Category: Editorial

Planting Seeds

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Editorial

I want to talk about teaching and how difficult it is.

When I was teaching, there was always the “wall.” That thing that prevented what I was trying to convey from getting through.

You see, my students were generally very young, eighteen to twenty-one. There were middle aged students who returned to school and a good number of veterans, and they were wonderful students. But the great mass were the young ones. And they were inexperienced

Without perspective, they could not draw a conclusions from a similar circumstance. You could lead them to the right answer but they had enormous difficulty applying the reasoning to anything else.

I used to show a clip from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” where the learned knight leads the local peasants to a completely wrong conclusion (that witches burn because they are made of wood). And while they thought it was funny, they didn’t get the hard cold fact that leading people in the wrong direction is not that hard and the tools we depend on for teaching are not always that reliable.

It soon became evident that they had never been trained to understand the implications of what they were learning. In fact, for most of them learning was just a long boring process of getting the necessary paperwork for later employment. I taught every new class the rationale for why each major subject was part of their course of study and fit my own classes in that picture of whole trained human being.

So, I began to plant seeds. It seemed to me that if I placed an idea with wide applications in front of them several times, they would realize at some point later the implications of that idea. So, I taught the great ideas. I showed legendary movies, and I would tell the great stories of Western Culture. I was talented enough to make those things interesting.

Did the seeds grow? Probably. Ideas especially ideas deeply embedded in the culture have a lot of relevance and staying power.

But do I know that for a fact? No. You never know what effect your teaching has. You just hope.

James Alan Pilant

Sanitized History is Wrong

On By southwerkIn Editorial, ethics, Government Failure, International

We’ve been hearing a lot about our foolish leadership and his desire to limit the Smithsonian’s coverage of the history of slavery because he believes they talk too much about it.

They don’t talk to much about it. What has happened is that historians are really coming to grips with the history of slavery and its long term effects. At various points in my life I have attended college winding up with thirteen and a half years of full time attendance as well as another twelve years or so teaching. In that time, I have seen the teaching of Reconstruction and slavery changing dramatically.

After the Civil War, the defeated confederates did everything possible to make states rights the center of the war’s cause rather than slavery. However, a very casual examination of the issue and a quick look at the newspapers of the revolutionary South demonstrate conclusively that slavery was the principle factor in the rebellion.

After the war, superhuman efforts were made to write a new and highly fictionalized history of the war, the “lost cause” narrative was created and emblazoned across novel after novel and many motion pictures as well. The shock of my white students upon seeing “Judge Priest” with Will Rogers and its utter and complete embrace of the lost cause I found fascinating. My minority students were well aware of that narrative.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy labored for years to sanitize history books, build statues and monuments and to attack any attempt at an accurate depiction of the Civil War. Their statues of traitors and subversives who killed their fellow Americans in the pursuit of the right to enslave others are all over the United States but principally in the South.

Historians are no longer buying into the Confederate sympathizers historical revision. The horrors of slavery began to be discussed honestly in the classroom. I had some of those classes. Slaves were very often maimed to mark them as property. They were murdered for defiance. They were bred like cattle for muscles and size so they could work the land. They were denied education as well as virtually any human right recognized by American law. The idea that they were vital and cherished members of the family is pitiful nonsense.

But above all, the greatest and most significant failure of American history was the fact that the confederate traitors were not punished after the war. Their evil acts and continued defiance had dire results which continue to this day.

And among those dire effects are the desire to censor American history of everything that might detract from a heroic narrative. Nations should not be a subject of worship. A nation is something that a people develop and if they do right be proud of and if they do wrong own up to it.

The glory of America is that we learned from our mistakes. Not only did we abolish slavery, we became leaders in the struggle to end colonialism and many other worldwide evils. Until this year we were the most important nation on earth in the struggle to end hunger and fight disease all thought this has been ended by the pitiful and immoral current regime. In many ways we have learned from our history and become a better and greater people.

That we do right is our glory and our legacy not some nonsensical made up history where everything was good and great in spite of facts and knowledge.

The United States is a great nation because it learns from its mistakes not by denying them.

James Alan Pilant

Is Publicly Booing J.D. Vance Patriotic?

On By southwerkIn corruption, Editorial, ethics

I’m sure there are many people on both sides of this issue. Many probably feel that booing a public figure such as the Vice-President disrespects the office while others feel that current circumstances demand such action. However, you might personally feel there can be no doubt that a very large amount of booing and shouted insults are taking place.

