Category Archives: Liberal

Rajesh Ramachandran

What is wrong in Iran cannot be right in India. Unfortunately, Indian liberals do not realise that they are at a historic crossroads but, yet again, they fail to see what is moral, ethical and truly liberal. Had the then Congress government not enacted a law to impose the will of the regressive Muslim clergy over the Supreme Court and thereby, the Constitution in the Shah Bano case, the rise of the Hindutva right would have had no middle-class legitimacy. In fact, a large chunk of the middle class shifted to the right when it saw the Congress bending over backwards to help the vote-contractors among the clergy keep Muslim voters tightly under its control. Similarly, even future generations of liberals will lose their legitimacy if they do not denounce the hijab as a patriarchal object of control. The liberal values of modernity ought to be absolute and universal, not selective or communal. And, of course, these values cannot be defined by the hatred for PM Narendra Modi or the BJP.

It is vital to underscore the universality of womens rights they cant be held to ransom by parents, political parties, religious organisations or even governments.

Sure, the BJP is using the hijab for its partisan political reasons, but that does not make hijab good or a matter of individual choice. The BJP had used the Shah Bano verdict, the ban on The Satanic Verses and also triple talaq to successfully polarise communities. The BJP has been successful because the so-called leftist, liberal and centrist parties were wrong. It must be understood that we the people are not sheep, nor opportunistic politicians their Biblical shepherds. Muslim identity politics is not an antidote for Hindutva identity politics. Our liberals seem to have forgotten that Muslim identity politics harks back to the colonial ploy to defeat Indian nationalism, culminating in the two-nation theory and Partition. If the Muslim identity is bigger than the Indian identity, there is no sanctity for the idea of an inclusive, diverse, Gandhian nation. Muslim identity politics has already created Pakistan, now it can only help hasten the creation of the Hindu rashtra.

The markers of the Muslim identity politics like hijab are, of course, not essential practices of Islam, for hijab was not worn by a vast majority of Muslim women in South India before the advent of political Islam. Before Abdul Nazer Madani founded Islamic Seva Sangh in 1989 after being banned, it got transformed into Peoples Democratic Party I had not seen a single Muslim classmate wearing a hijab or niqab or burqa in south Kerala, from kindergarten to post-graduation. But Madanis organisation which was an aggressive, ideological legatee of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and sort of a precursor to the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI) and its radical politics were successful in pushing a majority of Muslim girls behind the hijab by the late 1990s or early 2000s. This was not their choice. There were news reports explaining that the situation was similar in coastal Karnataka, from where the ongoing hijab controversy and legal case arose.

So, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, the learned judge of the Supreme Court, has erred in concluding that the hijab is a matter of choice. The hijab was not a permit to go to school in a conservative family in coastal Karnataka till the Islamists decided so. Hence the choice is not that of a school-going child, nor is it that of conservative parents, but that of the followers of SIMI or Madani or, in this case, of PFI. No wonder the almighty leader of political Islam, Ayman al-Zawahiri, himself congratulated the girl who protested against the school diktat and wore the hijab, shouting Allahu Akbar. So, if the hijab is good simply because Modi or the BJP is opposing it, should it also be good because al-Zawahiri was supporting it? It is important to underscore the universality of womens rights and liberal values they cannot be held to ransom by conservative parents, political parties, religious organisations or even governments.

This was a case about which secular intellectuals should have made themselves heard, asking for the protection of universal, modern values by insisting on the removal of all religious symbols from the government sphere. Let there be no bhoomi pujan by prime ministers, nobody sporting a tika in uniform, no sacred threads around the wrist while attending to government work, no choti and definitely no puja of rocket models before a satellite launch. Unfortunately, our liberals have sought a pre-modern prison for Muslim women in a modern society, which is not as innocuous as a prayer room in a glittering airport. All religions are pre-modern, anachronistic and regressive there ought to be no exceptions for any. In India, those seeking an easy entry into the power corridors flashing the religious identity card are trying to institutionalise exceptions for one community or the other, thereby triggering competitive communalism. Every Muslim child has a right to modernity, just like the members of the liberal commentariat, who would rather lose a limb than succumb to some illiterate pujari.

