More Chances to Learn

There are three relatively new Web sites that provide free access to thousands of video lectures by university professors, other educators, and experts in all facets of business and academic pursuits.

1. www.ted.com
2. www.youtube.com/edu
3. www.academicearth.org

All of these are free and have something to appeal to everyone's level of interest and curiosity.

They don't lead to college credit, but still.................

Enjoy!

Trivializing Torture

In the old days, before political correctness grabbed our imaginations, we used to glibly refer to "the Chinese water torture," acting as though we somehow knew what that actually meant. We supposed it was something like the heartless dripping of a faucet, which is something we've all experienced. We also used to laugh heartily at the prospect of torture manifesting itself as imprisonment in a dark cage and being subjected to the unending, repetitive playing of "She wore an itsy-bitsy, teeney-weeney, yellow polka-dot bikini" over a tinny loudspeaker, thereby creating an earworm that would plague us long after the song itself had ceased. These tortures were, of course, more mental than physical. We would often pretend we were being tortured by our mere juxtaposition to a person or social situation we did not like. Ah, those days of torture; how elusive and implausible they were.

Now we are being asked to define torture for real---in our country, as a national security practice, as a community of diverse opinions and beliefs, and in our individual consciences. Torture asks the question: "What would shock the conscience?"

Torture is currently being animatedly discussed by everyone, but perhaps not yet very rationally or effectively, on three simultaneous levels:

1. Is it moral?

2. Is it legal?

3. Is it effective?

My opinion is that it is none of those things. What is your opinion?

Waterboarding seems to head the list of tortures being discussed and denied. It is a practice that was used to interrogate 9/11 detainees at Gitmo and prisoners in Iraq. Is waterboarding torture? Some say it is not because it doesn't cause any "lasting harm." How do we know that it doesn't cause any lasting harm? We don't.

Some say also that waterboarding is a technique that merely simulates drowning. Journalist Christopher Hitchens subjected himself to waterboarding to see what it was like. Even though his voluntary waterboarding was done under strictly supervised conditions and he had a panic button he could press when he reached a point of uncomfortability with the experience, his conclusion is that waterboarding "...is actual drowning that simulates death." That is quite a different point of view.

Sean Hannity, one of the conservative bloviators on FOX News, stated that he would happily undergo waterboarding just to prove to "the folks" that it was not torture. Thus far, there have been no reliable reports that he has made good on his boastful offer. Let's see if he ever does. He and others of his ilk continue to trivialize the seriousness of this discussion by referring to torture as "enhanced interrogation techniques."

For those who do not consider waterboarding to be torture, they should undergo it just for the hell of it to check it out.

Cotard Syndrome

Also known as Cotard delusion and nihilistic or negation delusion, Cotard syndrome is a rare neuropsychiatric disorder in which a person delusionally believes that he or she is dead or does not exist. It is named after Dr. Jules Cotard (1840-1889), a French neurologist who first described the syndrome of "negation delirium" at an 1880 lecture in Paris. It is associated with manic-depressive disorder, neurological disease, and derealization. The main character in Charlie Kaufman's movie Synecdoche, New York is named Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and his wife is Adele Lack (Catherine Keener). This syndrome also consists of mental depression and suicidal tendencies, in which the patient believes s/he has lost everything from possessions to parts of or his/her entire body, often believing that s/he has died and is a walking corpse. Attempted suicide seems to provide a challenge to the patient to test the delusion of already being dead. Cotard syndrome is usually expanded to the degree that the patient might claim that he can smell his rotting flesh and feel worms crawling through his skin. Showers or baths don't seem to help. The latter phenomenon is a recurring experience of people chronically deprived of sleep or suffering amphetamine or cocaine psychosis. Paradoxically, being "dead" often gives the patient the notion of being immortal. Other megalomelancholic ideas may be present. Many patients complain bitterly to others of the enormous hardships of being dead. One can just imagine... The etiology of Cotard delusion is so far unknown. Because tricyclic and selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants are ineffective, the treatment most often used is electroconvulsive therapy.

Synecdoche, New York

Charlie Kaufman is most noted for his screenplays for the movies Adaptation (2002), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), for which he won an Oscar in 2005 for best original screenplay, and Synecdoche, New York (2008), on which he made his directorial debut. He was executive producer of Being John Malkovich (1999). If you are familiar with any, some, or all of these movies, you will understand that Charlie Kaufman brings a unique and sometimes confusing, but always challenging, perspective to cinema and literature. These movies are not for the faint of heart or the lame of brain. They require thinking and reflection. They are mindbending and not easily understood without some effort on the part of the viewer. And that is OK. Not everything should be so easy to understand that its audience could be third-graders.

Synecdoche, New York is certainly not easy to understand, but it's worth the effort to try to understand it. Some might say that this movie is inchoate, but I think it's a tapestry and delightfully surrealistic. It does impart incisive wisdom, and it's full of irony, puns, and neuroses. And the soundtrack is compelling, romantic, and nostalgic. Here is a YouTube link to the song that accompanies the closing credits of the film. Perhaps it will motivate you to see the movie and let your comments be known on this blog. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKQqxt7xd20

Spring 2009

This is what spring looks like in Baltimore.

