John Stuart Mill Promotes Magazine!

While I had my nose buried in books this weekend, I came across this interesting passage in an essay by Little John.

"In many cases, though individuals may not do the particular thing so well, on the average, as the ---- -- -----, it is nevertheless desirable that it should be done by them, rather than by ---- ------, as a means to their own mental education - a mode of strengthening their active faculties, exercising their judgment, and giving them a familiar knowledge of the subjects with which they are thus left to deal."

Now, you might wonder why I omitted a couple words here and there. I avoided mentioning who Stu was railing against in order to use this quote as a plug for a sweet magazine I just discovered. MAKE magazine, recently profiled in an article in the New York Times, is a quarterly devoted to, surprise surprise, making things. Its rooted in the tradition of such magazines as Popular Mechanics and Popular Science, but unlike the general-interest focus of those monthlies, MAKE stays true to its calling. In the intellectual tradition of JSM, the goal is to focus on end-user creativity, not to simply accept passively the innovations of distant companies. To quote Mill again, MAKE's "business is to enable each experimentalist to benefit by the experiments of others; instead of tolerating no experiments but its own. " Granted, in both quotes, Millie was referring to the role of government in society, but substitute "mega corporation" in the blanks and the effect is about the same.

If you ever wanted to take aerial photos, build a robot dog with a balloon-popping laser, or generally imperil your life with things carrying high voltage and voided warranties, check out MAKE and the accompanying blog. I guess Johnny isn't promoting the zine as much as I am. Hmm.