Tag: books

A Moral Resource for Your Children.

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, code of ethics, corruption

Raising children under the current regime when every vestige of morality and ethics has been swept away be the greedy and the ruthless is very difficult. You want your child to do right and to believe that doing right is a worthy part of a well lived life, but everywhere you look, America has become the land of the grifter and influence peddler.

Once upon a time, there was an author who believed in righteousness, heroism and a well told story about the struggles faced throughout history when you want to do what is right.

His name was Howard Pyle.

Here below is one of his book plates. He is a very famous illustrator and he wrote many books.

(A Howard Pyle book in the public domain downloadable at Project Gutenberg.)

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60405

Above is a link to the book site and it is several different formats for different machines and capabilities for download. Below is the Wikipedia article on his life and work. (Full disclosure: I have given money to support Wikipedia, admire its design and purpose, and when teaching in class and online always allowed my students to use it as a source in anything they wrote. I consider the people of Wikipedia to be my friends.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Pyle

Pyle was widely respected during his life and continues to be well regarded by illustrators and fine artists. His contemporary Vincent van Gogh wrote in a letter to his brother Theo that Pyle’s work “struck me dumb with admiration.“[12]

All of Pyle’s principal works are available and a good number of books in which he is the illustrator. His pictures are quite beautiful.

During these times of troubles I can recommend without reservation, his work as something you can give to your children to teach them some of the great lessons and legends from the story of Western Civilization.

If they are very young, you might print it off for them, I recommend you begin with “The Wonder Clock,” a collection of 24 stories, one for each hour of the day. The illustrations are quite original and delightful. Older children can use desktops, etc., to see the many books and illustrations online.

As a parent or guardian, we have responsibilities to teach our children the story of our culture and how we have arrived at what we consider right and wrong.

I hope this helps. If you use these stories and others like them at an early, impressionable age, they should have maximum effect.

James Alan Pilant

Piotr Szczerek Takes Hat Meant for a Child

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Capitalism

“If you were faster, You’d have it.” is a defense I haven’t heard before. And I seriously doubt that I will ever hear it again.

Piotr Szczerek is seen on film taking an autographed hat being handed to a child in the stands of a tennis match. If you have a minute I recommend you have a look at the video. I promise you that it does not leave a lot of room for doubt about what happened.

He seems a little sensitive while a tower of strength while dealing with small children, he seems a bit shy with adults. He has shut down his social media and has proclaimed loudly that he will sue anyone who criticizes him online.

(This illustration above is from “A Christmas Carol” and shows Scrooge being confronted by his former partner, Marley. It is no way meant to suggest that someone mentioned in the attached article has done something wrong and should be sorry.)

(The following four lines are supposed to be in the main body of the writing but WordPress has an unfortunate habit of “enlarging” my designated texts into anything nearby.)

As a business ethics author I can’t help but feel this might not be the best “look” for the CEO of a company.

His company web site is currently being “review bombed.”

Will there be other, more substantive consequences? That remains to be seen.

James Alan Pilant

For more information, please read the article linked to below. Quincy Thomas has written a good piece of journalism.

Quincy Thomas writing for “Where Is the Buzz,” had the following article: Polish Millionaire CEO Piotr Szczerek Reportedly Defends Snatching Kid’s Hat at US Open: “If You Were Faster, You’d Have It”

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/polish-millionaire-ceo-piotr-szczerek-184725888.html

The US Open has always attracted drama around it, but this time the drama was not on the court, rather in the stands. After Polish tennis pro Kamil Majchrzak secured the best victory in his life as he beat ninth-seeded Karen Khachanov in five thrilling sets, the player walked towards the stands to spread love. He autographed, waved, grinned, then took off his hat and particularly pointed towards a boy named Brock in the stands.

Others thought that this was one of those fan moments that kids will always remember throughout their life. But instead of that, this is another viral scandal.

Even before the boy could spread wide his arms, the adult male, Polish tycoon, pavement construction magnate, Piotr Szczerek, grasped the hat, thrust it into the pocket in the bag belonging to his wife, and walked away leaving the boy heart-broken as he yelled, “What are you doing?”

A Thousand Daggers to a Corpse!, the New Prince Andrew Book

On By southwerkIn code of ethics, corruption

Down in the article referenced below, Ms. West-Knights, said that as thoroughly as Prince Andrew’s scandals have been covered, a new book is like taking “a thousand daggers to a corpse.” It is a very eloquent and appropriate line.

But then she goes into some of what the books says. I have been following the sorry story of Prince Andrew, a man given every advantage who then tossed them all away for trysts with women and a desperate need for money he hasn’t in anyway earned. He could have been a symbol of nobility and kindness but that would have required him to think about someone beside himself and he is unable to do that.

