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Sometimes part of a single sentence gives the entire game away.
That happens in this piece by Ronald Kimberling, former assistant secretary for postsecondary education during the Reagan administration, on college financial aid and indirect costs. Kimberling takes the view that financial aid is an expensive boondoggle with which savvy students exploit loopholes -- like being over 24 and living at home -- to live high on the hog.
At home. In their late 20s.
It’s blinkered at best, but I was ready to shrug it off and move on until I hit the line that explained it all:
“I am not trying to resurrect the welfare queen stereotype of the past, but …”
Got it, thanks.
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My academic background isn’t in physics, but even so, Chad Orzel’s piece “In Praise of Normal Science” made a lot of sense to me. It uses the term “normal science” in the Kuhnian sense, juxtaposing “mere plodding” with what Kuhn called paradigm shifts. Orzel makes the argument that there’s tremendous value in “normal science” on both pragmatic and epistemological levels. Pragmatically, the patient trial and error within existing assumptions is what allows conceptual breakthroughs to become actual products. Epistemologically, we don’t always know where the next breakthrough will come from. The path from breakthrough to breakthrough is cleared, in large part, by “normal” science.
It reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend in grad school. He and I were both political theorists, though with slightly different angles on it. In this conversation, we were talking about favorite writers outside the canon. He went first, naming several respected legal theorists. Mine were mostly political economists or sociologists. When I explained my choices, he commented in a vaguely disapproving tone, “That’s engineering, not science.”
He was right on the facts but wrong on the tone. I always thought that the point of theory was to inform practice. It’s not meant to be “pure.” Theory is best when tested on the ground, and practice is best when it’s informed by theory. For me, that meant moving into administration when the opportunity came along and then writing about it as I went. I’m not deriving an ideal from timeless givens; I’m trying to find fair and reasonable ways to make my corner of the existing world a little bit better than it would otherwise be. Sometimes, that involves plodding.
In practice, half measures and contradictions are simply part of the cost of doing business. One of the greatest shocks of practice was discovering how many decisions have to be made based on partial information. In the absence of perfect information, being relatively thoughtful about your own assumptions can help you decide in which direction to err. It will not prevent you from erring, because nothing can. But being able to take a step back and think about precedent setting, or likely counterarguments, or the ethical implications of a decision creates space for actual agency.
So yes, a little respect for impure practice. It’s where life happens.
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The Girl informed me that she’s busily planning her wedding to the actor Timothee Chalamet. Apparently, it will take place on a small beach on the coast of Italy. The degree to which Mr. Chalamet will have any agency in this decision remains unclear.
Teenage celebrity crushes aren’t new, but the technology behind them is. TG and her friends can do relatively deep-dive background checks on just about anybody on a whim. Without breaking a sweat, she found that he’s fluent in French and passable in Italian, that he plays piano and guitar, and that he’s straight and apparently single. (I have not personally verified any of these.) She also pronounced him “unproblematic,” indicating no record of disrespectful treatment of women. I’m glad that she cares enough about that to check.
Details of the impending nuptials remain sketchy, given that she’s 15 and they’ve never met. Further bulletins as events warrant.
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My thanks to everyone who expressed concerns about The Wife and her abrupt trip to the emergency room last week. I’m relieved to report that all is well, and she’s back to normal. No disrespect to the professionals in the ER, but I wouldn’t mind going many more years before having to return.
