There’s nothing quite as tantalizing as instant gratification. Whether by self-help books or weight-loss programs, we’re easily drawn into the elusive promise of big results from little effort. But we’ve come to dismiss those toothy-covered tomes and magic slimming pills as hype with no delivery. It was with that learned skepticism in mind that I approached Tim Ferriss’ article “How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes.” Grad school looming, a potential boost in reading speed seemed well worth a few lost minutes.

Indeed, it turned out that the tremor-inducing stack of papers eying me from my desk–and, I suppose, the infallible hope of immediate happiness–was what urged me on as I sat submerged in instructions with the likelihood of my gullibility crashing into and washing over me. My doubts be damned, I pulled out my trusty BIC pen and an undergraduate political science book, downloaded this neat timer app, and set to it. A half hour later, I emerged, results in hand.

My initial words-read-per-minute came in at an underwhelming 221, putting me squarely in that familiar range of the average American. After completing the drills (it took me more than twenty minutes since I repeated a couple tasks to get their timing right), I tested myself again and clocked in at 442 words-per-minute–a 100% increase! On top of that, I sufficiently retained what I read even though my speed had significantly increased. I didn’t achieve the 300% improvement heralded by the author, but I won’t turn my nose up at the doubling of my initial speed. I will readily admit, however, that I have doubts about the effectiveness of this approach when absorption, deep thinking and attention to detail are required. But, for now, I’m impressed and hope the change sticks as I tackle my coursework.

If you want to try this yourself, I’ll offer one piece of advice: Heed the big, capitalized reminders about ignoring comprehension. That uncomfortable feeling in your stomach will go away once you realize your newfound ability to re-read the same content multiple times in the same amount of time it took you to read it once before (repetition, repetition, repetition!).

Let me know if it works for you. I’d like more than just my results to validate this approach.

It happened too often during the 2008 election and continues today: accusations of socialism and fascism flung about without proper appreciation or knowledge of their historical gravity. Most, if not all, of the time, the charges have flowed in one direction from right to left. They’ve been cast haphazardly and without understanding of their true meaning, especially fascism, perhaps the eviler of two.

So what is fascism, or what does it look like? Israel Charny, a world-known and respected psychologist and genocide expert, compiled a list of typical fascist traits he observed through his study of genocides and detailed them in his book Fascism and Democracy in the Human Mind. His juxtaposition of democratic traits effectively highlights the disparity between the two belief systems.

Fascist

1. Totality, final solutions, perfection
2. Overcertainty, absolutism, and magical thinking
3. Censorship and suppression of information
4. Obedience, conformity, intolerance of dessent
5. Superiority, excessive power seeking, and prejudice
6. Violence against self and/or against others, cruelty, sacrifice, and destruction of life
7. Denials of doing harm to self and others

Democratic

1. Processing and containing contradiction, diversity, and complexity
2. Acceptance of uncertainty, process, possibility, creative tension, and anxiety
3. Openmindedness to information, questioning, and use of scientific-like empiricism
4. Freedom, respect for dissent, and responsibility to make choices
5. Basic equality and respect, sharing power with checks and balances against excessive power
6. Nonviolence, conflict resolution, aggression for self-defense and seeking peace, kindness, belief in humanity, and goodness of life
7. Acceptance of responsibility for doing harm to self and others

What’s shocking about the fascist mindset Charny describes is that it resembles the collective mindset of many on the far-right who vocally and persistently oppose the current administration and the left in general. They are trying to extinguish what they believe to be fascism with fascism, and they’re doing so seemingly unaware and even in denial (try pointing this out to any patron of Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, for instance, and see what happens.)

This mode of operation is dangerous and one we have to do our best to derail. Failing to do so could result in serious consequences for our democracy. In fact, truthout.org wrote an insightful piece recently on that very topic that’s worth a read. Though I don’t have the solution to this problem, I believe the first step required is learning about it and thinking critically about what we can do as individuals.

Along the road to grad school, many people impressed upon me how crazy I was to leave a comfy, secure job in troubled economic times to submit myself to abject poverty. To each of them I’d spew the normal “I’m chasing a dream” bit after which they seemed satisfied, even supportive. What I didn’t tell them was that I was using grad school as an excuse to unveil a new website. So here we are.

Welcome to technolitics, pronounced tech-nahl-ih-ticks, which, as I’m sure you’ve gathered, is the coupling of technology and politics. It’s my goal to use this site as an archive of my grad school work, a creative outlet for my thoughts and ideas when I emerge from my books for air, and a way to improve my writing by practicing as much as I can (apparently writing PHP and English are significantly different).

Like the name and description imply, you’ll find posts here about technology, politics, my experiences as a grad student and the intersection of all three. At first, my friends, family and co-workers were shocked when I told them I planned to study political science as it seemed I was abandoning my undergraduate studies and career. But really it’s a logical continuation. I’ve always been interested in the social sciences, and now more than ever the presence of technology is expanding in government. During the 2008 election, candidates used Facebook and text messages to rally their bases. Senators and governors have gone head-to-head on Twitter over healthcare reform and stimulus spending. Why is it that some of these technologies succeed where others have failed? What are the implications for government of a connected citizenry and world? Questions like these are best answered by those with both political and technical depth, which is why I’ve chosen now to expand my knowledge of politics. Hopefully some good can come from the tumbling in my head.

How frequently I’ll update this is at best a guess. I’d love to post multiple times a week but I’m not sure ambition and reality will jive come the start of the school year. An easy way to avoid coming back only to find stale content is to subscribe to my RSS feed, accessible by clicking the little orange icon in the upper-right corner. That said, do stop by often as I’m sure you can poke around and find something entertaining (that’s my dream, at least).

If you run into problems with anything on the site please let me know. I’ve done my best to test this puppy in multiple browsers and resolutions, but as, well, everyone that knows me will attest, I’m not perfect. Any feedback you can give that helps improve this site is and will be much appreciated.

Oh, and go Terps!

This is the writing sample I cooked up for my grad school application. I’m embarrassed to say, before this, I hadn’t written a research paper in many years. For my first go in a while, I did alright. It was a lot of fun to write and I learned a bunch about present media consumption on the Internet. I may update it, but that depends on time.

This is the statement of purpose I included in my grad school application to the University of Maryland. Like most of my writings, as soon as I submitted this I noticed fifty things I would have changed about it. C’est la vie.