Category: Teaching

Andrew and The Ethics Sage Comments on “Web Site Rewrites King’s Life”

On By southwerkIn Teaching

Andrew Gates and The Ethics Sage (Steven Mintz) comment on my earlier post, Web Site Rewrites King’s Life.

Neither the King Center or martinlutherking.org are fully credible historical accounts of his life. I believe both should be taken with a grain of salt.

On one hand, the King Center is much more willing to ignore the negative aspects of Kings life and actions in order to preserve the politically correct illusion that he was some sort of second coming. For instance, it is widely known that King engaged in many extramarital affairs while he was busy with the Civil Rights Movement. There is also much evidence that many of Kings sermons and speeches contained plagiarized material. There is also much debate as to whether he ACTUALLY did the work at Boston University to earn his PhD. There are letters and testimony from some of his professors that suggests or outright states that they gave King high marks in their classes because he was black and it seemed the politically correct thing to do. None of this will be found on The King Centers website.

I would be more willing to cast aside the biography of MLK Jr. on martinlutherking.org as garbage if it didn’t have a lot of sources to back its facts up.

One the other hand, conclusions and rhetoric found in martinlutherking.org are FAR from unbiased. It does nothing to highlight the work that King did to lead the Civil Rights Movement.

I think if you take both articles and ignore the obvious bias in both, then you can get more of a full picture of the man and what he did. The King Center will point out his achievements, accomplishments, and the positive aspects of his life. martinlutherking.org does a good job (in my opinion) of bringing to light the negative characteristics and actions of the man that his PR people didn’t want the public to see.

Andrew’s Second Post one hour later –

Both websites seem to be bias and not fully trustworthy. When you get past the obvious bias of both sites and just take in the facts, I think you get a better overall picture of who MLK Jr. was and what he did.

The King Center does a good job of highlighting his accomplishments and achievements. It also does a good job of giving you the politically correct version of the man that his PR people wanted the public to see.

martinlutherking.org seems to do a decent job of highlighting the character flaws and negative actions that his PR people didn’t want the public to see. Although this sites biography is filled with extreme interpretations and rhetoric. If the biography contained no sources whatsoever, I might be more willing to cast it aside as garbage. This is not the case though.

Like it or not, MLK Jr. did more to bring about equal civil liberties for african americans than any other person. This is definitely worth being remembered. However, he was engaged in extramarital affairs and was a plagiarizer. These are facts, not opinions. He did attend Communist Party meetings. I dont personally hold that against him, but I can appreciate how that would’ve destroyed his reputation back then if it became public knowledge.

A politically correct atmosphere is just as detrimental to the preservation of truth as extreme, ignorant rhetoric.

My response –

You might want to avoid two comments so close together in time. My computer identified it as spam and didn’t post it. I’ve been checking the spam lately, found it and put it up.
Comment as often as you like. I don’t want to discourage you but I don’t always check the spam and I don’t want to lose your comments. Those were about an hour apart, so it’s more than that. Thanks for commenting.
I really don’t have anything to say in response. I did the post because of my interest in a healthy skepticism of web sources and prefer to stay in that area.
jp

Comment from The Ethics Sage –

It is amazing that such a website exists and there is a “community of white nationalists” with the theme: “White Pride, Worldwide.” I believe the proper way to handle sites like these is for teachers to discuss their points of view and refute their hatred. It can be a teachable moment and what better day to expose the lies and bigotry these groups stand for than the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.

My Response –

I really want children taught early one about the need to exercise judgment about the web and sources, but I worry that the need not to offend one group or another might prevent that from happening.

An editorial comment –

I wrote the post purely to talk about the virtue of skepticism when dealing with the Internet. Discussions of Martin Luther King (and I am experienced in these) tend to go toward the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover and then they head straight for a variety of conspiracy theories. I want to talk about using the web.

Now, that does not mean, you can’t discuss those aspects of King’s life you find interesting. If you make a comment on “Web Site Rewrites King’s Life,” I’ll put it up on this post just like I did Andrew’s and The Ethics Sage’s, that is, in full with no editing.

If you wish to criticize me, even harshly, for my unwillingness to join that aspect of the discussion, you may rest assured I will put that up completely as well.

James Pilant

Web Site Rewrites King’s Life

On By southwerkIn Teaching7 Comments

Keith Thomson writing for The Huffington Post was alarmed to discover this.

Recently, a diverse group of New York City high school students was assigned to write reports on Martin Luther King, Jr. Searching the Internet, several students learned that the renowned civil rights leader had in fact been a drunken philandering con man. Others concluded that the federal holiday marking King’s birthday should be repealed.

