A political, social, literary journal,
Ernest Cassara, Editor, with
Contributing Editors
John R. Turner & Larry Hamby
This is an archive issue of the HSC for
To access the current issue: www.harvardsquarecommentary.org
In this issue
■ From
■ The
■ “The Price is Wrong.” By Jerome Richard
■ Essay: “The Psychological Impact of War and Militarism in Modern
■ “Sonnet.” By William
Shakespeare
■ Wisdom from Polonius
From
By John
R. Turner
Intellectual
Cowardice
We bring numerous flaws to our thinking about public affairs. But
the most serious and the least explicable, it seems to me, is our inability to
project ordinary common sense into the higher reaches of politics.
Anybody who has been a part of a complex organization knows that
fearfulness about what other people think is routine and severely undermines
institutional intelligence. But for some reason, when we consider the upper
ranks of government this common weakness is seldom taken into account. Certainly
it gets scant notice in journalistic analyses. And when we turn to the most
significant action that governments take, it is never mentioned.
The diplomatic apparatus of the
There are a number of ways this attitude can be characterized and
a number of explanations about where it comes from. You could call it a lack of
imagination. You could call it tough-guy machismo. You could call it thralldom
to convention. It may well involve all these. But I think the most accurate
description, the one that comes closest to revealing its origin, is
intellectual cowardice.
When a group of ambitious men are in a room together the most
common concern among them is the avoidance of appearing weak. They are far more
concentrated on this than they are on the wisdom of the policies they are
trying to formulate.
We seem to believe in
I myself was once a thirteen year old boy and I recall with
dismaying vividness that the most terrifying thing I could imagine was being
considered a weakling by my fellow thirteen-year-olds. I suspect that most men
never overcome that fear.
Whether we want to admit it, or not, we live in a culture in which
the most convincing demonstration of strength is a willingness to deal in
death. People whose normal occupations involve the prospect of relieving
somebody of his life are more likely to be seen as heroes than anybody else.
This, too, is an adolescent notion, but still, it takes courage to stand against
it.
Think of the men I mentioned above. Can you imagine any of them
saying to a group of his peers, “I’m against killing people and I’ll do anything
I can to avoid it. I’ll even take risks to avoid it?” Does that sound like Dick
Cheney to you?
Poor Dick. He was never in the
army. He never strapped a bazooka on his shoulder. He probably never even had a
fist fight. What can he do to show that he’s a real tough guy? Can we ever
expect him to stand up against the ordinary adolescent notions of strength and
toughness? That would take courage.
I’m not sure what we can do to discourage this huddling in the
nest and cheeping in unison. But, surely, a first step would be to recognize
that the impulse towards it is powerfully at work among all groups of men who
are concerned with showing off. If we could at least plant the idea that the
ultimate in courage, strength, and toughness does not lie in chanting
aggressive slogans with the team, it might be a start.
The
Bush and Jesus
Soon we’ll be approaching the time when, we have it on good
authority, we all should be jolly. Well, the annual celebration of the birth of
Jesus (of course, we have not the slightest notion when he was born). But, 25
December (winter solstice, anyone?) is as good as any date, although, I gather,
the eastern church has its own ideas on the subject.
I have often wondered what Jesus would have thought of what
I was told years ago that in polite society, we do not discuss
religion or politics. I think it time we violated that precept. Reports have it
that President Bush believes he has been chosen by God to lead the nation. If
it were your Uncle Joe talking like that, you would seriously consider having
him committed. But, reporters and pundits are so ignorant of religious history
and theology that they report on the president’s feelings without raising
embarrassing questions. Oh, of course, in polite society, we do not discuss
someone’s religious views, no matter how devastating they may be for humanity.
I haven’t the slightest idea which version of the Bible, if any,
Mr. Bush reads. But, whichever it is, I find it difficult to believe that he
finds justification there for his messianic self-image. Last time I looked at
the King James version of the Gospel of Matthew in the
Good Book, Jesus preached such things as:
5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they
shall be comforted.
5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall
inherit the earth.
5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and
thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they
shall obtain mercy.
5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for
they shall see God.
5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they
shall be called the children of God.
Now, let’s see, how does Mr. Bush’s actions stack up against this
teaching?
But, let us continue with Matthew:
And, on another occasion, Jesus said:
5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use
you, and persecute you; 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which
is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on
the unjust.
6:27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to
them which hate you, 6:28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you.
6:29 And unto him that smiteth thee on
the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh
away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.
Now, I could go on. And, nowhere in my study of the career of
Jesus do I find anything that would justify Mr. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, with
the subsequent slaughter of thousands of Iraqis, and the death of more than two
thousand young Americans, and the maiming of countless others.
Pardon me if I seem hopelessly naive, but are not followers of
Jesus supposed to take his teachings seriously? Apparently, with many people they
are window dressing. Nice to hear from the pulpit, but hopelessly impossible to
live by!
“It ain’t those parts of the Bible that
I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.” It
would do well for Mr. Bush to consider these words of the ever wise Mark Twain.