Modernity cannot be the sole preserve of the elite. Our learned judges should pass strictures on parents who insist on denial of education for their girl child in order to espouse the idea of turning India into an Islamic nation or to uphold the SIMI slogan of Indias liberation through Islam. Our jurisprudence cannot become a victim of radicalised parents and their political ideologies. But at the same time, our society cannot afford the BJP and the Sangh Parivar politicising and weaponising historical infirmities in Islamic personal law or contemporary insecurities in the Islamic society. The BJP government ought to make the Muslims believe that they too count in modern India. Equality in the eyes of law and rules is a statement easily made, but an idea difficult to practise when proud citizens are made to fearfully look at school uniforms as Hindu identity markers. We the people of a multi-religious, diverse country seeking to remain liberal have only one straight and narrow path towards inclusivity the Gandhian way.

Link:

Liberal values are absolute - The Tribune India

As part of last years reckless stimulus spending bill, congressional Democrats snuck in a last-minute paperwork nightmare for taxpayers in West Virginia and nationwide. Most people have never seen a 1099-K form in their tax prep pile, but theres a good chance they will next tax season. This new tax form will be a burden for people selling old items out of their garage or basement. Teenagers babysitting or mowing lawns, college students tutoring high schoolers, and roommates splitting rent are all eligible to be taxed, according to Democrats.

Before the law change, a taxpayer would have to earn $20,000 and at least 200 transactions through a business credit card or a business cash app on their phone to qualify for a 1099-K form. Congressional Democrats expanded this by eliminating the 200-swipe requirement entirely and lowering the $20,000 hurdle to just $600.

The 1099-K form only applies to business accounts, but this new law will confuse a lot of Americans who may not think of themselves as small businesses. Does getting rid of old exercise equipment collecting dust in the garage online now qualify you as a salesman of workout equipment? Is a teenager babysitting the neighbors kids now in the childcare business? Are roommates who split rent now property managers? Of course not, but the IRS will be treating them like they are.

The IRS continues to be overwhelmed keeping up with last years filing season, clearing out prior backlogs, and responding to correspondence. An influx of new 1099-K returns will further burden the agency, leading to continued delays on tax returns and other credits that people have been waiting on for years! This will worsen the economic pain hardworking families are feeling, as inflation spirals out of control and outrageous government spending sends us into a recession.

This targeting of small sources of income will result in bad outcomes for taxpayers and the IRS alike. It will fuel illegal and cash economy transactions, which often lead to more serious crimes.

Ive introduced H.R. 3425, the Saving Gig Economy Taxpayers Act, to restore the $20,000 and 200-transaction threshold for the 1099-K form levels that were working just fine before Democrats unnecessarily complicated the system and gave taxpayers new headaches. Congress should move fast to pass my legislation. Tax season will be here before we know it.

Carol D. Miller represents West Virginias 3rd District and serves on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Original post:

Fixing another liberal tax burden - The Hill

Opposition parties plan to ask Thailands Election Commission (EC) to dissolve the Bhumjaithai Party, for alleged violation of the Political Parties Act, over its policy to decriminalise cannabis.

Opposition leader Chonlanan Srikaew said on Monday that the Bhumjaithai Partys flagship policy was designed to curry favour among the people for political gain, which is against the law, citing Section 92 of the organic law regarding political parties.

He claimed that the Bhumjaithai Partys liberal cannabis policy is a separate issue from the Narcotics Bill, initiated by the Bhumjaithai Party to decriminalise cannabis.

The Ministry of Public Health issued a ministerial edict to remove cannabis and hemp from the Category Five list of drugs, effective June 9th.

The opposition leader also claimed that the policy has created widespread public misunderstanding about cannabis, which may affect the society as a whole.

He said the opposition parties will also ask the Administrative Court to rule the edict illegal, as it leads to a misconception that cannabis is safe for use and has medical benefits.

According to the edict, no part of a cannabis plant is regarded as an illegal narcotic, except for parts which contain more than 0.2% TSC by dry weight.

The Narcotics Bill, to decriminalise cannabis, was initiated by the Bhumjaithai Party and supported by several other parties. It passed its first reading in the House and was scrutinised by a House committee, led by the Bhumjaithai Party.

The Bill was shot down by majority of the MPs before itssecond and final readings in mid-September, after several medical associations voiced concern over the non-medical use of cannabis.

The Democrat Party, which earlier supported the Bill, did a U-turn, claiming that the Bill, which was originally intended to decriminalise cannabis for medical purposes only, had been distorted to cover non-medical and recreational purposes.