What does the book say? In spite of my interest in the subject and the many articles I’ve read there was much to see. This book has many new revelations about this fellow’s pitiful behavior.

I can’t say enough about the Imogen West-Knights’ writing. It is delicious, biting and loaded with so many things I want to quote that choosing any particular paragraph or line is hard.

Imogen West-Knights writing for Slate discusses the new book called “Entitled.” The article she wrote is linked to below and called It’s Hard to Imagine a Book More Damning About the British Royal Family Than This.

Usually find a good quote from an article is very straightforward. I chose the most damning paragraph but this is article is well worth reading and you should read it in full. There is deadly acid in almost every line.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/one-most-damning-books-ever-153817090.html

… Lownie (the book’s author) reportedly approached about 3,000 people for this book, of whom he says only a tenth replied, but that is enough. And what these people—drawn from Andrew’s love life, his professional life, his staff, and his sometime friends—have to say about him is damning beyond belief. Here follows just some of the claims Lownie makes about Andrew, all of which are backed up by testimony from people who know or knew the prince, but still just allegations, I suppose: He had a member of the royal staff moved from his job for wearing a nylon tie, and another because he had a mole on his face. He had 40 women brought to his hotel room in Thailand over a five-day visit. Aged 26, he had dozens of stuffed animals on his bed, one of which wore a vest that read “It’s tough being a prince.” He missed his daughter’s 12th birthday party to hang out with Epstein at his Miami beach house. He ran up a bill of £325,000 on helicopters and planes in 2005 alone. He let a Libyan gun smuggler pay for a holiday he took to Tunisia and accepted a present of a bugged MacBook Pro from an attractive woman who turned out to be a Russian spy; he later tried to get himself a free Fabergé egg on an official Kremlin tour. In his role as a special representative for the United Kingdom, he earned, in the diplomatic community, the nickname “His Buffoon Highness” by refusing to follow his briefs and perhaps even read them in the first place. Once, driving his £80,000 Range Rover to Royal Lodge in Great Windsor Park, he found that the gates’ sensor was broken, so, rather than taking a 1-mile detour, he rammed them open, causing thousands of pounds’ worth of damage.

Based on this single paragraph and the rest is equally damning, the book’s title, “Entitled,” seems at best a cruel understatement.

It has been written that those to whom much has been given, much is to be expected. Seldom has so many benefits and honors been given one man with so little return.

James Alan Pilant

I’ve Been Writing this Blog Since 2006

On By southwerkIn corruption

(An 17th Century version of me? Perhaps, but in any case a public domain picture from a book of the 19th Century.)

This blog, Pilant’s Business Ethics, will soon be twenty years old, and I have hardly published in it for some years now.

Why is that? Well, I had retired from teaching and had many other projects going. I actually worked hard on a number of novels. And writing about business ethics day after day continually exposes you to the undersides of human endeavor. In other words, it was a depressing subject.

So, why would I, much older now and very much retired, return to a blog once very popular and now seldom seen? Especially at at time when I just want to be left alone with my books and my studies. I was expecting to gradually fade away, an old college professor who had done his duty and earned his rest. But I am coming back to write and to fight — why?

Because I’m enraged. I’m angry. I’m disgusted.

Every single day I look at the news and find myself in an America I don’t recognize governed by mediocrities, criminals and the very dregs of the world of the internet conspiracy mongers.

I can’t stand to sit by idly and watch while morality and goodness are endlessly ridiculed by the President and his crawling lickspittles.

Business ethics is everywhere in the world a joke, a subject to be despised. Everyone knows in America, from the smallest child to the most morally challenged CEO that the way to make money is to cut deals with the government after finding some convenient way to grease the skids by contributing to a new ballroom, the desecration of the Rose Garden, or buying worthless crypto currency.

The idea that human beings act the part of citizens and patriots is melting away like snow on a hot summer’s day. And I firmly believe in patriotism and in what it means to be an American, And my vision of what it means to be an American doesn’t include criminal activity or a craven obedience to the current administration.

Well, I’m not going to sit and take it. I am returning to blogging, enraged and fully of fiery condemnation for the incompetent, the crooks, the grifters and above all, the confident neo-fascists who intend the destruction of American democracy.

I’m back.

James Alan Pilant

Hardcore Culture or the Absence of Western Values??

On By southwerkIn Capitalism

Hardcore Culture, a shift away from company loyalty to a “market based” culture. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Market based: Yeah, based on market forces, that’s okay, right? Or is it?

