is inherent.

Whereas Inherency as we have described it, involves inherent capacity, our argument for The Object as constructed from that capacity, involves aspects of quantity that are not necessarily inherent, but nonetheless just as fundamental in the dynamics of General Thought and Behavior.

Daniel Berthold-Bond's Hegel's Grand Synthesis: study of being thought and history, goes in depth into Hegel's ideas of  the object as that quantity which is:

...implicit in it's immediate appearance...the fuller knowledge requires that we make implicit what is implicit in object...(13)

Berthold-Bond makes the connection between Hegel's work and that of Martin Heidegger in so far, that the concept of absolute existence: that "self" initiated altering of mind where object is developed into truth is argued to be the result of human centeredness (19).  But both in terms of Hegel's Grand Synthesis and Heidegger's Relativism, I argue the central issue here involves looking at the system of thought and behavior interrelation, not necessarily as an anthropomorphic abstraction but as a relatively closed, yet dynamic system of energy exchange where error represents a change in general direction of general outcome. Hence, its inherent necessity to the overall system's general success and longevity.

Basically then, we reaffirm our initial claim that The Object: that which is constructed from that which is Inherent, is probable, its nature itself, derivative of the requirements necessary for the exchange of various aspects of heat energy particular to that given system relative to the occurrence of that system in the environment where it is jointly, directly and inversely substantiated (borrowing again from Wittgenstein) by its integration.

This model places the Hegelian Dialectic: thesis, antithesis and synthesis into a more pragmatic and constructive frame. In the model, if we assume that Object is thought, that which is constructed from a Subject inherency arising from system energy exchange,  then as Geoff Boucher argues:

"The Hegelian reply to postmodern discourse theory is as powerful as it is simple. Postmodern discourse theory presupposes exactly what it omits: the totality of an intersubjective rationality expressed in the medium of a shared language. Laclau and Mouffe are caught in the standard performative contradiction of postmodernism, namely, in the very gesture with which they deny the possibility of a shared universe of meanings they demonstrate that their argument relies on such a totality for its intelligibility. What their argument says (the constative value of the propositions) and what it does (its performative character) by being said are in contradiction with each other - hence, a 'performative' contradiction.
In the moment in which the theory is articulated, the discursive totality it represents is by definition unintelligible to every other discursive framework. Yet the theory makes a direct appeal to the Left in particular to adopt postmodern discourse theory... Hence its intelligibility stems from the shared meanings it holds with a handful of other discourses, not from some intersubjective totality. (2000).

In terms of intersubjective totality then, I return to my adaptive positivist assertion that since according to our reading of the Second Law of Thermodynamics:

Inside an isolated system, in order for a process to proceed, Δ S > 0.  Such a process is said to be spontaneous.  A process for which ΔS < 0 is called non-spontaneous and is impossible for an isolated system. (http://www.genchem.net/thermo/laws.html ).

Since the totality of any system depends on and is substantiated by the conservation of energy inherent in that system, then what is inherent in that system must also, by definition, substantiate that system's subsequent construction and maintenance based on that capacity that is considered inherent to that system.

Therefore, as The Subject is Necessary, that which is Inherent, The Object, that which is constructed from that which is inherent must be, by definition, Probable.

At this stage of our argument, the implications for our general understanding of control are not clear

.Where we will go in the next post will be an assertion that there is thus a Constancy of Occurrence of Subject and Object in Joint, Direct and Inverse Relation to the other from the Greatest Common General Circumstance of Subject or Object Counter-Occurence to the Least Common Individual Result of Subject Object Integration.

In the next post, we will also discuss the post structural and post modern implications of this assertion from a combination of Derridean and Fouccalutian formulations as those concepts relate to the current state of affairs in the Gulf of Mexico, The Arizona Boarder and our own Personal Narrative.

Thank you.

Towards a General Model of Thought and Behavior. Part 2: Inherentcy and The Necessity of Error in Perpsective and Illusion.

For both art and life depend wholly on the laws of
optics, on perspective and illusion; both, to be blunt, depend
on the necessity of error. (Nietzsche 10)

 Redefinition of Error
From a moral skeptic foundation (Nietzsche 1897, Richard Joyce 2001) the general concept of error as a mistake, I argue, is faulty in that the general definition does not keep on line with established philosophical traditions (Nietzsche 1897:Popper 2003).:  Error, I argue, is not mistake per se,  it is the inevitable discontinuation of momentum evident in a given system in one direction, in lieu of another.

"Synthesis therefore brings things into consciousness, making it possible for us to subsequently recognize that our consciousness exists and that there are things in it. Hume had described the result as "something betwixt unity and number," since it is paradoxically one thing and many things all at the same time."  (http://www.friesian.com/kant.htm#synthetic)  In other words, far from being a mistake, Error, I argue, is an integral part of thought and behavior.