Oneness and Earth Day

All things are one, but they are not the same. It is marvelous to revel in this unity while at the same time appreciating our differences.

We humans are all members of the same species, made of atoms, containing the same organs, and harboring the same basic needs and impulses, and yet our behavior and thoughts are highly individualized. Is this God manifesting in so many ways that the variety is unfathomable? If we saw ourselves as co-creators, perhaps we would (like ants and bees who operate with "one mind") be more kind to all living things.

Oneness is not sameness, but the belief in our oneness and divinity may bring us to acceptance of things as they are.

Happy Earth Day! We have another chance to practice the sacred today (and every day) because we are alive and alove.

Bullying

A respected colleague has written a timely essay on bullies and bullying, and I would like to give it space in my blog because I think it pertains not only to the work place but also to our national politics and the bullying that goes on there daily, especially on cable television "news" outlets. I invite you, as well, to share your thoughts, possible solutions, and stories about bullying and how it affects your personal psychology.

"As I was struggling to sleep, it came to me why I was so troubled by a colleague’s unprovoked outburst in a recent e-mail. It was because she represents the bully---the bully that I’ve met at every turn in my life. And, I thought, here we go again… and, frankly, I’m not in the mood. It started way back with the nuns, and thereafter in almost every job I’ve had, a bully has been part and parcel.

The bully is that person who doesn’t care what you think and won’t respect individual differences---that person who refuses to acknowledge that respectable diversity adds to the group dynamic. Instead, bullies chooses to crush everyone else into submission---submission to their ideas, their way of doing things, and their self-righteous perception of their supremacy.

With bullies, you can’t take, or explain, the high road because they don’t understand it. They interpret the high road as a sign of weakness. They can’t or won’t comprehend that they should be ashamed of themselves. Bullies are those overbearing persons that all of the nice people are forced to deal with---the ones whose bad behavior is continually excused because we feel sorry that they’re out of control. They wreck the party for the rest of us.

Think of a recipe that entails delectable spices and ingredients. If one spice is added too heavily, the dish is ruined. The bully is the person who doesn’t understand that it’s the blend of spices that makes the dish delicious and desirable. They are the heavy-handed spice that ruins the dish, that overpowers the gentle salt and black pepper that, although plainer, are necessary to have the recipe spring into a balanced creation.

I’ve always tried to take the high road, even with the bullies. But with the bullies, I’ve learned to regret it. Initially, they are conciliatory---and even in that, they are overpowering, pandering, disingenuous. It’s hard to swallow, but we do so because we are the nice people. Bullies are sometimes temporarily on good behavior because “someone” is watching, paying attention–and it isn’t God they’re playing to.

Their good behavior only lasts until the next time---and there’s always a next time. Before you know it, it’s a formula. They falter, we excuse, they falter, we excuse, and on and on ad nauseum. Eventually, their behavior is expected, anticipated, but always excused because, as we all know, that’s just how they are. Instead of forcing them to rise to our level, we each die a little by accepting their unacceptable behavior, ultimately rendering it accepted even though unwelcomed. It’s our failure, but we shoulder it by taking the high road."

Truth

Ultimately, truth is autobiography.

That doesn't mean that there could never be absolute truth on some plane of existence we cannot access (or can access only with great difficulty) or that there isn't an archetype for truth somewhere in the vast universe, but because truth is (most probably) autobiography, it does seem to suggest that we shape and hold our truths as individuals and that these truths most likely are quite different from objective reality, if there is such a thing.

That leads me to believe that individual truths are actually opinions and that opinions are expressed as theater, where the medium is the message and truth is irrelevant.

Forbearance

Thomas Berger (1924- ) is a prodigious American author who "depicts, in the pungent language of the time [midwest, depression era], the passions and volitions of people who might otherwise be overlooked in the universal rush toward oblivion." This quote is from the dust cover of Thomas Berger's twelfth novel, called "The Feud," published in 1983.

At another time, I would like to explore the concept of "the universal rush toward oblivion."

For now, however, it will suffice to enumerate the Principles of Manhood described in "The Feud," to wit:

1. Don't let anybody get away with anything without calling him on it.
2. Always respect the weaker sex and people older than yourself.
3. Be neatly dressed at all times.
4. Never tell anyone else, including relatives, much about your private affairs.
5. Worship the Lord, but never trust a preacher any farther than you can throw him.
6. Avoid being foulmouthed unless provoked beyond your capacity for forbearance.

It is this last principle that indicts me and causes me to defend myself. When I listen to the unending barrage of incredibly ignorant, sarcastic, and mean-spirited invective launched against the current Presidency, I can't help myself. I have reached the capacity for forbearance, and foulmouthedness is my only recourse. There are not enough foulmouthed words to satisfy me. I find myself making them up because the standard dozen or so don't seem adequate to the task.

I've lived a long time, but I cannot remember when a President has been pilloried, hourly, for every breath drawn, every statement made, every handshake, every decision, and every proposal as has the current President.

Can somebody talk me off the ledge?

