Readers ruminate on our 'post-fact society'
Readers ruminate on our 'post-fact society'
Farhad Manjoo '00 announces "the Rashomon world, where the very idea of objective reality is under attack" (". . . And Nothing But the Truth," September/October 2008), but he seems to be unaware that there is nothing new in the story and that those of us in the sciences have been fending off attacks on objective reality almost forever—certainly since Galileo. An appalling number of our citizens believe that the universe is only a few thousand years old, that all species were created instantaneously, and much else that has been falsified—yet they continue to obfuscate. The Swift Boat episode is only a Johnny-come-lately in this sordid history.
David West '55, PhD '59
Blacksburg, Virginia
Ed. Note: Professor West retired from the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech in 1998.
Manjoo's article easily serves as the best example of the bias that I thought he would be discussing, based on the title. In addressing the phenomenon, I expected that he would at least make an effort at objectivity. His writing best makes his own point.
Joseph Dos Santos '74, MCE '75
Marietta, Georgia
I was looking forward to reading Manjoo's article because I share his concern that facts and truths, which have been manipulated throughout history, are at even greater peril in what he accurately calls our "trillion-channel universe." But I was stunned to find that Manjoo has turned his fascinating and important thesis into a political diatribe by presenting only examples in which he accuses those on the political right with ignoring, denying, or overtly misrepresenting the facts.
Manjoo offers six examples, and all six are cases in which he alleges that those on the right got it wrong. Was he not able to find examples on the left? Or did he prefer not to even look there? What's his motive? What's his intent? If he wishes to attack the right—which is his First Amendment right to do—he is guilty of framing his attack in a highly misleading way.
How ironic is it that the truth is a victim in Manjoo's article?
Steve Marx '69
Tampa, Florida
I have an issue with the truthiness of ". . . And Nothing But the Truth." Farhad Manjoo implies that there is an absolute truth about what the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth said regarding John Kerry's medals during the Vietnam War. While it is an objective fact that he was awarded several medals, the ads presented subjective opinions questioning whether he deserved them. These are very different matters. My view is that Senator Kerry's symbolic gesture in throwing his medals back at the Pentagon in 1971 prevents him from claiming that he still has them. There is no formal mechanism that I know about for returning medals once awarded.
Bill Hughes '82
Bellevue, Washington
Thanks for the excerpt from Manjoo's book. Articles like this are my favorite fare in CAM and provide much food for thought. Being an older guy, I actually lived in the time when facts still existed in society, and even in the media of the day. People have always been able to lie and form a constituency to proclaim it as truth, and there was certainly a strong presence of that activity swirling in the Sixties. But what was not present was the level of digital and media saturation that we have now, the tools of which were just coming into being in many labs on the Cornell campus and around the country back then.
The digital age did not, however, extinguish facts; it merely buried them in a vast ocean of information. And given their intellectual density, facts sink to the bottom and have no recovery premium in the media until they age almost beyond recognition. The spin-drift and controversy at the surface as new data blow in is much more newsworthy (and lucrative); facts are a dead letter, media-wise. True Enough no doubt stirs up some of the informational silt, but it seems to be a book about itself.
Chris Williams '60
Middletown, Connecticut
What Not to Wear
I just finished reading the article about the clothing company Arbitrage and am appalled ("Dress for Excess," Currents, September/October 2008). I would expect to find the article's tone, language, apparent approval of sexual bondage, and overall portrayal of women in a publication aimed at nihilistic twenty-something men, not in the alumni magazine of a university aspiring to be among the best in the world. Are the ranks of Cornell alumni so absent from enterprises hip and cool that you must highlight this cynical, trashy company?
It would be mildly understandable if the company was enormously successful, but the lack of any information about financial performance makes me suspect that its results are unspectacular at best. I frankly wonder if the principals are friends of the editor; I can find no other valid reason for the piece to be in the magazine. And I am consoled by knowing that the recent meltdown of the financial sector has probably decimated whatever business the company enjoyed, and that its unseemly existence is likely to be brief.
