Global Warming Accelerating

When I took calculus in my first college-degree program, the graduate-student instructor didn’t bother to tell the class that a derivative signifies changes in the rate of acceleration. A derivative is not the rate itself, but, rather, the change in the rate—something much more difficult to detect empirically, as in watching an accelerating car. Formulae were the instructor’s focus, as if they constitute ends in themselves. By the time the climate numbers for 2025 came in, scientists could confidently say global warming was accelerating. The rate itself may have been increasing (i.e., a positive derivative), but attention to that by the media would have taken an educational reform as to how calculus was being taught. We think in terms of speed and acceleration. In this respect, we may be deficient in climate change itself as it has been unfolding. More decades than I care to admit had passed by 2025 since I had that course in calculus; only now can I say that I have used the math, albeit theoretically rather than via formulae.

The full essay is at "Global Warming Accelerating." 

Ivy-League Exclusivity: Political Ethics in The Yale Political Union

When I was a student at Yale, I was a member of the Party of the Right (POR) in the Yale Political Union (YPU). I was pretty much a libertarian back then, and the POR consisted of libertarians and Burkean traditionalists. The Burkeans dominated the positions, and they had their little club within the club to protect their prerogative. John Kerry, who would go on to be a U.S. senator and a presidential candidate, had been president of the YPU in 1968.  At least as of my student years at Yale, the YPU has consisted of several “parties,” which are really little debating/drinking societies spanning the ideological spectrum.  This is merely the surface, however. Beneath, Yale's culture of exclusivity reigned. Getting into Yale is just the first of several levels of greater and greater exclusivity. 

The full essay is at "Exclusivity in the Yale Political Union."

Behind Cameron's Referendum on Britain's Secession from the E.U.

Governors of other E.U. states reacted quickly to David Cameron’s announcement that if his party would be re-elected to lead the House of Commons, he would give his state’s residents a chance to vote yes or no on seceding from the European Union. The result would be decisive, rather than readily replaced by a later referendum. Cameron said the referendum would also be contingent on him not being able to renegotiate his state’s place in the Union. This renegotiation in particular prompted some particularly acute reactions from the governments of other “big states.” Behind these reactions was a sense that the British government was being too selfish. This was not fair, I submit, because the ground of the dispute was on the nature of the E.U. itself as a federal system. 

David Cameron, A former PM of Britain

The full essay is at "Britain in a Confederation?"

Elected Representatives in a Republic: Is Any Sense of Duty Remaining?

I suspect the notion of duty had by 2018 taken a rear seat, pushed out by self-centered ambition, in many if not most democracies in the world. In the ancient world, office-holding by lot stemmed the impact of people desiring office. Of the latter, the desire for personal gain would, I submit, be more likely. In contrast, finding oneself holding an office by lot was more likely to be accompanied by a sense of duty rather than personal ambition. Of course, ordinary citizens could find themselves voting in councils or legislatures—but would that necessarily be so bad?

In the American experiment, office-holding was originally thought of as a civic duty of the wealthy class. Landless citizens were cut off from even voting. George Washington did his duty as the first U.S. president, then went home to Virginia; he had done his duty (and then some). Once he decided not to run again, he did not, while still president, call it quits even if he was personally done with the office. I submit that that sense of duty had been lost by the twenty-first century.

The full essay is at "Duty in Public Service."

On the Nature of Principled Leadership

What is principled leadership? Simply whatever a leader decides? Or even worse, believes? If so, does the content shift with the sands from one leader to the next? This would seem to invalidate any means of comparing one leader's rendition from another. That it to say, leaving the "filling in the blank" to any leader who wants to be principled opens the door to leadership by convenience under the cover, or subterfuge, of ethics as a means of self-restraint. Ironically, do-it-yourself principled leadership may actually be unethical. So it is vital that we ask ourselves, is a durable definition even possible?

Kant claims that principles that can be universalized without contradiction should be universalized. (Image Source: builddiscipline.com)

The full essay is at "Principled Leadership."

Transcending Limited Notions of the Divine

When religion meets human nature, does the gravitational pull of me, me, me tend to encompass the journey downward in an all too comfortable direction? In his Natural History of Religion, David Hume proposes his theory that any religion begins with a focus on something akin to divine simplicity, but then becomes increasingly robed with anthropomorphic artifacts until the sheer weight of which brings down the tree whose inherently upward-looking striving succumbs to the increasing weight of the human.

