[A-List] FW: [Forum] Courage in Media and Academia

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

Forwarded from the Forum discussion list at Clark College

-----Original Message-----
From: Craven, Jim 
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 10:54 AM
To: *FORUM at Clark College
Subject: [Forum] Courage in Media and Academia


Kate wrote:
 
Many thanks for the forwarded article, Steve. If you do receive more
articles like this and don't want to send them out (for very understandable
reasons), forward them to me and I'll do it. Many full-time, tenured faculty
(seemingly shielded from the unpleasant repercussions of their supposedly
free speech) are wary of discussing important issues here; for temporary and
adjunct faculty, this Faculty Forum is a dangerous place.

 

and Steve noted:

But the fact is that I'm not naive. Being political in this kind of
institutional setting _is_ dangerous, particularly in these kinds of times
when people's stress levels are ratcheted way up and anxiety over job
security is palpable in some areas of the school. All this is to say that I
don't want to be the one to send this kind of stuff out. I don't want to
draw attention to myself. I've put in my time for the cause, and I've taken
my hits. If you think that being overtly political as an adjunct (or
tenure-line, for that matter) is anything but threatening to one's career,
think again . . . no matter how seemingly harmless that political activity
is. I'm tired, and I'm afraid for the future of my career. Is that
uncomfortable to read? Well, the degree to which that makes you feel
uncomfortable has a lot to say about how well you understand what I've said.
If you get it, you get it. With all due respect, this is the last I'll
forward along until i have the protection of tenure law afforded a minority
of us. 

 
 
Comment:
 
For the record, my political missives and discussions of issues outside and
inside of Clark, started well before I was ever tenured and they were on
public lists at Clark as well as in other venues.
 
During his rise to power, Hitler noted that if the intellectuals--and
public--had really grasped, analyzed and exposed the ideology and real
intentions of the nazis, the nazis would have been stopped dead in their
tracks early on. And how many millions of lives might have been saved had
the intellectuals shown the courage and determination to expose evil when it
was right in front of them? But, and Hitler noted in "Mein Kampf" that he
could count on it, the intellectuals and academics, for the most part,
played it safe, kept their heads down, protected their little turfs, and
refused to apply their skills to debating and examining the critical  issues
and debates of their times. And many became outright nazis doing some real
"Faustian Bargains" for a little illusory security, career advancement and
material benefits. 
 
As is the case today, journalists and academics, for example, understood the
"Spiral of Success" in media and academia: Don't ask or pose nasty questions
to the powers-that-be and you will get "Access" [to the Big "Scoop" or the
Big Grant or Given Position in academia]; the Big Scoop/Grant/Position will
bring you "Exposure"; Exposure will bring you Name Recognition, Standing or
Ratings... And Name Recognition/Standing/Ratings will bring you Expanded
Access which will bring you even Bigger Scoops/Grants/Positions which will
bring you even Greater Exposure, which will bring you even Greater Name
Recognition/Standing/Ratings which will bring you even Greater Access...
 
Hitler--like Bush--understood that the vast majority of career-minded media
types and academics need not be formally censored as they would more likely
than not self-censor themselves--do the usual "Faustian Bargains". And the
responses of the usual media-types and academics to those few with courage
was typical ostracization, marginalization and demonization as courage
exposes and indicts cowardice and opportunism as hot reveals cold and
intelligence reveals and exposes stupidity. It is like the proverbial monkey
experiment: In a cage of monkeys, one monkey is isolated from the others and
when that monkey does a particular act, the others, not the isolated monkey,
are sprayed with ice-cold water causing the sprayed monkeys to go after the
isolated one; when a new monkey is introduced into the cage and isolated,
the other monkeys, having been sprayed with ice-cold water, immediately jump
on the new monkey to whip him in line fearing being sprayed again with the
ice-cold water. The media and academia operate a lot like the monkeys in the
experiment.
 
Of course their are also media-types and academics who refuse to join in the
debates of the time for other reasons other than pure cowardice: perhaps
they lack the knowledge and skills to debate and their arguments might be
very revealing about their true levels of knowledge and skill; perhaps pure
peer pressure and relationships might cause silence out of fear of
ostracization (several part-time teachers have told me that they dare not
support me publicly as the full-timers in their departments would take it
out on them in terms of chances at full-time/tenure-track work--which is why
I wonder if those part-timers who do not know me and yet have attacked
publicly are perhaps trying to enhance their prospects for full-time
tenure-track) or perhaps fear of reprisals against their families causes
them to stay silent.
 
In any case, I believe that we have an obligation to join-in the debates and
issues of our times; especially if we have some special skills and knowledge
not typically found or employed by the mainstream media, politicians or
academics. And further, we may pass along materials from diverse
perspectives, without being tagged as necessarily endorsing any particular
piece passed on. The wider the debate in terms of diversity of perspectives,
information sources, skills and scopes/angles of analysis the better. We are
at a critical crossroads of History (on a global level as well as on a
national level) and those who refuse to participate because of cowardice or
opportunism risk more than irrelevancy or exposure of their cowardice and
opportunism. Those who stay silent and refuse to advance their views are as
complicit in--and necessary to--the triumph of evil as those actively
involved.
 
Jim Craven
 
 
James M. Craven
Blackfoot Name: Omahkohkiaayo-i'poyii
Professor/Consultant,Economics;Business Division Chair 
Clark College, 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. USA 98663
Tel: (360) 992-2283; Fax: (360) 992-2863
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5
<http://www.home.earthlink.net/~blkfoot5> 
Employer has no association with private/protected opinion
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present
controls the past." (George Orwell) "...every anticipation of results which
are first to be proved seems disturbing to me...(Karl Marx, "Grundrisse")