First Blog

  Moral shortcuts.   Moral shortcuts are aphorisms that sum up states of goodness in only a few words. They are instant retorts, reports, or pronouncements given without explanation and analysis. They appeal to feeling good, hardly saying why, without content, and without depth. They are words meant to resonate in the mind.   They are weak, often vague aphorisms.   Moral shortcuts live a saltshaker to be spread to give flavor!     Beware of empty politicians telling us … A.       It is the right thing to do. B.       This is not who we are. C.       We are on the right side of history. D.      We have formed a commission to study the issue. E.       We’re here to help you. F.        They are friends, not competitors. G.      Let us reimagine … . Some buy every time, nodding in agreement. Some ask, “Is this the best you can do?” Ala, morality is in the air, often attached to extreme measures, sort of an essential sweetener to a distasteful medicine. Really, they want

Maybe a trifle depressing... If our students entered college with anything at all in their heads, that neon sign on their foreheads blinking “Program Me” would be turned off. The essence of tabula rasa . It is one thing to come to college with an open mind, quite another to come with an empty mind. The stupid make the easiest converts. In governmental public education policy, we see only the curriculum, class size, evaluation merry-go-round. From failure to failure and back again. Personal anonymity? You ain’t got it no more.   Everything  known about you floats in a data ocean , accessible to anyone - for a fee. Years from now, this time will be referred to as when the New Stupid triumphed in America.

Going under the hood of American students reveals a corpus of young people with different ideas than in years past.    Less educated than ever before and loving it, freed from the shackles of critical understanding, flush with a new found power over flaccid administrations, American students see the world through highly personal and rather selfish viewpoints.  Risk avoidance is favored, both in action and in thought.   Mostly, they want to feel good about themselves, to make a difference, and to be allowed indifference to serious study. They seem to live in a world of talking points, to need scripted talking points for newer issues, and surely to follow the talking points of their often anonymous leaders. Reason must be combined in equal measure with emotion. Truth is also what should be so or could be so. Feeling good is isomorphic to being good. Restricting speech of some clarifies and helps deeper understanding of the real truth. Having safe spaces is important in a ho

The world you grew up in is no more.  The world of reasonable honesty and reasonable lies has been replaced by abject dishonesty and blatant lies. Lies.  Yes. People have always told them.  You have told them; so have I.   We need lies; they are a foundational structure of social living.  They both deceive and protect.  Children tell them to their parents to avoid consequences, like punishment.  Adults tell them to their bosses, to enhance their position and/or avoid consequences of poor performance.  Our bosses tell them to their boards to suggest business is good, the project is on target, or the detractors are wrong.  The boards tell them to shareholders to protect their own credibility and most importantly, stock values.   Our politicians tell lies to their constituents, though sometimes innocently with them not actually knowing much more than they've been told.  They enhance their positions to the detraction of their opponents and to the inflation of their personal positi