In other words, is religion too weak to withstand the human, all too human ornaments that we conveniently adorn of our religions? The ornaments ultimate reflect ourselves, and thus are so convenient. So too is surrounding ourselves with others of like beliefs a matter of convenience. That is, religion can unwittingly become all about the self. Such religions or sects thereof can get sucked into a regular orbit of convenience without any of the congregants noticing the gradual and subtle slide.

The full essay is at "Transcending Limited Notions of the Divine."

Malignant Narcissism in the Porn Industry: A Case of Flaccid Industry Self-Regulation

In early February, 2011, the Los Angeles city council voted unanimously to draft an ordinance that would require condoms to be used on the set of every pornographic movie made within city limits. “We can’t keep our heads in the sand any longer,” City Councilman Bill Rosendahl said. “These people should be using condoms. Period.” According to the New York Times, the "city law would be the first to impose safety standards specifically on the pornographic film industry, which has largely been allowed to police itself." Until the late 1990's, the industry went unregulated. On the heels of lawsuits filed against production companies by several actresses who had contracted H.I.V., the industry created the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation in 1998. The nonprofit clinic was financed by contributions from production companies and offered STD tests for the talent. Producers agreed not to hire performers who had not been tested within thirty days. Even though the county health department accused the industry's self-regulation of failing to protect the talent and their sexual partners, the production companies claimed that the system worked well. “This has been working for years,” said Steven Hirsch, founder of Vivid Entertainment. “If we saw people getting sick, we would go to mandatory condoms.” However, STDs remained rampant among pornographic film performers. Rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea are seven times higher than those in the general population.  Taking Steven Hirsch's own statement, it could be argued that waiting until an actor looks sick to require him to wear a condom is a bit like waiting until the horse has left the barn. “Testing just acts as a fig leaf for producers, who suggest that it is a reasonable substitute for condoms, which it is not,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

The full essay is at "On the Perils of Industry Self-Regulation."

On the Pretentiousness of Senior Water Rights in California

California water regulators proposed a record $1.5 million fine on July 21, 2015 against the Byron Bethany Irrigation District (BBID) in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The agency claimed that the district had defied cutbacks that the California Water Resources Control Board had ordered by diverting water from June 13 through June 25. The complaint said that Byron Bethany had consumed an estimated 2,056 acre-feet of water[1] in spite of the fact that the agency had imposed a 25 percent mandatory cutback in urban water use and cuts to major agricultural interests.[2] I contend not only that the district’s board put the interest of a part ahead of the good of the whole (i.e., the common good), but also that the board did so out of a sense of entitlement based on the sheer longevity of the water rights in the district.

The full essay is at “Pretentiousness of Water Rights.” 

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[1] An acre-foot is the amount of water that would cover a square acre up to a foot high.

[2] Adam Nagourney, “California Farm District Accused of Diverting Water,” The New York Times, July 21, 2015.

Blockbuster Dissolves While Netflix Prospers: Evolutionary, Psychological, and Religious Explanations

In November 2013, the world learned that Blockbuster would be closing its remaining 300 video stores and even its DVD/VHS-by-mail service. Meanwhile, Netflix was making a foray into producing programming, effectively leveraging its streaming-video service. Why is it that one group, or company, of people fail to adapt while another seems to easily ride a powerful wave of change without falling? Drawing on evolutionary biology, I provide a context that distinguishes the two companies.[1] Within this framework, I proffer a possible psychological explanation involving the survival of a human being and the self-perpetuation telos (i.e., goal) of human genes.

At one point, Blockbuster had 9,000 stores. The company made the transition to DVD from VHS, yet both the company’s management and that of Dish Network, which bought Blockbuster in 2011 for $320 million at auction when Blockbuster was emerging from chapter 11 bankruptcy, were slow to grasp the velocity of the next generation as evinced in Netflix’s streaming-video online.[2] Even within Netflix, natural selection seems to have been working its way as the company developed a “mutation” of producing programming to rival—and even potentially replace—the television networks’ own programming. That is to say, a punctuated equilibrium, or evolutionary leap instead of gradual, incremental adaptations via slight mutations, can take place within a company rather than only from company to company to company over time.  

