"Stop the Machine" Protests Deadly Drone Aircraft Dispalyed at the Smithsonian

After the American Century

American politics is undergoing an upheaval from the Left, in what appears to be a delayed but forceful reaction to the Tea Party Movement and what many see as the disappointing centrism of the Obama Administration.  The new grass roots movements are protesting what they see as welfare for banks and corporations, foreign wars, and a tax system that favors the wealthy. On their own web site, "Stop the Machine" declares that a "large majority" of the American people agree with the following propositions, which I quote without alteration here.

• Tax the rich and corporations
• End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending
• Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and improved Medicare for all
• End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests
• Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation
• Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages
• Get money out of politics

"Stop the Machine" further declared that "The government, dominated by elite economic interests, is going in the opposite direction from what the people want.  The American people’s agenda is our agenda."

While this program may not be embraced by a "large majority" of Americans, it is certainly not particularly radical. Looking at it from Europe, the demands are rather mainstream. Indeed, many voted for Obama thinking that he represented something like this program.

The name "Stop the Machine" comes from a speech made by Mario Savio in 1964. He was a leader of the Free Speech and Anti-War movements in Berkeley, and famously declared, "There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" The very name of the movement forges a link with the counter-culture of the 1960s.

What surprises me is not this reaction but that it has taken so long to emerge. Dissatisfaction with the Obama Administration on the Left has finally boiled over into widespread protests, focused particularly on the banking system, which has received enormous subsidies while millions of ordinary homeowners have struggled and gone bankrupt. For three weeks protests have focused on Wall Street in particular.

However, now protests are widening to include the widespread use of drone airplanes in warfare, to kill perceived enenies by remote control. Several hundred protesters attempted to enter the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, which currently has an exhibit on drone airplanes. The protesters feel that it is wrong to celebrate this technology with an exhibition, and unacceptable that public funds should be used to do so.

This is not the first time the Smithsonian has been attacked for its exhibtion policy. Some years ago a virulent protest erupted -- from the Right -- against an exhibit of the Enola Gay, the plane used to drop the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which brought World War II to an end. The protest on that occasion objected not to celebrating the atomic bomb, but to criticism of it. At the time, many historians supported the Smithsonian's attempt to be less celebratory and more reflective.

I have not seen the Drone exhibit. The Smithsonian explains on its webpage that "This exhibit showcases six modern military UAVs that represent a variety of missions and technologies. They range from large vehicles that can carry offensive weapons to a miniature system whose components are light and compact enough to be carried in a Marine’s backpack." 

The exhibit is made possible by support from "the generosity of General Atomics Aeronautical" which profits from the sale of such drone aircraft. Notably, it produces "The Predator," a drone that was deployed in the Balkans and that has been used in almost 200 missions in Afghanistan. It is not only a reconnaissance drone but also can fire missiles. 

Such drone aircraft are not the metaphorical machine that Mario Savio attacked, but actual machines -  high-tech weapons that increasingly define post-modern warfare.  

World University Rankings, 2011- 2012: USA still dominates, Europe and Asia lag

After the American Century

The London Times has released its annual assessment of the world's universities, and the United States still dominates the list, both in terms of quality and quantity. The following graph summarizes the results for the first 100 on the list:

 

Not only are 52 of the top-ranked universities in the US, but eleven of the top 15 and 21 of the top 30. Europe has only one university in the top 30, the technical university in Zurich. Likewise, Asia has only one in the top two groups, and only ten in the top 100.The UK and its former colonies Australia and Canada, taken together, do very well, as they have 19 of the top 100 universities, double that of all Asia. Moreover, the Commonwealth grouping, to give it a name, are strongly represented in the top 30.

One can quibble about various aspects of these rankings, but having lectured widely and visited many universities as part of my research, I am not surprised by these results. Whatever the precise order, California Institute of Technology (1), Harvard (2), Stanford (3), Oxford (4), Princeton (5), Cambridge (6), MIT (7), Imperial College, London (8), Chicago (9), and Berkeley (10)  deserve to be in the top ten. Pity poor Yale (11) which fell one notch since last year. It will have to watch out that Columbia (12) does not get ahead next year. Columbia is a rising star, having moved up six places in a single year.