In terms of the Second Law of Thermodynamics as further demonstration: 

If there is no net change in the state inside the isolated system then  ΔS = 0.  This then is the thermodynamic criterion for equilibrium .
Inside an isolated system, in order for a process to proceed, Δ S > 0.  Such a process is said to be spontaneous.  A process for which ΔS < 0 is called non-spontaneous and is impossible for an isolated system. (http://www.genchem.net/thermo/laws.html)

Thus, in our concept of Error , error is not necessarily a mistake.  It is in fact and consequence,  any act that alters the existing direction of continuity. As the fundamental element of inherentcy, error is the sole vehicle by which non reality becomes interpretable as that quantity we generalize as "real." 

The Argument for Inherentcy as a result of this inevitable abrogation of  Kant's concept of synthesis as well as Hegel's non confrontation of the subsequent natural asymmetry inherent in this approach lends credibility to our overall emphasis that the "necessity of error in perspective and illusion," a reworking of the Nietzschean  The Birth of Tragedy corollary, establishes, for our argument, a firm foundation for developing and discussing the implications this line of reasoning has for our larger discussion regarding the nature of a General Model of Thought and Behavior.

So, in conclusion,  we can claim, based on our reformulation of  Hegel's concept of synthesis in light of  our re-understanding of the Second law of Thermodynamics in direct relation to Asymmetric Information

(http://academicearth.org/lectures/auctions-winners-curse)

 our argument thus far implies an equilibrium which, for the purposes of our argument, involves a condition of inherent nature in a given system.

Furthermore,  that inherent condition of equilibrium, implies, not only a prevalence of inherent error in a given system, but that inherentcy of error is also necessary according to the Second law of Thermodynamics.

Moreover, this inherentcy of error, as a discontinuation of established course of action, is a natural and necessary occurrence in an overall understanding of a coherence in a given system.

In addition, our Nietzschean claim of there being a Necessity of Error in Perspective and Illusion also implies that, in relation to our previous assertions on this idea, that the formulation of Subject as Entity, is indeed a workable and tenable point from which we can further develop the discussion of Subject and Object Interposition,

That;s enough for now, We'll pick up the discussion at that point in then next post.

Thank you, and have a good Holidays.

Tom

Ann Arbor.

Towards A General Model of Thought and Behavior from Subject Object Interposition to Hiearchical Text and Integration of Perspective and Illusion: a Resolution of Meaning and Mind. Part One: That Which is Inherent.

A.
 All life, organic and inorganic is the joint, direct and inverse result of its own inherent system of control. Control, as we generally understand the term is not always about dominance of weak over strong, good versus evil or sense versus nonsense. Control used in the context of this discussion refers to the range of expression from energy or matter interposition to the hierarchical text of energy and matter integration in terms of perspective and illusion.
Control, thus originates as that capacity which is inherent in a given system.

2.12 A picture is a model of reality.
2.141 A picture is a fact.
2.172 A picture cannot depict its pictorial form: it displays it.
2.19 Logical pictures can depict the world.  (Ludwig Wittgenstein---Tractatus Logico-Philosphicus)

The Picture Wittgenstein describes later in his Philosophical Investigations (http://www.scribd.com/doc/2916793)
as the "essence of human language." (9) is indeed a profound and brilliant statement that he successfully develops and defends throughout his later arguments. Yet, I argue we can further.

Getting back to our first statement regarding control, in my work thus far I have maintained that all thought and behavior is a fundamental result of subject object integration primarily: that which is, in joint, direct and inverse relation to that which is not when both capacities are bound by a third element neither one is, yet both contain.

For example (-1 0 1) describes just such a basic system. Both -1 and 1 are bound by the 0, yet since neither  number over 0 is defined, while 0 over either is, the statement, therefore is true.

However, the implications of this picture as a fundamental model of  an inherent reality are not clear until we apply the Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics which states that:

...if two objects, objects a and b, are both in thermal equilibrium with object c, then objects a and b are in thermal equilibrium with each other. This law is analogous to the basic rule in algebra that if a=c and b=c, then a=b.

Read more at Suite101: The Laws of Thermodynamics: Three Basic Principles Govern Thermal Physics, Heat, & Work http://physics.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_laws_of_thermodynamics#ixzz0pNuXrJ11

In other words, for any given system, inherency of that system as "first order control" exists as a result of an exchange of energy, in this case: an exchange of heat energy. Although all human beings do not share the same body temperature, we do share the same range of heat index. In fact, all matter and energy essentially exists and  non exists in relative degrees of heat. Heat and the exchange of heat, therefore, is the most basic form of language there is.

