Werekat @werekat@mastodon.acc.sunet.se

@dump_stack @kravietz The civic credo was exceptionalist in what it stood for, but universal in what it come (sic!) become." Higham 1993, p. 196-197.

I mean, look at the argument. It's amazingly similar to the Russian exceptionalism (Third Rome, blablabla) vs. universalism ("we're the only ones in the FSU who care about universal things, everyone else is particularist"). Because the processes, at their heart, are similar.

@dump_stack @kravietz These principles not only legitimize American governments but should also ultimately spread around the world and win universal approval by protecting everyone's basic rights. American universalists expected, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, that "a just and solid republican government maintained here . . . will be a standing mon- ument & example for . . . a great portion of the globe."4 ...

@dump_stack @kravietz "Molded by the Enlightenment and forged in the Revolution, American universalism has been simultaneously a civic credo, a social vision, and a definition of nationhood. As a civic credo, it is universal in grounding public life and insti- tutions not on an exclusive heritage but on natural rights -that is, on rational principles, supposedly valid everywhere, that grant all citizens equality in public life and encourage all residents to claim a common citizenship....

@dump_stack @kravietz Ah, Higham 1993 (what Gerstle is replying to) is actually even better for this: "At the time of its greatest power, Gunnar Myrdal labelled this familiar bundle of beliefs "The American Creed."2 Today many scornfully call it "American exceptionalism."3 I shall try to avoid both the piety and the scorn by resorting to a neutral oxymoron. Let us name our egalitarian ideology "American universalism.""

@dump_stack @kravietz There is an American universalism, though, even several variations (so -isms, really). Check Gerstle 1993, "The Limits of American Universalism", for one example. Handy 1976 on American messianism is another - and yes, the two concepts are deeply related.

Lindenfors, Wartel and Lind on Dunbar's number: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0158

My favorite part: "‘Dunbar's number’ is often cited1, has had great impact in popular culture (e.g. it featured prominently in Malcolm Gladwell's book Tipping point [21]) and has had consequences such as the Swedish Tax Authority restructuring their offices to stay within the 150-person limit [22], with the implicit but hopefully unintended assumption that their employees have neither family nor friends outside work."

So basically we've pitched in to the long-standing ethnic minorities fight in Russia. This is giving me some rather ambivalent feelings. At present, this is definitely the right thing to do: both we and them need allies desperately, and this is an excellent vector of attack.

But also Ukraine was the second largest country in the USSR, and we have the potential to be just as aggressive as Russia is. If we do win, down the line we're going to have to try and not become the dragon we're fighting.

Hm, some really interesting international developments lately. Exhibit one: Ukraine gives its slot (one of it's slots? Haven't looked into it deeply) in the UN Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues to an Erzyan elder: (timestamp 1:53:10, http://webtv.un.org/watch/3rd-meeting-united-nations-permanent-forum-on-indigenous-issues-unpfii-twentieth-session-19-30-april-2021/6249705719001/)

Exhibit 2: the rather famous Ukrainian rock band Komu Vniz does a song in the Erzyan language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCcOQS1I7Pw&t=1s

Good morning! Found some rather pretty Kyiv cyberpunk pictures on the Ukrainian subreddit.

The attached one is by Valentin Porada: https://www.artstation.com/runolite

The ones in this link are actual photos: https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/n3z20h/ukrainian_cyberpunk_kiberpoznnyaky_2021/

I have to say that Porada got the mood perfectly, as one can easily see from the photos!

Good morning! Woke up and realized I was having a hard time focusing on text, so instead I'm planting more salad, trying out my radishes (no big roots, but the greenery tastes appropriately tangy), and generally trying to get my brain to start via physical chores.

Also, I can now say that I have planted fibre optics. :)

I was delighted to learn there's a fibre optic decorative grass, and ofc I got some for me. We'll see if it works!

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/foliage/fiber-optic-grass/growing-fiber-optic-grasses.htm

Me to supervisor: I've fallen down a rabbit hole!
Supervisor: Beware of rabbit holes! ☺️
Supervisor:
🐇 🕳 💀

Ok, no, that's his son. Who's continuing his father's work. The father's a scholar of India. His son is heading an institute of Ukrainian Studies. They just both have the same initials, and since Ukrainian conventions usually are I. Lastname.... AARGH.

Also that moment when you legit can't figure out if an 80-year-old guy is still teaching because most Ukrainian scholars (perhaps especially the folks with contested reputations) have this ethos that they'll eventually die instead of retiring. This especially concerns heads of institutes.

And believe me, the whole situation is NOT made any easier by the whole colonial entanglement thing (i.e. "those guys are arguing against us not because they think they're right, but because they wanna "prove" Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians are the same people for political reasons"). Argh.

Me: "look, our historians, at least the professional ones, are highly empirical"
Also me: "no, no, wait, just don't take 'university position' as equivalent to 'professional historian', half of the pros don't have positions. Some don't even have degrees. And in the actual universities we sometimes get people who think Sanskrit came from Ukraine. We're very sorry about this."

That's cause, well, I learned to bike in the Netherlands. Which is flat. I live in small-ish cliffs now, and while the roads are mostly, y'know, made flat, I never really got the hang of biking on so many slopes. So I do have to admit an inordinate amount of resistance to just hopping on a bicycle and going somewhere. It's been bugging me for a while, but we'll see if I can fix it.