The following have been guests on Social Thought from March 1988 to June 1998.
Where transcripts exist they
are indicated: Transcript of
Interview (click here)
Henry Aaron, policy
economist.
Medicine
Swamps Us With New Technology and We Keep Wanting More.
Jonathan Adler,
Environmental Analyst.
Environmental
Teaching To Children is No Longer Science, It Has Become Ideology.
Joel Achenbach,
columnist, Washington Post.
There
Are More Books Of Trivial Lists and One Sentence Wisdom Than Ever Before.
Margo
Adair,facilitator social change
agent.
American
Cultural Norms Cause Individuals To Filter Out That Which is Most Meaningful --
Leaving Alientation Fragmentation.
Irma Adelman,
professor of economics and agriculture.
To
Change From a Developing Agrarian Nation into a Newly Industrial Country
Requires That Farmers Be Consumers of Domestic Industrial Output.
Robert Aitken, Zen
Abbott.
Social
Action and Affinity Groups Are Part of Buddhist Tradition.
Jeffrey Alexander,
sociologist.
'Civil
Society' is Returning to the Center of Discussion in the United States and
Displacing 'Economic Man'.
Walter
Truett Anderson, writer and political
scientist.
Americans
Readily Sense the Post-Modern View That We Create Reality With Our Religious
Diversity.
Joyce Appleby,
historian, UCLA Transcript of Interview (click here)
Much
of Our Perception of the Contemporary Economic World is Based on Ideology That
Pre-Dates Adam Smith.
Scott Armstrong,
National Security Archives.
Several
Hundred Congressional Staffers Inadequately Oversee One Million Secret
Employees.
Tom Athanasiou,
writer.
The
Ecology Movement Is Full of Distractions: Population, Pollution, Technology --
The Real Issue Is The Global Division of Rich and Poor.
George
Ayittey, African economist
The
Nation-State Is Imposed On a Well-Developed Earlier African Structure That Was
Better Suited To Decentralized Democracy and Free Markets.
Rachel Bagby,
writer-composer.
The
Notions of Community and Diversity Have Different Origins That Are Obscured By
Careless Use of The Term Community.
Ronald Bailey,
environmental writer.
The
Environmental Movement Has Been Making False Predictions for Thirty Years,
Starting With Erlich's Population Bomb.
Kenneth Baker, art
critic.
The
Role of Art Critic in The Civil Dialog About Art Is To Be a Public Example of
An Art Viewer.
Benjamin Barber,
political philosopher, Rutgers University.
American
Democracy is a Poor Example of Democracy.
Eugene
Bardach, policy analyst.
Reform
Proposals for Existing Legislatures and Politicians May Result in Worse
Behavior.
Mary Catherine Bateson,
anthropologist.
Many
People Compose Their Lives Like a Musician Composes a Symphony.
Diane Beeson,
sociologist and bio-ethicist.
The
Reason Bioethics Presents Many Dilemmas Is Our Refusal To Confront Underlying
Social Forces That Create Dilemas.
Daniel Bell, social
scientist.
The
Social Role of Economics Has Decreased Significantly in the Past 50 Years.
Robert
Bellah, sociologist.
(1)
Managing Money Should Not Be the Same as Managing People.
(2)
The U.S. Has a Civil Religion That Shapes Much of Our Public Policy For Better
and For Worse.
Charles Benbrook,
agricultural advisor.
Tomatoes
From Florida Use Ten Times the Pesticide as Those From California.
Thomas Bender, Dean
of Humanities, New York Univ.
There
is a Tension Between the Needs of Intellectuals and the Values of Democracy.- A
heirarchy of truth or knowledge is undemocratic, but it is real .
James Beniger,
sociologist.
In
Our Society More Effective Controls Mean More EconomicGrowth.
Peter Berg,
environmentalist, Planet Drum Foundation.
(1)
Redesigning Cities is Fundamental to Sustainable Bio-regions.
(2)
It is a Wonderful Surprise to See Many Bioregional Prophecies Coming True.
Morris
Berman, social critic.
From
an Early Age, Our World view is Shaped by Our Identity as We See It Reflected
in Mirrors.