Continued here:

Opposition will ask EC to dissolve Bhumjaithai Party over its liberal cannabis policy - Thai PBS World

But the book also contains precise and insightful pen portraits of the leading politicians, and deals in depth with British foreign policy though the author perhaps understates the role King Edward VII played in the formation of foreign policy during his reign, and the anxiety the entente cordiale caused Balfour, his then prime minister, and Lansdowne, his foreign secretary. He also seeks to explode various myths that he says have become common currency, but it is up to the reader to decide how far they are received wisdom, and how convincing the author is in dismantling them. Bogdanor is adamant that the Labour Party was in no position to overtake the Liberals in 1914, but only a mad person would disagree with that.

He also calls it a myth that male misogyny delayed womens suffrage, but Asquith, prime minister until December 1916, was the incarnation of that misogyny, and it was not until weeks before he was forced out of office that, in the light of the contribution women had made to the war effort, he relented. And it was not Britain that was close to civil war in 1914, but Ireland. On the other hand, Bogdanor successfully quashes some genuine myths, for instance that the 1905 Aliens Act was inherently anti-Semitic, or that the concentration camps for civilians that Britain established during the Boer War were akin to the extermination camps of the Nazis.

What is most impressive about this book is the authors forensic attention to the legislation that shaped early-20th-century Britain and left a long legacy: such as the National Insurance Act of 1911 that laid the foundations of the welfare state, the legislation that brought in old-age pensions from 1909, and the attempt at land reform. Some of his interpretations are questionable, but the facts are all here and clearly ordered and set out, and a crucial and fascinating period in British history made intelligible.

The Strange Survival of Liberal Britain by Vernon Bogdanor is published by Biteback at 35. To order your copy for 30, call 0844 871 1514 or visit Telegraph Books

Excerpt from:

How the Great War wiped out the Liberal Party as a political force - The Telegraph

Scott Hightower

Courtesy of Dr. Helen Lien

It all began with a summer spent lifting concrete blocks.

Scott Hightower (B.A. Political Science and Philosophy 75) started his college career at another institution as a pre-med major. After ending up on academic probation and spending a summer moving concrete blocks while contemplating his future, however, he transferred to The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of the University of Alabama System, to be closer to home and pursue a degree in political science and philosophy. It was a summer of reflection, a crossroads moment, and my perspective shifted, Hightower admits. There was an expectation that I would go to medical school, but it wasnt what I wanted to do. And theres nothing wrong with hard labor, but it can give a view of what one wants to do versus what one has to do.

What he wanted to do was study the humanities, and his formative experiences at UAH and his passion for the liberal arts inspired him to establish the Scott Hightower Endowed Scholarship through a planned gift. The scholarship will cover tuition, fees, books, room and board, and other expenses for undergraduate or graduate students pursuing degrees in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHS). Hightower chose to give because its something we should do to help the next generation of students and hopefully plants a seed of giving back as they make their way through life after college. He chose a planned gift specifically because a planned gift like mine from an estate perspective is a great way to allocate your assets according to where you think it will help the most in the future. It feels like an investment into the next generation without the expectation of a thank you. Its just there for whoever needs it.

Hightower also recognizes that the cost of a college education is rising. Knowing the value of an education in my own life, and seeing the rising costs - thats what inspired this scholarship. This is for folks who dont have the support or means. If anything happens - a car breaks down or you have a medical emergency - it can throw you financially. Im so grateful for my education and the affordability of it at the time.

The education he received at UAH, Hightower says, was life-changing. The liberal arts is about reasoning and learning, instead of memorization, Hightower says. It teaches you a way to think and to use critical thinking skills. That high-quality education was impacted by talented and engaged instructors. The professors were really good, Hightower confirms. They were intense and had high expectations. Professors like Dr. [Carolyn] White in political science, or Dr. [Robert] Burns in philosophy - they were amazing. In class we had thought-provoking conversations. The content, too, was influential. His exposure to the Socratic method and symbolic logic has influenced his professional and personal decisions, including his philanthropic convictions. Hightower says the high level of instruction he received made me curious for life and promoted a love of lifelong learning that has continued to this day. Having an education is important, Hightower explains. The goal is to be challenged in different ways so you dont get stuck. It keeps your mind agile.

