Daniel Gauss was born in Chicago and attended the University of Wisconsin (Sociology, BA) and Columbia University (Education, MA). He has worked in the field of education in New York City and Shenzhen, China for the past 20 years. He has written essays and articles on diverse themes, short fiction (Pushcart Prize nominated), sci-fi and poetry. His work often dives into art, literature, the environment, morality, history, religion and human rights. Basically, he is culturally aware and community committed, a guy who likes everything, except liver. He can be reached at: danielgauss31 [at] gmail.com
by Daniel Gauss Metaphorically, if hippo ethics is the impulse to respond to suffering with compassion, hyena ethics is the impulse to enjoy, justify or morally authorize suffering. Harm toward another person has been morally justified when it is an act of deterrence and this is, in fact, a rationale for legal punishment. By punishing…
by Daniel Gauss Imagine this: It is around the mid-1980s and the venerable Sir Georg Solti takes the podium at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall to conduct Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The orchestra is poised, the audience breathless. But then a stagehand rushes over and hands him a note. “Maestro, Daniel Barenboim can’t make it, but…
by Daniel Gauss I started playing with the idea that Constantine P. Cavafy might be a type of Faust-like character who beats the devil by making temptation irrelevant. Through a poetry devoted to memory, sensuality and the afterlife of desire, Cavafy undermines the Christian-Faustian assumption that pleasure necessarily decays into guilt, disappointment or damnation. In…
by Daniel Gauss When I went to Hanoi for the first time, I began a travel ritual I now follow in every city I visit. I had grown up reading about the Vietnam War, mostly from our perspective, but still grim and unflinching, full of failed policy and the atrocities our military carried out. It…
by Daniel Gauss Standing at Raj Ghat, the memorial for Gandhi in New Delhi, near where his corpse was cremated, I began to think about a problem I’ve been grappling with for a long time. With all the good, kind-hearted and sincere people in the world, why is the world not becoming a substantially more…
by Daniel Gauss If the United States reinstated the military draft, many defense experts and policy analysts argue that this would weaken the all-volunteer force by lowering personnel quality, hurting morale and negatively affecting retention. Yet, the administration of Donald Trump is moving to automate draft registration under Pete Hegseth, streamlining a system the military…
by Daniel Gauss This story goes back to a time when Williamsburg was just starting to become the hipster promised land and just before 9/11. It can be classified as an obscure but, hopefully, interesting part of previously untold Brooklyn history, history which still resonates as gentrification continues its relentless march across the city. It’s…
by Daniel Gauss In the twentieth century, there were policy initiatives in the United States that went beyond incremental reform and which could justifiably be called “utopian.” Three of these initiatives stand out: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s proposal of a “Second Bill of Rights,” Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” and Richard Nixon’s effort to establish a…
by Daniel Gauss Did you ever read Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”? If not, it starts as the story of a man who is going to be hanged. As the trap door opens under him, he falls, the rope tightens around his neck but snaps instead of bearing his weight,…
by Daniel Gauss The whistleblower in The Insider is introduced to us in a glass booth, evocative of the type defendants sit in at trial in some European countries. We wait for the theater piece to begin by listening through headphones to someone singing Money (That’s What I Want). We will hear everything through headphones.…
by Daniel Gauss Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony helps explain how the power structure of modern liberal-democratic societies maintains authority without relying on overt force. Many definitions of hegemony point out that it creates “common sense,” the assumptions a society accepts as natural and right. It works by getting inside our heads and convincing us…
by Daniel Gauss When you walk through the gates to enter the B-52 Victory Museum in Hanoi, you immediately find the wreckage of what has been one of the most terrifying machines ever built: an American Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. Apparently, this wreckage largely came from Nixon and Kissinger’s “Christmas Bombings” of 1972. The museum has…
by Daniel Gauss While teaching English at a Yeshiva in the Bronx, I was surprised one day to become part of a theological thought experiment so creative and meaningful that it has stayed with me ever since. After recently learning that the universe may “die” much sooner than previously thought, I recalled that moment as…
by Daniel Gauss There are more than 50 armed conflicts going on in the world right now. In fact, depending on how you define “armed conflict,” the number from the most trustworthy sources ranges from around 60 (using a strict, high-intensity definition) to over 150 (using a broader, low-intensity definition). We wake up, take a look at the news…
by Daniel Gauss COVID-19 revealed something terrifying about modern democracies: they are especially vulnerable to ambiguous threats, which can become magnified into national disasters. A virus that was neither mild enough to ignore nor lethal enough to unify a response managed to throw the United States into prolonged disarray causing unnecessary and severe harm. If…
by Daniel Gauss I waited until after Reddit’s 20th anniversary to post this article, hoping others might offer critical reflections on what the platform has become. Much of the “Reddit at 20” coverage, however, was somewhat fawning, as if many writers had received and worked from the same PR press kit. In the interest of…
by Daniel Gauss In the context of growing concern about educational equity, the persistent racial disparities associated with the Specialized High School Admissions Test in New York City continue to spark debate. As cities and school systems nationwide reconsider the role of standardized testing, the story of the origins of this test shed light on…
by Daniel Gauss Remember how Dave interacted with HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey? Equanimity and calm politeness, echoing HAL’s own measured tone. It’s tempting to wonder whether Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick were implying that prolonged interaction with an AI system influenced Dave’s communication style and even, perhaps, his overall demeanor. Even…