(The Battle of Trenton – Patriots at war.)

I have seen this administration make my field of business ethics ridiculous by engaging in continuous waves of corruption, selling crap merchandise and advertising openly its willingness to be bought.

So, I feel like booing. I never thought to see such vile people elevated to positions of power in the United States.

So, yes, I think true patriots will boo these awful people.

Professor Winter quoted below has some thoughts that run very much along the same lines as mine.

Kari J. Winter, a professor of American studies at the University at Buffalo, emphasized that these protests are an “act of American patriotism.”

“Protesting against tyrannical power and corruption is the foundational act of American patriotism,” she said. “The protests that we are witnessing across the country today are fueled by the spirit of resistance that inflamed Boston in the Age of Revolution.

“It is the duty of everyone who loves this country to speak up in whatever ways they can against the Trump administration’s assault on every aspect of American society that has traditionally offered a gold standard to the world,” she continued, adding: “In place of gold standards, Trump promotes gilded baubles, golden toilets and gaudy ballrooms. ”

Kimberley Richards writing for Huff Post has an article: (quoted above) JD Vance’s Brutal Public Booing Is Prompting Quite The Strong Reaction Online.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/jd-vances-brutal-public-booing-110017405.html

The Ethics Disaster at the CDC

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Editorial

In one of the greatest, if not the greatest, scientific disaster in this nation’s history, the head of the CDC was fired followed by the resignations of some of the finest scientific minds in the nation.

On one side of this firing and these resignations we have an unhinged conspiracy theorist. On the other we have seasoned scientists with decades of experience in dealing with vaccines and disease.

In any other administration, science would prevail.

But we have this administration.

(A picture from the book, An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800. It was published in the 19th Century. It seems to carry an appropriate ambience for the current situation. jp)

In many business ethics disasters people die, nations are severely harmed, land become barren and toxic. What do you say about this one? This is a situation where a nation’s defense against disease is being compromised. It is possible that millions will die, certainly thousands.

Why this massive shake up? Why are these people being gotten rid of?

What possible rationale could there be to remove these medical and scientific experts from the defense of our nation?

Apparently, the worst and the least of the internet conspiracy theories.

On that basis a great nation goes naked in an environment where new diseases are evolving moment to moment?

Well, yes.

Have we as a nation gone completely mad? Are our leaders a band of unhinged lunatics?

Certainly, there are times when that seems to be the case. The District of Columbia is infested with the National Guard of several states. The President is trying to fire people he is directly prohibited by law from firing and the Supreme Court using a thing called a “Shadow Docket” finds that the President can do pretty much what he wants in spite of the clear English language meaning of the law.

So, the government is in a real way crazy right now.

But people dying because of this craziness? Not just dying but dying when we have the vaccines to prevent it? Are you sure that these people should be allowed to go this far?

You know and I know that this is madness.

Once, we’ve come to agreement on the fact that these people are crazy, we arrive at a new problem.

What are we going to do about it?

Right now we can vaccinate a large proportion of the population against the latest version of COVID. Kennedy has limited those vaccinations to people over 65, a small proportion of the population that can be protected. COVID is infecting people right now in large numbers.

People are going to die who don’t need to die.

That offends me. Doesn’t that offend you?

What are we going to do?

How long can this government go on doing these kinds of things?

Below are a couple of news stories and some quote that relate to this story.

James Pilant

MIKE STOBBE writing for the Associated Press has an article that I have linked to below and quotes a few lines from.

https://apnews.com/article/cdc-monarez-fired-trump-kennedy-vaccines-science-17fd8a19064e39906bc0125fd81e3525

When the White House fired Susan Monarez as director of the premier U.S. public health agency, it was clear to two of the scientific leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the political meddling would not end and it was time to quit.

“We knew … if she leaves, we don’t have scientific leadership anymore, ” one of the officials, Dr. Debra Houry, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

“We were going to see if she was able to weather the storm. And when she was not, we were done,” said Houry, one of at least four CDC leaders who resigned this week. She was the agency’s deputy director and chief medical officer.

And then I have this.

Sarah Fortinsky writing for The Hill in an article: Biden White House official on RFK: ‘This is wacky, flat-earth, voodoo stuff’

Biden White House official on RFK: ‘This is wacky, flat-earth, voodoo stuff’

The health secretary (Kennedy) reflected on the children he’s encountered since arriving in Texas, saying at the event, “I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like.”

