Leigh M. Johnson

2011 Year in Music

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 2011 Year in Review Lists, Dr. J's Lists, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive, Year in Review Lists Comments Off on 2011 Year in Music

It’s that time again, readers! Time for Dr. J’s retrospective wrap-ups and utterly unscientific evaluations of the year that was 2011. In 2010, I decided to split my year-end lists up into categories– see the 2010 Year in Music, or the 2010 Year in Sports or (my personal favorite) the 2010 Year in Pop Culture—…

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Occupy Aristotle

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Occupy Movement, Philosophy, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive Comments Off on Occupy Aristotle

Recently, I saw that a philosopher friend of mine (Jeffrey Bernstein) posted the following as his status update on Facebook: “For an explanation of (1) why Occupy Wall Street doesn’t need a positive political program and (2) why the Occupy Movement exceeds the designations of Democrats and Republicans, read the first paragraph of Aristotle’s Metaphysics.”…

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The Philosophy Smoker Controversy

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 3 Comments

For those of you fortunate enough not to know what a “Philosophy Smoker” is, let me begin by saying that it has nothing to do with either “smoking” or “Philosophy.” “Philosophy Smoker” is, rather, the informal term used to reference end-of-the-day receptions held at professional Philosophy conferences. Generally speaking, Philosophy Smokers are garden-variety academic conference…

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First As Tragedy, Then As Farce

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Occupy Movement, Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive 1 Comment

We barely had a moment to digest the horror of the incident at UC-Davis, where police pepper-sprayed nonviolent student protesters associated with the Occupy Movement, before the image of the offending policeman (Lt. John Pike) was transformed into an internet meme. Pike’s image was photoshopped into some of the great works of Western art, including…

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Why I Stood With The Students

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Human Rights, Occupy Movement, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching Comments Off on Why I Stood With The Students

As I reported in my previous post, students at my college organized an event last Monday night, the Rhodes Solidarity Vigil, which was meant to demonstrate solidarity with the nonviolent student protesters at UC-Davis (and elsewhere) who were brutalized by police while peacefully exercising their right to assemble. This is why I stood with the…

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Solidarity

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Human Rights, Occupy Movement, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive Comments Off on Solidarity

This past Monday, November 21, students at Rhodes College organized a candlelight vigil to show their solidarity with the student protesters at UC-Davis who were assaulted by police while nonviolently protesting on November 18. Rhodes’ event was an answer to the call sent out by Occupy Colleges, the student wing of the Occupy Movement, asking…

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Beautiful Politics

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 99%, Occupy Movement, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive Comments Off on Beautiful Politics

Please, please take 4 minutes and 29 seconds out of your day and watch this.

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Dr. J Catches Up

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 99%, American Values video project, Music, Occupy Movement, Philosophy, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive Comments Off on Dr. J Catches Up

It’s been too, too long since I’ve posted here. Two whole months, in fact. [Insert standard excuse about being too busy.] My absence was particularly egregious this time, since my last posts, back in September, left a few issues hanging. (Just as an aside, it’s hard for me to believe that the last time I…

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31 Days in Seuss, Day 10: My Hometown

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 31 Dys in Suess, Memphis, RMWMTMBM Archive Comments Off on 31 Days in Seuss, Day 10: My Hometown

My apologies for dropping the ball on the 31 Days in Seuss Challenge over the last week or so. I got busy and then had some internet issues at home. Anyway, I’m going to try to catch back up, starting where I left off. Here’s Day 10: MY HOMETOWNMy hometown sits on the Big Muddy…

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Leiter v. Alcoff, Part One: The Basics

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Leiter/Alcoff, Philosophy, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive, Women and Gender Issues 3 Comments

Now that things have quieted down a bit, and in response to readers who’ve been asking me to do this for a while, I’ve decided to offer a few reflections on the recent (and very public) kerfuffle between Brian Leiter and Linda Alcoff. I expect that most of you who aren’t professional philosophers don’t have…

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