Where in the www did these kids search?

Google, for starters.

If you enter “Martin Luther King, Jr.” as a search term, the site netting the third-highest ranking is martinlutherking(dot)org, which purports to be “A valuable resource for teachers and students alike.” Visit the site and you can read the “truth” about King — communist, wife-beater, plagiarist, sexual deviant and all-around fraud. There are flyers to the same effect that children can download, print and bring to school.

As you have probably guessed, this site is not run by the King Center, the memorial established in 1968 by Coretta Scott King to the advance her husband’s legacy (TheKingCenter.org ranks seventh on Google). Rather, MartinLutherKing(dot)org is a spinoff of Stormfront(dot)org, the “white nationalist” online community created in 1995 by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Don Black. Stormfront’s Web forum now claims nearly 214,000 participants. Black registered martinlutherking(dot)org on January 14, 1999, later adding MLKing(dot)org and MLKing(dot)com.

Some years ago, I was doing research on Joseph Stalin. I had looked at a number of web sites and found one with a lot of information. Strangely it considered him one of the greatest rulers in Russian history. I found this difficult to reconcile with the 51 million dead people. So, I did some further research. I discovered that the Communist party had not disappeared in Russia and there had been regular demonstrations calling for a return to Communist rule and opposed to historical research that cast the years of Communist rule in a “bad” light. The web site I had found was one of theirs. It was fake history, a fantasy

I am a college teacher. I have a posting I call “The Internet Care Kit” with the more important and reliable web sites on them. I usually post them on the class website about midway through the semester. I find it odd that the old creaky teacher (me) often knows more about web than my students. Oh, they can social media better than me but they are often helpless on important topics. I only rarely find a student who knows what Project Gutenberg is.

I know it’s hard to navigate the web without abundant caution But I treasure the huge amount of information and opinion on the web. I am old enough to remember crawling on the floor of a university library to get to the lower cards in a card catalog that was almost too tall to reach and far too low for comfort. I would be trying to find an appropriate source for my writing . It would take me thirty minutes to get five sources and if it was an esoteric topic, nothing at all.

Now, it’s amazing. I can find hundreds, sometimes thousands of postings on even rare subjects. For the learner, it’s a dream come to life. Sometimes, I just prowl the internet. I find one interesting posting and follow a link from it to another site and then another and so on.

When I was a little boy and watched science fiction movies with mainframe computers that filled buildings, I dreamed one day I would work one of those. Even today, working on a computer never quite feels like work. It’s an adventure.

Along with adventure, there are viruses, spam, malware, rip-offs, pornography and enough just simple strangeness to frighten the most stalwart among us. But I wouldn’t go back to crawling on the floor of the library looking hopefully for some kind of information.

I don’t know anything that will help people get through their research safe from falsehood and political fantasy besides a healthy skepticism. That’s probably how it should be. We are beset continually by lies and exaggeration. Why should we expect the web to be any better?

Are you confident in the 24 hours news cycle? Are you confident in the promises of the political world? Do you find the beltway commentators reliable? Does corporate PR give you a sense of security? The web is treacherous but it is not alone in its danger.

Those children have to learn caution sometime and it’s better now than later. Now, they don’t have credit card accounts to be stolen, Nigerian princes willing to share their millions with them, the secrets to investing in gold, the coming apocalypse or their vital need for an interesting variety of performance enhancing drugs. I understand that the young face threats of their own on the web but isn’t that something that a healthy dose of skepticism will assist in. Let’s develop their judgment early.

James Pilant

PICC Line (via ladyincrisis)

On By southwerkIn Teaching

This is my mother’s blog about her struggle with cancer. She is a three time cancer survivor. I would think her story would have considerable resonance.

Her blog isn’t fancy yet. Give it time. Trust me, I know how to get all the bells and whistles on it. For the moment, just read and absorb the message.

James Pilant

If you are in a place where not very many nurses can find a vein for your IV, it is a good idea to have a picc line inserted in your arm so you don't panic when you see a nurse with a needle in her hand. Some people have a port in their chest. After my surgery for ovarian cancer,6 chemos were ordered.I have always been glad my doctor ordered the picc line. Sure saved me a lot of panic and high blood pressure. The only bad thing is it has to be cl … Read More

via ladyincrisis

Andreas Kluth – Hannibal And Me

On By southwerkIn Teaching1 Comment

This is a video of Andreas Kluth discussing his new book, Hannibal and Me. To be utterly brief, the book is about creativity and the straitjacket of success.

Watch the video, the buy the book.