“I’m looking at kids as I walk through the airports today, as I walk down the street, and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation,” Kennedy said.

“You can tell from their faces, from their body movements, and from their lack of social connection,” he continued. “And I know that that’s not how our children are supposed to look.”

This is the man in charge of the nation’s health. He believes that he can tell if a child is “overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation” by looking at them. (My words, my emphasis.)

Scott Bakula May Return In New Star Trek Series

On By southwerkIn Editorial

I watched all four seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise. I very much enjoyed it. And as a writer in business ethics, I could not fail to observe the intensely moral approach the show took to major idea like Fascism and tolerance for other races. It showed a society moving away from a capitalist outlook to a standard of individual achievement, a planet where wars were no long fought between the different nations where technology had brought all humans to a high standard of living.

A very optimistic show, you might say, a show that embodied the very American concept of progress, tolerance and justice continuing on the march, a concept very much in doubt as this time.

Should Bakula return, I have no doubt the new series will make me proud as an advocate of ethics and morality. And should it return I will do a moral analysis on episodes that draw my interest.

By http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Enterprise_(NX-01), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15537017 (Borrowed from my friends at Wikipedia with my thanks!)

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/20-years-star-trek-enterprise-220304144.html

(Quoted directly from the article listed above.) The premise for this potential show originates from the Enterprise episode “A Mirror Darkly Part II,” where the evil Mirror Universe read information about his Prime Universe counterpart found in the database of the USS Defiant, a Prime Universe ship previously seen the Original Series episode “The Tholian Web” that had been sent back in time. There was a graphic showing that Archer entered the political life after retiring as an admiral in Starfleet and eventually achieved his presidential position in the Federation, which founded six years after the main events of Enterprise, as seen in the controversial series finale. Well, it turns out it was Michael Sussman himself who came up with this piece of trivia. (End Quote.)

I hope Scott Bakula returns and that the new show is a big hit. We need more like it.

James Alan Pilant

Business Ethics Roundup: Sept. 6th – 12th

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Corpoorate Social Responsibility, Economic Justice, Editorial, morality

We begin with the wave of fires creating waves of destruction in the American West. Governor Gavin Newsom says the debate over climate change is finished. He says in these California fires you can see the results of climate change with your own eyes. I strongly agree but I felt that the fires in Australia last year should have ended the debate. This is further evidence.

Climate change is going to be a continuing issue in business ethics. How are businesses, particularly, the international corporations, going to act on this issue? Their responses will be as important as that of many medium size nations.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54128872

Sir David Attenborough tells us in his latest documentary that 60% of the vertebrate animals have disappeared since 1970 and the rate of natural extinction has been accelerated 100 times.

Many businesses impact species extinction. The international trade in animals and animal parts is savagely destructive of the earth’s species. And we have only a limited time to act.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54118769

Let’s segue to a somewhat nostalgic and yet current note, that is, vinyl records have outsold CD’s for the first time since the 1980’s. That may be just a chimera though since streaming services are seizing the lion’s share of the market.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/13/tech/vinyl-records-cd-sales-riaa/index.html

There is a famous insurance fraud case making the rounds on social media. A woman in Slovenia cut off her hand with a band saw claiming it was an accident that happened while cutting branches. Unfortunately for her claim, she had just taken out five insurance polices which would have resulted in an award of more the equivalent of more than a million US dollars. This was certainly suspicious but her boyfriend’s internet searches on artificial hands done before the loss clinched the case for fraud.

Apparently another case of stupid criminals but a very sad one (although the hand was reattached).

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54125770

California’s legislature faced with a shortage of firefighters and inmates showing bravery and tenacity fighting the wave of fires has passed a law making it easier for them to expunge their records and become firefighters.

As a form of positive business ethics, I am impressed by the act. It seems to me simple justice that those on the frontline of fighting these terrible and now increasingly regular fires should be rewarded.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/9/12/21433678/wildfires-california-law-inmate-firefighters-fire-departments-release

Rio Tinto’s CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques, is going to resign following the destruction of sacred aboriginal sites. The company attempted to deal with the crisis by canceling bonuses but considering the harm done this was a non-starter.

This was an appalling crime and there is no real penalty. Under the law, they could destroy at will any cultural artifact on the land they controlled. The Juukan Gorge rock shelters had shown evidence of continuous human habitation for 46,000 years. They were an irreplaceable evidence of human history completely unique.

