CONTENTS
1. JK ROWLING’S ADDRESS TO HARVARD UNIVERSITY GRADUATING CLASS. THE VERY BEST GIFT I (SANDRA) CAN GIVE TO YOU.
2. HOWARD WOODHOUSE’S NEW BOOK RE UNIVERSITIES: “SELLING OUT”.
3. UNIVERSITIES AND VALUES, AN URGENT PROBLEM FOR US ALL. WHAT TO DO.
4. COMMENTARY (BACKGROUND FOR NEWCOMERS)
5. TWO DIFFERENT SETS OF ETHICS, APPROPRIATE TO THEIR FUNCTION: GUARDIANSHIP, COMMERCE (from “SYSTEMS OF SURVIVAL”)
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1. JK ROWLING’S ADDRESS TO HARVARD UNIVERSITY GRADUATING CLASS. THE VERY BEST GIFT I (SANDRA) CAN GIVE TO YOU. EXTRAORDINARY.
JK Rowling – author of the Harry Potter series.
Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkREt4ZB-ck
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kh_tSiqL1U&feature=related
Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqGotirF20w&NR=1
(Note: Harvard University is now the “Harvard Corporation”.)
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2. HOWARD WOODHOUSE’S NEW BOOK RE UNIVERSITIES: “SELLING OUT”
VALUES are a major theme in Rowling’s address to the University graduates. VALUES at universities are the major theme of Howard Woodhouse’s new book: “Selling Out: Academic Freedom and the Corporate Market”. The book has been nominated for a Saskatchewan Book Award.
” “Selling Out” demonstrates that the logics of value of the market place and of universities are not only different but opposed to one another. Woodhouse explains how academic freedom and university autonomy are being subordinated to corporate demands and how faculty have attempted to resist this subjugation. Howard Woodhouse is a professor of educational foundations and co-director of the University of Saskatchewan Process Philosophy Research Unit.”
You are fortunate if you live in Saskatoon. You can meet Howard in person at the book launch! You are invited: Thursday, November 5th, 7:30, McNally Robinson Bookstore on 8th Street.
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3. UNIVERSITIES AND VALUES, AN URGENT PROBLEM FOR US ALL. WHAT TO DO.
Know what our own values are.
And then fight for them.
What value system does our educational system promote to our young people? What are the consequences for us, as a society, of the dominant value system?
Will it be:
(a) JK Rowling’s set of values, or will be it be
(b) the values of the corporations (Howard’s book)? Nothing matters but making money to send to shareholders.
We had best know the answer to the question and set things right if there are problems. Howard’s book makes the case. We will find the ways.
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4. COMMENTARY (BACKGROUND FOR NEWCOMERS)
Corporation (noun) – an ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.
But the commerce function in our society is valuable.
What has happened? … Always, the world changes. Sometimes not for the good.
Jane Jacobs’ book “Systems of Survival, A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics” tells us that there are two separately evolved codes of ethics for the commerce and for the guardianship (governance, public) functions in a society. The ethics in the two spheres are different because the two spheres serve different purposes.
When we fail to know and uphold the difference, when we start to use business ethics in the guardianship role and vice versa, guardianship ethics in the business role, there is serious corruption. Service to the public good is lost. Exactly where we are today – all you have to do is to look at various African countries to see the future of the corruption. The wealth flows to small numbers of very rich people who have power and control; there are large numbers of impoverished people.
Will it be:
(1) JK Rowling’s set of values,
Or will it be
(2) A takeover of the critical guardianship function by the values of the corporations? Nothing matters but making money to send to shareholders.
OR will it be
(3) re-drawing the separation between the commercial and guardianship functions in our society?
We had best know the answer to the question.
Earlier emails have discussed the opposition between the public good and the corporate good. An economy is based upon a resource. If you can own the resource, you get to make all the money. And if you can pass responsibility for the costs of your operations on to the public purse (the timid and scared little people who work dutifully to pay taxes), you can make exorbitant profits.
