Word: cottoning
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...those social studies concentrators "versed in deliberative democracy," I was a bit surprised to read senior Thomas B. Cotton's column ("Habermas Has Descended," Dec. 5). It's not every day one reads about the philosophy of Jurgen Habermas in the newspaper. Unfortunately, my surprise did not lead to gratification in this instance, because it seems to me that Cotton's understanding of Habermas, leaving much to be desired, has led him to some stray conclusions...
Essentially, Cotton concludes that deliberative democratic theory conflicts in a strong sense with representative democracy. After summarizing Habermas's vision of society as "a debating society in which everyone talks incessantly about everything," Cotton informs us that asking everyone (including the most unvirtuous of souls) "to deliberate continually on the most fundamental issues is not just impractical and irrational--it is dangerous...
...escape the inevitable "vicious" and/or "imbecilic" outcomes of this process, Cotton advocates a system of elected representatives who will "likely possess the virtues necessary to deliberate well." Sounds like a representative democracy is a great deal: the masses shed the burden of thinking about those weighty issues (about which they have nothing intelligent to say anyway), and let the politicians do all the dirty work. Why would Habermas be so silly to as to argue against such a wonderful system...
Degas' painting underwent a radical shift during his time in New Orleans; unfortunately, the reproductions of his paintings in the book make that shift less clear. Benfey highlights a pair of paintings to illustrate the change, the photographically realistic A Cotton Office in New Orleans and the much blurrier, Impressionistic Cotton Merchants in New Orleans. Office, as the frontispiece, is the only painting in the book to be reproduced in color. Merchants (visible in full color at the Fogg), like the other well-chosen and well-placed illustrations, is only a small black-and-white reproduction. The loss of color...
...white supremacist league. (As this book reveals for the first time, Degas had some relatives among those free men of color.) Not just the Musson family but all of New Orleans was similarly split. Lingering bitterness against Reconstruction was easily detectable, as was the frantic energy of the cotton brokers in the Musson family firm. Degas was captivated even by the colorful strangers engrossed in their quotidian promenade near the Musson house...