John Stankey has been making people “return to the office.”

(Quoted directly from the article linked to below.) The increasingly strict return-to-office mandate that AT&T has rolled out in phases over the past year has also resulted in further reductions, multiple employees have told Business Insider, and Stankey signaled in his memo that he’s fine with more people leaving if they’re not on board with the company’s new direction. (End quote.)

The information that we have, that is, the facts, say that working from home and other such flexible work ideas have led to greater employee satisfaction and productivity. So, why would you make people return to the office. It’s pretty clear, isn’t it. It is a return to the dictator style boss, the kick them in the teeth style boss epitomized by the yuppies in the 1980’s.

Apparently the investors are eating this stuff up. They love reduced work forces, corporate mandates and divesting the company from previous endeavors. And none of it has to make any sense, they are like toddlers strapped in a car seat, they enjoy the motion of the vehicle and that is enough. Thinking logically, critically or even trying to protect their money is hard while reacting positively to the supposedly alpha male characteristics of hard charging decisions, commands rather than cooperation, lots and lots of forced resignations and an emphasis on the perceived toughness of the CEO, well, that’s easy.

If you get the impression I don’t think much of the investment community, you would be right. But there is something far more alarming here but first let me quote my article about our star of a CEO.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/t-ceo-john-stankeys-hard-202422959.html

(Quoted from article above.) As the company moves to sunset most of its copper network in the US by the end of 2029, Stankey has also instituted a broad cultural shift internally. He’s moved away from prioritizing 20th-century corporate values like loyalty and tenure in favor of a tech-style, “more market-based culture,” the AT&T CEO wrote in a sweeping memo last week that was first reported by Business Insider. (End quote.)

So, here’s my concern. Where are Western Values in all of this? A giant corporation like this one is also a political and cultural entity. In this article, there is an almost complete absence of any issue or topic related to Western Values save capitalism and market economics, and then only in its cruelest and simplest form.

What are Western Values? They fall into six categories: (From Wikipedia with my thanks!)

Does AT&T have any stance on obeying the law or participating in democracy or pledging to pay its taxes like a good citizen?

Why is a bald statement celebrating naked power and greed a positive for investors? And at the same time, the absence of any commitment to a better society, a greater nation or an improved civilization, and this absence does not trouble the investors at all. In face, I think they regard the evasion of human and moral values as a positive.

I think every corporation in the United States has a duty to the law and to its fellow citizens. I think we should all be invested with the responsibility of creating and maintaining a civil society and a program for human and cultural development because that is what a great people do and we should above all things strive to be a great people.

James Alan Pilant

Wilhoit’s Law!

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

I read a lot and from time something I read stands out. The idea that caught my attention was Wilhoit’s law. It has enormous explanatory power when it comes to modern conservatism. It is also counter to my firm conviction that the law should bind everyone, that if we are not equal under the law, democracy is impaired or impossible.

But a very fine explanation of the idea is quoted below and I am indebted to the author, Jason Linkins. I did a little research and it appears I am very late on learning about this concept. And that is too bad, I don’t get to fly in intellectual circles very often here in Northeastern Oklahoma.

The quote below is from this link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/maga-plan-destroy-fourteenth-amendment-110000254.html It was written by Jason Linkins.

Those who are familiar with Wilhoit’s law—which holds that conservatism, in the words of Ohio classical music composer Frank Wilhoit—“consists of exactly one proposition.… There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect”—will recognize that Trump’s plans aren’t novel but rather stem from the primordial ideas that have long guided his party along its postmodern evolution into a haven for authoritarianism and oligarchy.

Doctor Who Bombs.

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I was about 16 when I first watched Doctor Who. The idea that someday it would become a home for gay and crossdressing themes would have surprised me. But here we are.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a gay character if the writing and the science fiction is good. But this show is no longer about good writing or science fiction, the focus is clearly on convincing you the viewer that alternate sexuality is utterly, completely, without any question normal and very, very important.

I started Doctor Who with Tom Baker back in the mid-1970’s. In classic Doctor Who, the stories take place all across space and time and are adventures in which a space alien of enormous age and experience protects the earth and its inhabitants from various dangers. It has run for many years. During that period it has generated high viewership numbers some of them record breakers.

Not any more.

I’ m one of that most hated species of all in the world of “woke” entertainment, I’m a fan. Our insistence on good writing, sensible plots and perhaps even a willingness to watch white men act heroically makes us incredibly obsolete in a media world where all character for some reason need to be reimagined as different sexes and races while often behaving as psychopaths. And it’s all our fault when feminist themed superheroes and science fiction fail — every single time. It’s not bad writing, nonsensical characters and pitiful marketing choices, it is because people like me are racist, sexist and intolerant. At least, that’s what the producers, directors and actors say after each multimillion bomb. So, obviously it must be true.