Paul Billings,
professor of medicine.
Ethical
Problems Arising From Genetic Engineering Are Already Apparent and Are Built
Into Our Social Values. We already believe in genetic determinism.
Norman Birnbaum,
social theorist.
The
Intellectual Landscape of Politics and Sociology Cry Out For A New John Dewey.
Ian Boal, historian
of culture and technology. Transcript of
Interview (click here)
The
Modern Mega-Machine That Threatens Our Survival Is Propelled By Metaphors in
Science and Technology.
Sissela
Bok, ethicist.
Secrecy
Has Some Good Qualities and Many Bad Ones.
Kate Bornstein,
performance artist.
The
Bi-Polar Classification of Gender Based on the Biology of Genitals is on the
Way Out.
Paula Bottome,
Gestalt trainer.
It
Is Increasingly Difficult for Couples Over 45 to Marry and Stay Married.
Stewart Brand,
independent intellectual.
Over
a Hundred-Year Period, Homes and Commercial Buildings Change At a Rapid Rate.
The Forces of Change Are the Market and Functionality.
Wendy
Brown, professor of women's studies.
The
End of Modernity Has Brought With It Great Cultural Confusion. The End of
Confusion Requires Understanding Power.
Dorothy Bryant,
fiction writer
The
End of The Cold War May Have Left Us With a More Complex World To Deal With --
We May Become Nostalgic For the US-Russia Polarity.
Jerry Burman,
attorney and Benton fellow.
Our
Rights of Privacy Are Being Protected Because of the Profit Needs of Electronic
Mail Companies.
Gene Burns,
sociologist.
The
Catholic Church Appears to Contradict Itself On Social Welfare Issues and
Sexual Politics.
Daniel
Callahan, Hastings Center.
Our
Society Is Constantly Converting Private Behaviors Into Public Issues.
Ernest Callenbach,
environmentalist.
(1)
The Environment Needs a Tax on Consumer Sales to Cover Recycling and Renewal.
(2)
We Shouldn't Elect Our Congress,We Should Choose It Like a Jury.
William Calvin,
neuro-biologist.
Human
Intelligence May Be the By-product of Nature's Wanton Wastefulness.
Norman F. Cantor,
professor of history and sociology.
An
Incipient Women's Movement Can Be Found in 12th Century Europe With Clear
Ideology and Political and Economic Demands.
David
Card, economist.
Hard
Data Shows That Traditional Beliefs About Labor, Minimum Wage Laws and
Affirmative Action Laws Are Wrong.
Chris Carlsson and Med-O, Anti-Economy League.
Most
of the Work We Do Is Wasteful, Trivial and Irrelevant.
Glenn Carroll,
sociologist, and business school professor.
Looking
At Business Survival Over 200 Years We Find The Determinants Are Mostly
Historic Accident and Inertia.
Carl Casebolt,
minister and environmentalist.
The
Environmental Movement Isn't Large Enough to Have Sufficient Political Effect.
Sherri
Cavan, sociologist.
Graffiti
is Everywhere, Even Rural Egypt, and Its Presence Reflects Social Conflict.
Alfred Chandler Jr,
business historian.
Modern
Corporate Conglomerates Are Not a Sound Idea, Historically Speaking.
Lawrence Chickering,
independent intellectual.
Successful
Community Organizing in Public Housing Projects in the U.S. Has Many
Similarities to Organizing in Third World Countries.
John Brown Childs,
sociologist.
The
Multi-cultural Idea Is Preferable To The Melting Pot But It Is Far Short of the
Idea a National Community With Genuine Diversity.
Mary
Clark, biologist.
Our
Political and Economic Systems Don't Reflect the Cooperative Nature of Our
Biological Heritage.
Walt Clark, researcher.
National Attitudes Exaggerate the Negatives of Alcohol and Ignore the
Positive and Historic Roles.
Polly Cleveland,
resource economist.
One
Percent of Americans Own 26% of Our Wealth, But earn Only 8% of our Income.
James Clifford,
cultural critic.
Most
Cultures Borrow From Each Other While They Interact.
Sarah Coakley, professor
of divinity.
