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Compassionate Humanity Community

What Hath God Wrought and how the Whigs defeated Jacksonianism?

What Hath God Wrought and how the Whigs defeated Jacksonianism? Daniel Walker Howe,

Ezra Klein's guest today, Congressman Jake Auchincloss, recommended “What Hath God Wrought,” by Daniel Walker Howe, which is the Oxford history of the United States. It discusses how Andrew Jackson built the Democratic Party in 1828 as a Christian nationalist anti-elitist party — if that sounds familiar to people — and then how the Whigs came to contest him and ultimately won in the 1840 election. And I find that template to be informative for the political era we’re living in now.

So I asked Claude, "How did Andrew Jackson build the Democratic Party in as a Christian nationalist anti-elitist party?" and got this reply:

politicalWade Lee HudsonFebruary 19, 2025strategyComment

This Is How Trump Will Smash the Machine of U.S. Economic Power

By Henry J. Farrell and Abraham L. Newman

The authors are concerned because different groups in Trump's administration want different things:

Some want to promote cryptocurrency
Some are focused on Wall Street's interests
Some want to protect national security
Some are interested in AI and tech companies

This is different from the past, where both parties generally agreed on how to use America's economic power. The authors worry that Trump might make sudden decisions based on which group has his ear at the moment, rather than following long-term plans like previous presidents did.

EconomicWade Lee HudsonFebruary 18, 2025Economic, Big Tech, politicalComment

Academe's Divorce from Reality

By William Deresiewicz

The politics of the academy have been defeated. Its ideas, its assumptions, its opinions and positions — as expressed in official statements, embodied in policies and practices, established in centers and offices, and espoused and taught by large and leading portions of the professoriate — have been rejected. This was already evident before November 5. It can now no longer be denied.

politicalWade Lee HudsonDecember 6, 2024worldviewComment

Philip Woods

Philip Woods

University of Hertfordshire

Faculty Member

I am former Chair and current Council Member of the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS), Professor of Educational Policy, Democracy and Leadership at the University of Hertfordshire, UK (where I am also Director of the Centre for Educational Leadership), and author of over 120 publications. Selected publications are featured below.

My work focuses principally on education, democracy, leadership, policy, governance and entrepreneurialism, with special attention to democratic and distributed leadership, equity, and change towards more democratic and holistic organisational environments. My work includes the design of resources for senior leaders, teachers, and others to support the development of distributed and democratic leadership, working with international colleagues through European Union-funded networks - European Policy Network on School Leadership (EPNoSL, 2011-2015) and European Methodological Framework for Facilitating Collaborative Learning for Teachers (EFFeCT, 2015-2018) - and as a member of the US-based New DEEL (Democratic Ethical Educational Leadership) network. I

have wide-ranging experience and expertise in leading, managing and participating in major funded projects for organisations, including the British Academy, Economic and Social Research Council, UK government, European Union, National College for School Leadership, Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, and Learning and Teaching Scotland. I am experienced in undertaking academic and evaluative studies, developing recommendations on policy and practice to tight deadlines, and providing keynote presentations, as well as being an active participant and leader in multiple international networks and supervising and teaching doctoral and masters students.

systemicWade Lee HudsonOctober 30, 2024Comment

Human Dignity and World Order: The Holistic Foundations of Global Democracy

By Glen T. Martin

This book shows how and why this is so. It investigates the meaning of human dignity in relation to current scholarly work as well as in terms of the depths of our subjective lives from which the concept of dignity arises. It contrasts the concept of dignity with our current world system engulfed in endless wars, immense inequality, systems of economic injustice, and on-going environmental destruction. It shows the relationship between dignity, human rights, and global moral principles and lays out ten fundamental principles for a planetary ethics.

systemicWade Lee HudsonOctober 29, 2024morality, education, peace, politicsComment

America’s political realignment is catching Democrats flat-footed

eek’s cover of the Economist — a special report on the American economy — featured a rolled-up dollar bill taking off like a rocket ship into the skies. The headline: “The Envy of the World.” Yet the strongest economy in the world has not paid off for President Joe Biden,…

politicalWade Lee HudsonOctober 28, 2024democracyComment

Three Questions

In 25 words or less, what’s wrong with the world?
In 25 words or less, why is this the case?
In 25 words or less, what can we do about it?

systemicWade Lee HudsonAugust 15, 2024Comment

The Convivial Society

L.M. Sacasas
Over 34,000 subscribers

A newsletter about technology, culture., and the good life. The general idea is to think well about the meaning of technology and how it structures our experience while also conveying some sense of how we might better order our relationship to technology.

CulturalWade Lee HudsonAugust 13, 2024Big TechComment

Meshell Ndegeocello

By Wesley Morris

The bassist, singer and composer’s 1993 debut jolted the industry — then she decided to change. Now she is releasing a powerful album inspired by James Baldwin.

