Comments on: California Leavin’?

By: Tulsa

Tulsa — Fri, 23 Jan 2004 21:36:17 +0000

Arnold is Interesting. But do you think he deserves to be governor ?

By: Tulsa

Tulsa — Fri, 23 Jan 2004 21:36:09 +0000

Arnold is Interesting. But do you think he deserves to be governor ?

By: Luka Yovetich

Luka Yovetich — Tue, 14 Oct 2003 06:48:14 +0000

I’m getting my MA in philosophy at a Cal State and haven’t heard anyone there talk about leaving the state. Isn’t Arnie just barely conservative? Would any philosopher really think to move because of him? I understand that many philosophers probably opposed the recall on principle and would feel bad about it going through. But is Arnie really much worse than Gray Davis in terms of what most philosophers support politically?

By: Matt McIrvin

Matt McIrvin — Mon, 13 Oct 2003 13:32:41 +0000

The buzz I’ve been hearing is all about the tremendous significance Schwarzenegger’s election has to the 2004 presidential campaign. Either it means California is now mysteriously “in play” in a way that it was not a week ago, or it means that Republican conquest of everything is inevitable again, or it means that voters are now fed up with all incumbents and will kick the bastards out in ‘04 (I heard the last one straight from the Dean campaign). As far as I can tell, it means exactly none of those things. Nobody liked Gray Davis and a movie star ran in the recall.

By: Brian Weatherson

Brian Weatherson — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 20:52:08 +0000

Phil’s evidence that ‘philosophers have never been big fans of democracy’ is pretty impressive. In fact, as far as I can tell it’s non-existent. A few philosophers have had some fairly appalling political views, but in my experience the vast bulk are fairly run-of-the-mill social democrats. ‘Bad apples’ reasoning is always fun. One could run through all the types of murderer we’ve seen in America and conclude that Americans have always been big fans of murder. It’d be about as plausible as concluding that philosophers don’t like democracy on the basis of, I’m guessing, not much more than Plato’s anti-democratic leanings, Heidegger’s Nazi sympathies and Sartre’s softness for Stalinism. I’m guessing Phil is uncomfortable with the fact that people disagree with him and have better reasons for their views than he has for his.

By: Brandonimac

Brandonimac — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 20:42:03 +0000

I hope that’s an impersonator and not really Brian Leiter posting above. Of course Bush was less heinous as govenor—the Texas governorship is particularly impotent (as is the case in most ex-confederate states). I think this is much less true of California. In my own home state of Kentucky, the govenorship is very powerful. But nothing compares, of course, to the presidency. (Also, check out Molly Ivin’s work to see how heinous Bush actually was even in the relatively powerless position of Texas govenor) And what’s this about “I think he was already govenor, too, when I got here”? One hardly has to be a political junkie to know the GWB was Texas govenor from 1994-2000, and I can scarcely imagine how that fact would escape the attention of someone teaching at Austin. I’m left with the conclusion that either (a) the “brian leiter” above is an imposter, or (b) Brian Leiter has little interest in politics—and hence that he’s just passing along academic gossip re: the California situation (which doesn’t mean it’s not true, of course).

By: phil

phil — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 19:35:56 +0000

Well, if philosophers do decide to bail out of California it wouldn’t surprise me. After all, philosophers have never really been big fans of democracy and have managed to promote and cohabitate with every form of tyranny human beings have come up with. Like religious fundamentalists, many people on the Left seem to have a hard time dealing with the fact that people disagree with them.

By: neil

neil — Sun, 12 Oct 2003 08:11:15 +0000

What everyone seems to be forgetting about the election of the Gubernator is that nothing has really changed. This is the same California it was last year; it was equally willing to elect a jock action hero as governor before, even if the theory went untested. Anyone with enough of an obsession with politics to consider relocating over it surely realizes this. So if nothing has changed, why didn’t Arnold run in the last real election? Maybe he wanted to squeeze a few more movies in (would people have refused to vote for him if they realized it would mean no T3?). Maybe he knew he wouldn’t be able to win a Republican primary, or a one-on-one race against Davis, so he waited a year to run in the recall election (which was surely already in the works a year ago).

By: a different chris

a different chris — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 23:44:19 +0000

Move? MOVE?? What philosopher worth his salt wouldn’t kill to be on the Left Coast! Maybe my one course in college misled me, but I though philosophy was all about posing questions and exploring paradoxes? And no place on Earth presents as many mind-blowing questions and harbors as many “perfect 10” paradoxes as the Golden State. The Recall does nothing but emphasize that fact.

By: jimbo

jimbo — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 19:45:46 +0000

If this was known ahead of time, Arnie might have picked up a few percentage points…

By: rea

rea — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 15:59:42 +0000

“the absurd Schwarzenegger” Sounds like a perfect environment for existentialists, anyway . . .

By: MIchael C

MIchael C — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 15:37:21 +0000

I teach philosophy at a Cal State, and I’ve not heard any such news about a Cali exodus. The only people who might have anything to worry about are pre-tenure faculty. The salaries, etc., of senior faculty are contractually guaranteed. On top of that, with the still glorious job market, getting out is easier said than done. On the bright side: The future looks great for adjuncts in California!

By: baa

baa — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 14:55:56 +0000

John Searle has already pledged to join Alec Baldwin in France.

By: arthur

arthur — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 14:45:43 +0000

This should have been a camapign issue. “A vote against recall is a vote for philosophers.” Or maybe not.

By: Ahnold

Ahnold — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 14:17:05 +0000

Mein zuerst act as Governor vill be to change my name to Dionysius. Then I vill rule my state as a true philosopher-king!