Science Denial

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I was watching a recently made documentary on the Mt. St. Helens eruption. It has been some twenty years.

I was astonished to see many interviews of people who believed that the scientists’ warnings were just nonsense. “Nothin’ is going to happen!” Stated one skeptic firmly.

(A cathedral of France now long gone.)

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Americans have questioned science and technology all during the various developments. My favorite anti-science rant was a doubter who did not believe that trains could ever reach the fantastic speed of twenty miles an hour because the air pressure of such a speed would make it impossible for humans to breath. That was from the 1820’s but I still see this sort of thing. Recently, I’ve seen new stories about not ever being able to settle Mars, or travel to Proxima Centauri, or break the light barrier. And they might be right, but we have accomplished so much that in the past seemed impossible.

I have always had a soft spot for science and scientists. They are truth seekers and I very much respect truth seeking. It is an almost holy endeavor, the truth. And we live in a time where lies and misconceptions are elbowing many well know facts out of the way.

For instance —

Societies that function on merit based leadership and advancement are completely superior to societies based on connections and relationships. Loyalty is important but only up to a point. Greater loyalties to one’s nation or the concept of righteousness are important to a well lived life. I consider those facts and I think I can prove them if called upon.

And because I believe in these things, I keep posting, although it often seems to make little difference.

Well, let us cast our bread upon the water having faith in the better angels of our nature.

James Alan Pilant

The Destruction of the East Wing of the White House is Going to Have Consequences.

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Capitalism, Government Failure

I did some internet searches on the topic. And it is still germinating. Karoline Leavitt says it is all “manufactured outrage.” No, I don’t think so. People are in pain over the loss of part of their heritage. Maybe to her and to her regime, this is just a piece of property, but it is not. Like the battlefields of Gettysburg and Yorktown, the White House is in a real way, sacred ground.

I believe that that outrage is building and it just starting. Why would I believe that? Because of how I feel. After dealing with this continual parade of stupidity, lies and the carefully organized theatre of cruelty that is this administration, it was hard to surprise me. But they managed it. I didn’t see this coming.

And it hurts. Maybe this will delight the standard MAGA follower, the fact that it hurts me to see American history so casually destroyed and then to see it used as filler for a golf course. I guess denying food and medical care to millions isn’t enough when it come to owning the libs, a little historical desecration is necessary to pile on the pain.

The administration, once again, Karoline Leavitt, says renovations are normal in the White House. Really? If I renovate my kitchen I might get new countertops and a better microwave, that’s renovation. What they did more resembles carpet bombing from the Second World War, that is, total destruction. And total destruction is what we have.

I’m angry. What do I want? I want every last brick and every last bit of gold plated poor taste of that new ballroom utterly demolished just like they did to the East Wing. I want every single change this administration has made to the Peoples’ property reversed and erased. I want every evidence of that man’s lack of taste, his concept of some gold plated European bordello as a matter of style, gone and gone forever.

But we must remember with great care and precision, the enablers, the cowards and corporate scum who are paying for this ball room. They are also responsible for these crimes against the American people, against our history and against our glorious past. They have to pay for their crimes. Their moral failures and their pathetic desire to please our alleged leader is now clearly on the record.

When this regime is done, there must be hearings, there must be trials, there must be investigations and people must go to prison, must go to jail, must pay fines and must lose their reputations and livelihoods. Our suffering must have meaning and that meaning will come only when justice is done.

Here is a news article listing the pitiful moral failures who are financing the ball room.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/heres-list-donors-paying-trumps-223813539.html

I’m not going to put the list up here but read the article and read through the list of cowardice and shame.

When do these horrors end? I don’t know. But I have faith in America and in the path of justice. There will be a reckoning for these evil people and their crimes.

James Alan Pilant

BBC Opposed to Racism But Not Very Much

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Capitalism, Editorial

No Black Lives Matter T-shirts and no Kamala Harris coffee mugs demands Director General of the BBC.

(From the children’s book, The Wonder Clock.)

So, what the BBC is apparently going for is a silent, reserved stance in which it is understood in some subconscious, perhaps in a meditative spiritual way opposed to racism.

It would seem that overt statements affirming racial equality are offensive, and we all know how easy authority figures in Great Britain are offended by any mention of the nation’s racist past. We don’t want to ruffle feathers or suggest that tolerance is an important value just a quiet, low priority one.

