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Leaving Wisdom Behind: Corporate Mentality Seizes National Consciousness
Jan 28, 2002
A pumped-up corporate definition of intelligence is making headway in US
society. CEOs are regarded as experts on political and sociological
change, and excellence in public education is defined in terms of its
service to the private sector. Equating intelligence with conformity to
corporate values is not a new concept, but the extent to which wisdom is
being confused with business savvy is an increasingly insidious trend.
A popular magazine recently surveyed "some of the smartest people we
know," and their choice of intellectual luminaries consisted primarily
of Fortune 500 CEOs. When asked to devise post-September 11 paths to
peace and prosperity, respondents such as Disney CEO Michael Eisner
offered, "America is hated not because of our ideology, but because of
our freedom, our lifestyle and our products ... so the solution is to
make our things available around the world." Ogilvy & Mather CEO Shelly
Lazarus discussed the "interesting marketing challenge" of stimulating
US consumer demand in the current economic slump: "What people are
saying is, 'You know what? I just don't feel like going out,' ... and
we've got to tell them, 'That's what the terrorists want. I don't care
if you feel like it or not - go buy a bra.'" In other words, recession,
inequity and poverty are nothing that Goofy dolls and underwires can't
fix; throw money at a problem and it will magically disappear.
This same "smartest people we know" attitude echoes in "No Child Left
Behind," the sweeping educational reforms signed into US law January
8th. Having said, "If you teach a child to read, he or her will be able
to pass a literacy test," President Bush helped push through the mandate
for annual standardized testing of all US students from the third to
eighth grade. But while parents and teachers argue against the diversion
of already tight educational funds into dubious new programs, the
testing and textbook publishing industries have settled in for the kill.
Small wonder. The necessary expenditures for mandated testing have been
estimated to run $2.7 to $7 billion annually, and Harold McGraw, the CEO
of McGraw-Hill and a long-time friend of the Bush family, is one of
those few poised to make exorbitant profits from the new law.
The importance of literacy is clear; as President Bush himself has said,
"Reading is the basics for all learning." The question is simply whether
throwing billions at testing and textbook publishers, then punishing
lagging schools is really the smart way to go. Tackling the roots of
student underperformance, such as child poverty (with its attending lack
of healthcare, poor nutrition, and inequity in the distribution of
educational resources) would seem a more humane and effective long-term
strategy. But sociological implications, have-nots and other minor
details get left out in a profit-motivated approach to social services.
Short-term gains and self-serving interests take hold as dangerous new
paths to the future are institutionalized.
A recent statement by 100 Nobel laureates, "smart people" by anyone's
standard, warned against the current trend of lining corporate pockets
as the environment and its masses tumble. Citing "global warming and a
weaponized world" as the most profound dangers to world peace, the
laureates condemned a "unilateral search for security, in which we seek
to shelter behind walls." They called for united action to "move towards
a wider degree of social justice" which acknowledges the "legitimate
demands of the world's dispossessed," and they specifically demanded
international support for legal instruments such as the Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty and the Convention on Climate Change.
Intriguing that the Bush administration has
decided to abandon the above treaties, preferring to increase the
profits of big energy and weapons producers instead. But as a recent
Newsweek tribute to Bush reported, in explaining why the president
doesn't choose to read many books, "He's busy making history, but
doesn't look back on his own, or the world's ... Bush would rather look
forward than backward. It's the way he's built, and the result is a
president who operates without evident remorse or second-guessing."
So what's the most intelligent path forward?
Does it really lie in standardized testing and escalated consumer
demand, or rather in tearing down walls of inequity? If we allow our
government to focus on short-term profit for a few, while ignoring both
the lessons of history and the needs of the majority, isn't it
tantamount to complicity in creating an increasingly unbalanced world?
Long-term global sustainability will be reached only by laws and
decisions of wisdom and insight. We should expect - and demand - no less
from those who call themselves our leaders.
Heather Wokusch is a freelance writer. She can be contacted at
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