A good musician’s relationship with the past is tricky. You want to move forward without entirely forsaking what you’ve already done. You don’t want it defining you when so much future defining lies ahead. It’s a dilemma Meshell Ndegeocello was thinking through at her dining room table in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, on a recent afternoon.

culturalWade Lee HudsonAugust 12, 2024musicComment

Born Again

How Christian Fundamentalism Was Born Again, Michael Luo

“Nearly a century ago, a single trial seemed to shatter the movement’s place in America. It’s returned in a new form—but for old reasons”.

In his book about the Scopes trial, Liu concludes with a plea for respect:

The authors of “The After Party” remind believers that “reconciliation to God inherently leads to reconciliation with others.” They encourage Christians to draw on the resources of their faith to model a more relational, less tribal approach to politics. It’s a stirring admonition, but Wineapple’s observation about the tragedy of the Scopes trial is that both sides failed to see the other. The “self-appointed arbiters of culture” can seem just as contemptuous of faith as they were a century ago, even as their own beliefs become an altar unto themselves. The divide may very well be unbridgeable, but Marsden suggests that both sides keep in mind the wide angle of history and what it reveals––that “cultural conflicts are not simply products of the machinations of the warped minds of one’s opponents, but rather reflect deeply embedded cultural patterns.” A clear-eyed explanation of fundamentalism’s resilience might include a recognition from nonbelievers that there is something wanting in the secular consensus, a lacuna that scientific, technological, and social progress has failed to address. The values of humility and hope could benefit us all. (read more - behind paywall) [posted in Respect]

CulturalWade Lee HudsonAugust 9, 2024spiritualityComment

Tim Walz on Respect

I’ve watched a lot of presidential campaigns, and I can’t remember one in which the contest for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination has played out quite so publicly. And that’s allowed for some voices and figures to break through who you might not have imagined before. Foremost among them is Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, because of one interview on “Morning Joe,” saying of Donald Trump and JD Vance, “These guys are just weird.”

That was the interview heard around the Democratic Party. I remember it hit me on social media. I saw that and thought, “Oh, that really connects.” And then all of a sudden, it was all you heard from Democrats. “Weird, weird, weird. These guys are weird.”

Why did this connect this way? And is there a risk of this falling into something that can bedevil Democrats, coming off as an insult to Trump’s supporters, like Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” comment in 2016?

politicalWade Lee HudsonAugust 5, 2024equality, political multi-issseComment

"Should We Abolish Prisons?"

By Wade Lee Hudson

In his July 22, 2024, review of recent books advocating the abolition of prisons, Adam Gopnik argues that the “frequent brutality and ingrained indifference” seen in prisons calls us to “freely imagine alternatives,” but he differs from the abolitionists.

He strongly supports those such as Michelle Alexander who see American incarceration as “a mechanism that preserves racial hierarchy.” Incarceration in her now famous formulation acts as the new Jim Crow.” Black people in New York State, for instance, are fifteen percent of the overall population and almost fifty percent of the prison population.

However, Gopnik rejects the argument that mass incarceration is a product of capitalism,

politicalWade Lee HudsonAugust 2, 2024criminal justice, mental healthComment

The Holistic Paradigm as Democracy's Evolutionary Frontier

To recap - Part 1 explored the emergence of a new paradigm, a more holistic worldview aligned with reality, embracing interconnectedness and therefore better able to address humanity’s crises. It also highlighted the burgeoning field of democratic innovation and pointed out aspects that suggest this field is a facet of this new holistic paradigm.

In part 2 I explore - how might we take democratic innovation into deeper levels of this shift so that it becomes ever more able to address our collective predicaments?

politicalWade Lee HudsonJune 23, 2024cultural, PersonalComment

Catholic Post-liberalism and the Left-Right Spectrum

By Wade Lee Hudson

In his review of several books written by Catholic “post-liberals,” Mark Lilla expresses sympathy for their “rejection of the intellectual foundations of modern liberal individualism” and its “idealization of autonomy,” which “has worked as an acid eating away at the deepest cultural foundations inherited from the Christian era” (such as “love your neighbor”).

politicalWade Lee HudsonJune 17, 2024democracy, partisan divide, holistic democracyComment

Spirituality

Whether or not they identify as “spiritual” or “religious,” this site encourages everyone to engage in self-development, especially concerning overcoming or controlling oppressive domination and submission. Many people consider this self-improvement to be spiritual, but others do not.

For instance, some humanists don’t embrace the concept of a “god,” “supreme being,” or “higher,” transcendent order. They identify as atheists or agnostics and reject the notion that a spiritual path is necessary for personal growth or making a positive impact on the world. This site respects these views.

Insisting on the use of certain words is idolatry. Worshiping specific abstract concepts is problematic. Such dogmatic beliefs lead to rigid ideologies.

This site instead focuses on exploring and understanding concrete experiences and fosters a non-dogmatic and open-minded approach.

PersonalWade Lee HudsonJune 15, 2024spiritualityComment