Racism is like Voldemort. It must not be spoken of.

Let me quote from the article.

The BBC director general also said his “number one priority” was “trying to navigate a course where you are impartial” and that required “elements of diversity”, adding that “socioeconomic diversity” was something that “hadn’t been talked about enough”.

He added: “It is absolutely a big battle, and I’m getting questions: ‘Why are you giving a voice to Reform?’, ‘Why are you doing this?’ We’re not giving a voice, we’re covering – covering what people are interested in, covering the reality of what people feel.”

Perhaps I’m mistaken but what I take from this is that he expects the BBC to do the stenography thing and have no view as to the right or wrong of an issue, to suspend their moral judgments.

This is an abhorrent environment to create in a news service because it puts outright evil and monstrous people on the same reporting plane as the righteous and good. Imagine covering the statements coming out of the Third Reich as substantial and normal as the statements of the democracies opposing them.

All he is asking is for reporters to suspend their critical judgment. If that isn’t wrong, nothing is.

Neutrality in the face of evil is also a decision and it is the wrong one.

James Alan Pilant

To Be Respectful of Each Other

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Editorial

Milwaukee Brewers Call for Fans to be “Respectful” of Each Other.

(From the Boys Book of Battle Lyrics.)

In these terrible times, calls for respect and good behavior seem almost surprising. We are literally being drenched in Administration insults and lies.

And yet, the Milwaukee Brewers issue a statement sublime in its simple call for human decency and good public behavior.

Someday, we may have public servants, even Presidents, whose first response to an opponent isn’t a slur or an obscenity. Someday, decency, eloquence and tolerance may once again become factors in public discourse.

But not now.

Let us hope and pray for better days to come.

James Alan Pilant

Here is the story and the public statement put out by the sports team.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/article/brewers-fan-banned-from-stadium-loses-both-jobs-after-threatening-to-call-ice-on-dodgers-fan-205658384.html

“The Brewers expect all persons attending games to be respectful of each other, and we do not condone in any way offensive statements fans make to each other about race, gender, or national origin. Our priority is to ensure that all in attendance have a safe and enjoyable experience at the ballpark.”

Is Oklahoma Part of the Resistance??

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Editorial, Government Failure

Oklahoma airports will not show partisan video addressing federal shutdown

(I just liked the picture. It is hard to find a non-copyrighted picture of an airport or the controversial video. JP.)

When you think of Oklahoma, it is common to believe the State a hotbed of Trump sympathizers. Yet, that does not appear at least in this single case to be true.

Risking the wrath of the Trump Administration has frightened law firms, colleges, universities, multi-national corporations and a literal horde of Republican politicians of which Oklahoma has many, and yet Oklahoma airports are standing up in defiance.

It gives you some faith in humankind to find courage and a backbone even in Oklahoma where right wing politics and reactionary Baptists rule.

As a business ethics issue, the airports are looking at possible liability under the Hatch Act for presenting a partisan video. That is very wise. The current administration will not last forever and these kinds of violations can be punished for some years.

So, while certainly decisions requiring courage, there is also a question of legal liability.

A reflection.

When I was a young man, I spoke to a number of Republicans running for office and from time to time voted for them. At no time, did I suspect that they did not have my best interests in mind and I was right about them. They loved the United States and they valued my vote and my interest in their campaign. They were good and fine human human beings.

I miss those days.

The News Story this column (blog post) is based on.

Here is the link to the news story about the airport’s decisions to not air the video. I have also included a brief quote.

https://www.kosu.org/local-news/2025-10-16/oklahoma-airports-will-not-show-partisan-video-addressing-federal-shutdown

This week, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem distributed a video to be played in airport security lines, across the country, blaming Democrats for travel delays during the shutdown.

“We will continue to do all that we can to avoid delays that will impact your travel,” Noem says in the video. “And our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government.”

Some experts say the video violates the Hatch Act, a federal law banning executive officials from using their titles for partisan activities. It also bans the use of federal resources to help or harm individual political parties.

Along with dozens of airports across the country, Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City is not displaying the video.

Seven Million Americans March!

On By southwerkIn Editorial, Government Failure

Two Million More People Participated than the Last One

(A great day for American Patriotism!)

Today was the day of days, when American came together to voice their discontent with our increasingly corrupt and incompetent government. I can’t convey in words how proud and hopeful today’s events make me.

