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ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD The First Freedoms and Americas Culture of Innovation The Constitutional Foundations of the Aspirational Society 2013 Edition by Narain D. Batra
This is a book about the dynamics of the aspirational society. It explores the boundaries of permissible thought--deviations and transgressions that create constant innovations. When confronted with a problem, an innovative mind struggles and brings forth something distinctive--new ideas, new inventions, and new programs based on unconventional approaches to solve the problem. But this can be done only if the culture creates large breathing spaces by leaving people alone, not as a matter of state generosity but as something fundamental in being an American. Consequently, the Constitutional mandate of "Congress shall make no law..." has encouraged fearless speech, unrestrained thought, and endless experimentation leading to newer developments in science, technology, the arts, and not least socio-political relations. Most of all, the First Freedoms liberate the mind from irrational fears and encourage an environment of divergent thinking, non-conformity, and resistance to a collective mindset. The First Freedoms encourage Americans to be iconoclastic, to be creatively crazy, to be impure, thus, enabling them to mix and re-mix ideas to design new technologies and cultural forms and platforms, anything from experimental social relations and big data explorations to electing our first black president. Table of contents :- PREFACEHOW THE BOOK WAS BORNPrometheus and ConfuciusHuman Rights and Julian AssangeACKNOWLEDGMENTINTRODUCTIONTHE MAKING OF THE ASPIRATIONAL SOCIETYPromethean PossibilitiesCHAPTER ONETURBULENCE AND HARMONY The Cauldron Of CreativityPragmatismPursuing The Freedom Trail Wherever It LeadsCourt RulingBut Thank God: For Every Jerry Falwell There's Larry FlyntCrude And Outrageous Speech As CorrectiveThe First Amendment Is More Than Free SpeechHistorians Need LessonDoubtfully TrustingHow Unscripted Life Enables Innovative BehaviorState of ParanoiaHow The First Amendment Creates Mongrelized OffspringCreative DisequilibriumWarningWhen US Supreme Court Woke UpFreedom From Irrational FearTyranny Of Self-CensorshipCHAPTER TWOHOW FREE SPEECH STIMULATES INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOR The Re-Making Of Motherhood And Other WondersRight Of ProcreationMitigating Reproductive ConstraintsSeeking Answers Freedom From Revealed TruthEternal Optimism For Making The World A Better PlaceSustainable InnovationCivic ParticipationOpenness makes Americans inventiveGlobal Brain-Grid Emerging CHAPTER THREETELLING STORIES TO A HYPER-CONNECTED WORLDA Vigorous and Wide Open NewsosphereUnfiltered and Unbridled HarassmentA Hazardous Vocation Balancing Competing InterestsTrust, But VerifyOutrageously TransparentContinuum of the Fake and the Real Unreliable Sources News: Simulation and dissimulation Dark Journalism Social Media and Online Civic journalism Empowering Citizen Journalists Exaggerated Fears News Media and Innovation ExceptionalThe Power of Weak Ties Building Trust in Social NetworksCan Social Networking Create Social Capital Despite Weak Ties?WikiLeaks' ChallengeMaking Sense New Challenges CHAPTER FOURCOMMERCIAL SPEECH AND INNOVATIONThe Soft Power of Aspirational BrandsStatus ChangeChallenging AuthorityCommercial Speech and the Public InterestLanguage and Innovation Fired Up and Get GoingBeautiful Deceptions Turning Ideas Into AssetsCulture of Aspiration and the Arab StreetMashing UpBusiness Methods Patenting Corporate Speech CHAPTER FIVEFREE PRESS AND MARKETPLACE FUNDAMENTALISMThe Dark Side of the Aspirational SocietySources of Corruption Insatiable at the TopHit the Numbers or You are Out The Moral Neutrality of NumbersWhen Drug Companies Sell Snake OilFree Press and Corporate BehaviorWho Do You Call When Nothing Works?CHAPTER SIXCHINA'S AUTHORITARIANISM CHALLENGES AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM The Roar of the DragonVicious Capitalist Energy Extreme NationalismNo GratitudePacific Ocean IssueCan China Challenge America Without Embracing the First Freedoms? PragmatismDissidents in the Digital AgeHuman Rights Virtual Struggle Cyber ResistanceThe Persistence of China's DissentersWill Information Be Free in China?Abundance Without FreedomHalf-hearted FreedomThe Future Is Dragon. Do You Hear It Coming?Points of Light Innovation in a Closed SocietyCHAPTER SEVENPOLITICAL INNOVATIONS OF THE ASPIRATIONAL SOCIETYTo Live And Die In Freedom That's America But What About The Rest Of The World? The Decider-Warrior PresidentWar Games and DiplomacyAwesome Temptations of Neo-Imperialism Beware the Power of the UnexpectedBuilding Pillars of Freedom on Soft PowerHow Does Soft Power Arise? The First Amendment and the Aspirational SocietyJust and Meritorious SocietyThe Flight Of The Black Swan To The White HouseThe Aspirational Society Must Not ShrugEmpathy and ImperialismPropaganda CONCLUSIONFREE SPEECH AS ENERGY Pushing the Boundaries of Permissible Thought DilemmaDependent Origination of the Aspirational SocietyNOTESINDEXABOUT THE AUTHOR