James Pilant

Buying Your Child Into A College!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure, monopoly, Teaching2 Comments

From the Huffington Post –

Dr. Michael Bardwil donated $40,000 to his alma mater, a Jesuit school in Houston, Texas, after a school administrator advised it would guarantee his son admission. So when his son was rejected earlier this year, Bardwil was upset.

ABC reports that a school administrator asked that Bardwil donate $100,000 to the school, and in return the prestigious college preparatory would offer admission to his son. When Bardwil pledged $50,000 over a five year period, he assumed it was a sure thing.

The elite colleges and universities admit about 1/3 of their students based on parental giving, another 1/3 based on legacy enrollments (their parents went there) and the last 1/3 on merit. This is one of the most significant reasons that the upper classes have solidified. It’s very difficult to move up in the world without going to one of these school. With only 1/3 of the enrollment based on merit, your children and mine have little chance of getting in. The open spots are so few, a student can’t get in on high scores but only with almost superhuman scores. That’s not fair.

We like to think this country is a meritocracy where you get ahead becaue you’re smart or hard working. But most of us understand the truth and that truth is that having good contacts, going to good schools and having upper class mannerisms are the basic requirements for success. These people live in a bubble world where no amount of incompetence, poor conduct or even criminal acts can knock them down. Now, I’m sure you can remind me of Madoff or some other corporate malefactor. But let me remind you that the world economy was savaged by the geniuses on Wall Street back in 2007 and not one has paid any penalty for their criminal acts or simple incompetence.

The middle class lives in a world where any failure can doom your career. They live in a world where you can do everything, absolutely everything they taught you in high school or college would gurantee you success and still everything can be taken from them, their jobs, their homes, their insurance, their benefits, their pensions, their investments – everything. The children of the middle class are thrown out into a world of diminishing opportunity and low paying jobs.

Let me repeat, one of the key factors is the difficulty of the children of the middle class to get into prestigious schools.

I see nothing on the horizon that will change those rules.

You see this is the hardcore, the never changing affirmative action, the big quota system. The guaranteed access to the best spots to those who already have money or status is a vicious assault on the concept of merit.

It is astonishing considering the amount of federal aid these institutions gobble up that they are not required to admit based on merit.

James Pilant

National Problem Fixable By Making Insignificant Changes In Business School

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Teaching

From Business Week –

Have business schools contributed to creating overconfident and self-focused leaders? I suspect many of you will nod your head in agreement. You might even declare that, by extension, business schools share blame for the economic crisis. As a business school dean, I take these perceptions seriously; there is enough in them to warrant careful reflection.

An antidote to overconfidence and self-focus in business leaders may lie in building more focused cultures in our business schools. Culture is the set of values and norms in an organization that shape behavior. It acts as an internal gyroscope for everybody in the organization to keep them in balance, acting ethically and in line with the larger interests. It is what people do “when the manager is not looking.”

Yes, all we have to do to fix our bizarre cultural worship of pirate CEO’s is to tinker with business school attitudes. The root of all evil is based in schooling probably in those ethics classes.

I get tired of hearing this nonsense. It is important to have good business schools. It is important that they communicate ethics, attitude, business knowledge and considerable training. But that’s it.

A business school is not like wading into a pool blessed by an angel and getting healed.

Overconfident attitudes and overly proud, ridiculously vain attitudes are not based in business school curriculum but in larger society.

If we want to change that, we give stockholders a say in how the company runs, put rigorous controls on executive salaries and change bonuses to consider long term contributions and actual contributions.

James Pilant

Wikileaks And Ethics

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Philosophy of Business, Teaching

The ongoing Wikileaks controversy has a large number of ethical elements. The best commentator on this is Chris MacDonald. I subscribe to his site and I’ve watched as he hit one ethical aspect after another. I firmly believe that the Wikileaks controversy will be an ethics textbook staple for the next twenty years and that MacDonald will probably write the quoted article.

Here’s his lineup –

December 9th, 2010 Wikileaks, Credit Card Companies and Complicity

December 11, 2010 Should Companies Judge the Ethics of Those with whom They Do Business?

December 13, 2010 Wikileaks & Mastercard: Should Companies Do Government’s Bidding?

December 20, 2010 Wikileaks and NGO Legitimacy

If you are are a teacher, these articles provided excellent teaching opportunities. If you are one of my readers, this is a business ethical analysis of complicated set of moral problems.

Whoever you are, I recommend the articles.

James Pilant

Update – Professor MacDonald has added another post on this subject. This one is called Corporate Citizenship, Apple and Wikileaks. This one was posted on his web site on December 22, 2010.