To clarify the above picture sentence further, the zeroth law also implies that since, a field is defined as any given three points in a plane that share at least one common vertice,  and according to the Second Thermodynamic Law corollary of deforming potential, not only do we exchange the energy of heat as our universal currency, we form relationships, navigate our way around and through problems, live, laugh and dream  based on what we realize we give up as much as on what we believe we gain.
Language as we generally understand the term to mean is more than a tool we use to record our non verbal experiences of this initial exchange of heat energy. The system of language is how we control the variability of inherent control first facilitated by the exchange of heat energy relative to all our life processes.
Wittgenstein was basically right in his assertion regarding the importance of language to our general understanding of meaning. But in resolving the issues of meaning and of mind, I argue that the basic exchange of energy and matter which first governs our biological processes, is also a language we all speak fluently whether  we use words or not.

Yet, having said all of this the question remains: does an understanding of Inherentcy resolve the fundamental rift between "meaning" and "mind?"

Probably not, but it is a start

In upcoming posts we will explore the resolutions to that question in depth.
Thank you and enjoy your holidays.

A Few Words from

Tom K

Ann Arbor

from this side...

Towards a Definition of Social Justice in the Classroom.

Dedicated to the Memory of Dr. Vernon C. Polite.

This portion of my general theory of subject object interposition in hierarchical text and integration as a model of human thought and behavior is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Vernon C. Polite who recently passed due to a terminal illness. An extraordinary educator, scholar and gentleman, Dr. Polite's example as a tireless and dedicated educator is and always will be one of the broadest shoulders I will ever have the honor of standing upon to see further than other men and women who have come before me.


The National Association of Scholars, according the Wikipedia is a non-profit organization whose opposition to multiculturalism both in the classroom and in pedagogical best practices of teacher education assessment, put it and its members firmly in the camp of those national organizations arguing that academia, currently, is liberally biased (Wikipedia  April 18, 2010). I start this entry with this fact because on November 2, 2005, the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, came under fire from this group on the grounds that the "Dispositions Requirement" was inherently unfair, primarily, to white students in the teacher  education program.

The connection of this debate to Dr. Polite's work here at Eastern Michigan is easily enough to understand.

First,  in a June 26, 2006 online article  A Spirited Disposition Debate, Inside Higher Education staff writer Elia Powers explains that Arthur Wise, then President of NCATE, seeking to outmaneuver his detractors in the NCA, whose opposition, in Wise's view, threatened NCATE's immediate future with the Federal Advisory Board on Education, officially distanced NCATE from any mention of the term "social justice."

...So Wise preempted his detractors. “I categorically deny the assertion that NCATE has a mandatory 'social justice' standard,” Wise testified. “We don’t endorse political and social ideologies. We endorse academic freedom, and we base our standards on knowledge, skills and professional disposition.”
And then, Wise threw the witnesses a bone, announcing that NCATE had decided to eliminate references to “social justice” from its current glossary because “the term is susceptible to a variety of definitions.”               Access April 18, 2010.

Then, in a November 17, 2007 blog entry, Brooklyn College professor of business Mitchel Langbert posted an entry entitled Vernon C. Polite's Provincialism where he argues that Dr. Polite's position on the issue of using the concept of social justice as an integral part of the Disposition Requirement amounts to in his words:

...a rigid, authoritarian definition of social justice...[that]... will lead not to justice, but to harassment of those who disagree with NCATE and with Dean Polite. It will lead to an authoritarian political correctness...

 Langbert's position is clear enough to understand and just like the links on his blog to those sites familiar with  and supportive of the workings of NAS, his argument is firmly in favor of a laissez-faire attitude towards the goal of improved social outcomes in education as far as minority students are concerned.

....The rigid definition of social justice as equality of outcomes is anything but just in terms of the thinking of Kant, Plato, Augustine, Aristotle and all other important philosophers....

All other important philosophers: this phrase is problematic as well as the main reason why Dr. Polite's work over the years, specifically regarding the issue of social justice in education is still so important.
This is why M.A.R.S. (Minority Awareness and Retention Scholars) programs are still vital to the mission of education in an increasingly diverse and complex democratic society.

The next part of this paper and tribute is directed to my fellow peer and colleague Chaz Douglass. (i hope somehow, he gets a chance to read this)

Mitchell Langbert's remarks, in spite of the fact that President Obama is in the White House, indicates that programs like M.A.R.S. may still be on shaky ground, at least as far as the NCTE is concerned. What I want to do here is present a point of view that I hope will be useful in demonstrating how important M.A.R.S is to education for all students regardless of their differences.

The remarks made by Langbert and the position of  the NAS claim there are "important" philosophers Dr. Polite's concept of social justice in education fails to recognize. Is that really the case?

When we talk about social justice I don't believe we're talking about just being fair. I believe we're talking about something a a lot more personal. Programs like M.A.R.S. are important because the language that is defined as acceptable is based on an interpretation of those "important" philosophers that doesn't say anything about real people with real problems in the everyday world.