This approach to life and the ability to ride the line between interpersonal and technical skills has carried Hightower to professional success. As a senior director for BlueCross BlueShield, Hightower stresses his liberal arts background gave him a unique and valuable set of skills that allowed him to address complex and technical details across multiple groups. My educational experience provided me the ability to navigate conversations and corporate politics and work with different leaders and leadership styles. I had to work with different types of people and in different states.

Part of successfully working with different groups of people, Hightower maintains, is learning more about them and their cultures. To accomplish this, he worked with BlueCross BlueShield leadership to create employee resource groups of like-minded, like-cultured individuals in the company, such as a group of people from south Asia. The goal, he says, was to establish a supportive corporate culture that embraced diversity, acceptance and inclusion. I learned a lot from sponsoring those groups, Hightower admits. It really helped me to understand my own biases and cultural ignorance on certain topics.

Ultimately, Hightower says his liberal arts education gave him a key advantage: A lot of people I worked with were more educated than me, but I had insights they lacked and they valued that. It gave me the confidence to do what I wanted to do. That confidence stems from Hightowers ability to remain flexible in the job market. You might have instruction on a specific topic, but its old news in a few years. The pace of change is so fast. Hightower says his ability to adapt is what kept him viable in an evolving job market.

Now that hes retired, Hightower is applying those skills learned in the corporate context to the mounting concern of homelessness in Chattanooga, where he spends much of his time. As a stroke of good fortune, he read an article about UAH alumnus Taylor Reeds (B.S. Mechanical Engineering 16) involvement in the launch of ShowerUp Huntsville. ShowerUp is a 501(c)3 non-profit that provides mobile showers, personal care and hygiene supplies to the homeless and has locations in Chicago, Wichita and Nashville. I called him [Reed], he drove down and we spent a Sunday talking. I was impressed. Hightower says he loves the concept: Its a fully-integrated service the homeless are missing.

That conversation inspired Hightower to research how he could implement something similar in Chattanooga. Homeless numbers in Chattanooga have tripled since COVID, so its a growing problem, Hightower notes. After a conversation with a member of the Chattanooga Sheriffs Department, however, Hightower shifted the way he thought about the issue. The bigger question is how do we prevent homelessness in the first place? Hightower then learned about a California program that offers a recuperative care location for the homeless. Homeless individuals are often frequent fliers in the emergency room, Hightower shares. After receiving medical care, theres no place to discharge them to and theres no continuity of care with their medication, so they end up back in the ER. Hightower explains the California program uses a renovated hotel with nurses and social workers to help the individuals recover. There are also other resources to help that person get a job and a place to live. Its a 90-day model to help the homeless return to a productive life, Hightower adds. This formula, Hightower says, is appealing to law enforcement, local government, hospitals and insurance companies and could be subsidized by the costs normally expended in repeatedly treating these patients. Now Im contemplating how ShowerUp would be a complement of this bigger system, Hightower reveals. This could be an aligning model for everyone to decrease costs and positively impact humanity.

When speaking to others about the decisions hes made, Hightower often shares the story of his summer of reflection and his choice to transfer to UAH as one that forever changed the trajectory of his life. When I was first in college, I went through a period of time where I wondered what was going to happen in the future and what I was going to do, Hightower acknowledges. Its something we all go through at some point in our lives, and we shouldnt be afraid to have that experience. In fact, Hightower sees that experience as an opportunity: If you can look at your failures, you can find your successes.

One opportunity gained, Hightower asserts, is his ability to give back - both to his community and to UAH. The only way our country and society can get better is to ensure the next generation of students have a challenging and rigorous environment so they can adapt and change as necessary. Having a thriving and growing university in your community is one of the best resources you can have. His experience at UAH, he says, was formative and is a major inspiration for wanting to support the university now. In many ways, I was very fortunate to have the opportunity for a great all-around liberal arts education because it allowed me to pick a career path I enjoyed. I would challenge other liberal arts graduates to share their experiences and support the university in any way that works for them. As for that summer lifting concrete blocks? Im happy I survived it all, Hightower laughs. Now Im having more fun than I ever have before.

Continued here:

Liberal arts education at UAH inspired alumnus Scott Hightower to give back through endowed scholarship and community service - UAH News

We are delighted to announce that Nick Stuart has been adopted by the Liberal Democrats as the candidate for the forthcoming by-election in the Brighstone, Calbourne and Shalfleet electoral division.