Obama To Lower Corporate Tax Rate!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure, President Obama, Teaching

From Reuters –

Democrats and Republicans should begin a conversation next year about a broad overhaul of the tax code that would involve lowering rates while eliminating tax breaks for favored groups, President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Friday.

The Republicans now have a majority in the House. Shouldn’t this have been something done during the first two years?

Obama said any effort to streamline the multilayered U.S. tax code would be challenging but if successful, it could set the stage for more robust growth.

Okay guys, I’ve been around the block a few times and when ever someone talks about simplifying the tax code, the middle class is about to get nailed hard. By the way, “robust growth” is a code word for lower corporate taxed and business benefits like subsidies.

Tax reform is an idea backed by many in the business community who say the current corporate tax structure puts American firms at a competitive disadvantage.

For “many in the business world,” read every corporate lobbyist is salivating like a hungry German Shepherd in front of filet mignon.

“Typically, the idea is, simplifying the system, hopefully lowering rates, broadening the base — that’s something that I think most economists think would help us propel economic growth,” Obama told National Public Radio in an interview. “But it’s a very complicated conversation.”

Verbiage – means nothing.

“So what I believe is, is that we’ve got to start that conversation next year. I think we can get some broad bipartisan agreement that it needs to be done. But it’s going to require a lot of hard work to actually make it happen,” he said.

For “work” read continuous concessions stretched out over months so that the lack of backbone, resolve and political intelligence of the Obama White House will be fully revealed.

“Change You Can Believe In.” Yes, in the same way I believe in post-apocalyptic waste lands.

Explain this to me. For decades large corporations have been directly evading, off shoring their corporate headquarters, sometimes just not paying taxes, and blackmailing every State, county and city humanly possible to cut their taxes, so we reward them with lower rates?

And here I am again trying to teach business ethics to my students who will observe the real life machinations of our President, which means, I get to say, “Okay, do the right thing, everyone from the President on down will reward the other guys, but you still be good.”

Then I get to go into “good for your soul” argument which is pretty much all I got left at that point.

Writing a business ethics web blog under this Presidency has all the benefits of being a medieval flagellant.

James Pilant

Please Comment!

On By southwerkIn ethics, Teaching7 Comments

My readers have increased in number fairly dramatically in this last year. I’ve talked to other bloggers, many with far more audience than I have. They tell me that the vast majority of people do not comment and probably will never comment. I remember laughing with another blogger (if you can do that online) that we seemed to be the only two people discussing his post and he had almost a thousand hits on it.

As we discussed it, he told me of his surprise that so few comments had been posted out of so many visitors.

He would have like to have had more of an ongoing conversation with his readers and so do I.

So, if you want to say something do so.

I have a rule in my class – proving the teacher wrong, arguing with the teacher, disagreeing with the teacher, or telling the teacher something he doesn’t want to hear, will never in any way harm your grade. In fact, sometimes it has given me the opportunity to raise a grade based on class participation and my delight in finding a fighting spirit out there in the group. Fighting spirits can be annoying and difficulty and they are also major engines of change. I give them credit when ever I see one.

I am going to brag on myself. One charming young lady was able to correct me factually twice one semester. She holds the record.

So, if you see that my rule with people who are actually physically present is toleration and interest, why don’t you feel free to jump in?

As always, whether you ever comment or not, I deeply appreciate you taking the time to read my writings. Millions of people write on the web generally just to themselves and a few friends. I have been blessed that others have taken an interest in what I say. Your attention to my writing, my ideas, is a great gift to me. Thank You!

James Pilant

P.S. If you can correct my facts, please, always do so. I am going to be wrong in my opinions at one time or another, and that’s okay. But being wrong on the facts is not okay. So, please let me know immediately if my data is wrong.

Business Ethics Blog’s 5th Blogaversary (via The Business Ethics Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Teaching4 Comments

Chris MacDonald has spent five years writing on the subject of business ethics. How many people have learned from his words, how many choices were made differently because of his moral ardor, how much he has made life better for all of us by his pursuit of ethics, all these could be the subject of debate. But the only debate that’s really viable here is the amount of good he has done. I do not believe an objective human being can conclude that his influence was null or small.

Let’s celebrate his success and hope for another five years (or better yet, a whole lifetime) of ethics blogging.

James Pilant

Business Ethics Blog's 5th Blogaversary Five years ago today, I posted my very first blog entry. It had no real substance, but it was a start. Five years later, I'm still blogging. And given that the average lifespan of a blog is something less than the average lifespan of a fruit fly, I think I now get to call myself a veteran blogger. Over the last five years, I've written over 720 blog entries. I've written on topics big and small and ridiculous. I've written about the collapse of m … Read More

via The Business Ethics Blog