Just because somebody sees a line of thought from Kant, Plato, St Augustine and Aristotle as the only standard that can be used to say someone is more or less competent than another, does not make it so.
For example, what about Socrates to Kant and Hegel to Bertrand Russel? In that line of reasoning people are important: all people, not in spite of their differences, but because of them. In this line of reasoning, the experience of the student as a person is just as important as all the standards of assessment and appropriateness  people like Mitch Langbert and the NAS argue should be the only thing we educators think about when we teach students of diverse backgrounds.

I argue that this could not be further from the truth.

What I am talking about is not just Differentiation, but a much more efficient model of  this contested classroom instruction. In the diagram we can clearly see how sensitivity to students' strengths is made a focal part of instruction by starting with Pre-assessment moving towards  general goals and objectives because of departmental benchmarks not in spite of them.

This is important because it involves student participation n their own education.

Student's self chosen benchmarks are much more their own choice which makes their success in meeting specific goals and objectives a much more certain thing: especially when it comes to meeting the requirements of standardized assessments.

The point of view Mitchell Langbert and the NAS subscribes to is unusable and unnecessary when it comes down to actually teaching ALL the kids across the curriculum. In fact, because more classrooms are becoming more diverse, not less, Differentiation as a best practice is essential to overall classroom success since all of our classroom are diverse and getting more diverse everyday.

 Furthermore,  when scholars such as Mitchell Langbert present their kind of logic as some kind of informed intellectual  history, I argue that they are not using intellectual objectivity or honesty: they are reading their version of the facts to make themselves look good and that is all, period. This kind of self serving intellectual dishonesty is what Dr. Vernon Polite devoted his career as a caring and professional educator to fighting. That is why M.A.R.S. is important not just for us, but for our children and the many generations of future teachers to follow.

How should we define social justice in education in a  way anyone can understand?
Equal access to common language, acknowledgment of  how everyone's experience contributes to what things mean and a serious curriculum based opportunity for all our students and their families to express their understanding of knowledge as a community based activity where everyone who wants to, has a voice and that voice is heard and not ignored. That's social justice and yes, it is fair and it is just and it is democratic and its worth believing in and fighting for.

 Dr Vernon C Polite meant a lot to me: he will be sorely missed, but what means most to me is the dream he spent his life championing. His dream is my dream: and I for one will never rest until that dream is finally and formally realized as a matter of American institutional reality.

Thank you and rest easy Dr. Vernon C Polite.

One Possible Plan for American Financial Reform: An Ann Arbor Cabbie's Perspective

There has been much said about the upcoming national debate over the pending legislation pertaining to financial reform. The following philosophical observation proposes one possible plan for financial reform: one route, at least in theory, this necessary reform might take as law makers continue to craft the essential ingredients of  American Economic regulation.

In Paul B. Carrol and Chunka Mui's Billion Dollar Lessons: What you can learn from the Most Inexusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years , the authors engage in a cultural archaeology of  the Wall Street world. Although the authors very adeptly explore what happens when corporations, big enough to make the claim they are too big to fail, I am going to speak my own thoughts, in a general way, based in part on my own experiences as a Cab Driver, and in part on the observations of the authors of this accessible and straightforward text. The theory I will arrive at, thus, will be due to the author's ideas on the one hand, and my interpretation of those ideas from the perspective of a cabbie and long time student of Philosophy and Speech Communication.

There is one thing I wish to say however: although the authors may vaguely imply what possible form economic regulation might take (indeed, the authors may not agree with ANY form of  external regulation whatsoever),  I wish to make the case that regulation of the financial industry take the form of an agreed upon series of methods and procedures underscoring real confidence in any possible strategy that should warrant respect on the part of planners, the consequential weight of such a decision across the possible outcomes of that strategy (xviii).

In other words,  economic regulation should be applied to those strategies, where the outcome will effect the Greatest common number of people regardless of whether those people are investors, shareholders, cab drivers or waiters: as many of us can well attest by now, DEFAULT eventually gets around to us all, one way or the other.

Carrol and Mui paint a vivid portrait of Green Tree Financial. In the 1990's this company made billions of dollars financing the sale of trailer homes on an unprecedented scale. Yet it did so, without considering those trailer homes would loose their value long before the borrower would or could realize any long term advantage (40). Indeed, Green Tree, in much the same way the sub prime mortgage lending fiasco developed, took those loans, repackaged them in a process called securitization: a bundling process that takes a lot of loans that will go bad, renames them in pools worth much more than their value, sells them as good bonds backed up by the short term interest collected on the original loans (40a). To make matters worse, Green Tree collected both the interest and the loan processing fees, made unfounded projections of future earnings and booked all of that as profit: profit based on their own models of defaults and prepayments rather than the actual behavior of the financial products they sold with reckless abandon (41).

