A reader comments:
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What do the following major problems have in common?
1. Severe budget cuts to schools, bashing of teachers, lack of a broad based curriculum for developing critical and creative thinking students and cheating scandals?
2. Allowing civilians to buy assault weapons that can be used to murder innocent children and adults?
3. Inadequate mental health services?
4. Unaffordable health care services and millions of uninsured?
5. High rates of poverty?
6. Global warming, climate changes with bizarre weather patterns and allowing the destruction of the planet?
7. The crash of 2008 that led to a severe economic crisis?
8. Extreme materialism and money as top priority?
9. Special interest groups and corporations having greater influence on politicians than the people?
10. High crime rates and overcrowded prisons?
All of these problems reflect a deterioration of human values- the type of values which are humane and indicative of the ideals of humanity. Values such as kindness, caring for others, love, integrity and compassion make us good human beings. These values are the antidote and solution to many problems in the world today.
Certainly there are many people who display these values, but many more people with human values are needed if we are to reach a tipping point. For us to create a world that reflects love and caring for all it must begin with each individual. To reach critical mass the consciousness of more people must be raised so that the problems mentioned are unacceptable and not tolerated.
It is for each of us to get in touch with our humanity and with others to positively influence our leaders or replace them with people who will lead with human values. Are we as a human family willing to put into action those values which will create a better world for everyone? This is a question for each of us to answer.
Raymond Gerson
Excellent article. Pass it on!
#8 may be the driving force of all the rest. There are enormous financial incentives that have caused or exacerbated all of these problems.
How does the increasing acceptance of the LGBT community fit into this narrative? How does the election of the first African American fit into this narrative?
Throwing a couple of bones to the masses, that’s how. It’s all part of the Kabuki theatre.
Sound like a good ten values to which we can imagine others. Problem is these values have to become the foundations of a mass movement which fights for power in the public arena against the intensely-organized, immensely-funded corporate forces. Having good morals and many good people will not be enough as long as those favoring a cooperative, benevolent, inclusive, egalitarian and democratic society are unorganized while their opponents are consolidated.
Actually #7 & #8 share a similar ethos. Fraud, deception, greed, and wealth hoarding on Wall St is an accepted belief by the financial wizards that has permeated our cultural memories. Hyper-competitiveness prioritizes winners over losers; code that makes it acceptable to discard any person or thing that cuts into profits or threatens corporate hegemony.
A similar ethos is in play when test scores and charter schools sort out the least desirable by separating elite learners from the rest. Eventually when we conceptualize “public” anything we will think of a space for losers- those not worth wasting money on fixing.
May I suggest a reading: “A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues” by Andre Comte-Sponville
I disagree with your analysis. The cause of all these problems is not the deterioration of human values but our inability to exercise them on the scale required, both in this country and beyond. The apathy that’s resulted from the slow removal of these capabilities from regular citizens by the hyper wealthy’s overarching influence stems from their sense of entitlement and superiority. It has atrophied our belief in the obligation to and value of participating in self rule, in a government of by and for the people. In addition, we have allowed them to divide us against each other by the carpet bombing of false narratives via the media machines they own and control.
The first steps needed to reverse this are to destroy the Citizens United decision, impose strict and meaningful campaign finance reforms meaning public funding only, require public records be kept and made available for all visits to politicians by lobbyists and restore an updated version of the Fairness Doctrine that Reagan ended in the name of “free speech”. In short, the influence of money must be ended and the belief in the obligations of citizenship must be resurrected from it’s comma.
There are no 1st amendment issues that would prevent these things from being done. Anyone who claims that is lying.
We ALL must reach out to those who are depicted as being “the other” who in reality are far more like us than not as we all hold very similar values. Using social media and somehow ending search engine bias are the way to proceed.
Please sign Al Franken’s Petition to overturn Citizens United and stop corporations from buying elections: http://www.alfranken.com/index.php/splash/w1210cu/f
In closing, to reiterate, our human values have not deteriorated, they have been neutralized by those who gain what they think of as advantage from that.