Learning and Enrichment

Dr. Maxine Greene, an exceptional educational philosopher, when asked what knowledge and skills are worthwhile learning, said this: "Those things that release more and more people for reflective encounters with a range of works of art, works that have the potential to awaken, to move persons to see, to hear, and to feel often in unexpected ways. Perceptive encounters with works of art can bring human beings in touch with themselves. We must awaken in order to continue our efforts to build a just, compassionate, and meaningful democracy. We must help students realize their deep connection to and responsibility for not only their own individual experience but also for other human beings who share this world."

Learning, of course, cannot be guaranteed. There are so many variables connected with “learning” that even in this day and age of academic redundancies, many “learning theories” still abound, and, like the existence of God, no one knows for certain why and how people of various backgrounds and dispositions learn anything. Learning can be measured but only in a rudimentary sort of way. Retention can be tested, but this is not the same thing as understanding. Understanding is a wholistic concept; retention deals with specificities and, even then, is hard to measure although measured perhaps more successfully than understanding. Nor can enrichment be guaranteed or tested. Enrichment is not necessarily a feeling that comes from knowing something or doing a good job at something. Perhaps enrichment is more an attitude or a spirit of “possibility” that sometimes transcends the materiality of educational or professional objectives and goals.

The idea of nuance is a most important aspect of learning and enrichment. The elimination or lack of attention to nuance may be what is wrong with higher education today, which is often far too specialized and shuns or ridicules liberal arts. A liberal arts education is important because it teaches us to think and to think expansively, to consider all the possibilities we can conceive of, and to think critically and not just blindly accept the fashionable or the current policies that are thrust upon us.

The philosophical and spiritual aspects of any educational endeavor are just as important as the objective facts themselves. Providing perspective and ideas that oppose policy and governance is just as importance as obedience to principles.

Enrichment deals with philosophies that accompany the operational goals of any profession or endeavor. Perhaps it is "accidental learning." Stimulating a hunger for more learning and understanding is the enrichment philosophy that should underpin everything we do.

Often, what you know today is obsolete tomorrow, but in many cases, what we know today is still knowable and durable tomorrow. The fundamentals do not change. What changes are technological advances, and even these move at a snail’s pace although it seems as though there is so much more available now than ever before, and, to some extent, that is true; however, what most professions and artistic endeavors can rely on is that the fundamentals do not change. For example, language may undergo some kinky and evolutionary morphings from time to time, but the fundamentals of grammar and punctuation still apply.

It is important to adopt a peaceful and righteous attitude (philosophy) toward any work so that one (a) is confident of the fundamentals and then (b) learns that dealing with contingencies is the solution to the puzzles and mysteries of being alive.

There has to be a certain reverence toward the complex processes of learning, understanding, and enrichment. It’s like a sacrament, so to speak, in that everything worthwhile is endowed with a rich history, a rich tradition, a rich present, and a rich future.

John Dewey believed, as did Jean-Paul Sartre, that what we become, what we make of ourselves, depends on what we do with our lives. What we do cannot be simply routine and mechanical; it must be conscious, interested, and committed. If we content ourselves with being behaving organisms rather than reflective persons engaged in ongoing and meaningful activity, the quality of our existence and self-hood becomes thin and pallid. We begin to resemble those T. S. Eliot called "hollow men" or those Thoreau described as living lives of "quiet desperation."

Where does a single human being inexorably stand between the original intent and the ultimate manifestation? In artistry. While many professions and endeavors are a science, many are also very much an art, and it is the artistry of one's profession or endeavor that ultimately leads to understanding and enrichment.

What is quality?

Trying to define quality is reminiscent of the story about the blind men describing an elephant. One felt the elephant’s leg and thought the creature was a tree. Another grabbed the elephant’s trunk and said it was a snake. One man touched the elephant’s side and declared it a brick wall. The other felt the elephant’s tail and said, “It is a rope.” In the end, though each of the blind men thought he was right in his definition, all were wrong. The author of the story, John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887), concludes:

“So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!”

The idea of quality has many definitions, ranging from the practical to the transcendent. Quality is anything that is both useful and satisfies a customer’s needs or expectations. Quality is also seen as conforming to specifications or an advantageous combination of good price and desired features. Quality is perceived as excellence, freedom from defect, and something that adds value to a product or process. When frustrated trying to come up with an actual definition, people will often say, “I can’t define it in words, but I know it when I see it.”

Quality is an essential, distinguishing attribute of a person, product, or process, and, like beauty, is often in the eyes of the beholder. To add to its elusiveness, what is considered quality today may not be considered quality tomorrow, so it is changeable and evolutionary in its nature as well.

How much quality do we need? In medical transcription (as in other products and processes), we need as much quality as is necessary to ensure the accuracy and clarity of written medicolegal documentation used for patient care and billing purposes.

What does quality cost? When something is done right the first time, quality is virtually free. What is expensive is the constant fixing of un-quality. Every time a layer of un-quality must be fixed, a product or process becomes more expensive and time-consuming. Un-quality can also be downright dangerous, the cost of which is often inestimable.

As individuals or as a team, we either contribute to the quality of a product or we add to its un-quality. Regardless of the definition of quality, one thing is certain: The cause of quality resides in each one of us.