We are all committed at and to various contracts of depravity.
Haltom's Sixth Law is a double double entendre. It plays on multiple meanings of "committed." Many of those who are committed have very good reasons for their commitment(s). Many of those committed should be put away from polite society. These two interpretations of "Those Who Are Committed Should Be" are neither exclusive nor exhaustive. Indeed, many persons incarcerated in psycho wards should be incarcerated in psycho wards. Others imprisoned in psychiatric institutions are ghost writers of integrity codes and of mission statements.
In ordinary social settings, commitment that is overzealous or fanatical marks individuals who should be hidden from children and from elders. These "committed" persons are disappointed when Kool-Aid gives them a sugar rush or sugar coma rather than the cyanide buzz and ticket to mortality of Jonestown's Flavor Aid. [Every time Bill O'Reilly calls someone a Kool-Aid drinker, he reveals his ignorance about Jonestown. On the other hand, that Bill O'Reilly has not yet revealed all of his ignorance is impressive. What a trove of unabashed unawareness the man comprises!] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid This sort of commitment imperils security and sanity itself.
At the University of Puget Clowns, by contrast, commitment that is not feigned and cunning will often get one exiled. Those who appear to be committed to orthodox expressions or values but moderate their practice of or adherence to such commitments once the klieg lights fade often thereby secure honors and named chairs. A reputation for probity is much more valuable than the practice of honesty or any habits of integrity. Those who commit candor or observe virtues will be denounced, usually for whatever virtue they have most in abundance, and shunned, usually for whatever practices make "distinguished" faculty look bad. In this as in so many respects, the University of Puget Clowns abhors actual virtues and embraces ersatz virtues as if the former were Near Beer and the latter malt liquor.
Many colleagues sincerely committed to honesty, integrity, candor, and openness are no longer among the faculty, while most trimmers, trucklers, and temporizers [Murat Halstead] survive like post-apocalyptic cockroaches. One reason why homo economicus [the academic Latin for "weasel"] we shall always have with us is that the shrewd and the sly guard their reputations against those who, by telling the truth, might expose the sly and the shrewd, which would be dreadful because that would mean the sly were not sly enough and the shrewd had miscalculated. They who landed their jobs or forged their credentials through fraud or misprision must be vigilant lest truth-tellers gain tenure. Famous publishers who have not quite gotten around to publishing what they have assured us was "forthcoming" must fend off the kinds of evaluators given to insisting on reading manuscripts before certifying monographs on which the famous publishers who haven't published have alleged themselves to have been working for years and for grants. Those who threaten or bully fellow faculty must protect their reputations through reliance on colleagues who will vouch for the bullies. After all, without lies or dissembling, thugs might seem less than committed to integrity and other academic values. Can't have that.
When actually virtuous colleagues hold their departments or administrators to mission statements, ideals, or values, they demand that colleagues fulfill pretensions. How unfair that is! If we could live our pretenses we should not pretend. We pretend to be when we know that we cannot be. We pretend to be what we know we shall never be. Is it collegial to mock socially approved, communally shared travesties when shams are all some colleagues have?
Instead, let us commit anew to our "contract of depravity" [The Hustler 1961] by banishing those who, having inadvertently detected dishonesty or corruption, do not immediately find ways to hide malfeasance, nonfeasance, treachery, or mendacity. Colleagues unwilling to avert their eyes from unfairness, bigotry, discrimination, or meanness are simply not as committed as, by Haltom's Sixth Law, they should be.
Coming Soon: Haltom's Seventh Law -- What he/she/they will do to him/her/them, he/she/they will do to you.
3 comments:
I enjoyed the 6th-law post very much and have been singing "Ghost Writers In the Ward"--to myself, in the ward. :-) A third group interests me: those who, for a variety of reasons (some good), *don't* commit. (Johnny Cochrane would have made a rhyme out of that.)Some members of the group provide ancillary help when they quietly express agreement or support, but most simply go about their business--and why not? Going about one's business and not committing candor (for instance) has its attractions. The sheer size of the non-committed group may, however, accelerate the burn-out of those who are committed. I may be expressing, badly, a backhanded argument for solidarity, which is almost never a popular idea.
Edmund Burke allegedly alleged that "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing." When evil-doers lead colleges or departments, they rely on good people uncommitted as well as committed. Evil-doers use commitment and solidarity against the gullible, who are gullible in part because they are committed to some cause or ideals that the miscreant can use in propaganda. Evil-doers also turn lack of commitment against what might have been good people. Evil-doers score retrospection or introspection to wrest attention from tedious, tendentious claims and to direct attention away from causes that might commit good people to resistance.
As you note, many reasons for attenuated commitment are understandable and forgivable. However, such reasons soon enough become excuses for inertia, which in turn leads to luxuriation in obliviousness and commitment to non-commitment.
Distinguished veteran, do not send to ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for what you once aspired to be.
As for Ghost Writers in the Ward, adapt the advice that the old cowpoke got from the ghost rider: "If you want to save your soul from hell writing o'er derange, then scholar change your ways or with UPS abide, trying to catch the devil's word across the Great Divide."
Yippee I A Yippee I O
Ghost Writers in the Ward
My dastardly plan has succeeded. I induced you to write lyrics! Well done, and thanks for the link. "Distinguished veteran, do not send to ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for what you once aspired to be." To shift from Donne and Hemingway to "My Cousin Vinnie": "Youts" are needed to join the good fight in institutions large and small, for counter-solidarity can fuel a conflict of attrition. To combine Langston Hughes with "Cool Hand Luke," I'm "Still Here" and "Shakin' the tree, Boss!" Nice use of "luxuriation," by the way.
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