The key here is a growing inequality, and as the book “The spirit level” rightly points out, inequality is not just damaging to those at the bottom, but paradoxically to all. The US has one of the greatest levels of inequality, with fallout at the bottom severe now. Contrast with the Nordic countries, where the focus is on egalitarian values. No wonder that they are balanced, happy people, in spite of pretty long, cold winters.
The danger with sustained high levels of poverty is that life is so tough that babies and infants develop brains that are literally stunted from fear that they sense in the environment and a lack of love and good nutrition. Inequality is thereby amplified, whilst the very rich earn money that they would need thousands of lifetimes of luxury to spend.
It is all very sad.
Are you really going to argue that life is so much worse for so many more people that it was in the first quarter of the 20th century? Fear mongering doesn’t help anyone. I’d suggest buying some history books and life narratives of people around the world from that time frame.
There would have been very few ‘common people’ world wide who wouldn’t take what we have now over what they had then. But that reality doesn’t fit into your doomsday scenario, does it?
What does fear mongering have in common with Gates, Walton, Rhee, and the rest? Congratulations, you’re in great company!
We have so many things available to us to improve our quality of life in the 21st century. Our lives *should* be 1000% BETTER than they were 100 years ago…. so why is this post so relevant? The same class divisions exist, and we have even more of a corporatocracy than we did then. Ordinary people really have very little voice left IMO.
You can call it fear mongering, or you can call it a wake-up call.
Tiedyedeb,
Would you have even been allowed to vote 100 years ago?
The reason she can vote now is that WOMEN and a precious few men rose up in righteous indignation at the lies being told to deny them that right. The right to vote was not conferred upon them by benevolent masters who woke up and saw the error of their ways.
Maybe some of us see life slipping back to the patterns of 100 years ago and would like the trend to stop before things get to that point.
Perhaps we could get more concrete here. Clearly everyone would agree that 100 years ago most people were not treated as full citizens of the country. Some posters here argue that contemporary society suffers from a “dehumanization”. Somewhere between 1913 and 2013 must have been the high point of society. Could we pin it down to a decade which was the local maximum of society exhibiting the values of kindness, caring, etc.?
CitizensArrest,
Never claimed it was a gift from anyone.
I don’t want to suggest that our lives aren’t better than they were 100 years ago – but shouldn’t they be better than they are, given how far we’ve supposedly come?
On a FB thread this afternoon I found myself on a friend’s thread which had devolved into a debate about the ability of the average American to go out and pursue his/her dream. Realistically, how many of us can actually do that? I’ve already had one business go bust before it had a chance to go anywhere – bad timing, got it going just as the economy tanked 😦 – and working on a second which might – MIGHT! – have a chance to not die before it’s born this time, unless it turns out to bankrupt my whole family; having only 50% chance this time instead of a 75% chance of dying before it gets off the ground isn’t encouraging – and I’m not one of the many parents in my community cobbling together jobs (OK, I *do* do that) only to make less than the rent and food and utilities combined and have to choose what doesn’t get paid that month (fortunate to not be there – there but for the grace of God and all that).
I don’t know if the average American really COULD go out and fulfill his/her dream any better than 100 years ago; while we’ve made strides in racial and gender equality, we still have a long long way to go. We still discriminate against anyone perceived as an immigrant – brown skin, accent? – and women still make way less than men for the same work in many jobs. We probably have LESS access to good healthy food, and while healthcare has come a long way, our health as a nation frankly is the pits: obesity, earlier and earlier onset of Type II diabetes, heart disease, the works.
Yeah, I can vote. But I fear for the world my daughters will inherit. 😦
What dreams could women have a hundred years ago? What dreams African Americans? Native Americans?
Ask your mother or grandmother about the options that were open for her and feel good about your daughter’s future.
So, teaching economist, what exactly is your point about things being better and the people having secured more basic rights for more of our “castes”?
Again, I think it would be beneficial to be more concrete about when the country hit the high point of human values in the United States. No doubt we can both agree that our country more accurately reflects those values today than it did 150 years ago. You say those values have suffered from”….. slow removal of these capabilities from regular citizens by the hyper wealthy’s overarching influence stems from their sense of entitlement and superiority. It has atrophied our belief in the obligation to and value of participating in self rule, in a government of by and for the people.” If you are correct, sometime between 150 years ago and today was the apex of those values in the country. When was that?