Nick has lived in the ward for many years, and is a parish councillor on both Brighstone Parish Council and Calbourne, Porchfield and Newtown Parish Council.

Former senior civil servant He is a former senior civil servant with expertise in science and technology and a former school teacher here on the Isle of Wight.

Currently he runs his own business as a fencing coach.

Flux: Is best placed to win this seat Chair of the Isle of Wight Liberal Democrats, Steph Burgess Flux, says,

Nick is a fantastic candidate with a wealth of experience.

He works hard for his local communities and is best placed to win this seat as he came second last time, with an increased vote share, to the resigning councillor, Steve Hastings.

Stuart: Have worked for residents on all sorts of issues Nick is quoted as saying,

As a Parish councillor I have worked for residents on all sorts of issues. From conservation of the local environment, planning, traffic and parking issues through regular litter picking and planting a hedge in the cemetery.

Ive also enjoyed getting to know people in our area, enjoying events and talking about the important things in our lives. All the things that make this area special from the landscape and heritage to the people and strong community groups. We can recognise that, in spite of the current challenges, there are opportunities for local industry and local communities.

If elected I will carry on talking to and helping residents, while representing our interest in the Council and other groups on the Island.

News shared by Steph on behalf of Isle of Wight Liberal Democrats. Ed

Read more:

Isle of Wight Liberal Democrats name by-election candidate - On The Wight

The Liberal City Commission met on Tuesday evening at 6:30 pm in the Blue Bonnet Community Building. After the approval of the Consent Agenda, the Commission went into a Ten (10) Minute Executive Session Per K.S.A. 75-4319 (b)(2) for Consultation with an Attorney for the Public Body or Agency Which Would be Deemed Privileged in the Attorney-Client Relationship.

The Commission moved to the next meeting Ordinance 4585 which would grant a special use permit for the erection of a 150 cellular tower located in the NW corner of the Liberal Country Club. This was tabled and moved to the next meeting due to a problem with some of the notification letters. Currently, the property is zoned R-3 Residential, but the tower is now being considered if the special use permit is allowed by the Commission. The Special Use permit was previously approved by the Liberal Metropolitan Area Board of Zoning Appeals.

The Commission approved Resolution No. 2386 which is the submittal of a Heritage Trust Fund Grant for up to $100,000 for renovation, preservation, and rehabilitation of historical properties. The grant requires at least a 20% match and assurance was given that the City has matching funds and that the funds were set aside at the time of the application.

Also approved was a Title VI (nondiscrimination) Policy which is required by both State and Federal governments to assure nondiscrimination policies are followed and that complainants have guidelines to file complaints of discrimination. Liberal City Bus has also updated Title VI as per KDOT regulations and was given approval by the Liberal City Commission.

City Commissioners also approved the bid for the sprinkler system at the Liberal Recreation Center with the bid going to Pryor in the amount of $195,910.00. The work should begin after the first of the year.

Read the original post:

Liberal City Commission Meets, approves Sprinkler System for the Recreation Center - KSCB News.net

Anubhuti Kashyaps Doctor G opens with a Kabir Singh joke. Uday (Ayushmann Khurrana) tells his friend Chaddi (Abhay Mishra) that hes a liberal man a simple man that he isnt possessive like Shahid Kapoors character. It doesnt bother him that his girlfriend spends a lot of time with her male friend. As his monologue intensifies, the opener unfolds as a dual joke: that Uday is anything but liberal (hes insecure and petty: call him Kabir Singh Lite) and, like Kabir Singh, a disinterested doctor.

Kashyap examines the first thought throughout her debut: the peculiar psychology of an Indian man who is so convinced hes the Good Guy that he never bothered to check. This entitlement and confidence produces a pitiable specimen: a person disconnected from his own story a serial killer from a slasher flick romancing in the Swiss Alps.

It exposes other hypocrisies hiding in plain sight. Consider for instance the focused ambition of young Indian men. Finishing his MBBS, Uday fixates on pursuing an MD in ortho (orthopaedics). But his low rank makes him qualified for gynae (gynaecology). He bristles at this insult. How can a man, after all, study gynae? Dont women play badminton, as he tells his friend, and men play cricket? The movies conceit packs two solid implications: the hidebound Indian society revering tradition, and students using higher education, under the garb of intellectual inquiry, to fit into a preordained societal hierarchy.