Likewise, it is my impression that Michigan Ann Arbor (18) deserves to be ranked higher than New York University (44), and that Cornell (20) clearly is better than the University of San Diego (33) or Santa Barbara (35). In other words, one might argue for slight movements up and down the table, but the approximate placement seems correct.

My admittedly subjective and partial impressions of European universities also correspond with these results. Of the German universities I know, Munich (45) does seem the best. And I would agree that no Italian university that I know deserves to be in the top 200.

This leads me to suspect that the Times is also right to rank three Swedish universities in the top 100, but not a single Danish university higher than 125 (Aarhus), with Copenhagen (135) placed better than I would have thought possible after the research scandals that have shaken it during the last academic year, and which have never been entirely resolved.

The government's refusal to fund Danish universities adequately over the last  decades has harmed their international reputation, compared to the Karolinska Institute (32), Lund (80), Uppsala (87) or Helsinki (91).  The Danes remain snared in the mediocrity of the Jantelaw, which roughly can be translated into belittling talent, top-down control, and second-class resources provided equally to all. But my subjectivity is no doubt getting the better of me.

Danish Institute for Advanced Studies Launched

The Rektor of SDU, Jens Oddershede, at the opening ceremony for DIAS

After the American Century       

On Friday September 30, 2011 the Danish Institute for Advanced Studies was officially launched at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU). This ambitious project builds on the international recognition already gained by three Institutes at the University of Southern Denmark, in physics, management, and American Studies. DIAS will foster and reward  excellence. Its three divisions already have forged links with leading universities in the US, UK, and EU. The mission of DIAS is to stimulate intellectual creativity by crossing boundaries between disciplines within:

• natural sciences
• social sciences
• humanities

At the end of 2012 DIAS will move into mew offices occupying one floor of a new building on the main campus of SDU

DIAS consists of:

ONE 

Origins and evolution of the universe at the Centre for Particle Physics Phenomenology – CP³-Origins which has been established by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF) and opened on the 1st of September 2009 at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. CP3-Origins is the leading centre of excellence for theoretical particle physics phenomenology in Denmark. CP3-Origins aims to exploit experimental results, supercomputers and our theoretical expertise to make the next big leap in particle physics: Uncovering the origin of bright and dark matter in the universe. It will also contribute in other equally relevant quests: understanding the phase diagram of strongly interacting theories and their potential impact on understanding the dynamics behind the rapid expansion of the universe soon after the Big-Bang, known as inflation.

TWO

Origins and evolution of the social organization, is identified with the Strategic Organization Design Unit (SOD), which builds on a long research tradition associated with the evolutionary and behavioral program in economics and organizational science. In 2008 SOD was established as the first FSE research unit by The Danish Council for Independent Research in the Social Sciences (FSE), and in 2011 received the status of an elite unit at the Faculty of Social Sciences, SDU. This group of scholars examines how the organization of individual actions jointly generates organizational performance. Progress in this area is essential in order to develop a robust normative theory of organization design - and to understand how decisions regarding organization design shape performance in private and public organizations.

THREE

Origins and evolution of culture, is identified with the Center for American Studies (CAS). It was established as an SDU research unit in 1992, with additional support during its first decade from the Danish-American Fulbright Commission. CAS is the largest center of its kind in the Nordic countries, and the only one in Denmark to offer both the BA and MA degrees in American Studies. The field has always been concerned with the origins and development of culture, both in the sense of a shared (often contested) national culture and in the more specific sense of new racial, ethnic, and regional identity formations. These have come about through immigration, cultural exchange, and innovation, in a dynamic relation with historical events. Fundamental to American Studies is the realization that cultures are in constant ferment and evolution.　

DIAS is inspired by similar institutions at world’s leading universities such as Princeton, Harvard and Stanford and by advanced research centers in the Netherlands and Germany. It shares the recognition that mankind's greatest achievements have come from inner curiosity, giving rise to new ways of thinking and changes in perception. The directors already collaborate with faculty at IAS, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, Oxford, CERN and MIT.

DIAS is a center for theoretical research. Initially, it unites outstanding research groups that will foster synergy between the sciences and humanities allowing new ideas to emerge. The union and rapid communication of ideas among research groups allows for the construction of a novel fellowship among the DIAS faculty and increases the competitiveness and global recognition of Danish research.