T.E. The question of when “the apex” was in the past or if one even occurred is an irrelevant diversion.
I don’t think it is a diversion at all. It would be helpful to understand how you understand these human values and their deterioration if we have an example of a time when they had not deteriorated to the degree you say they have today. We could hold that period up to the late and compare it to today.
Comparing two periods in history is a pathetic diversion from the discussion of where we are now & why, what the real problems are and what the plan for the future is. It wrongly assumes that there was some Utopian ideal in the past that we should blindly return to rather than solving our current problems by understanding them. It denies the obligation to hold those responsible for the current situation accountable, in this case profiteers who know nothing of education but what they can pilfer from it and the corrupt politicians they own.
But you used the phrases “..deterioration of human values…” “…resulted from the slow removal of these capabilities…” “… atrophied our belief in the obligation…” “…have been neutralized by those who gain…”
Deterioration, removal, atrophied, neutralized are all words that compare one state to another. When was it that these aspects of human value were whole, had not been removed? Rousseau’s state of nature perhaps?
Chase your own tail. It seems to amuse you.
If you can find no evidence to support your position, it will be hard to convince other thoughtful people that you are correct.
FASCISM!!!!!! The defination is corporations running the government just as in Italy starting in the 20’s. Anyone want to argue this point?
Will you be selling copies of your personal dictionary soon? Did you redefine every word to fit your purposes? or only some?
I like “corporatocracy” better, but when one distills fascism into its characteristics, the corporate influence is indeed there.
http://rense.com/general37/char.htm
I think it is most accurately defined as “one party rule.” So, are corporations the ruling party? There probably needs to be some qualifiers because there are small “corporations,” some even family owned, that don’t participate in the greed-driven lobbying activities of running our government. There needs to be a better term used so as to not turn away (divide) like-minded people of all income levels.
Plutocracy.
The word plutocracy is almost always used as a pejorative to describe or warn against an undesirable condition,[2][3] and throughout history political thinkers such as Winston Churchill, 19th-century French sociologist and historian Alexis de Tocqueville and 19th-century Spanish monarchist Juan Donoso Cortés have condemned those they characterize as plutocrats for ignoring their social responsibilities to the poor, using their power to serve their own purposes and thereby increasing poverty and nurturing class conflict, and corrupting their societies with greed and hedonism.[
Yes, plutocrats are driving the national education “reform” movement, for sure. But I’m not sure how well ordinary citizens have internalized that term. All of us fighting privatization should be using it more and explaining or defining it every time we write or speak.
George Buzzetti would be correct in using the term fascism in my state of Idaho. We are under one-party rule here but the people did rise up and defeat Republican “reform” laws, soundly. I generalized here and that can get arguments started. Not all my Republican friends or representatives are in agreement with their party. But as a state, fascism is our problem while plutocracy is to blame for the bigger (over-riding, over-whelming) national issues.
In England in the 19th century, corporations were banned as they were seen as dangerous by virtue of size and influence. They were reintroduced as capital from many sources was required for private railway line construction.
The remit of a corporation is solely to serve the shareholders. It is deemed to be an entity in its own right, with workers in it not held responsible. It is not hard to see why that has lead to the problems we have now. Along with the insane and unsustainable capitalist model of ever greater growth.
Governments are puppets to industry so it needs a revolution by the people to reverse this malaise.
I don’t agree with the comment that everyone has similar values. And the ability or inability to stand up for one’s values is a value in itself. If we have integrity we will act on our other values. No one can neutralize our values unless we give them the power to do so.
Raymond Gerson
I was referring to the difference between having similar values and the dissimilar ways, often ways that conflict with those values that those values are pursued. Gates claims to value a good education for all as a fundamental principle, but his top down imposition of ideological rather than reality based policies insures his efforts will fail even if his policies are put in place. The intellectual defect that allows him to ignore this & his deceptive methods are not values.