What kind of people are these to disintegrate and destroy cultural artifacts at will? And what kind of nation allows its cultural treasures to be annihilated without a hint of caution or penalty?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-54112991

And finally, I would like to add my voice to Emily Stewart‘s writing in Vox. She is calling for providing all citizens of the United States with Internet. I strongly agree. If we are going to advance as a nation, that is a minimal requirement. Further, in a crisis like the current pandemic we have already seen the importance of being connected.

But please read the article, the author is detailed and impressive.

James Pilant

 

 

A Bright Orange Crayola

On By southwerkIn Editorial, morality, Personal

A Bright Orange Crayola

I’ve always thought children were wonderfully intelligent but what I like most about them is their honesty, that they are genuine. They haven’t learned the dangers of showing your real feelings or real thoughts.

And they’re bright. Children are learning at incredible rate. Did you know that that by the time a baby is five months old, it has learned to match the facial expressions of an adult? By the time a child is five, its ability to understand facial expressions is almost as good as an adult. And they are clever. How clever?

Let me tell you a story.

On the wall of my office is a picture from a coloring book marked with a bright orange crayon.

There was a five year old and I gave her a piece of candy, something to color and some Crayolas to color with. I expected her to be gone for a while but she came back very quickly and asked for more candy. I from the very heights of adult wisdom told her she could have one as soon as she finished coloring her picture. She said, “That’ll take forever!” and left apparently depressed. She then returned very quickly with the entire picture colored with broad strokes from the aforementioned orange Crayola. She wasn’t very much in the lines but she did color the whole picture.

She out foxed me. I told her to color the picture. I didn’t specify how or in what manner or even that she should use more than one color. She had held to the strict terms of the agreement and defeated my intent that she spend at least ten minutes coloring. It was a triumph of lawyerly reasoning and I the actual lawyer was on the short end of the stick being out reasoned and out thought by a little girl.

Of course, the stakes were very small. I keep a good amount of candy in my office. Being a diabetic I can’t eat it myself so it all goes to the occasional visiting child and sometimes a co-worker comes by and gets one. Since I can no longer eat candy, I buy the expensive dark chocolate and caramels and live vicariously through other people’s happiness while eating them.

But even thought the stakes were small, a loss is a loss, and being clobbered in a David vs. Goliath style struggle is pretty unsettling when you play the Goliath role. Nevertheless, I admire her for it. She was clever and knew how to think and that’s at five years of age.

Of course, the sporadic visits of children to the office are not my only experience with the learning power or reasoning of the very young.

I have one son who is now twenty-four. When he was just a small boy, instead of telling him no all the time, we made a deal. If he could give me a good reason to have something. I’d buy it for him. At first he was clumsy and made poor arguments but very rapidly began to develop real negotiating skill. And I kept the bargain. If he argued well, he got toys, and as time went by, the toys became video games and then movies and books. A few years ago, I watched him negotiate with his buddies while playing a D&D style game. It was like watching a shark in a pool full of minnows.

With children, it’s important to listen to them and cultivate their abilities. I know it is hard. They often repeat arguments, have outlandish ideas and no experience. But if you stay with it, pay attention and talk to them like adults, it pays off.

 

Business Ethics Roundup Aug. 30th – Sept. 5th

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Capitalism, Editorial, ethics

This week had some interesting aspects. After a deluge of foreign seeds began arriving in the United States, Amazon was caught without an appropriate policy. Well, now they have one. You can’t send seeds by Amazon. Looks like they went for simplicity in their policy making.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/06/business/amazon-bans-foreign-us-seed-sales-china/index.html

John Oliver’s feud with Danbury, Connecticut is reaching a crescendo. Will the city rename its sewage treatment plant in his honor? Will the feud come to a peaceful outcome? Stay tuned.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/06/media/john-oliver-danbury-mayor-sewage-plant/index.html

The Atlantic story about our president’s general contempt for veterans has made major waves in the political world. However, the editor of the magazine says there is more to come! More dramatic news than this is hard to imagine but nothing about our current political climate can be described as normal. Next week should be interesting.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/06/media/jeffrey-goldberg-atlantic-trump-reliable-sources/index.html

An alligator skin handbag worth roughly $26,000 was destroyed in Australian customs for lacking a permit. This calls attention to the crime of animal parts being marketed to our jaded upper class. The struggle against this kind of nonsense is critical to preserving endangered species.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54022571

To close on a somber note. deaths in the United States due to our pandemic may reach 400,000 by the end of the year.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-united-states-coronavirus-deaths-projection-400000-by-end-of-year/

 

Hilary Clinton and History

On By southwerkIn Editorial8 Comments

Hilary Clinton and History

This week Hilary Rodham Clinton gained enough delegates to be the Democrat’s nominee for President of the United States. This is a truly historic moment but as far as I can tell it is being greeted with a subdued yawn in most circles.