In order to put this into perspective, let's say I take out a loan to buy three cabs in the spring and use as collateral the cab I already own plus a projection of possible earnings based on the value of each fare at $7 per fare per 31 trips per one 12 hour shift times 7 days per week. $10,633.00 per cab sounds pretty good. But let's also say that the possible earnings projections don't necessarily match up with the actual performance of positive cash flow projection? But that's o.k. because, instead of relying on actual cost structure, I hedged my bet by bundling each cab on paper into a bond security, folding in the interest on each cab into the overall lease for each driver, then sold those securities without paying down the loans on each cab, to area investors such as churches, synagogues, area businesses and assorted other private parties.

I would in turn charge each diver  12 or 13% and pay the bond holders 7 or 9% and of course, pocket the difference as pure profit. And then turn around and get a similar loan for three more cabs and repeat the process making even more profit. But like in the Green Tree example, this gain-on-sale type of aggressive accounting does not take into account the inherent accuracy of the value of the securities' projected worth.

Just as a number of factors could arise with each cab driver that would negatively alter the base figures, Green Tree ran into the problem of relying on inaccurate forecasts of interests rates in direct, joint and inverse relation to a host of  fluctuations first in performance of the financial product and then in the subsequent decreasing value of those products in the long term.

Tyler Mc Graw of USA Today explains:.
Taxi medallions — required licenses fastened to the hoods of all New York City yellow cabs — have rocketed in value at a time when many investments have plummeted...
With the slogan, "In niches there are riches," the company [Medallion Financial] has lent more than $3 billion to the taxi industry in the past decade and recorded no loan losses because it can repossess the medallion if the client doesn't pay. But Murstein says the medallion loans, on which the company currently charges about 6.25% interest a year, give ambitious drivers a legitimate opportunity for ownership. 

Bottom line: if you were to take all the cab companies here in Ann Arbor and compare them to the ANY index the State of Michigan may rely on: NASDAQ etc... you will find that although heavily regulated, generally speaking, the industry outperforms the largest overestimated security (McGraw 2009; Carrol and Mui p 42-50).

In other words, when we talk of regulating the financial industry,  the cab driving model is a pretty safe bet. The industry works not in spite of the regulations, but because of them.

So what am I saying here?  Financial Reform along the lines of:
                                  1) Transparency in Securitization: gain on sale profits must match most recent
                                       performance volume indexes.
                                  2)  Credit Financing Accuracy: credit must be proportional to most recent opportnity
                                        and threat management scenarios.
                                  3)   Leverage must be documented in relation to most recent Justification and Earnings
                                         Projection Statement based on substantiated earnings projection, cash flow
                                          projection, debt schedule and operational cost matrix.
                                  4)    Close scrutiny of  Non regulated Special Purpose Entities in                                            multiple holdings, static revenue homogeneous forecasts and excessive                                                          inventories.

These are the same rules cab drivers have to play by, 24/7 365 days and by and large, the regulations tend to work in our favor: industry-wise. Why can't the same or a similar formula work for the financial industry as a whole?

A Standardized Growth Expectations Index that effectively monitors all reported product volume in respect to overall and specific confidence in appreciable asset net worth is not that far fetched an hardly amounts to excessive Government intrusion. The alternative, of course as we have seen invites investor overconfidence and gross distortion in speculative acquisition and merger. This is pretty much what we have painfully experienced with AIG, Bear Sterns and a host of other companies, who have recently posted record profits derived mainly from the same set of operational procedures that facilitated the last federal bailout.

Comprehensive financial is necessary and it is necessary NOW. The only question that remains, at least in my understanding is who are going to listen to: an out of touch broker who has forgotten how to work WITH the rules or a cab driver, who makes their living by dealing with the rules every hour of every day, year in and year out: rain, sleet, snow or shine.

That's how I roll, how about you?

A Few thoughts from
Tom
Ann Arbor MI.

Aunt Minnie Jophiel

How do I explain this?

Women have always been a mystery to me, and yet, I have always been a mystery to my self as well.  Maybe, the part of me I have so much trouble understanding is more female than male. I do not know: perhaps I'm so close to the subject, by all rights, there is no escaping the fact that I am destined to be the last one to know for sure.

I drive a cab here in Ann Arbor and have done so going on fourteen years now. Although my desire is to teach Speech, English Language and Literature, both in terms of reading and performance, cab driving is definitely something I really do enjoy most of the time. I'll talk more about that in a later post. The reason I mention cab driving, or simply driving in general, is because, it is the only activity I have where my  mind, at least these days, is the most clear and lucid: even though, secretly I must confess, the coffee I love to drink while driving probably has a lot to with clarity of thought.