These scenes snapped me back to my school days. I knew a disproportionate majority of students (including me) who obsessed over engineering degrees in computer science or electronics and communication. No one mentioned civil, mechanical, o electrical. Why were we (and our parents) so passionate about those two fields? It had nothing to do with education; they attracted the most lucrative salaries. We werent brave enough to admit it though. We all reeled off our rehearsed intellectual reasons.

Uday may not be as money-minded, but he has the same anatomy. He, too, has a weepy reason an inspirational reason to study ortho. But let alone ortho, hes not interested in anything. Hes a hollow guy, a halka guy. Someone who lives in a room of thousand mirrors and yet has never seen himself. Someone whose duplicity, self-deception and casual cruelty can be rolled in two simple words: nice guy.

Kashyap is confident that she can illuminate Udays faults through a small scene. Early in the film, he talks about his ex-girlfriend in a derogatory manner in front of his idol, Ashok (Indraneil Sengupta), an orthopaedic doctor. Ashok, a polite man otherwise, joins Uday. Not too far from them is a schoolgirl, Kavya (Ayesha Kaduskar), with whom the married Ashok is having an affair. Uday and Ashoks insults amplify; Kavya looks uncomfortable. She doesnt utter a word though we just get two quick shots. Enough to establish character(s) and plant a Chekhovian gun.

Such an approach in commercial Hindi cinema where the filmmaker underscores the heros flaws yet doesnt make him a villain is rare. Because Bollywood usually treat its men, like how mothers dote on their raja betas: cheering, praising, and defending anything they do, even if the available evidence points to an unsavoury version. This sync between the films protagonist and thesis is even more remarkable, as Doctor G is a comedy.

This movie also knows how to have fun, while foregrounding the big picture. When Uday joins the gynaecology department in a Bhopal college, hes ragged by his peers and seniors, all of them women the metaphorical punishment has turned literal. The dialogues (by Sumit Saxena) sound natural and relaxed, resembling the medical college lingo. Students discuss ortho, gynae, and PMT no one stops to explain or contextualise.

Doctor G also nails the three elements central to an entertaining drama: tonal variations, flow and surprise. It segues from comedy to commentary to pathos with enjoyable ease. It employs opportune narrative sleights of hand. Just when you think youve got the movie, it turns back and bolts ahead.

The female lead, Rakul Preet Singh, is a gynaecologist named Fatima, Udays senior who is about to get engaged. Bollywoods law of attraction dictates that two famous actors, despite their characters circumstances in the movie, will end up together. Doctor G lulls us into that expectation, too: Uday and Fatima hang out, share jokes, kiss. Not again, I whined in my head. But then, Fatima tells him that it was a mistake and they should just remain friends. When Uday throws a hissy fit, she echoes his exs words: Tumhein ladkiyon ki baat sunai nahin deti [ you dont listen to women].

Some scenes meld surprise and social commentary. When Uday fails to perform a basic test and then overcompensates by helping a woman deliver in a hospital corridor, his batchmates laud him. The department head, Nandini (Shefali Shah excellent as always), disrupts the celebration, asking Uday, in essence, if he expects a cookie for just doing his job? But Nandini is not a villain, not even close; she just offers an alternate view, pointing towards a multi-tiered story.

Films like Doctor G often succumb to the curse of the second half. They sweat the initial portion: creating fascinating characters, introducing pressing conflicts, and building a convincing world. But they stretch and sprain themselves, trying to inject needless drama. Juggling larger than life and lifelike qualities, they fumble their own stories. I feared something similar here, because an Ayushmann Khurrana movie has become a template. Its produced a few enjoyable dramas, but some of its devices have become too obvious: progressive themes drowning out a story, a sweeping event solving a conflict, a hero launching into a sanctimonious climactic monologue.

Even though the film keeps escalating tension through a new subplot centred on Kavya and Ashok, it doesnt lean on weak crutches. Kashyap knows her film; shes in control. So, when Uday and Kavya play badminton, we remember an early scene. When the Chekhovian gun fires, it makes us feel cathartic. Fatima clings to her conviction, prodding him to change. Uday keeps hearing that he needs to lose the male touch, but its only towards the end, he listens to it. Bollywood, too, has been hijacked by the male touch for way too long. Kashyaps assured debut tells us what weve lost, and what we hope to gain.