Underlying
the Earliest Christian Church Consideration of the Trinity is a Fear of the
Sexual-Orgiastic Role of the Spirit in Prayer.
Clifford Cobb,
economist.
Classical
Economics is Based on Assumptions About a System in Equilibrium. We Live in an
Economic System That is in Disequilibrium.
Darlene
Cohen, Buddhist teacher and Leader of
Pain Seminars for Medical workers.
Efforts
to Ignore Pain and to Cover it with Distraction Are Counter -Productive, and So
Is the New Age Motif of "Accepting" It.
David Cohen,
Advocacy Institute.
There
Is a Timing Pattern in the Public Pressures on Congress.
Lee Coleman, child
psychiatrist.
Mental
Health Experts in the Courtroom Have Perpetrated Greater Punishments On Many
Defendants and Convicted Innocent Citizens.
Don Conroy, priest
and community organizer.
To
Save the Environment, We Need New Religious Symbols.
Joe
Corn, professor of history.
The
Way Society Provides Maintenance for Technological Products Teaches Important
Lessons.
Fredrick Crews,
English professor.
The
Recovered Memory Movement is Part of The "Blame Someone" Movement.
There Is No Recovered Memory.
Clifford Cobb, economist.
Classical
Economics is Based on Assumptions About a System in Equilibrium. We Live in an
Economic System That is in Disequilibrium.
Drucilla Cornel,
professor of womens studies and law.
Feminist
Theory Has Trouble With the Concept of Privacy. Privacy Supports the Status Quo
but Personal Sexuality Requires Privacy.
Philip Cushman,
professor of psychotherapy.
Psycho-tharpy
Has Gained Power and Status Promoting Itself as Science-- But It Is Moral
Dialog That Supports The Status Quo.
Robert
Dahl, political scientist.
Russia
and Other First-time Countries May Have Trouble Using Democracy Because The
Citizens Lack Tolerance For Differences.
Arthur Danto, art
critic for The Nation magazine and philosopher.
There
is a Geography of Art. The Mainstream is identifiable and it includes Specific
Cities, Museums and Living Artists.
Robert Darnton,
historian.
The
Pornography of Pre-Revolution France Was a Primary Vehicle for Transmitting
Enlightenment Ideas.
Ronald David, MD
and lecturer in public policy.
The
Primary Determinant of Individual Health is Social Fabric -- Friends and
Family. More Medical Technology Does Nothing.
Stan Davis, business
advisor.
Waste
Products in the Information Economy are Valuable, More Valuable Than Similar
Industrial Waste Products.
Gary Delgado,
community organizer, Oakland California.
It
Is Frivolous to Consider the End of Affirmative Action -- Basic Protection
Against Racial Discrimination Has Not Been Enforced in Housing or Work
David Denby, film
critic and journalist.
In
a Media Saturated World We Have Become Dwellers In a Permanent Spectacle -- A
Giant Circus.
William Domhoff,
sociologist.
The
Elite Who Rule America Believe That Wealth and Power Are Rewards for Their
Competence.
Wendy
Doniger, Indologist.
India's
Religions Have Much to Teach About the Meaning of Evil.
Mary Douglas,
sociologist, England. Transcript of Interview (click here)
(1)
The Right, Left and Invisible Hands are Market Metaphors that give Validity to
Business.
(2)
Knowledge and Society are the Same; Each Defines the Other.
Michael Doyle,
management consultant. Transcript of Interview (click here)
Consensus
Comes From Having a Common Memory.
Stuart and Hubert Dreyfus, professors U. C. Berkeley.
The
Widely Touted Idea of Artificial Intelligence in Computers Is a Misconception.
Troy
Duster, sociologist.
We
Are Putting African-Americans in Jail in Record Numbers and at Great Enough Tax
Cost to Directly Harm University budgets.
Ned Eichler,
mortgage banker.
The
Savings and Loan Debacle Displays America's Historic Inability to Centralize
Credit.
Catherine Elgin, philosopher.
Without
Religious Certainty, We Can Still Know What Is Right.
Richard J. Ellis,
political scientist.
The
Liberal Concept of 'Equality Based On Results' Has Illiberal Consequences.
