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Michael Austin

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Dialogue & Discourse

Liberal Arts and Higher Education: The Vital Art of Not Being a Bug

The second strangest thing that happens in the first chapter of Franz Kafka’s masterpiece Metamorphosis is that the protagonist, Gregor…

Nov 28, 2023

Liberal Arts and Higher Education: The Vital Art of Not Being a Bug

Nov 28, 2023

Published in

The 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, 2021

“Mozart Is Thinking of Chairman Mao”: How Ideology Shapes Our Thinking and Prevents Us from…

Nov 22, 2021

Published in

The Collector

Dr. Jill Biden Works with Community Colleges: That Makes Her a Hero

I 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, 2020

Dr. Jill Biden Works with Community Colleges: That Makes Her a Hero

Dec 17, 2020

Published in

The Collector

Donald Trump and the Spirit of 1876

though 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, 2020

Donald Trump and the Spirit of 1876

Nov 19, 2020

Published in

Dialogue & Discourse

Biden’s Call for Unity Was a Pragmatic Plea, not a Moral Argument

It’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, 2020

Biden’s Call for Unity Was a Pragmatic Plea, not a Moral Argument

Nov 9, 2020

Published in

The Collector

The Law of Bad Numbers

Here, 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, 2020

The Law of Bad Numbers

Nov 8, 2020

Published in

The Collector

“Fair” and “Balanced” Are Not the Same — and Sometimes It’s Not Even Close

The executives at Fox News didn’t create the false equivalency between “fair” and “balanced,” but they certainly turned it into a national…

Oct 30, 2020

“Fair” and “Balanced” Are Not the Same — and Sometimes It’s Not Even Close

Oct 30, 2020

Published in

Dialogue & Discourse

Will 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, 2020

Will 2020 Be a Realigning Election?

Oct 25, 2020

Published in

The Collector

We Aren’t Debating about Values Anymore; We Are Debating about Reality, and that Is a Huge Problem

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates — seven engagements that occurred in different Illinois cities between two candidates for the US Senate —…

Oct 23, 2020

We Aren’t Debating about Values Anymore; We Are Debating about Reality, and that Is a Huge Problem

Oct 23, 2020

Published in

Dialogue & Discourse

Nine 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, 2020

Nine Reasons that “Originalism” Isn’t Really a Thing for Supreme Court Justices

Oct 17, 2020

Michael Austin

Michael Austin

Michael Austin is a former English professor and current academic administrator. He is the author of We Must Not Be Enemies: Restoring America’s Civic Tradition

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