This article was first published on The Wire.

Go here to read the rest:

'Doctor G' Shows the 'Liberal Man' a Mirror and It's Not a Comforting Picture - LiveWire

10/13/2022

JONESBORO Dr. Dinah Tetteh, a member of the Arkansas State University faculty since 2016, has been selected as the new Vaughn Endowed Professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Communication.

I am pleased to announce Dr. Tetteh as the new Vaughn Endowed Professor, said Dr. Carl M. Cates, dean of the college. Her research record over the last five years is outstanding and includes a solo authored book and six refereed articles in journals, along with nearly 20 competitive papers and poster sessions.

Her appointment began effective at the beginning of the fall semester and extends for a five-year period. Tetteh was promoted this year to associate professor in the Department of Communication. Her research and teaching specialties include health communication, interpersonal communication and womens health.

"I am honored to be named recipient of the Vaughn Endowed Professorship. I appreciate the Vaughns for their generosity. I am also grateful for the support of Dean Cates and my colleagues in the college and in the Department of Communication," Tetteh commented. "I hope to use the resources available to me through this professorship to extend my research agenda and also mentor, support and enrich my students research experiences."

In addition to her extensive research and publishing achievements, she teaches graduate-level courses in communication theory, interpersonal communication, and qualitative research methods. Her undergraduate courses include interpersonal communication, health communication, conflict resolution and oral communication.

Tetteh completed her doctoral degree in communication studies in 2016 at Bowling Green State University. Her dissertation was Stories of Teal: Womens Experiences of Ovarian Cancer.

She earned her masters degree is in professional communication at East Tennessee State University, and her bachelors degree at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana.

The professorship is one of three created through anestate gift from the late James E. and Wanda Lee Vaughn. Earnings from the endowment are available to the professorship holder to conduct research, create special learning opportunities for students, and support other facets of their academic pursuits.

Inducted in 1999 into the university's Legacy Society for donors of planned gifts, the Vaughns strongly believed in the importance of higher education and its potential to positively impact young peoples' lives. Both A-State alumni, Mr. Vaughn earned a master's degree in education and Mrs. Vaughn earned her bachelors degree in elementary education.

Tetteh succeeds Dr. Cherise Jones-Branch, the initial holder of the Vaughn Professorship, who is now dean of the Graduate School.

Read more:

Dinah Tetteh is New Vaughn Endowed Professor in Liberal Arts and Communication - Arkansas State University

Reading Time: 5 minutes

It sounds moderate, prudential, even sophisticated.

Socially liberal suggests individual choice about sex, marriage, and life in general. Fiscally conservative suggests spending restraint and market freedom.

Both statements come from the same philosophy. The first is social liberalism, the second economic liberalism.

In other words, I am socially liberal but fiscally conservative is simply liberalism through and through.

What, then, do we mean by liberalism?

Liberal just means freedom. Most people like freedom, at least for themselves.

Libertarians make a whole political philosophy out of freedom.

Liberalism, on the other hand, means something more.

Francis Fukuyama is perhaps the most well-known expert on liberalism. At the end of the Cold War, he wrote, The End of History and the Last Man (1992).

Fukuyama predicted a future of liberalism without contest or equal. No more socialism, conservatism, or anything else. Nothing but liberalism forever and ever.

Given the lack of competition, Fukuyama did not need to define liberalism against its enemies. Everyone knew what he meant.

Fukuyamas endless future lasted two decades. The liberal consensus is dead, and liberalism faces attack from all sides.

Patrick Deneen, a political science professor, wrote an unexpected best-seller in 2019 called, Why Liberalism Failed. Even former U.S. President Barak Obama offered a blurb for the back cover.

In 2020, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat wrote a best-seller, A Decadent Society.

Paul Embrey, the British trade unionist, offered a proletariat attack on liberalism: Despised Why the Modern Left Loathes the Working Class (2021).

There are loads of books and articles with the same theme.

This spring, Fukuyama published Liberalism and Its Discontents. (While on my reading list, I havent gotten to it yet. But heres a book review by Steven B. Smith, the Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science at Yale University.

Fukuyama relies on English political philosopher John Gray to define liberalism. Gray said liberalism has four main features. They are:

Gray writes well and attacks everyone. One of his best books is Enlightenments Wake (2007), on the origins and failures of liberalism and conservatism.

