Social inequality and yet another point of view from higher ed

I can't get away from the topic of growing inequality.  This may seem the quintessential story of liberal angst, but it's true for all of us who could be called "prosperous."

Child Care at Penn State

Emblems of privilege or tricks of the trade

Much has been said in the media lately about the growing inequality between the richest citizens of the US and virtually everyone else. I was particularly dismayed at the revelation in a major paper that otherwise fit academic leaders at a major research university had obtained medical waivers to allow them to fly first class on fund raising and other business trips.  Travel policy called for them  to travel in coach.  A few days later, there was a motivated defense in the same paper of spending money to make money and the need to retain critical talent in higher education.

I don't care about first class versus the discount airlines' cattle call.  I don't care about courting donors.

Faking a medical excuse makes me want to puke.  Cowardly sleaze balls behave like that.

Yes, Jerry Brown is an adult.  I agree with his opinion that the austerity most Americans observe ought to mean something.

Is this the recipe for a stable society?   It feels more like a recipe for social unrest.

Addison Steele

The luminosity of grief

Last week, a co-worker lost a young adult child to an overdose. Years ago, another colleague lost an only son after he went off his medication and succumbed to the delusional torture that led to his self destruction.

I cannot understand why I must say this, but both of them seem luminous to me.

I was saved from losing a child by the unbelievable efforts of a team of medical professionals, on two occasions.

In my mind, I can only imagine their reality, briefly, before I am overcome.

Instead, I look at them and feel somehow better, somehow comforted, and not a little guilty. Who am I to stand to the side and observe.

We are luminous creatures, yet we experience so much pain. We inflict so much pain.

It is good that we die, but not that way.....not so young.

Addison Steele

The University Staffer's Creed

A friend who is a long-time staff employee at a major research university  recently told me that he had created a list of principles for success and survival.

1.  Listen with respect.
2. Understand academic freedom. If you don't care about what the faculty does, you're in the wrong place.
3. Say no by affirming a yes.
4. The folks up the food chain might get you now, but the folks down the food chain can and will always get     you in the long run.
6. You will be appreciated for your work as long as you don't insist that your name be on it.
7. Make others look good.  Karma is alive and well in higher education.
8. You know you are replaceable, but the speed with which you will be forgotten will amaze you.
9. You know how hard you work.  Support each other and ignore contempt from the outside.
10. Take your vacation - all of it.
11.  Take your medications.

Addison Steele

Integrated fragility

I watched a  short TED talk today by Ian Goldin who was talking about many of the global trends that threaten and brighten our future.  It's a good talk.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html

Goldin did present a concept that resonated with me instantly.  He described the emerging complex systems we all rely on to survive as displaying "brittleness."  

Our power grid came immediately to mind.  From apocalyptic TV shows to the reality of cascading power failures, we are afraid of the single point of failure or the system so interconnected that the innocuous becomes the end of the world.

The global food system has been on my mind lately.  We've been very fortunate for the last 50 years in the US.  One prediction coming from climate change researchers is that weather patterns are likely to become more exaggerated and food production more brittle.

Of course, a farmer I knew a long time ago said after a week of steady rain had ruined his hay crop, "I've farmed here for 50 years and I haven't had a normal summer yet!"

The systems we take for granted are fragile.  If you're part of the 1% in my last blog post, you might not care. If you're in the bottom 30%, you surely will.

Income inequality is, to a writer in a recent Forbes magazine, evidence that everything is well with the economy and the incentive to gain wealth the reward. But the price of going too far is brittleness in our society, our politics, and in our communities. I can't see how anyone can look at world history and fail to see that fact.

Somebody might ask a question like the one the peasant asked King Arthur in Monty Python's quest for the Holy Grail.    "So, who made you king then, eh?"

Another pundit, I forget who, characterized disaster planning in the United States as "Blah, blah, blah, blah, BOOM!

I agree that systems, especially complex integrated systems, are brittle.  People, however, are anything but.

Addison Steele

Class warfare

I'm sure no one will be surprised that my education included readings from Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, de Chardin, and Thucydides.  Some won't be surprised that I also read Trotsky and Huey Newton.  I'm also proud of having read Adam Smith, Hobbes, and Milton Friedman!

Moving from old to new, the notion of class as a fundamental element of political economy grows larger, not always adding much to philosophy or economics.

Perhaps the inverse is true in terms of rhetoric. Plato and Aristotle provided real enlightenment on the nature of epistomology and language.  They also understood the power and risk associated with language.  Later on, the true masters of language in the service of power demonstrated the consequences of the big lie and of words like master race and political rehabilitation.

Today, we face a new rhetoric.  I refuse to label it with carcinogenic words like fascist or socialist.

However, when the topic of the distribution of wealth and our obligation to insure both social and individual well-being, class warfare comes out of the closet. "Makers and takers" are code for this concept, like many other words.

Let's be clear here.  If there's war involved, I think it's useful to know whose winning and whose losing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM

It will come as no surprise that I believe the current situation serves neither social nor individual self-interest.  I also think the current situation is inherently unsustainable.  I hope our democracy can, as it has in the past, adapt and endure.

Addison Steele

Law Enforcement

At what point does the inability of public safety to enforce a large fraction of the traffic code degrade all enforcement to the level of "arbitrary and capricious?"  How much, if any, does this infrequent enforcement contribute to a lawless society?  Since many people on the highway must be assumed to be armed, do we all more carefully obey speed limits and right turn on red restrictions?

Well, the one thing I know for sure is that posing the questions above flags me as a contemporary old grump.

I'm an old fogey.  Guilty as charged.

Please don't shoot me for stopping at stop signs!

Addison Steele