I know it is naughty, especially after quoting the exalted words
of Jesus, but I cannot help but think that the way the Iraq war is coming to
bite Bush in the derriere tempts one to believe that we may live in a moral universe
after all!
Potpourri
“Rendition” is the respectable word, when the real word used
should be “kidnapping.” So, the
I trust that the Department of State is dropping the practice of
issuing an annual report on nations that are guilty of offenses against human
rights. After all, it would have to list our own
●
By now, all of us have seen on TV American troops kick open the
door to an Iraqi home, with guns at the ready. Huddled against the wall, we see
an Iraqi family, hardly daring to move, lest they be shot dead. Now, I ask, is this
the way we win the hearts and minds of the population?
●
Since I have never tortured anyone — although, in fairness, I
recognize that some of the students in my university history classes may have had
a different opinion! — but, it seems to me that a jailer is more likely to get
information out of a prisoner if he offers him cigarettes, asks what he thinks
of the food, etc., etc. My notion is based on the idea that human beings react
to each other depending on how they are treated. (See the words of Jesus
above.) The cloak and dagger types, who run secret prisons, think they know
what they are doing, but, I seriously doubt it. Put yourself in the place of a
prisoner. If you are mistreated, are you likely to cooperate? Put yourself in
the place of the Iraqi family mentioned above. Were you in their position,
would you be helpful to the American military?
●
The American imperium is not the product
of fevered imaginations. Another example: The
●
From the sublime to the ridiculous. Jerry Falwell is complaining that some stores are greeting folks
with “Happy Holidays,” rather than “Merry Christmas.” Where has Falwell been all of these years? All of my life, I have
seen such a greeting, which encompasses Christmas and New Year’s observance.
Yet, Rev. Mr. F. and a number of other complainants are making a big deal of
this and threatening boycotts of stores that commit such a sin. It appears that
these “Christian” folks really object to multi-culturalism,
including recognizing our Jewish neighbors, with their Hanukkah, and African
Americans who observe
Oh, by the way, from some of the statements of the above
complainants, one gathers the impression that they are unaware that the
Christmas tree was imported into Christianity from Germanic pagans.
●
The Board of AMTRAK has fired David Gunn, the best president it
has ever had. And, there is talk by these malcontents that he opposes their
hope to privatize part of the system. One of the advantages of being of mature
years (that is, being old) is that we remember very well what private railroads
were like. Those were the ones that drove people away, because they did not
want to transport them. Hauling goods was much more profitable.
Re the Bush administration’s attitude re Amtrak, Gunn said, “Anything they’ll tell you is bulls_t
. . . . The Administration is serious about taking this place apart.”
●
A program note. A few weeks back, CNN
fired Aaron Brown. They turned the
The
Price is Wrong
By
Jerome Richard
When I expressed dismay at the fact that almost all the faucets I
was looking at were made in
Are we paying too little for goods? Everyone loves a bargain, but
bargain hunting has victims. Labor is the most expensive factor in most retail
goods so when we drive down the cost of goods, we drive down the cost of labor.
Other things being equal, and they often are more or less when it comes to
cars, clothing, and appliances, manufacturers know they have to compete on
price. The result is that textile companies moved from
Even reluctant companies are subject to this pressure. Levi Straus
made its jeans in the
There are exceptions, most notably Malden Mills which not only
chose to remain in Lawrence, Massachusetts, when other New England textile
companies took off in search of cheaper labor, but rebuilt there after a
devastating fire in 1995. The company is aided by producing a superior,
patented product in its Polartec material; still,
many people expected its owner to take the insurance money and run.
Luxury retailers are pretty much exempt from price pressure. They
sell on the basis of quality and style to consumers for whom money is no
object. Other retailers, however, are caught in the middle. They not only pass
on to manufacturers the demand for lower prices, but they also keep prices low
by squeezing as much work as they can out of the fewest number of workers at
the lowest possible wages. In his book How Wal-Mart is Destroying America (Ten
Speed Press, 2000), author Bill Quinn asks a former Wal-Mart store manager abut
the most unpleasant part of his job. The reply: “Being responsible for hiring
personnel. And working them just as cheap as you can get by
on.” (p.40). In December, 2002, a jury in
The result is explored in Barbara Ehrenreich’s
book Nickel and Dimed. In order to find out
what life was like for the country’s army of low-wage workers, she took jobs at
Wal-Mart, a maid service, a nursing home, and as a waitress. Most of the workers
she met lived in sub-standard housing, ate poorly, often had no health
insurance and so tried to work through medical problems, and enjoyed almost
nothing in the way of luxuries or recreation. The devastating conclusion of her
book is that the poor are subsidizing the middle class and the rich.
No one blames people at the lower end of the income scale for
buying goods at the cheapest price they can find. That may be the only way they
can eat regularly or buy needed clothing. The irony is that they are made to be
their own worst enemies, forcing down prices and thus putting downward pressure
on wages. Eventually, there is an unmeasured cost to society in terms of health
care, the environment, and crime.