At any rate, this past Saturday was one of those cab driving days where I had plenty of time between orders to just sit and think. I knew there other drivers going to the airport, making more money than me, but days like this day happen to all cab drivers and have done so since the beginning: way back in Chicago right after World War II when a man named Avis practically invented the idea of a "Yellow Cab" or so I have been told.

Sitting there it suddenly occurred to me that I had missed the deadline for submission to Women's Day event I signed into some time ago on the Blogger's Unite website. Blogger's Unite is like part clearinghouse and part celebration for writers, artists, videographers: communicators of all shapes, sizes and flavors to submit works  based on particular events thy sign up for beforehand. It's a way to help draw attention of the rest of the internet community to those issues that challenge the notion of popular culture. It's also a great way to participate in and celebrate the work of other like minded writers and artists: an exchange of perspectives if you will.

So, there I was, in my cab sitting thinking about Women: not really about the coeds I always pick up at their boy or girlfriend's dorm or frat to take them home so they can say they at least tried to do their homework, but thinking about Women in general. The question that always stumps me is: what do  have to offer other than a safe ride to where ever it is they may need to?

Of course, maybe because of the cultural programming I share with all of you, I have also hypothesized that I may be Gay and therefore it would only be natural, at least in my sense of logic, that instead of musing over the often barely dressed young Women, I should, instead focus my attentions on what I could offer the barely dressed young men.

But this is never very useful for me.  I can never get past my own gut feelings of, well,  I don't know: a sense that the guy I'm trying to oogle the way I would drool over the mere perfume of  a young woman half my age  could be devoted either me or "him" whomever he may be. I'm not sure if this makes me "not Gay" anymore than I'm certain that giving up all I have come to know and expect from the world I have guessed exists in the larger sense, to the gentle sway of one or several clever, patient and inventive females, would make me more of a man.

So as I sat there in my cab, contemplating what I usually contemplate, what many of you may consider as important as navel lint, I was suddenly struck by the memory of little old woman, whom although I only saw twice, left a deep and lasting impression on me. As I sat there in my cab, I remembered the soft lilting voice of that little old woman somewhere in either my heart or my head: "The women of this family have always been and will always be its abiding strength."

We are going to go back in time here to a point right after my parents final divorce. It was the summer of 1979. My Mother, Sister and Me had taken Greyhound to Tulsa to visit her relatives: her sisters, our Aunts Connie and Alice as well as the rest of Mom's immediate family. As we pulled into the terminal at Tulsa I had the window seat and looked out at the late morning, sun dappled, hub bub.

It was a troubling time for my sister and myself as well as Mom. The divorce had left definite signs of wear and tear on all of us. Combine the stress with the usual teen-aged rebellion and angst my sister and I both wallowed in back then, and you begin to get the picture of one  tired Middle Class African-American family, looking for the solace and comfort family roots can often bring. As we pulled in, I noticed outside my window, little old lady: lightskinned, slender in a light colored flower print dress and reddish scarf who looked up at me briefly and looked away into the Southwestern sun rising overhead. What happened next, at the time I believed was purely my imagination. As I sat there I couldn't take my eyes off her and then, almost like a tickling brook, words flowed from the back of my mind to the front.

"My name is Minnie," I thought I heard, "Don't say anything to your Mother, just listen."
I looked around at my sister and Mom to see if they heard what I did. They made no gesture, then I looked back at the little old light skinned black lady in the flower dress. There she stood, outside my window, not moving and still looking into the bright Tulsa sky.

"I'm actually your Mother's older sister." I know relented that somehow, it might be possible that this little old lady was speaking to me, although her lips were not moving and a couple inches of Greyhound glass and aluminum separated us. Then I thought to myself: "How could you be my Mother's older sister?"

"Many of the the Blacks and Indians around here a long time ago were family. Your Mother's father, your Grandfather, had me from his first marriage..." This was really strange I thought and just then my Mom touched my shoulder.

"Thomas, get your things together, its time for us to go." I acknowledged her with a shrug and got up to get my things. As we got off the bus another curious thing happened. The woman who I thought had been talking with me briefly caught my Mom's attention And as the two women looked at one another and said nothing,I knew that this could be another secret Mom thought best to keep to herself.


I had always known that I had a father who raised me as well as a biological father whom my Mom had known before she met the man I call and respect as such. But, for her own reasons, the identity of my biological father was something she felt the need to keep to herself. Although over the years she would eventually tell me that Leo Paul Barre was my biological father, it was and remains to this day one of those subjects that if she chose not to discuss, she didn't and there wasn't a thing any one could do to change her mind.

So when the two women on that platform that day looked at each other and said nothing, neither did I.
I did ask, as we were walking away to hail a cab who that woman was.
"I don't know what you mean." my Mom said in that way that I understood to mean: don't ask me again.
And so, I didn't.