Will Americans be able to stop the march to a fascist state that is quite some distance along? I don’t know. But the marchers today put a marker down that obedience and compliance are unlikely if the oppression continues. Americans are putting this administration on notice that they will not sit idly by while our liberties are trampled on.

Let the work go forth that we are patriotic Americans, the bedrock of the nation and we stand together.

What is particularly striking about these demonstrations, these marchers, is the disparity between the message they are sending and the text messages sent between Young Republicans that were exposed just a few days ago.

We see on the streets a sea of patriots and believers in American democracy while in the chat rooms of the future leaders of the Republican Party, the denizens laugh about gas chambers, joke about killing and raping their enemies, ridicule minorities and praise the Third Reich.

You tell me which one of these is the future of the United States, an excited committed group of patriots or the dregs of a once proud political party drifting into a sort of happy fascism? I know which one I want.

And if you want to claim that a group of Young Republicans who had to be 18 to 40 years of age to be on those chats were just a bunch of naive kids, I’ve got swampland in Florida or I can sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, whichever appeals to your lack of judgment.

In the last few days we’ve seen two different Americas. If God is kind, we will follow the righteous and good path.

Here is the latest news about the march and the participation.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/no-kings-protests-kick-off-across-us_n_68f28d77e4b0ee732e25083d

Organizers for the event said that nearly 7 million Americans around the country attended ― two million more than the first “No Kings” protest in June.

“With more than 2,700 lawful and peaceful protests across all 50 states, today’s mobilization was 14 times larger than both of President Trump’s presidential inaugurations combined, marking a historic moment of unity and resistance,” a statement from ‘No Kings’ organizers said. “From rural communities to major metropolitan centers, the message was clear: America will not be ruled by fear, force, or one man’s power grab.”

And in case you’re curious about what the Young Republicans posted, here is a link to the original article and a bit of text.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146?utm_medium=email&utm_source=substack

Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway.

They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

Sixteen Years Blogging!

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This week marks sixteen years of me owning and posting on this Blog, Pilant’s Business Ethics.

When I started I was teaching both online and in the classroom. My son was a teenager and I was still married. It seems a whole world away.

And now, the world seems so dark and dangerous as American democracy is under attack and whether or not, our representative government survives will be seen in the next couple of years.

But I should just bask in the fact that I have persevered so long and with some success.

That you all, my kind readers!

James Alan Pilant

Oklahoma Bible Mandate Abandoned

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Government Failure, Opinion

Oklahoma Stuck with 500 Trump Bibles Already Purchased

Oklahoma has ended Ryan Walter’s mandate to place a Bible in every classroom. The Oklahoma Supreme Court in the wake of Walter’s resignation asked the State Superintendent if he wished to continue the current lawsuit defending the mandate. Walter’s replacement, Lindel Fields, withdrew the mandate this last Wednesday.

It appears much that Walters did while in office will be reversed and removed. I prefer not to think of him as having resigned preferring to think him melted by a bucket of water.

KOSU and NPR have a news article written by Robby Korth and Lionel Ramos.

https://www.kosu.org/education/2025-10-15/lindel-fields-announces-end-to-ryan-walters-oklahoma-classroom-bible-mandate

Ryan Walters’ controversial plan to put a Bible in every classroom last summer almost immediately met pushback. About a year ago, a coalition of parents, teachers and faith leaders filed a lawsuit against him and the state over the mandate.

The suit is ongoing, but because of Walters’ exit, Oklahoma’s State Supreme Court gave his replacement Lindel Fields, the opportunity to withdraw or resolve the case in the next two weeks.

But he ultimately took much less time. On Wednesday, Fields announced he would withdraw the mandate at the heart of the case.

(This is from a book picturing “The vanished places of worship and cathedrals in France from 1917.”)

Oklahoma like much of the United States is a place of many faiths. The Pew Research Center found that there were Oklahomans who practiced the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu faiths besides a bewildering variety of Protestant sects.

Here in Oklahoma we are leaving this chapter, this episode, of the culture wars to return to the very real problems of low morale among teachers and administrators as well as a tragic lack of funding for education in general. We are the 50th state in per pupil funding and I must reluctantly admit, a national laughingstock.

But stay tuned as various investigations into Walter’s conduct are now ongoing and there may be much, much more to see and hear about what passed for administrative decisions in Oklahoma Education.