At the opposite end of the price and wages scale, the direction is
reversed and the pressure is upwards. If some people are willing and able to
pay $100 for a seat to a Broadway show, or $200 for a pair of shoes, they will
raise the price for everyone, including those willing but not able to pay such
prices as well as those able but not willing. The practice is known as charging
what the traffic will bear, but unlike a convoy, the pace of this traffic is
set by the fastest boats. The middle class then joins the hunt for lower prices
in order to occasionally splurge on a high-priced luxury.
The drive to buy for less also has a negative effect on quality.
This is most obvious in the airline industry. Service in first-class and business-class,
where fares are mostly paid by people for whom money is no object or by people
on expense accounts, is still excellent. In coach, where the major airlines
have to compete with discount airlines, seating has become more crowded and
meals have been reduced in both quality and quantity. American Airlines
recently announced that it has to abandon its practice of extra leg room in
coach in order to crowd in more seats.
Some people see the pressure to keep prices low as being a good
thing as it has the effect of spreading jobs to impoverished societies. Nicholas
D. Kristof, in a column headlined “Let Them Sweat” (New
York Times, 6/25/02), argued that “sweatshops are the only hope of such
kids as Ahmed Zia, a 14-year-old boy here in Attock [Pakistan], a gritty center for carpet weaving.”
Ahmed earns $2 a day for weaving carpets that will sell for hundreds of dollars
in
This same argument is advanced by proponents of globalization, and
it may well be true as far as it goes, but it is an unintended consequence.
The real motivation of globalization is increased profits which
are gained by finding the cheapest labor possible, thus depressing wages
everywhere. Nor are the savings in labor costs necessarily being passed on to
the consumer. Especially at the high end, running shoes made in cheap labor
countries are priced about the same as comparable shoes made by New Balance in
the
It even affects employment in the
Kristof says that the
American campaign against sweatshops could make the life of people such as
Ahmed “much more wretched by inadvertently encouraging mechanization that could
cost him his job.” But as soon as companies find that mechanization is cheaper
than Ahmed they will abandon him anyway.
I believe that many people who are able to pay more for goods
would also be willing to do so if they were assured that the prices were fair.
No one wants to pay more if it just goes to further bloat the incomes of chief
executives who measure their earnings not against those of workers in their
companies but against that of other CEOs in a game of raise the ante. On
average, American CEOs take home over 500 times what their factory workers earn
according to a Business Week study. Even if it weren’t for the scandals
we see unfolding, this would not be fair.
How do we know what constitutes a fair price? In 1863 Josiah
Warren wrote a book titled True Civilization in which he argued against
charging what the traffic would bear, or as he called it “value pricing.”
The
value of a loaf of bread to a starving man is equal to the
value of his life. . . .But
any one who should make such a demand
would be looked upon as
insane—a Cannibal; and one simultaneous
voice would denounce the
outrageous injustice, and would cry for retribution. Why? What is it
that constitutes the cannibalism in this
case? Is it not measuring
the price of the bread according to its value
instead of its cost,
or setting a price upon the “thing” according to
“what it would bring”?
Pharmaceutical companies often practice what
Skeptics of globalization are not isolationists. They demand that
workers everywhere be guaranteed a minimum wage sufficient to exceed poverty,
that they be free to join independent unions, and that
international organizations such as WTO support laws designed to protect the
environment.
What is needed is an organization similar to the group that
certifies Fair Trade coffee. They monitor working conditions and insure that
growers receive a fair price for their coffee. The coffee costs a little more
in the store than non-Fair Trade coffee, but people buy it, although TransFair USA, the certifying organization, estimates that
slightly under 2% of the gourmet coffee sold in the U.S. is Fair Trade, so
there is plenty of room for improvement.
Proof that a sweatshop-free company can compete successfully is
offered by American Apparel whose only factory is in
There are organizations that monitor
Manufacturers are not going to volunteer to pay more than they
have to unless there is a market for fair trade goods. Conscientious consumers
should be willing to pay more if they know the price is right.
(Thanks to Jerome Richard for making this
article available. It was originally published in The Pedestal Magazine)
Essay
Editor’s note: This week we again offer the second in a series of
essays by editors and contributors to the
The Psychological Impact of War and Militarism in Modern
You may access it by clicking on the link:
Sonnet
By William Shakespeare
How like a winter hath my absence been
From Thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark
days seen,
What old December’s bareness everywhere!
And yet this time removed was summer’s time:
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime
Like widow’d wombs after their lord’s
decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me
But hope of orphans, and unfather’d
fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
Or if they sing, ‘tis with so dull a cheer,
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s
near.
Polonius
“When the president says he is staying the course it reminds me of
the man who has just jumped from the
“We are entreated to turn the other cheek and do unto others as we
would have them do unto us, yet simultaneously understand lex
talionis and the quotidian mayhem depicted on
television, in fact and fiction.”—Shelley Neiderbach
“No society that feeds its children on tales of successful
violence can expect them not to believe that violence in the end is
rewarded.”—Margaret Mead
This is an archive issue of the HSC for
To access the current issue: www.harvardsquarecommentary.org