Amitai
Etzioni, economist.
The
American Consensus About Our Common Good Has Fallen Away Over The Past Thirty
Years: It Was Too Exclusive and Tyrannical.
Thelma Farley,
educator.
In
Education, Emotional Insight Can Become Direct Intellectual Insight.
Rolf Faste,
engineering professor.
Engineering
Students Need to Learn the Skills of Improvisational Theater.
Lyn Fine, peace
educator in New York City.
We
Would Do Well To Think of American Teenagers Killing Each Other As an
Environment of War -- There Are Similar Causes.
Claude
S. Fischer, sociologist.
The
Idea That Technology Is a Driving Force in Shaping Social Behavior Is Wrong
Based on the History of the Telephone. In 1909 AT&T Advertised the New
Telephone "Highway".- Early forecasts about the phone match current
exaggerated forcasts about the internet.
Norman Fischer, Abbott
of San Francisco Zen Center.
Zen
Practice Can Make a Contribution To The Way We "Work" in Contemporary
America.
Stanley Fish, Duke
University. Transcript of Interview (click here)
There
is No Way to Be Objective, One Always Has a Standpoint.
Helen Fisher,
anthropologist.
Cross-Cultural
Studies and Animal Behavior Studies Suggest That Human Couples Are Most Likely
To Break Up After Four Years.
Bernard Foure,
religion professor.
There
Is a Distinct Structure To The Academic and Civil Dialogues Of Our Era And We
Are Capable Of Discerning It.
Kenneth
Frampton, professor of architecture.
The
Architectural Dream of Building Housing on Production Lines Like Automobiles is
Fading- A house is site specific.
George M. Frederickson,
U.S. historian, Stanford.
The
Ideology of Race is Very Different Between African-Americans and South African
Blacks -- Identity/Separation vs. All One People.
Bernard J. Frieden,
professor of urban studies. Transcript of
Interview (click here)
Downtown
Cities Were Nearly Destroyed in the 1950's By the Metaphors of Slums as Cancer
and Surgical Renewal.
Lawrence M. Friedman,
professor of law, Stanford University.
The
Law Is Continually Adapting to the Values of Contemporary Society. Sometimes
Rapidly, Sometimes Slowly.
Milton Friedman,
economist.
Alternative
Policies are Only Implemented in Times of Crisis.
Robert H. Frowick, U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia.
Multiple
Goals of: Human Rights, Democratization, A Muslim Self Defense Force and
Maintaining Political Stability May Not Be Possible.
Francis Fukuyama,
professor of public policy.
Economic
Productivity is Closely Related to Social Characteristics, Most of All: Trust.
William
Galston, professor of public affairs.
The
American Concept Of 'We The People' Has Changed and Now Reflects a Political
Disintegration.
Howard Gardner,
educator.
1.
The Best Students Can Graduate Without Understanding Their Core Material.
2.
A Successful Leader, Such as Gandhi, Has a Story/ a Narrative That Draws
Followers and The Leader Exemplifies the Story.
John Gardner,
founder of Common Cause.
One
of the Knottiest Problems in Our Society Is the Financial and Political
Independence of Suburbs From Their Core Cities.
Joel Garraeu,
Washington Post.
The
Metropolis of America Has Taken a New Edge-City Form in the Past Twenty Years:
a Core Surrounded by a Circle of Smaller Cities.
Gary
Gaumer, Abt Assoc.
Our
Definition of What Health is and What Health Needs Are Is Steadily Expanding.
Clifford Geertz,
anthropologist.
In
Today's World, the Natives Read Books Written About Them.
Kenneth Gergen,
social psychologist. Transcript of Interview (click here)
Entering-Level
College Students Already Accept a Relativistic World Without Truth, Progress or
Certainty.
Michael Gerlach,
professor of business and public policy.
The
Japanese Business Structure Isn't Becoming More American --Meanwhile More Asian
Countries Are Copying The Japanese Model.
Kathleen Gerson,
sociologist, New York University
With
Mothers at Work, Their Children are Benefiting.
Richard Gilbert,
economics, business professor.
The
Economic Implication of Information Is The Main Issue in Economic Theory -- It
Determines Firm Size and The Nature of Competition.