Why isn’t there more positive response to these events? Why isn’t there wild enthusiasm for the first woman to helm a major party ticket?

I believe there are three reasons for this lack of enthusiasm.

First, we have her husband, Bill Clinton, whose baggage includes extra-marital affairs, the Marc Rich pardon, etc.

Second, Ms. Clinton is very much a “more of the same” candidate. She does not call for radical change and does little to appeal to those who believe that the system isn’t working for them. She is a creature of the system and her millions of dollars of income would tend to indicate that she believes the current system and works well.

And third, the Sanders campaign. The campaign for the democratic candidacy was plagued by Clinton favoritism. The scheduling of the democratic debates on weekends and against sporting events was designed to minimize other candidate’s exposure. Could she have beaten him in a straight up contest without super delegates and other nonsense? We’ll never know but it leaves a sour taste.

There can be no doubt that Clinton is hard, cold calculating politician. Certainly, there are many and I am one of them that hoped the first woman nominated by a major party for the presidency would be more of a transformational figure. But there is nothing radical or even original in her positions. Anyone who reads the beltway media like the Washington Post can predict her campaign positions with accuracy.

So, she is not a transformational figure and not much perceptible will change should she be elected in terms of woman and men and the United States. But a line will have been crossed; a change made that will echo across the centuries and its implications will have real effects. For the next woman in pursuit of power, position or just simple significance, the struggle will be easier; the goals more clearly marked and change more easy to effect.

James Pilant

Voting and Power!

On By southwerkIn Editorial2 Comments

Voting and Power!

There is a genuine disgust and cynicism about the government and how it functions here in the United States. I share that disgust and like so many find many other institutions in this society lacking.

However, we can vote. It is a slender reed but it may yet prove to be important enough to inaugurate some kind of meaningful change in a system rigged against us.

If you can vote in a primary, please vote. But above all vote in the November election. “They” are always saying that this is the most important election in your lifetime. But this time, it looks like that is the call. We have a history making election that could change all of our lives in so many different ways.

I know that there are those who want to blow up this system. And to you, I say, I understand. I get the pain of feeling that the government has forgotten you, sold your jobs and your future. But there is still time, there is still hope, there are still possibilities.

Vote one more time. This is great nation that has forgotten that all must share in economic benefits not just the wealthy and the well-connected. But that can be just temporary forgetting. The path is still here. The course is still to be found. We can get back on track and have a government that serves the interest of us all.

I ask you to give it another chance and participate in this election.

One of my friends, (from Ireland and Scotland) has written something about voting a power that I like and value. Maybe you’ll like it too.

002-1The excerpt below is from Random Public Journal, the web site of my good friend, Jason Michael McCann, the essay in question being Overthrowing this Kingdom.

Voting? What was that? What sort of silly loon would waste their time casting a vote? Those that did, marked their paper and chucked it down the pan – for all the good it would do in making things any different for them. In our 300 years of London rule the ballots of Scotland had as much use in Westminster politics as toilet paper. Voting on polling day was the ruin of a decent walk. Change only came about when we re-opened our own parliament up in Edinburgh, and then the transformation began. It turns out, after all, that we are genetically programmed to make political decisions and think political thoughts. Somewhere it was written:

Today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.

These were always highfalutin words, best kept I thought for school assemblies, until it dawned on me that they were speaking about us. We’ve only been kept in chains by our own consent; be that as working people under management and ownership or a nation under the heel of an empire. It was we ourselves who put up the red stones on John Finnie Street, and it was our own people who broke the backs of nations to prosper imperialists, and just as surely as we did all that we can rip it all back down and build it again to the prosperity of ourselves. It is us who have been appointed over our nation, to pluck up and pull down a kingdom, to overthrow it and utterly destroy it, and plant and build up a nation for ourselves.

He does have the eloquence, doesn’t he? I’ve told him some day I’ll have to come hear him preach. (That’s the American way of talking – preaching, etc.) I think they minister in Ireland.

But he has the same message as me. This is a good time to participate and make your vote felt.

James Pilant