Also, one can have the power to implement ones values removed by force or by influence of money as we see all to often today. The failure to be able to successfully defend ones values from such overwhelming attacks is not the same as giving your opponent power over you by inaction or default.
CitizensAlert,
I have been referring to the need for more people to adopt humane values which includes caring about the education of all children. Gates sends his own children to private schools where the classroom sizes are small, there is a broad and rich curriculum including the arts and students are taught critical and creative thinking-not only memorization and recall. For children in the public schools Gates seems to have a different set of standards. Where is the caring and fairness which are part of being humane?
I agree that wealthy and powerful reformers make it difficult to implement opposing values, but I agree with Diane Ravitch that they will lose in the end. I also agree with Margaret Mead that, “A small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Then we are agreed. And, we agree with Mead, which confirms for me that although many do hold similar values, that small group that acts upon them counts by making the changes that benefit the many who, for whatever reason share the values but do not act.
Might does not make right, it only coerces the appearance of it when it prevails.
Welcome to Wilbert the apologist troll! Thanks for the laughs! FYI, we would be even more advanced had it not been for the malfeasance of those you worship at the feet of. Now go get your corporate handouts, you’ve earned them.
That is quite a counter factual you are claiming. Care to flesh it out a bit?
Better to hone your comprehension skills before you start throwing out insults. Is it any wonder that life seems so miserable to you? I’ve never worshiped at the feet of anything corporate, but I’m saddened to have idiots like you on my side in the fight for our children’s future.
What fear mongering? I described, accurately, that which afflicts an otherwise mostly civilized society. That life is better now than then is not the result of the beneficence of those at the top, though they like the rest of us did contribute. To answer what I assume is the point of the vague query by teaching economist, the vast majority of laws and regulations imposed on “business” by gov’t are the direct result of gov’t fulfilling it’s primary directive, defense of it’s citizens from all enemies both internal and external. Who is naive enough to believe that “industry” would have made the required changes needed so the Cuyahoga river would no longer catch fire in downtown Cleveland? So that those far downstream would have recourse outside the courts against those who fouled the water upon which they depend? Love Canal anyone? S & L meltdown, .com bubble. Enron? Countless such examples exist, and none of the failures of industry are the result of the subsequent regulations upon them brought about by their prior offenses. Neither gov’t nor business is perfect let alone good enough, but that can be changed if all have a voice, a seat at a table where the best ideas can prevail. That is not now the case as the influence of money has excluded merit and the discussion of ideas from the electoral/political process. This country has no shortage of very smart people at most all demographic levels. Wealth is not an indicator of intellectual or now especially, moral and ethical superiority. There can be no level playing field where wealth, influence and corruption have supplanted ethical conduct and intellectual prowess. What we have instead is the modern equivalent of the petty power struggles within and between the pre-European courts. Corporate alliances and oligarchies are the new city states. The failure of leadership of those at “the top” and of participation by the rest is that all have allowed history to repeat itself. The relevant doomsday scenario is that unlike any other time in the past, we do now have the capability to destroy ourselves via some form of Fermi plague.
And to Raymond, to be more clear, “we” have abdicated the full understanding and exercise of our values under the duress of a disinformation onslaught “we” did not initiate or create. We have, in our generosity of spirit (for want of a better phrase at the moment) allowed sociopaths and psychopaths to infiltrate gov’t and industry, to be a 5th column in the very places we should exclude them from.
To T. E., All economists should have to study criminology. I see few if any analyses that indicate any knowledge of that.
Brilliant response. The scale of the problem beautifully enunciated.
This perilous state we, the overly-passive citizens of the world have allowed requires, it seems, mass protest – but are we dealing with such monstrous powers that only much bloodshed can unseat them?
On Human Values and Integrity.
History teaches us that all humans do not have the same values. Yes, if you want to simplify everything you could say that not only humans, but even most animals are in pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. I don’t think Hitler had the same values as the Jews. I don’t think that people who care about the earth and the catastrophe of climate change have the same values as the people who rape our world and leave the rest of us holding an empty bag of polluted air we can’t breathe. People poaching endangered animals around the globe do not have the same values as real humans trying to save them for themselves and for future generations to witness.