Todd
Gitlin, sociologist. Transcript of Interview (click here)
Each
Person's Generation Shapes His or Her Perspective on the Current World.
Jerry Glenn,
futurist.
Technology
Is Increasing Our Awareness and Acceptance of Social Diversity.
Robert Gnaizda,
public interest attorney.
(1)
Dumping Government Cheese Was Stopped by One Public Interest Attorney.
(2)
Some Regulated Industries Are Often More Efficient and More Responsive to consumer
Needs Than Unregulated Industries.
Dick Godown,
lobbyist for the biotechnology industry.
The
Battle for Legislative and Regulatory Victory is Carried Out With Metaphor. The
Biotechnology Lobby Has Prevailed.
Steven
J. Gould, evolutionary biologist.
(1)
Fate and Destiny Are Not Ideas in Evolutionary History.
(2)
Evolution is Not a Ladder With Humans at The Top, it is a Bush with Humans as a
Branch. There is No Progress Nor Improvement Over Evolutionary Time.
Herman Gray,
sociologist.
Television
is a Cultural Arena in Which Social and Political Values Vie for Position.
Archie Green, labor
folklorist.
Workers
in America Do Not Belong to a 'Class' as Conceived By Marx.
Albert Greenberg,
actor.
Television
and Suburban Life Are Stealing the Personal Stories of Most Americans.
Stephan
Greenblatt, professor of English. Transcript of Interview (click here)
Columbus
Set Sail with Concepts and Metaphors that Gave Him and Spain Rights in the New
World.
Rita Gross,
professor of religion.
Buddhist
Teaching Uses Images of Androgyny, but Men Have Held Power for Centuries.
Jerry Hagstrom,
contributing editor, National Journal.
The
TV Campaign Techniques Used By Political Candidates in the U.S. Are Spreading
Around the World.
Chris Hardman,
theater producer.
New
Theater Uses Stereo Earphones For Each Member Of the Audience, The New Magic
Removes Nearly All The Traditonal Boundaries Between Producer, Actor and
Audience.
Julia and Nathan Hare,
black scholars.
Industrial
Concepts are Being Applied to Child Rearing and Black Children are Prime
Targets.
Paula Harrell,
professor of Asian history.
The
Vital Chinese-Japanese Relationship Is Being Ignored By The U.S. Government
Despite Its Importance For The Coming Decades.
Rich Hayes, environmentalist.
Environmental
Predictions in the Early 1970's Were Wrong About Dire Resource Scarcity.
Robert Heilbroner,
economist.
Economics
and Politics are Intimately Connected Ideas.
Agnes Heller,
professor of philosophy.
America
Was Born Modern, Without A Great Narrative History and with Future of Free
Choice --- Post-modernity Fits America.
Hazel
Henderson, economist.
Running
the U.S. Economy by the GNP Is Like Flying a 747 By the Oil Gauge.
Linda Hess,
Indologist.
When
We Talk About the 'West' We Use a Word With Many Meanings and No Real Content.
Howard Hersh,
composer.
The
Reason We Don't Have Names and Categories for the New Music is That the Living
Composers are Creating from a Wide Context that Itself is too Complex to Name.
Judy Heuman and Ed Roberts, founders of the disability rights movement.
Many
People Prefer Death to Disability.
Arlie Hochschild,
sociologist.
Public
Images of Corporate Life and Parenting Have Left Many Working Mothers With More
Work and More Unhappy Marriages.
David
Hollinger, intellectual historian. Transcript of Interview (click
here)
Multiculturism,
Based on Ethnicity and Race, Is Now An Accepted Fact of American Life,
Replacing The Idea of a Universal Society With Only Religious Differences.
Gerald Holton,
historian of science.
Einstein
Made An Arbitrary Assumption That the Speed of Light Was Constant.
Irving L. Howe,
sociologist and publisher of Society magazine.
Genocide
is a Creation of the State --- It is the Secularization of Death.
Thomas Hughes,
technology historian.
Technology
Has Been the Central Cultural Artifact of American Society.
Vivian Hutchinson,
employment activist in New Zealand.
