UnbendableArm

• Time to Reboot America ~ Stephen’s Web ~ by Stephen Downes

  
  

  • Thomas L. Friedman asks and answers his own question – unintentionally. He asks, "What has become of our infrastructure, which is so crucial to productivity?" He answers, "I’d like to see fewer government dollars shoveled out and more creative tax incentives to stimulate the private sector to catalyze new industries and new markets." When was the last time you saw tax incentives produce infrastructure? Right: never. Friedman articulates the problem quite well, but the advances the tired old solutions that have been failing for the last decade and more. Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, December 25, 2008.

 
I gotta admit to a serious bias against Friedman. He reminds me of Dennis Miller in his inveterate and intemperate use of allusion and metaphor. Both of them observe, but neither understands. I have been hearing about stimulus money being used  this Spring for "human infrastructure" (teaching, nursing) but I hate that expression almost as much as I do Friedman’s ‘flat earth’. In their defense, metaphor and other tools of comparison of necessity refer back, yet conditions in the field demand that we create something nearly new. As such it will be unrecognizable by folks like Friedman and will probably come from someone outside the field. What I mean is that we won’t be able to use old words along with their baggage to create new worlds. "School", "classroom", "teacher", or "student" will be terms that simply get in the way of something completely different.