Gray explains how liberalism is a child of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment emphasized reason, progress, and universality. Liberalism leveraged Enlightenment ideas and promoted the abovementioned ideas (individualism, egalitarianism, universalism, and meliorism).

John Gray argues that the Enlightenment had multiple children. Karl Marx used Enlightenment thought but emphasized collectivism, the inevitability of historical progress, and universality.

Liberalism and Marxism are sibling rivals (a paradox to explore another time).

In practice, liberalism is a thin philosophy: it leaves most things to individuals and works well when society shares a general consensus.

A social consensus includes agreement on the use and limits of things such as honesty, civility, public debate, evidence, and so on. Liberal societies last until people lose awareness of You just shouldnt do that.

Both woke activists, and revolutionary populists, have abandoned social consensus. The big questions are up for debate again.

Why tell the truth?Why listen to divergent opinions?Why not punch someone in the face if you think they are evil?Whats wrong with doxing someone to help our side?Why shouldnt we aim to own the Libs or cancel the Right?

Thin philosophies cannot answer these questions. They offer little content as a point of principle.

German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel said every civilization contains the seeds of its own destruction. Marx believed this idea made the collapse of capitalism inevitable.

As per Hegel, liberalism seems to contain the seeds of its own destruction. For example, freedom and equality cannot co-exist without one trying to consume the other.

Or consider universality. Liberalism makes people think they can simply remove an illiberal regime and replace it with a liberal one.

If liberalism is true for us, it should also be true for Iraq and Afghanistan. We just kill Hussein and bin Laden, set up elections, and then watch 1,000 flowers bloom. (Note how liberalism innervates all western political parties.)

A thin philosophy cannot build a society from scratch. It assumes too much, promises even more, and delivers it all too slowly, if at all.

Liberalism works when it rests on a robust network of vibrant social institutions: voluntary associations, educational networks, families of all sorts, faith groups, cultural associations, and more.

However, liberalism remains silent on institutions themselves. Liberalism can steer a thriving civilization the same way a child can steer a car on a clear day with a dry road. But liberalism cannot arrest decline or reverse decay any better than a toddler can correct oversteering in slush.

Whats worse, liberalism animates the destruction of the very institutions it needs to survive. It calls for emancipation from anything which might infringe on individual freedom.

Think of all the expectations of being part of a profession. Or consider all the involuntary obligations associated with having parents or siblings.

Liberalism finds involuntary obligations guilty until proven irrelevant by a new welfare program or medical therapy.

We cannot turn back time. Current struggles could last decades as we search for answers.

Why care about individuals?Does society make individuals, or do individuals make society?Is equality an absolute or relative good?What do we mean by progress?Does reason have limits?Can we ever be truly rational, or are we tragically tied to sentiment, habit, and prejudice?

Asking big questions is itself a conservative endeavour. Philosophical conservatism wrestles endlessly with them.

Of course, many self-described liberals grapple with these questions too. However, the endless digging for answers, which most people do not need, makes these liberals philosophically conservative. They feel unwelcome in the unquestioning masses of the modern liberal left.

The outcome of rehashing big questions is unknown.

We might see another 70 years like the Soviet era; or maybe a second industrial revolution, this time electric; or perhaps a reactionary revolt will inspire us all to plant gardens, raise chickens, and study Cicero (I wish).

We cannot dispatch liberalism and conservatism in one post. But hopefully, we have slain the sorry nonsense about being socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Just call yourself a liberal through and through.

Shawn Whatley is a physician, past president of the Ontario Medical Association, and a Munk senior fellow at MLI. He is author of When Politics Comes Before Patients Why and How Canadian Medicare is Failing.

For interview requests, click here.

The opinions expressed by our columnists and contributors are theirs alone and do not inherently or expressly reflect the views of our publication.

Troy MediaTroy Media is an editorial content provider to media outlets and its own hosted community news outlets across Canada.

Cancel culture, Coercive progressivism, Liberalism, Philosophy

Dr. Shawn Whatley served as the past President of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and has wide-ranging knowledge and experience in the field of healthcare policy. He is also the author of the highly-praised book on how to fix emergency wait times in Canada, No More Lethal Waits.

Read this article:

Are we witnessing the end of Liberalism? - Troy Media