Michael AustininDialogue & DiscourseLiberal Arts and Higher Education: The Vital Art of Not Being a BugThe second strangest thing that happens in the first chapter of Franz Kafka’s masterpiece Metamorphosis is that the protagonist, Gregor…Nov 28, 20232Nov 28, 20232
Michael AustininThe Collector“Mozart Is Thinking of Chairman Mao”: How Ideology Shapes Our Thinking and Prevents Us from…There is a scene in the wonderful Chinese film, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress that has stayed with me for years (click here and…Nov 22, 20211Nov 22, 20211
Michael AustininThe CollectorDr. Jill Biden Works with Community Colleges: That Makes Her a HeroI have been involved in higher education, in one form or another, for 35 years, first as an undergraduate, then as a graduate student, a…Dec 17, 20203Dec 17, 20203
Michael AustininThe CollectorDonald Trump and the Spirit of 1876though it is mostly true, it is not completely true that Donald Trump is swinging around wildly trying to stay in power. He has a playbook…Nov 19, 20201Nov 19, 20201
Michael AustininDialogue & DiscourseBiden’s Call for Unity Was a Pragmatic Plea, not a Moral ArgumentIt’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric. To lower the temperature. To see each other again. To listen to each other again. To make…Nov 9, 20202Nov 9, 20202
Michael AustininThe CollectorThe Law of Bad NumbersHere, in a nutshell, is the Law of Bad Numbers: In an election involving millions of votes, it will always be possible to find reasons to…Nov 8, 20201Nov 8, 20201
Michael AustininThe Collector“Fair” and “Balanced” Are Not the Same — and Sometimes It’s Not Even CloseThe executives at Fox News didn’t create the false equivalency between “fair” and “balanced,” but they certainly turned it into a national…Oct 30, 2020Oct 30, 2020
Michael AustininDialogue & DiscourseWill 2020 Be a Realigning Election?In a two-party system, political parties are not really coherent ideologies. There are simply too many ideological positions in a large…Oct 25, 20204Oct 25, 20204
Michael AustininThe CollectorWe Aren’t Debating about Values Anymore; We Are Debating about Reality, and that Is a Huge ProblemThe Lincoln-Douglas Debates — seven engagements that occurred in different Illinois cities between two candidates for the US Senate —…Oct 23, 20202Oct 23, 20202
Michael AustininDialogue & DiscourseNine Reasons that “Originalism” Isn’t Really a Thing for Supreme Court Justices“Originalism” is a reasonable way to interpret 99.99% of Constitutional questions that come up. But the Supreme Court exists to handle the…Oct 17, 20203Oct 17, 20203