Of all the things I find dispiriting about being a hausmann in a rural corner of a large country, the inability to participate in the intellectual life of the nation in any meaningful way is one of the most vexing. I can read the latest books on topics of interest – when I can obtain them, that is. I can attend the occasional public lectures that sporadically occur in the somewhat nearby city of Portland when a visiting scholar, author, or (that most rare of creatures) public intellectual, makes a sweep through the region and stops long enough to impart a few words of wisdom at one of that city’s two universities. However beyond that, I am – despite having two graduate degrees, neither of which, due to the past few decades of “degree inflation” that makes master’s degrees effectively worthless, is sufficient to obtain any manner of contributing position in an institution of higher learning – effectively excluded due to distance, credential, and lack of economic resources from the myriad of conferences, symposia, and other events at which the greatest minds in the nation – if not in fact the world – discuss matters that are of great interest to me and about which I would very much like to learn more.

Thus, out of sheer love for the idea of a well-informed public life, I use such websites as Twitter and Facebook to follow the news from institutions and individuals the work of whom I find in one way or another significant. Unfortunately, this often does little more that to keep me abreast of all the fascinating events happening far away from and out of reach to me. While the world may have indeed become smaller in regard to the ability of modern communications technology to enable trivial or incidental news to be communicated broadly and quickly, more extensive and meaningful use of it to make important lectures, discussions, and debates more widely available is still all-to-often sorely lacking.

Therefore when I learned – via a posting on Twitter – that the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College was to hold their Fall Conference for 2013 on the topic “Failing Fast: the Educated Citizen in Crisis” I was both elated and heart-broken. The importance of a well-educated public for the effective functioning of a civil society is a topic very near and dear to both my heart as well as to my former occupation. Would that I were anywhere near Bard I would most certainly make every possible effort to be in attendance at this conference. However as I will be in rural Oregon, furrowing my brow over far more mundane matters such as to just how to scrape up the cash for my daughter’s impending orthodontic treatment, I would – not without some irony – be unable to attend this important as well as no doubt intellectually stimulating event and be thus one again thwarted in my efforts to become a more educated citizen.

Or so I thought. Posting an admittedly somewhat snarky reply to the original Twitter message from which I took the news of the conference – more than anything as a cry to the world that there are those of us out here in the hinterlands who, despite having nothing professionally to gain from such knowledge are nonetheless interested in these matters – inquiring whether the proceedings might be later made available as a podcast (something the London School of Economics and a handful of other institutions, much to my eternal gratitude, sometimes do with similar lectures and events)? And indeed, a reply was quickly received indicating that while a podcast was not in the plans a webcast was!

Thus, on 3 & 4 October 2013, inquiries as to my whereabouts after 7:00 AM Pacific Standard Time should be unnecessary as I will – baring unforeseen difficulties inherent in the life of a hausmann and parent, be seated near my laptop computer taking copious notes in near-extatic intellectual glee as I view the webcast, directly from Bard, of Failing Fast: The Crisis of the Educated Citizen. Thank you most heartily to all at the Hannah Arendt Center and Bard College for, in a most appropriate tribute to your namesake and her tireless work as a both a great scholar as well as a great public philosopher, thoroughly thinking this event and all its methods of communication completely through and making the creation of an educated citizenry something more than merely an isolated intellectual exercise. May many more take note of your actions and do likewise.