Relative to Netflix, even Dish Network can be viewed as being antiquated in its own mutational innovations. People accustomed to the business model wherein for a fee of less than $10 a month, they can receive as much streaming video as they wish would doubtlessly perceive even Dish’s “Blockbuster @Home” add-on (for an extra fee) available to Dish pay-TV customers and the company’s “Blockbuster On Demand” service available to the general public as strangely antiquated. For example, a business practitioner staying at a hotel while travelling could not but see the “On Demand” feature on the room’s television as rightfully belonging to yesteryear as he or she lays down on the bed, laptop perched on the chest, with a streaming movie from Netflix ready to go.

I submit that it is no coincidence that Blockbuster and its acquiring parent company—two groups of people, really—had so much trouble letting go an existing business model and associated strategy even after changes in the industry as well as the business environment had already begun to incapacitate the mindset undergirding the model and supporting strategy. Moreover, a mindset framing a strategic business model is itself lodged in a broader attitude not just regarding change, but also the self. A narcissistic or egoist personality disorder, for example, can be expected to include a proclivity or inclination to hold onto whatever ideology (consisting of values, beliefs, and basic assumptions), belief system (e.g., a creed), and “knowledge” the person has.

The pull of the self to hold onto itself is based on the unity-of-the-self assumption and the instinctual urge to survive. Survival can include the person’s dignity and how he or she is perceived by others. Where concern for the self is excessive even for the person’s own good, the person’s “field of vision,” or perspective, narrows artificially. As a result, the need for strategic change is apt to be missed. Rather than being oriented to finding a means of attaining a punctuated equilibrium, the person (and persons in the same local culture) finds his or her referent in the status quo—in the self-supporting or enabling “substance” composed of ideology, value, belief, attitude, mentality, and even perspective.

In short, people differ in the degree to which they clutch to whatever appears necessary to one’s self-identity and viability (and ultimately survival). A culture can easily form as a few people who clutch at what they “know to be true” at the expense of being invested in change (not to mention being open to or inclined toward it) share or infect other people close by as though via an air-born pathogen. One such culture tends to gravitate toward another like culture. Hence, Blockbuster and Dish Network. Meanwhile, other cultures form on the basis of the meta-assumption that change is good, even (and especially) when it manifests in a dynamic-oriented rather than static personality. Hence, Netflix.

Ironically, an orientation to, and thus value ascribed to, letting go of what a person takes to be crucial for the self to have substance and a supporting or framing architectonic enables the self to grow rather than starve. At a company level, a culture of such people is necessary to being able to serially adapt—not to mention find a punctuated equilibrium (via qualitative change)—especially when change is the only constant in the business environment (i.e., after the Victorian era). When change itself has become the status quo or default, a company’s very survival may entail such a mentality and culture.

Christians may recognize the paradox by thinking of the concept, agape, which is divine self-emptying love. Through grace, the divine love internal to the person manifests as the self’s voluntary self-emptying. This sort of love differs from that of caritas, which is human love. It is directed, or raised up, to eternal moral verities (Plato) or God (Augustine) and fueled by the same energy that manifests as garden-variety lust. After all, hot air rises. Although sex is no stranger to corporate games, it is not, at least from a Christian standpoint, fueling the movement toward change. From an evolutionary standpoint, however, sex (as well as sustenance and shelter) is very much involved in any adaptive inclination. The Christian explanation is in line with what the Buddhists coined as empty your cup.

Whether as a person or group, being focused on emptying one’s cup because only then can it be filled with new fluid is in turn premised on the assumption or belief that the self itself is fluid—like a river continually of water but never the same molecules at the same place. In contrast, the self of a narcissist is like a frozen mill-pond that suffocates any life within.

Whether from the standpoint of natural science or religion, groups of people can be distinguished by their respective attitudes toward change, which in turn reflect differing felt-understandings of the nature of the self and how it can best be fulfilled, protected, or sustained. The people at Blockbuster had to disperse at the possible expense of their livelihoods (i.e., sustenance) even as (and because) they were able to hold onto their firmly-held beliefs and assumptions. Meanwhile, the people at Netflix were not only sustaining themselves, but also prospering; they did so by prizing adaptation and, relatedly, a fluid, and thus adaptive, notion of self that in turn reflects favorably on their own selves, whether from an evolutionary, psychological or religious perspective.  