Unemployed
People Have a Greater Need to Understand Our Economic System Than Most People.
Lewis
Hyde, professor of art and politics.
The
Mythical Character of the Trickster (Coyote to American Indians) Is Found As
the Traveling Con Man in Contemporary Literature and Pop Culture.
John Irwin,
sociologist.
Crime
Becomes a Political Focus When More Important Issues Are Too Difficult For the
Electorate to Face.
Ira Jackson, former
State Tax Collector.
Government
Employees Can Be Enthusiastic and Very Competent.
Mark Jacobs,
sociologist.
The
Juvenile Justice System is Chaotic and Unable to Change the Outcome of the
Lives Entrusted to It: Some Get Out Well and Some Get More Dangerous.
Russell
Jacoby, writer and intellectual.
The
Campus Debate on 'Politically Correct Curriculum and Behavior' Occurs Primarily
on Campuses with Activist Law Schools.
Jennifer James,
cultural anthropologist.
Sentimentality
Can Be Harmful --It Clouds One's Ability to Learn From History Which Makes
Understanding the Present Impossible.
Kenneth Jowitt,
political scientist.
The
Post-Cold War World Has Frontier Qualities. Nation States and National
Boundaries Are Disappearing Rapidly From Liberia, Somalia and Serbia to Russia
and, Possibly, China.
Jack Kaplan, Israeli
historian.
Ethiopian Jews in Israel are Not Acting Like a Lost Tribe.
Jack Katz, sociologist,
UCLA
Emotional
Needs Are Often The Driving Force in Violent Crime.
Paul
M. Kennedy, historian.
The
U.S. is Economically Suffering the Result of Over-Extension of Its Military in
the Cold War.
Leonard Koren,
graphic arts visionary.
The
Potential for Learning Through Graphic Arts Is Only Beginning to be Explored.
Alan Krueger,
economist, Princeton Univ.
Research
Economists Agree That U.S. Incomes Diverged Over the Past Twenty Years. Rich
are Richer, Poor and Middle Income Americans are Poorer.
Paul R. Krugman,
economist.
New
Economics in the Past 20 Years Rejects the Premise of Free Trade. Historic
accident and the theory of increasing returns to scale suggest that
protectionism can be wisely used to increase economic growth.
Nadja Kreelov,
management consultant in Russia.
Russians
Don't Stay Up Late at Night Discussing Philosophy; They Get Up Early to Work
and They Want to Talk Business.
George
Lakoff, linguist. Transcript of Interview (click here)
The
Metaphors We Live By.
David Landes,
economic historian.
Some
Nations, Such as Switzerland, Benefit From Technological Change More Than
Others.
Gavin Langmuir,
medieval historian.
Anti-Semitism
Is a Part of the Larger History Anti-Judaism.
Michael Lerner,
publisher of Tikkun magazine.
The
Belief That Success Comes From Merit and Talent Is Debilitating to Most People.
Michael Lerner,
environmentalist.
The
U.S. has Behaved Like an International Outlaw for the Past Forty Years.
Rabbi
Alan Lew, Congregation Beth Shalom.
When
Judaism Faced an Historic Chasm, New Rituals and New Institutions Were
Developed and Then Cloaked in "Tradition".
Richard Lichtman,
Marxist psychologist.
Psychology
Has Many Ideas That Need to Be Integrated Into Marxist Theory Such As The
Defense Mechanism.
Seymore Martin Lipset,
political scientist. Transcript of Interview (click here)
America
Is as Different From Canada as Revolution Is From Counter-revolution.
Leslie Lipson,
political scientist and ethicist.
Ethical
Systems Exist Without Religions, But Amero- European Societies Mistakenly and
Unfortunately Confuse the Two.
Bonnie
Loyd, landscaper.
The
Landscape Humans Inhabit Reflects Our Unconscious Social Practices.
Douglas Lummis,
Japanese political historian.
The
Japanese People are Overwhelmingly Against Their Government on the Issue of
Militarism.
Edward Luttwak,
strategic thinker.
The
U.S. Already Looks Like a Third World Nation, An It Could Soon Become One.-
Economic competition has replaced war.
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