Mr. Gerson is talking about those people who adhere to moral and ethical principles and those who do not. I grew up in a society of honest people who could not conceive of cheating or taking advantage of anyone. Those real human beings were humane and believed in treating others as they would want to be treated. They were not driven to amass wealth or mere knowledge, but they had plenty of common sense. Doctors would treat people who were broke. Farmer’s helped each other till the land and get their products to market. For decades we have allowed our government to pay wealthy farmers to rape and pollute the earth with chemicals both harmful to humans and animals. This policy drove many small farmers into poverty because they couldn’t compete. Where I grew up everyone wanted to give of themselves and what little they had even though most of them were struggling to make ends meet. My parents and other people with the same values made huge sacrifices so their children would have a better life. Are we making those sacrifices for our children now?
Bonnie Jane Hall
Gerson’s list and comments have touched me at more levels than I can explain in a mere comment.
Thank you for posting it. I have passed it on to many individuals and groups via email and FB. I sincerely hope that others do likewise.
I think many readers missed the crux of this – “Are we as a human family willing to put into action those values which will create a better world for everyone?”
I’ll answer with the help of one very fine and insightful man…
Values and goals are not maps; they are beliefs, imperatives, and stimulants on the basis of which we plan our actions.
—Seymour B. Sarason
Where is the plan of action?
Victoriamyoung raised the question, “Where is the plan of action?” The challenges that I listed only represent a few of the many problems in the world. None of us can tackle and solve every problem, but each of us can choose a problem that aligns with our own talents and passion. For many of us on this blog, including myself, that may be the passion to improve education. Aristotle once said, “Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.” Each of us can choose a problem or need in the world that we feel passionate about and then use our talents and skills to address it.
Would any of you like to share a little about what you are already doing to make the world a better place?
I would; I’m trying. Perhaps I missed my vocational calling or I’m looking to a new one. Presently as a practicing veterinarian, I help creatures who can not speak for themselves. My other passion is, like you Raymond Gerson, to improve education.
I believe the talents I have developed could be put to good use in assisting this country in getting back its philosophical footing when it comes to the forward movement of education “reform.” We have a commonality; we have some shared values. In chapter ten of my book I listed some but looking at them now, out of context of the rest of the book, they read like a wish list – equality, governing by the consent of the people, freedom. I don’t know if i want to laugh at myself or cry for this nation.
Victoria,
Have you considered using your knowledge and experience as a veterinarian to teach animal science courses for a community college or university? You could share many life lessons with students that you observed in animal behavior.
I came out of retirement seven years ago to start teaching part-time for a community college. It has been intrinsically rewarding. It also opened doors for me to play multiple roles in education that I never expected.
Jane Goodall travels to schools all over the world and speaks to packed auditoriums of interested students. She shares lessons learned from her work with animals and inspires students to improve the planet and to try and create a better world.
Did you see the article and video today on CNN Breaking News (online) called, “Morality: Its not just for Humans?” Primatologist Fran de Waal concluded from his research that chimpanzees have a few elements of humane values. He concluded that the chimps display a sense of fairness, reciprocity and empathy. He is the director of Emory University Living Links Center. So there may be some valuable lessons that students can be taught about animal behavior.
I don’t think you need to discard your years of knowledge, skills and experience as a veterinarian. Why not combine your experience with your passion for improving education? Perhaps you can begin to brainstorm ideas for how to do this.
I give away a small ebook that I wrote years ago titled, How to Create the Job You Want: Six Steps to a Fulfilling Career. The book might stimulate a few ideas for you. You can find it at raymondgerson.com under “Four Free Gifts.”
I will leave you with a quote from Zen and the Art of Making a Living by Laurence Boldt. “To the extent that your work takes into account the needs of the world, it will be meaningful; to the extent that through it you express your unique talents, it will be joyful.”
Thank you for the beautiful quote and thoughtful consideration of me :o)
Victoria,
You have been modest. I just looked at your website and information about your book and articles. You are already doing a lot to improve education. Bravo!