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1. In taking this approach, I am following in the path-breaking footsteps of William Frederick. See William C. Frederick, Natural Corporate Management: From the Big Bang to Wall Street (Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf Publishing, 2012).

2.Roger Yu, “Blockbuster to Shutter U.S. Stores, “ USA Today, November 7, 2013.

Up-Ending the Dramatic U.S. Debt-Ceiling-Limit Cliff-Hanger: Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

It can be said that the media's currency is credibility. If so, the American media may have outdid itself yet again in characterizing the federal government's sequester in 2013 as an imminent disaster of Congressional design. Countdown clocks going back days only escalated the orchestrated yet subterranean calculus of attention-getting and fear-mongering by the usual suspects. Not only did the actual sequester not turn out to be a train wreck; the enforced budget discipline brought the spending line significantly more into line with the revenue line. 

 

Later in the same year, the clocks were back for the government partial shutdown and a default deadline. CNN outdid itself. Not only did the network sport a clock counting down to the partial shutdown; the countdown clock turned into a precise indicator of the ongoing duration of the partial shutdown down to the second, even after eleven days!  The unnecessary, dogmatic inclusion of minutes and seconds could only have been intended to deliberately stretch out the manufactured sense of alarm or crisis beyond its unnatural life. The mendacity and manipulation are of course unethical, yet the novel practice had already become the industry's norm so the viewers naturally assumed it must be proper and well-proportioned.

Even as the days, hours, minutes and seconds mounted, CNN added a second clock just below the first in order to countdown the upcoming default deadline. Fortunately, after a day or two of numbers galore, someone at the network made the momentous decision to simplify the "shutdown" clock into a count of days. Unlike the excessive day-count by the networks as the hostage situation in Iran went on and on in 1979, CNN's "Government Shutdown" day-count and "Debt Ceiling Deadline" clock were seemingly etched onto the screen (except during commercials, of course). Although the advent of the 24/7 news-channel eased this shift appreciably, the trajectory itself can be graphed as a curve evincing a sort of cancerous decadence spreading through the body politic. I want to unpack the very nature of that pathogen by placing a slice of the media on a microscope slide.
 

A look at the catastrophic partial government shutdown.  Wikimedia Commons.

Is what we have here one artificial "catastrophe" on top of another? That the first had never really gotten off the ground as catastrophic was apparently beside the point as the media began crying wolf yet again. Perhaps imminent catastrophe as a sort of continuing resolution had already become the primary strategy of television news editors, who were at least outwardly impervious to whether or not the last crisis had actually turned out to be catastrophic as they had thought and pronounced. No learning curve extraneous to what sells was allowed by those who refuse to look in the rear-view mirror. The new "reality" (or reality show) premised on a permanent adrenaline-rush (coffee no longer being required) had been found to be cheap to produce, and thus it had become the default. For added fun, the viewers could look forward to a  cacophony of puffed-up talking mouths forming a cavalcade of exaggerated metaphors with no curtain call in sight.

 

The confluence of the government's partial shutdown and the prospect of a default fueled a confluence in turn of journalists and politicians around a storyline to which only they and Wall Street were privy. Meanwhile, the usual suspects treated the public to an exaggerated roller-coaster ride over the supposition that the cars really could suddenly fall to the ground. The manufacturers were even considerate enough to supply a countdown clock! 

 

Source: NPR.org

 

Besides magnifying the significance of each public statement and meeting by labeling almost every twist and turn "BREAKING NEWS," broadcast and online/print journalists as well as the ubiquitous pundits happily joined members of Congress in misappropriating war terminology even to someone's refusal to talk to someone else on Capitol Hill. 

For example, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said at one point on CNN, "It is a nasty, bloody fight." Meanwhile, U.S. House representatives were referring to the difficulty in reaching a deal as a terrible battle. Had any of them been to the real battlefields at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania? Had the former Speaker, perhaps when he was studying for the doctorate in American history? Lest the thick, humid air of the odious irony cause anyone difficulty in breathing, I can supply a bayonet to cut through the miasma of soupy air.