We talked about the profit potential in a “knowledge economy” if the corporations get to own the knowledge resource. Just like they own oil and gas. And the other energy resources. And just like they would like to own the water resource.
Commerce can be kept in check only if there is a strong guardianship (government regulatory) function. We know that from the economic crisis. Self-regulation absolutely does not work.
We are taught that in a democracy there must be a separation of powers, checks and balances. The judicial function must be independent of the political, for obvious safeguard reasons.
The research and insights of Jane Jacobs take it a step further: the political and governance function must also be independent of the commercial function.
“Systems of Survival”, a telling title for her book, documents the historical evolution of the different ethics for the two functions.
The road back to a situation where corporations have respect, is to remove them from government and from the universities. The government must fund the universities (public interest, guardianship). They must not fund the corporations (private interest, commerce).
Government and universities overtaken by corporate interests – a loss of the guardianship function – is a form of government known as fascist.
Imposition of the ethics of commerce on our educational institutions, making them the training grounds for corporations … if you need a reminder about the evils of that, watch “The Sound of Music”. And note that it is another way (in addition to pollution) of passing the cost of operations (in this case, training) onto the public purse. Howard’s book, “Selling Out” makes this clear.
This is our society, our responsibility. It is our choice to participate in it or not. WE will decide the outcome, through action or through inaction. It is our choice to be “victims” or not.
The lessons are all there in the histories of what happened in the lead-up to World War Two. It is interesting how much of it comes down to people knowing and LIVING their values, being willing to stand up and speak up loud and clear for those values, not only for ourselves but for others, BEFORE it is too late. If we wait until the assault is directed at us personally, it will be too late.
Some faculty at the University of Saskatchewan and other Universities are intimidated. The Department of Agriculture is run by Monsanto, Bayer Crop Science, and other chemical-biotech corporations. Professors and researchers with an alternate view of agriculture are marginalized and not funded. The corporate good trumps the public good AND the search for truth.
The uranium and nuclear industry is moving onto the U of S campus big-time now. The petroleum industry is already well established at the University of Regina. If the corporations have their way, the “small” reactors for tar sands expansion will be developed at the University with disastrous consequences for climate change, for water resources, and for the death by acidification of northern Saskatchewan. The public interest is subverted, no different from what is on-going in the College of Agriculture.
Students in Veterinary Medicine tell of their repugnance for the biased teachings of a professor who advocates (“sells”) intensive livestock operations. He receives money from the industry. His job is to create unquestioning loyalty, not critical thinking or research in the public interest.
The professors in the university who dissent find themselves in trouble with the administration. Their public-interest work is jeopardized. The knowledge resource of the society is jeopardized. It will be commodified and “owned” if the corporations and their collaborators have their way. Education becomes less and less “public” as it evolves to conform with models of profit centres.
Fascist control with a ruling elite is more easily achieved in a population that is taught not to question. Howard Woodhouse’s book, “Selling Out” is a gift to us in the effort to take back our universities.
There is a guarantee that we will not follow the descent into fascism: as always, it is the formation of a critical mass of informed people. All you have to do is to talk with your friends – – introduce the topic into conversations.
I have great faith that when people have the information, they will have the conversations and when they have the conversations, they will find the remedies. It will take a while but that’s okay.
Thank-you Howard Woodhouse, and thank-you JK Rowling. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things. We stand behind you.
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5. TWO DIFFERENT SETS OF ETHICS, APPROPRIATE TO THEIR FUNCTION. (from SYSTEMS OF SURVIVAL)
GUARDIANSHIP COMMERCE
shun force shun trading
voluntary agreement exert prowess
be honest be obedient and disciplined
collaborate adhere to tradition
compete respect hierarchy
respect contracts be loyal
use initiative and enterprise take vengeance
open to inventiveness and novelty deceive for the sake of the task
be efficient make rich use of leisure
promote comfort and convenience be ostentatious
dissent for the sake of the task dispense largesse
invest for productive purposes be exclusive
be industrious show fortitude
be thrifty be fatalistic
be optimistic treasure honor