David DuPont '80
Boulder, Colorado
Ed. Note: The principals are not friends of the editor.
Right Turn
I was appalled to read in the New York Times that Cornell has accepted $50,000 from the Veritas Fund for Higher Education to develop a course in "freedom and free societies." Such an addition to the curriculum at the behest of a relatively small grant compromises the University's integrity. The Fund's purpose is to promote conservatism on campuses.
Cornell always has had its natural complement of conservative faculty in the history, government, and economics departments—but the University would now seem to be deferring to those who seek to stir a new conservative tide on campus. No matter how critically Cornell might present this initial course, the acceptance of funding is almost an admission of an imbalance in curriculum. The University seems to be submitting to an outsider's corruption of its curriculum.
David Raddock '63
Boulder, Colorado
Ed. Note: The $50,000 grant is not being used to establish a course but to create a program that will bring speakers to campus and present seminars.
Haiku U.
I was intrigued by the piece about haiku at Mann Library ("Poet's Corner," Cornelliana, September/October 2008). In honor of the twenty-year tradition and the more than 7,000 poems displayed so far, I would like to humbly offer my own addition to the growing collection: Mann's open haiku / Offering daily glimpses / Into Ezra's mind.
Janet Rosenblum Fipphen, JD '84
Fairfield, Connecticut
"Poet's Corner" reminded me of the creativity and offbeat sense of humor that Cornell inspires. I remember a bathroom graffiti that went like this: "[.radical]3 = 2 for large values of 3." So, with that in mind, here is a haiku that my daughter told me about (probably from the Internet): Haikus are easy / But sometimes they don't make sense / Refrigerator.
Dean Leonard '76
Walnut Creek, California
What a nice story about the daily haiku at Mann Library. The article says the daily poem is available online. At what address? It would be great if people could subscribe to receive it by e-mail every day.
Richard Gottfried '68
New York, New York
Ed. Note: The Mann Library haiku is available online at haiku.mannlib. cornell.edu, and you can sign up there for a daily RSS feed.
Green Plans
I found the article on the Cornell Master Plan to be fascinating in delineating the future directions of the University ("Looking Ahead," July/August 2008). I may have missed the details but saw little attention to efforts to utilize "greening" approaches. As a retiree associated with Penn State University, I am aware that most of their new construction and renovation plans build in energy and environmental efficiencies. I'm confident that Cornell is also doing the same but did not see mention of that in the article.
Betty Lefkowitz Moore '62
State College, Pennsylvania
Ed. note: The University administration has stated that sustainability is an important consideration for all construction and land use. The article briefly mentioned Cornell's commitment to "respect and manage the physical environment of the campus" and the importance of a central "greenway"; for more, go to master plan.cornell.edu.
I was placed at Cornell in the V-12 program in 1944, entering as a junior. Despite wartime conditions, the campus offered so much in natural beauty and noble construction that every day was an opportunity for the uplifting essence of living and working between two such wonderful gorges and other views.
Following course completion in 1945, I went overseas. I have revisited Cornell at least six times and noticed the changes in the campus through the years. They made sense, generally, with the major growth to the east, and with students crossing and re-crossing the gorges going to and from the dorms, allowing them to see the lovely blend of buildings and topography.
With these latest planned additions to the campus, the area covered will extend well past the present footprint without connection to the natural beauty of the deep gorges and sloping terrain. Even Beebe Lake will be a distant landmark for the students learning new subjects in the newly developed buildings. The illustration on page 45 is prophetic: the clock tower and other landmarks will become small reminders of Cornell's past. The final blow, to me, is the admission of the need for people-moving devices to make it all work. The future students of Cornell deserve better.
The last two sentences of your article sum up my fears and concerns. Proper design must be carefully done to effect welcome changes for all students and not just add bigger boxes for "Sterile City" to await its inhabitants.
N. Bruce Weir '45
Glenside, Pennsylvania