To correct the squalid, sensationalizing habit of militarizing the "sausage making" in Congress, an actual military veteran gives us a needed reality-check in an ad sponsored by a vet group and aired on CNN just before the former Speaker over-reached. The veteran declares with an obvious note of disgust and disbelief, "It is not an epic battle. I've been in an epic battle and running the government is not one of them." I was instantly reminded of Sen. Lloyd Benson's clever response to Sen. Dan Quayle in the vice-presidential debate in 1988.

 

As if recalling faded images of soil tainted with the blood of those who had sacrificed their lives does not go over the top, the Huffington Post ran the following headline: "[U.S. Senator] Joe Manchin: Democrats May Consider 'Nuclear Option' On Debt Ceiling." Was it really necessary to stir the old fears of those Americans who could still remember the corrosive taste of the Cold War? Selfish and inconsiderate, or perhaps the old sin of pride overlaid with whipped presumptuous, may aptly describe the underlying mentality. Yet even sickness can be found in the nucleus of the interlarding pathogen.

Ironically, Wolf Blitzer of CNN turned away after only a minute or so from Sen. Rubio speaking live in the U.S. Senate chamber on the Iranian nuclear talks then going on only days after Sen. Manchin made his infamous "nuclear option" threat. In spite of the fact that getting Iran to the negotiating table had just been a significant step toward a solution and the media around the world was covering the talks, the veteran news anchor in America relegated the issue as soon as he discerned that the topic was not the upcoming debt-ceiling. As though an infant missing his thumb for two seconds, Blitzer quickly said (paraphrasing), "Senator Rubio on the Senate floor is just talking about Iran. I want to turn to . . . on what is going on right now on Capitol Hill." Nothing was going on.

I was astonished that the folks at CNN could be so obsessed with microscopic, minute reports of this and that meeting of lawmakers, a brief public statement of no substance (e.g., "We want fairness."), and various trial-balloons seemingly meant to preempt running up against the debt-ceiling at "ZERO HOUR." In hindsight, few people would notice that President Obama signed the bill after midnight, hence past the zero hour. the Apocalypse. Put another way, the timing of the bill finally becoming law early on October 17th invalidates all the clocks counting down the minutes and seconds, as well as the USA Today newspaper front-page headline on October 16th proclaiming "ZERO HOUR" as if the world as we know it would end at midnight without the debt-ceiling having been extended. As conflict is the stuff of a good show, the paper's editors flanked the "ZERO HOUR" (in a flaming red square) with photos the Speaker of the U.S. House and the U.S. President, seemingly staring each other down. Conflict sells, as do even artificial, arbitrary deadlines invented and then fed to a beguiled public. After the fact, few people even think to look in the rear-view mirror, and so we can expect the manipulation to go on.

Why is the application of zero hour to the debt ceiling fake? It is important for us to realize the severity of our lapse so we won't be taken so easily in the future. The U.S. Government would not go into default the minute, or even necessarily days, after the debt ceiling has been reached unless cash on hand is not sufficient to pay the bills due immediately. That is, not being able to borrow more does not preclude the government from using its cash on hand and incoming revenue from taxes and other sources to pay the bills as they come due. Regarding the October 17th "deadline" at 12:01 a.m., the big bills (e.g., Social Security and interest payments) were not to come due until October 21 and then again on November 1st. Even though Treasury's software may not have been able to "pick and choose" what to pay in order to stave off actual default (i.e., missing an interest payment to U.S. bond-holders), presumably a law passed by Congress and signed by the president would override such logistical matters. Furthermore, because no interest payments were due on October 17th, not to mention exactly at 12:01 a.m., actual default would not have occurred at the end of "zero hour" or even the next day! Nevertheless, the media, Congressional lawmakers, and the self-anointed pundits qua experts easily foisted the lie on a gullible public eager to believe anything said on television or in print.  

Given the government's cash on hand and strong revenue stream coming in, I suspect that the feared trade-off between paying interest on the debt or issuing Social Security checks is a false dichotomy.  To be sure, the ethics of paying wealthy bond-holders while retirees, the sick, and the hungry go without sustenance is daunting, if not prohibitory. Such a breach of ethics would be on top of the media's  hidden agenda or biased discretion to maximize "me, me, me" and profits at the expense of the journalist mission to report the news let the viewers make up their own minds. Moreover, to deliberately foment fear excessively violates Kant's "Kingdom of Ends," wherein beings having a rational nature are treated not just as means, but also as ends in themselves.