The time we spent in Tulsa with my Mom's family was fun for the most part and I didn't think any more about that little old light skinned black woman  in the simple dress and the red scarf. I would have forgotten all about her were it not for what happened the afternoon we were scheduled to leave for Michigan.

As my Mom, my Sister an Me waited in the station to board our bus I surprised to see suddenly sitting next to me, albeit a few seats down, the same little old light skinned black lady I had seen two weeks earlier. I looked over at my Mom who gritted her teeth and kept her eyes on the porters making our bus ready for departure.

"Don't worry about your Mother, you have to think for yourself little one," I thought I heard that same lilting voice from before. "Our family was split up," she said. "Back before the Wall Street killings, Negroes and Indian was too much for most White folk to bear. And since I looked mostly Indian, I went with the Indian side of the family and your Mother and Connie went with Daddy who found himself a black woman to marry.."

I felt a sharp knock on my thigh. It was my Mom, quickly rising to her feet. "C'mon," she said, "It's time for us to go." The woman who I think, called herself Aunt Minnie, had also quickly risen to her feet and just as quick, scooted ahead of us and out onto the platform.

I was still pretty intrigued by all of this and really hadn't decided if these wordless conversations I thought I was having were real or not. But I did my best to get a window seat with the hopes of perhaps seeing this unusual woman just one more time. And as I sat there looking out my window, I kind of laughed to myself as she scooted into view, right outside my window, looking into the east just like the day we first arrived. The only difference being that at this time of the afternoon the sun was setting behind us.

"You have quite a future ahead of you little one," she said. "I am your Aunt Minnie Jophiel and like the rest of your kin, I will always be with you and your little sister and older brother.

And as the bus backed up and pulled away, Aunt Minnie, looked directly at me and smiled."The women in this family have always been and always will be its abiding strength. Don't be afraid to be like a woman when you need inner strength and courage, but don't forget how to be a man when its time to defend your honor.."

And as we pulled further and further away, Aunt Minne did a strange thing. While still looking at me, she waved ever so slightly. That was the first and last time I ever saw her.

Then again, that's not all together true. I still dream about her, but not in the way I think you think I mean.
Its Aunt Minnie that figured out that I chose my last two girlfriends Kate and Julia, because I thought they were safe. My relationship with both women entailed me getting by without letting go of that connection with my Mother I am so insecure about. In fact, relationship insecurity is one of the things I inherited from my Mom.

I haven't yet put all the pieces together but there remains one thing of which I have no doubt whatsoever. Women are very much a part of my spirit: they are among those from whom I have come and they continue to be a crucial part of where I am going and that fact is definitely not a figment of my imagination.

Haiti and The Ethical Autism of Western Society

We are going to take a break from theory at this point and focus instead my narrative that speaks to my own personal inherentcy.  I  am Autistic: a conclusion researchers at the University of Michigan Autistic and Communication Disorder Clinic came to a year ago last month. What this means is that, on the one hand the basic social cues for behavior many take for granted, take a more roundabout way to  neural expression in my Corpus Callosum. In other words, in terms of emotions and subsequent response to others' needs and wishes, my brain has, inherently, many more detorurs than one might expect to see in most of my peers and colleagues.

Before last year's diagnosis living with the fact that I always feel "different" no matter where I find myself, was a constant challenge of  debiliating uncertainty. It's taken sometime, but there is one thing I have discovered over the months, and in particular, since the disaster in Haiti, that I feel is an uncomfortable truism describing much of our Western society. When it comes to ethics, knowing what the "right thing" is and promptly doing it, for the vast majority of Americans is identical to the disconnect I always experience in the social atmosphere of basic interaction.

Ethical Autism is, of course not the same thing as the developmental disability I am fortunate enough to be blessed with, but the inability of  many of our elected leaders and more than a few neurotypical Americans to know what the right thing is and yet,  totally miss the elephant-in-the-room social and pragmatic cues for appropriate faith in action, is troubling and interesting at the same time.

As a forty-eight year old Ann Arbor Cab driver want to be high school speech teacher,  I find it troubling to see how a democratic people can sacrifice so much of themselves in order to help victims of a natural disaster in a country many Americans didn't know existed until a few weeks ago. On the other hand, I can't help but find it interesting that these same democratic people continually fail to see how compassion for an earthquake victim in a foreighn nation should be so different from taking care of each other in this country regardless of what kind of political advantage the end result may be for whichever side one may claim.

To this day I miss social cues that most people take for granted, no doubt. Some days I even find it hard to get out of bed in the morning and some days, I don't. But as I'm laying there in bed, listening to the radio about a story of how this congressman or that senator said the night before how terrible the tragedy in Haiti was the night before on the evening news only to indignantly proclaim their unswerving devotion to the American People by jockeying for political blood sport points awarded by a 24hr news media rumor mill the very next day, ethical Autism at least to me, is the only possible explanation.