It is time for me to give up. It is time for all of us fans to give up. The good writing and science fiction themes we valued as basic parts of the franchise are gone forever. The Disney Company is providing financing. They are dictating a multi-sexual cast propagating a political agenda in each and every episode. They have billions and billions of dollars and if no one watches it, they don’t care. They will simply claim that the BBC viewership numbers are just small part of the picture and it is doing fine on other venues —- all of which they control and keep totally, completely secret. They could run 90 minutes of static and claim success and who know, at some point in the future they just might.

This isn’t good business ethics. If you’ve been watching a show for forty some years plus and it is good science fiction while having some of the finest writers in television, you get used to that. It is poor ethics to provide a bad product that no longer resembles the basic themes that made it successful. Poor writing, blatant preaching and silly characters are bad for any series and they are bad, bad business ethics. Let’s be blunt – you don’t market watered down bleach as fine wine. People can tell.

Don’t despair. There is fan fiction and we have years of past wonderful episodes to watch. None of which has been in anyway touched by the Walt Disney Company! That world where people traveled with the Doctor on behalf of humanity in a continued adventure still exists in the past episodes and continuing radio shows and novels. There is still a lot of Doctor Who left.

James Alan Pilant

BBC Doctor Who branded ‘woke’ and ‘unwatchable’ as TV ratings plummet following return to screens (msn.com)

Noisy and crude but accurate especially in its assessment of viewership numbers.

Plainly Difficult!

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Plainly Difficult is a YouTube site featuring some very fine videos.

From the “about” section of the page:

Short(ish) Educational Videos on Subjects that I think are interesting! Mainly General Interest history, focusing on disasters, scientific discovery and transportation

I write about business ethics as well as morality and ethics. “Plainly Difficult” sometimes writes about disasters. That is where we cross paths. The video below is about a truly incredible business ethics disaster.

The greatest fabric factory disaster in history featuring corruption, law breaking and incompetence. It sounds very much like my stuff.

I want to recommend “Plainly Difficult” as a site you should visit regularly. You should also subscribe and comment when you have something intelligent or just clever to say.

You and I both know that the internet is crowded with porn, trash and every kind of scam. “Plainly Difficult” is the kind of site and the kind of content that the web was originally created to facilitate. If there were more sites like this we would all be better off.

James Alan Pilant

https://www.youtube.com/@PlainlyDifficult

Here’s a link to the site if you would like to see what other content is available.

How I Choose Topics to Write About!

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_education_movement

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/5/russias-war-on-ukraine-forces-europe-to-weaponise-its-economic-might

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/05/letitia-james-jbs-meat-lawsuit-greenwashing

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/04/schools-close-and-crops-wither-as-historic-heatwave-hits-south-east-asia

About twenty years ago, I had an appointment to see a colleague at the college where I taught. She was in a meeting with a student who was having a bit of a crisis and I didn’t have a problem waiting knowing my friend’s superlative skills in counseling would provide some closure and help to the student but that it would take a while. There was a pile of old (most of them more than ten years old) Newsweek and Time magazines. So, I decided to look at the Business Ethics stories in those magazine. I was teaching the subject at the time and I though a historical view might be interesting.

The magazines had no stories of business ethics failures. The only references I could find was oblique ones when talking about a famous person’s past or that list of short paragraphs of what was in current new that they sometimes featured. I thought about this hard for a long time and realized the truth. It would have been damaging to the magazine profitability to disclose or even reference the scale and illegality of corporate wrong doing. The fact is business ethics was not an issue in terms of reporting for many in the media for many decades and that is still true of much media today.

Each day I search through major media outlets and good number of minor ones looking for subjects to write about. I’ve listed four pretty typical story ideas up with links listed at the top of this essay.

I want you to understand my thought processes and attempts at finding compelling topics to write about. The first one is a subject dear to my heart. I was fourteen years old and looking through books in the Pryor Public Library in Northeastern Oklahoma — and I found Mortimer J. Adler’s “How to Read a Book.” I devoured it. According to my school testing my reading level was “college, two years” and I knew I was pretty good but this book taught me how far I had to go. So, I learned to read the whole in terms of the parts and the parts in terms of the whole.

But what was more important was the list at the end of the book. There was a list of the great books of the Western world. It has been many years and in that time I have read about a third of them. I believe that one of the best ways to learn the best behavior and concepts of morality is the study of those books. So, a good topic to write about – something I have familiarity with.