The real crunch point would have come with the first of the huge pay-outs, which would not be until October 21st. Even putting off non-interest bills coming due before that date would not be an actual default, which is defined as missing a payment of interest and/or principal to creditors. The "ZERO HOUR" was a hoax, which, unfortunately, could have become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Fortunately, Wall Street wasn't buying into the stunt. Had the drama been allowed to play out until October 20th, the continuing financial uncertainty alone might have caused a "run on the bank" even if the traders and major investors were privy to the end-game already worked out in Washington. Smoke and mirrors can spur someone into starting an actual fire.
 
Another casualty from the media's obsession based on the assumed validity of a "zero hour" is what I would call the monopoly of the story crowding out virtually all other news. As if creating the countdown clocks in the first place is not bizarre enough, the refusal to break away even for five minutes has all the earmarks of a pathology or dysfunctional mindset even if the intent of the network executives and anchors was to maximize the audience-share for the first half of October. Even if the viewers had already been suckered into the purported significance of the "breaking news" flashes regarding trivial "developments" in line with profitability, gaining from lying violates journalistic ethics and the mentality involved is sordid. At the very least, that journalistic strategy enables a personality disorder. 

For example, twelve hours before the declared zero hour ending at midnight, voices presumably screaming in Blitzer's ear-piece would not tolerate even five or ten minutes on the Iran talks then concluding, even though similar voices had saturated the entire morning with hours of unrestrained verbal diarrhea ad nauseam zooming in on every little twist and turn. The refusal to break away from a dearth of real news to briefly cover a story being heavily reported on that day by news networks around the world is a huge red flag begging to be examined. The pathogen goes far deeper than merely a tunneled perspective and even a lack of judgment (in one's own field!). At the subterranean level at CNN must lie a dysfunctional organizational culture enabled by the obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.
 

To be sure, an actual default by the U.S. Government would have serious economic implications. Sen. John McCain reported that the likely impact on the market, according to Wall Street bankers and stock analysts, would be "very, very negative." That the media used "Armageddon" rather than "very, very negative" and referred to October 17th as "the magic day" and to midnight there of as "Zero Hour" is a red flag. Even if most of us are color-blind, the choices that were made in the (misuse of) discretion say something about the mentality underneath the carefully-cropped haircuts.

Meanwhile, the continuing partisan remarks by members of Congress belie their artful shrieks that the sky would soon fall unless the other party caves.  For days, the public had been blanketed with baleful warnings of imminent catastrophe. In other words, if the lawmakers really did think a financial meltdown might occur, they would not be prioritizing political points unless risking their own wealth, not to mention the U.S. economy (and thus their jobs), was of no concern.

Days before the public new that a deal was in the works in the Senate, Sen. Reid's "Don't screw it up" comment was caught by a microphone as the mayor of Washington, D.C. stopped the majority leader on the Capitol steps to ask for enough money to operate the city (including trash pick up). What is the it? A grammar detective would point to the missing antecedent as being very suspicious.

Also suspicious, with even just 12 hours to go before the global financial system could turn into a pumpkin at midnight, the Dow Industrials was up more than 100 points. Had the traders and major investors believed that an actual default was possible, the dire consequences coming with even low probability would have been factored into the market. The Wall Street elite must have known that even a House vote well after zero hour would not trigger a default. In short, the countdown clocks and word of a zero hour were both a ruse perpetrated on an beguiled public (you and me). Feels nice, doesn't it? Yet we continue right along in the matrix.

 I submit for your consideration the possibility that Congressional lawmakers, the president, Wall Streeters, and even perhaps the media already knew that Act 3 would end with a dramatic (i.e., attention-grabbing) climax and a favorable ending. With the "it" set, the incumbents could enact various displays like peacocks to give themselves political cover or simply look good amid all the manufactured attention. Meanwhile, the American people were being manipulated into believing in the existence of an epic bloody battle ending on time, as planned, just before "ZERO HOUR." If I am correct with this scenario, the players on the mighty stage do not deserve a standing ovation for having saved the day. Least of all are we to permit them an encore, even if one has already been pre-determined and thus inevitable.