Victoria: you are the first to mention freedom. But you also mention equality, by which I presume you mean universal declaration of human rights equality, not just equality before the law. The philosophical flaw is that freedom and equality (in your sense, and Gerson’s, and everyone else’s here) are incompatible. You can have one or the other, but not both. You can have a monopoly public school system but not freedom of choice. The country has chosen economic equality over freedom, and since that requires confiscatory taxation to redistribute the fruits of the labor of others (usually called theft), the entire country has become morally bankrupt. Economic equality is the socialist, Marxist program. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the corporations are not going to the gas chambers willingly. All you can do is demonize as greedy the people who want freedom to keep what they have earned. The apex was just before the income tax was enacted by your favorite racist progressive, Woodrow Wilson, the darling of the academicians. Elections have consequences, and your support for the present super progressive has brought him and you close to hybris. Fascist, eh? You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet until you’ve seen Obama unchained. Enjoy your folly. Thus, the Oracle of Epitome.
Ayn Rand was a hypocrite. She was incapable of living up to the parts of her own philosophy that were actually based in reality. What remained came from her personal history and malformed ego. There has never been a time in America where income inequality has been greater, and even The Economist sees this as a major problem, an impediment to any recovery. One thing that Rand got partially right was that she believed in the absolute separation of business and state, but she failed to acknowledge the then current and historical truth which indicated that that it had to be a bi-directional separation. Last, don’t trouble us further with your amusingly silly straw man, that any here think freedom and equality are mutually exclusive. That’s a lie you tell yourself to prop up your soap box.
I suppose I shall have to read Rand about whom I know nothing. I do agree that most here, perhaps all, believe that we as a society can have both freedom and economic equality. I wish you would argue the case rather than calling it a straw man and ask me not to say it. Please explain how it is possible rather than just dismissing my claim because it doesn’t accord with your faith. Is it something like transubstantiation which makes nonsense out of the ordinary meaning of words for you? If economics is not religion it ought to be explainable in simple, everyday terms.
Harlan, You would need to separate your views on educational freedom to choose from the topic of economic equality, for a moment, in order to see where I am coming from – the principle’s upon which I stand and see my world.
As a parent with kids in what you describe as a “monopoly public school system,” my choice was to stay in my community’s Title I under-performing school (high concentrations of children living in poverty – 80%) and make it a better place for all the children in my community. I believed that if all the children here had the opportunity to become productive citizens that it would in turn make this community a better place to live.
For education, I believe freedom and equality are not only compatible but that developing such a system is a proper and necessary function of a republican form of government. Now, my freedom to choose to improve the existing public education system is being destroyed by the power of the influential. When research showed that Bill Gates was the most influential person in education policy matters (ahead of George W. Bush during his presidency), we should have been asking WHY?
Could Bill Gates tell us, then or now, what the failures of education “reform” have been and why? Can he tell us where we have taken a wrong turn? Does he know what my schools, my children needed? I know, I can tell you. Why is he more influential in education policy than I?
The freedom to choose to improve your own existing school should be a choice. It is the choice that can make freedom and equality compatible – for children.
http://thecrucialvoice.com/about-me/
Also, Citizens Arrest, use your real name, if you are interested in serious discussion rather than merely flinging dismissive, censorious muck.
Economic equality in no way means equal distribution of the total wealth produced by all. That is a morally and intellectually bankrupt idea, absurdly so. It means a level playing field where ones ability to strive and compete is not attacked and negated by those who see such competition as a threat to their ossified position rather than understanding it as an incentive to be better and win by merit, not force or deception.
Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall. We make progress in little steps, sometimes even backwards, but in the long run moving forwards.
As my 15 year old son (who has known our openly gay friends from the day he was born) just asked, how can people be pessimistic about the future?
I appreciate all of your thought provoking comments. I think whether or not values have deteriorated is not as important as whether there is a need for more people to adopt and live by humane values. By humane values I mean sense of fairness, compassion, caring for others, integrity and other virtues. If I were rewriting the article I might leave out the word “deterioration” to take the focus off of it.
I think the more important questions are:
Do the ten problems listed have anything to do with too few people living by humane values? And if so, what can each of us do about it?
Raymond