The second topic about is about changes in Europe. All of our NATO allies are in the midst of movement in terms of policy toward the aggression of the Russians and the inability of the United States to find unity or purpose. Allowing the freedom fighters of the Ukraine to die for the political advantage of Donald Trump and the Republican party is a stain on our nation that will not be erased for quite some time.

I try not to write about international affairs or the horrible coming election very much. They are not really business ethics issues unless you stretch the concept quite a bit. But they do present moral and ethical questions many of them critical issues of life and death.

In Christianity as expressed in the New Testament, Jesus remarks that if you are ashamed of him and his words, he will be ashamed of you in the next world. I believe that. But it seems to me to be just the same when it comes to morality, ethics and doing what is right. If you fall silent in the face of evil and crime, why should God take notice of you in the next life? I have a duty to call out the criminal, to call out the wrong doer and to demand justice. So, you’ll seen the occasional foreign affairs and political piece in my writings. It is a duty to my morality.

The third topic is New York State is suing a major meat producer for “green washing,” pretending that you are protecting the environment verbally and in advertisements while in fact doing little or nothing. This is where the vast majority of business ethics textbook writers feel very much at home. This is a traditional business ethics issue and becoming more and more a legal issue. But this kind of corporate misconduct however serious in the long term is legalistic, complex and requires just oodles of explanatory text. I don’t mind writing it but it seems to me that readers run away from complexity unless you pretty up with stories of the dead and the dying and maybe some pictures. I’ll probably give this topic a miss.

The fourth topic is about climate change. The danger of our looming climate crisis is a real loser online. People do not want to read about it. That is what my analytics show on this particular topic. I agree it is depressing. But there are people out that who want to pretend it is not happening and if they prevail, millions will die, many more millions will be displaced and every part of the world will be effected and effected badly. The subject demands attention based on morality and ethics. My public may find this discouraging. It still needs to be discussed. Here’s a quote from the article:

A “historic heatwave” is being experienced across south-east Asia, according to Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian. In updates posted on X, he said heat that was unprecedented for early April had been recorded at monitoring stations across the region this week, including in Minbu, in central Myanmar, where 44C was recorded – the first time in south-east Asia’s climatic history that such high temperatures had been reached so early in the month. In Hat Yai, in Thailand’s far south, 40.2 C was reached, an all-time record, while Yên Châu in north-west Vietnam hit 40.6C, unprecedented for this time of year.

A temperature of 44C is 111 degrees Fahrenheit. I think I should talk about this.

This is how I work through topics. I am trying to make a difference, to find meaning and significance with my writing. Let us cooperate in this joint endeavor, I the writer and you, the reader and observer of this written attempt at moral processing.

James Alan Pilant

Sally Field and a Failure of a Gentleman’s Duty

On By southwerkIn business ethics

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/11/entertainment/sally-field-burt-reynolds-oscars/index.html

In a recent interview, Sally Field revealed that Burt Reynolds refused to go with her to the Oscars. Apparently upset at all the attention she was getting, Reynolds who later claimed in his biography that Fields was the love of his life simply failed in performing the duty of a gentleman.

A gentleman in a relationship honors his partner’s accomplishment. The circumstance that her accomplishments may be eclipsing his own is completely, totally irrelevant. Maybe he should have watched a couple of the “A Star is Born” movies to get him in the proper frame of mind.

But Sally was rescued. David Steinberg and his wife stepped in to accompany her to the event even getting a limousine and champagne. Now, that is the act of a gentleman and a lady. It is what good breeding and intelligence expects.

Why is this important? A lot of what we see in the media is the popularization of the refusal to observe social morays and the duties of citizenship and our obligations to our fellow Americans.

Now, before you jump on me for supporting the often stultifying demands of small town life, know you that I have been in revolt from these all my life. I’m not talking about the mundane pain of the old biddies that seem to dictate much local culture, I’m talking about real duties, like paying attention to reputable news while avoiding conspiracy breeding nonsense. Diving into a cult of belief, joining the flat earth society or engaging in the hideous behavior of making abusive phone calls and sending vile e-mails to political opponents are all massive failure of the duties of ladies and gentlemen.

A great society is inhabited by a spirit of nobility, not by birth which is simple nonsense. (Observe Prince Andrew.) Real nobility, the kind achieved by action, experience and training is something that the best among us have strived to achieve for generations. It is a club that we can all join and we should aspire to.

James Alan Pilant

The picture above is from Wikipedia which I borrow with sincere thanks – and provide the attribution they recommend.

Robert Vaughan (circa 1600 – 1660) – National Portrait Gallery – https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw133194/Richard-Brathwaite