 

Wrestling Out, Dancing In: The Modern Olympics

Even as custom or tradition that has outlived its justification—which is not the same as usefulness—is essentially deadwood, there is presumptuousness in redefining a concept or event without regard to how it is understood. For example, Stephanie Meyers disregarded one of the major confining attributes of the vampire lore in enabling the vampires of the Twilight saga to not only stand in the sunlight, but actually sparkle!  It was as though Meyers felt she need not be constrained to fit into the folklore; she could essentially redefine it. Were a reader to object, “that’s not a vampire then!” she would presumptuously state matter-of-factly, “yes it is.” This is essentially subjectivity presuming to define social reality as a projection of whatever the self wills. Any constraint on the self is presumptuously thrown off as though with impunity.  Modernity itself may have this attitude in paying too little heed to established definitions and practices in seeking to redefine them (mindlessly retaining customs being the other side of the coin).  The Olympics may be a case in point.

In February 2013, the International Olympic Committee decided to remove wrestling form the 2020 Olympics. That the sport was among those of the ancient Olympic games in Greece was apparently an easily-dismissible factor. Although the committee did not disclose its reasons, the desire to draw younger viewers, who follow potential alternatives such as climbing and wakeboarding, was likely among the committee members’ reasons.

                                                                                                     Wrestling was a sport in ancient Greece, as depicted here on this ancient vase.     BBC

Although including new sports to make the Olympics relevant to a contemporary audience is advisable, and keeping the games from growing without limit is doubtlessly prudent, taking from one of the most Olympic sports risks removing the distinctiveness of the games, as rooted in the sports of the ancient games. “I think this is a really stupid decision,” an Olympic historian said. “It was in the ancient Olympics. It has been in the modern Olympics since 1896.” The decision looks even more stupid relative to the committee’s action to retain “rhythmic gymnastics,” which is basically dancing to music. In one manifestation, the “gymnastic athletes” conduct artistic movements with ribbons.  Watching the performance, a viewer is apt to wonder how dance had become a sport—not to mention an Olympic sport. Meanwhile, the ancient Olympic sport of wrestling is expendable.

Two underlying problems, or mentalities, are evinced in this case study. First, if rhythmic gymnastics is a sport simply because it is scored and has an international federation, then virtually anything under the sun could be classified as a sport. The very term sport could become a near-tautology. One person could mean one thing by the term while another person means something else.  The term itself could become mere reflections of personal ideological agendas.

Secondly, dismissing something elemental to a concept while continuing to admit and tolerate applications exogenous to the unmolested concept essentially “morphs” the concept into another without being intellectually honest in renaming the concept. If dance rather than wrestling is the way the Olympics are to go, then at least shouldn’t the games be renamed so people do not expect them to be the modern expression of the ancient games. In other words, in expressing the basis of the games still in ancient Greece, such as by starting the torch at the original site, and yet shifting the games away from the ancient games and toward activities that may not even be sports, the International Olympic Committee was at the very least sending mixed signals—or worse, trying to have it both ways. The result could be that the concept, Olympics, becomes severely blurred in meaning. The culprit is the presumptuous ego bristling at any possible constraint.

Sources:

Jere Longman, “Olympics Moves to Drop Wrestling in 2020,” The New York Times, February 12, 2013.

Mandi Bierly, “Olympics: What’s Your WTF Sport? And Don’t Say Rhythmic Gymnastics!” EW.com, August 9, 2012.

 

 

Mistrust in Business: A Nietzschean Critique

In his commentary on the loss of trust in business, government and society, Michael Wolff laments to decline of trust through what he calls “consumer history.” As trust can be maintained with little or no further cost once established, Wolff is perplexed as to why more business practitioners, politicians and even religious functionaries do not rush to fill the gap.

The full essay has been incorporated into (or swallowed up by) On the Arrogance of False Entitlement: A Nietzschean Critique of Business Ethics and Management, available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.