Don't get me wrong. Ethical Autism isn't a lack of ethics, a lack of knowledge in what the right and wrong thing is to do or don't do. In the sense used here, Ethical Autism describes how an otherwise neurotypcial people can frequently justify their moral decisions by continually taking roundabout ways to discussing the truth of something, instead of the most direct and practical course.

As a 48 year old Autistic Man I know full well about the scenic tour to the right decision, but I have an exuse. Mitch McConnel or Laura Ingram or even Glen Beck have no exuse. If  any one in Washington really wanted to know what the Ameircan People thought about or felt, then they should do what the Ancient Greeks did and have the American People speak to them and the rest of the country directly.

In fact what the politcians in Washington are doing is what I do whenever I try to communicate with other people without first getting their attention, input and actual feelings regarding an issue that effects us both.
I often make up things people will say in response to my ideas and proposals and so do quite a few Washington Politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Like I said, I'm Autistic, but at least I know enough to constantly question my assumptions and check them against what others feel is right, egardless of whether they agree with my convictions. My sense of ethics then isn't Autistic as much as it remains steadfastly a developing trait of moral behavior. What happened and is happenning in Haiti is horrible but it does reflect both the best and worst that we can be here in this country with each other as Americans.

There is lot about this developmental disability I will never understand anymore than all the various aspects of human emotion that confuse me daily, but there is one thing I know for sure. Do No Harm is not just a slogan, it's a state of Mental and Emotional Health. A State of Mind I wish and pray more Neurotypical Americans took the time to pay a hell of lot more attention to.

Axiom of Counter Symmetry as Inherency in Subject Object Interpositon: Prologue to A General Theory of Hiearchical Text and Integration as a pragmatic Model of Perception, Thought and Language

Hello and Good Day all,

Let's begin by looking more closely at our fundamental assumption of Inherency we have described in previous posts.

In any given system of at least two opposing definite capacities (x) and (y) from left to right bound by common indefinite Sub Quantity (z)  that both contain from right to left but neither fully occupy
there will always be a joint, direct or inverse variability in counter-integation of ( x y z ) such that  an overall binary constraint will result that constitutes underlying asymtrical capacity value.

In the Rectangular Coordinate System the left to right positions of  (x y) are indicated as variables of greatest common circumstance. In other words, the illustration implies all people for example as (x) or (y) are equal in Continous Quantity  because of the right to left expression of (z) as a derivational Sub Quantity, neither (x) or (y) occupy yet both contain in a variable temporal sense of counter-integration

such that an inherent binary constraint constiutes asymmetrical capacity value:

(-1 0 1)

x y z

In the diagram of the hydrogen atom we see on the one hand the symmetrical nature of the arrangement we propose P=1 N=0 and since the only negative constituent in the arrangement is the opposite of the only positive constituent, for our purposes we will denote this factor as -1.

However, asymmetricality

as the Adaptation of Swenson's Law of Maximum Entropy suggests who we are inherently  is the variable result of a spontaneous ordering from expected consequence in Physical  in so far as when any system of interactional value observed in correspondence to its opposite expression  is proportional to the likelihood of binary reoccurrence. In other words, as we read our example expression of (-1 0 1) we read negative and positive capacities offsetting one another. They are capacities because of the parenthesis in relation to the Zero , neither of which have a charge. And since Zero has no charge yet brings the two opposing capacities together, Zero is by definition a quantity which binds the two opposing capacities who derive their nature from their temporal identity as either negative or positive in realtion to the overall expression. Basically, who we are Inherently is the variable result of a series of correpsonding expressions in temporal entropy.

Examples of Entropy in the natural world of  experience.

Perception

Learning

Thought and Language

Asymmetrical Capacity Value is thus established as a range of probable expression from the greatest common general occurrence in variable constraint as co-functional re-capacity in either x, y or z...

Adapting researcher and author  Folke Gunther's  illustration, I argue that the overall illustration depicts the establishment of Asymmetrical Capacity Value. The Range of Probable Expression from the Greatest Common variable constraint whch is the tube squeezed by Entropy becomes the co-function of capacity in either x, y or z as joint, direct or inverse quality of subsequent interactional value.

The opposite end of the range then is the least common specific counter-result of symmetrical expression in (x y z) integration resulting from the likelihood of x, y and z reoccurrence..

Take your time, Breathe when you speak...

Subsequently with this counter symmetrical integration the condition of discrete inherency in subject object interposition is established as a result of Hiearchical Text and Integration:  a dynamic model in perception, thought and language.

That's enough for now. In upcoming installments we will discuss pragmatic applications of the Theory as we go deeper into historcal and contempioary aspects of its development.

Thank You.

An American Cab Driver in Ann Arbor

An American Cab Driver in Ann Arbor