In regard to business ethics, this is a cautionary tale of a narrow minded ideologue running wild. It is not the last one we will ever see although we may hope.

Salaries were paid to people who barely showed up, the most pitiful propaganda was adopted as if they somehow qualified as “teaching materials,” and the department was run like a personal fiefdom.

I wish the new Superintendent well and pray for his success.

The people of Oklahoma deserve so much better than what was done and a new beginning is called for.

James Alan Pilant

The Search Continues for Victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

On By southwerkIn Capitalism, Government Failure, Opinion

(A picture from the work, “The Boys’ Book of Battle-Lyrics.)

While the current regime claims we focus too much on the history of slavery, in Oklahoma, the City of Tulsa is continuing its efforts to find the bodies of victims of racial violence.

https://www.kosu.org/local-news/2025-10-15/more-tulsa-race-massacre-victims-could-be-found-as-city-begins-fifth-grave-excavation

It’s an effort that could take weeks, Mayor Monroe Nichols said during a press conference at City Hall. Forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield and archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck joined Nichols as he gave an update on the city’s progress.

“This groundbreaking work from our archaeological and genealogy teams is a great mark of success and it tells us where we are, certainly in the right place and on the right track,” Nichols said. “The latest report from the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey gave us very detailed information as to what we believe we have left at the Oaklawn Cemetery.”

The destruction of “Black Wall Street” and the deaths of so many of our black citizens deserve remembrance. That such horrors happened are matters of fact and history which we ignore at our peril.

A free and great people does not fear its history. It embraces its past with a willingness to change and improve.

Ethics and Morality demand that we remember the crimes and mistakes of the past in the hope that we are now a better people who have found a better moral compass and a greater responsibility toward our fellow human beings.

Let us pay attention to the great words of one of our greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln:

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentiment to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride; how consoling in the depths of affliction! “And this, too, shall pass away.” And yet, let us hope, it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us, and the intellectual and moral worlds within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.

Lincoln didn’t just talk about having more money but assumed that social and political health were also of great importance. He could not have spoken truer words. While we live in an age of the most disgusting and degrading money grubbing and corruption, he calls us to be a great people with an unwavering committment to doing what is right.

James Alan Pilant

Work-Life Balance is a Real and Vital Concept

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Government Failure

(Presumably over the last dime of profit just like our tech bros.)

Billionaire bosses scoff at the concept of work life balance. Squeezing every conceivable sacrifice from the pitiful workers they exploit mercilessly is embedded in their DNA. The cruelty is the purpose. The cruelty is to instill fear and obedience in their worker drones.

You might say, “James, you don’t seem to like them very much?”

“No, I don’t.”

And I will tell you why. These individuals with their enormous wealth larger than most of the world’s nations’ annual budgets have it in their power to make their workplaces worker friendly, a paradise and continuing benefit to the nation. They could provide day care, scholarships, travel and most importantly, a guarantee of employment as a reward for loyalty. Instead they impose pain and hardship as a means of getting every last dime even thought they have billions upon billions of those “last dimes.”

When I was a young man I read a lot of history. I still do. There is the story of George Pullman. He created the Pullman Car. It is a train car that allows passengers to travel in comfort and sleep while traveling. He made many millions of dollars. Like today’s billionaire bosses, he wanted every last dime. So, he built a “model community” for his workers where they had to live and where every action and every expenditure could be controlled. A horrible cruel dictatorships that demanded moment by moment obedience punishable by immediate dismissal for any failure. He could have built a paradise just like our beyond all human understanding levels of greedy tech bros could but they won’t.

I think they relish the power. The idea of doing good of doing what is right is repugnant to their openly fascist belief systems. They take and they take and they take — and that is all the rationale they need. They want and have created a nationwide atmosphere of fear to keep wages and worker demands low. And in case, we forget for a moment their power they sail their yachts before us, fly their planes above us and buy our politicians cheap.

Am I wrong?? Show me the kindness of these men. Show me at any time where their workers were a priority. Show me.

We should expect more of the wealthy. We should expect more of Americans. We all have duties to each other as citizens and as members of human kind.

It is painful to write about business ethics when the prevailing mood in the business world is crass exploitation.

And I’ll tell you something else. Right now in the halls of power both in business and government, the idea of obeying the law is greeted with merriment and scorn.

But verily, verily I say unto you, they have their reward and it may well be coming sooner than they think.

James Alan Pilant