American Newscasters Blindly Floundering

In mid-2012, just 21% of adults in the U.S. told Gallop they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in TV news. In 1993, the percentage had been at forty-six. Ideological differences do not seem to matter (ranging only between 19-22%). Interestingly, the 18- to 29-year-old group had the most confidence. In terms of education, the more educated one was, the less likely one was to have a great deal of confidence. Newspapers did not fare much better, coming in at 25 percent. 

 By chance, on the very day I read about the Gallop poll, I came to the conclusion that the Huffington Post must be utterly addicted to the U.S. Presidential campaign—then already at least a year old and with just less than half a year left. Nearly every headline seemed to be about something that Mit Romney had said (or not said). Every little thing was blown up into a major crisis—to the point that I had come to skip the headlines completely. It occurred to me that the Huffington Post had lost credibility, at least to me, because of its lack of perspective. The dramatics alone reaffirmed my decision to get my news from Europe, even concerning what is going on in the United States! Tellingly, very little indeed was being reported concerning the "important" presidential campaigns (Gott sei dank)

Accordingly, I had given up watching any American news channels or shows in April 2012. I had come to realize that all too often opinion was being sold as news. All too often, journalists were interviewing other journalists as experts (other than on journalism). Such interviews I would call journalistic masturbation—fit only for other journalists to watch. Just a week before the Gallop poll came out, someone casually remarked to me that if Americans would just watch the news on a European station, they would quickly realize how far off the reservation the American newscasts and news networks had wandered in terms of reporting the news.

In addition to the journalists interviewing other journalists and the “talking heads” commentators dominating the “news,” the obsessiveness on one particular story within any given 24 hours news-cycle (and limiting “international news” to two or three countries in the world where the U.S. has a particular interest) can easily give the viewer the sense that the world is much smaller than it actually is. It is a fallacy to suppose that the narrowness of coverage means it is more in depth rather than merely repetitive. Furthermore, one should not assume that the narrowness is for want of enough time in a given broadcast; typically after ten minutes in the evening newscasts of the major non-news networks (i.e, ABC, NBC, and CBS), a magazine format takes over, with "human interest" stories replacing news reports.

In short, television news is broken in the United States, and the journalists are blind to it even as they portray themselves (ironically) as self-appointed experts (i.e., talking heads) on policy. Because the correction needed is not merely by degree, it is doubtful that the situation could be rectified without a new infusion of people in the business. In the meantime, I recommend Deutsche Welle (German and English versions—webpages and television channels) and TV5 Monde (en francais), as well as the BBC.  Hopefully these European newscasts won’t follow their American cousins.

Source:

Gallup Politics, “Americans’ Confidence in Television News Drops to New Low,” July 10, 2012. http://www.gallup.com/poll/155585/Americans-Confidence-Television-News-Drops-New-Low.aspx

U.S. Senator Rand Paul on Civil Rights and the BP Explosion

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), was the Tea Party candidate who challenged the Republican establishment to win the party’s Senate nomination in Kentucky on May 18, 2010. A day later, he publicly criticized a plank of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Specifically, he said in an interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC television that he supported the sections of the Civil Rights Act that applied to public accommodations but had concerns when it came to its applicability to private business. He had raised similar concerns earlier in the day about the Americans with Disabilities Act in an interview on National Public Radio. Asked by Maddow if a private business had the right to refuse to serve black people, Mr. Paul replied, “Yes.” In so answering, the new senator failed or refused to distinguish private property that is open to the public from private property, such as a person's home, that is not. 

The full essay is at "Civil Rights and the BP Explosion."

Conflicts of Interest: A Kantian Explanation

In a conflict of interest, either two duties conflict or a duty conflicts with self-interest—whether the “self” be an individual or an association of individuals (e.g., a department or an organization). Where two duties conflict, that which corresponds with the wider “constituency” is presumed to be ethically superior to that which is relatively narrow. For instance, a duty to society is typically thought (admittedly by the public) to ethically supersede a fiduciary duty to stockholders. This assumption is problematic because property rights are not charged with putting society first. Therefore the question of which duty is superior ethically-speaking may come down to one’s vantage-point. To be sure, the duty that is further from one’s self-interest can be said to be superior in most ethical theories with the notable exception of egoism. That theory defeats the typical ethical take on conflicts of interest even where a duty is pitted against self-interest itself.


The full essay is at Institutional Conflicts of Interest, available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.