In Harmonium

Being in the main the musings of a Symbolic Anthropologist

What is “critical thinking”?

| May 28, 2010

I just finished attending the IAFIE conference here in Ottawa, and a lot of the discussion was on the subject of “critical thinking”.  Based solely on the presentations there, it became rapidly apparent that the problems many of the presenters were having with critical thinking were the exact opposite of the problems my students have [...]

Is the post-COIN era here?

| January 25, 2010

My friend and fellow SWC denizen Mark Safranski (aka Zenpundit) has an excellent post today entitled The post-COIN Era is Here.  It is, IMHO, an excellent post on the (supposed) “COINdinista vs. Big War” debate; a “debate” that exists more in the minds of the policy crowd that the actual debaters.  Mark makes some really [...]

Towards a working ontology of “Terrorism”

| May 1, 2009

A couple of friends / colleagues are in the process of putting together an historical sourcebook on “terrorism” which, IMO, will be very useful.  As a part of this process, I just got a copy of their draft introduction which has started me thinking that it is time to formalize some of my current thinking [...]

Reality is too serious to be taken “seriously”

| January 13, 2009

In the past couple of posts, I have been jotting notes, as it were, about how people view ways in which we, as a species, simulate our perceptions of objective reality and then pass on our understandings of how best to operate within these perceptions.  All well and good but, in an age when we [...]

Some implications of Space and Time

| January 10, 2009

I wanted to post a quick follow-up to the example I used in my last post regarding conceptualizations of space and time.  In it, I noted that “For the irhabi, the Area of Operations (AO) is glocal while for much of the Western military the AO is local (i.e. geographically limited)”, an observation I stand [...]

Notes towards a theory of asymmetric conflict, part 1

| August 13, 2008

[Note: I am in the process of putting together a journal article on asymmetric warfare and I will be using the next few posts to help me think abut it.] Competition appears to be an inevitable consequence of our natural (read biological) state. Darwin termed this “natural selection”. But, as with most species, we are [...]