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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Will There Be Mergers? Soon?

"The Idea of the Presumption of "Yes"

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's funny, I remember something called called "The Roundtable" which had a "presumption" of "You guys waste your time and energy on a fool's errand and we will go ahead and do whatever we want and then say you participated in the decision."

Lloyd the Presumptive?

Anonymous said...

So, when will the Gleichschaltung of the university be completed?

Dr Demento said...

Gleichschaltung = "forcible-coordination"
as per see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleichschaltung

If you don't learn German, how will you know, how will you know when you are being verschraubt?

Brought to you by the Committee to Preserve German Language Learning at The University of Toledo.

"Impress your friends! Swear in German!"

Little Lupe said...

To Anonymous 6:01 -

"Cuando las vacas vuelvan a casa!"

Brought to you by The Committee to Save Spanish Language Learning at The University of Toledo.

"Impress your friends. Order Dos Equis in Spanish."

Anonymous said...

“As Dean of the University of Michigan Business School, I gave careful thought early on how to create a climate of high expectations with regard to fresh ideas that would lead to innovation and change. I came up with a simple philosophy that I communicated to everyone in leadership positions at the school. I simply called it the ‘Presumption of Yes.’”

– B. Joseph White, “The Nature of Leadership: Reptiles, Mammals, and the Challenge of Becoming a Great Leader (2007) page 142 ad naseum

OMIGGOD! A Darwinist at the helm! Comet Jacobs is destined to obliterate the reptilian professoriate at UT in order to improve the human condition!

Anonymous said...

I think "Abgefickt" more correctly describes the current state of the University. Lloyd's done a fine job of elevating the place to this exalted position.

Anonymous said...

Down on the worm scale, we worms think you reptiles are a dangerous lot and need control.

Unknown said...

The truth about the truth

Gleichschaltung or collectivization?

Take your pick.

Here is an essential fallacy that applies to UT, academia in general and human relations at all levels:

Proposition: I am an essentially good person (i.e. a good and decent and honest and intelligent person, who believes in and wants only what is good and right and true and best and equitable for all – equitable in the sense of equal opportunity and meritocracy, not arbitrary quotas and entitlements).

Therefore, all members of my group (group x – friends, family, professional colleagues, team, corporation, church, college, union, political party, whatever) are also essentially good people – any evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

Moreover, all members of groups y and z, whomever they may be (especially any disadvantaged minorities or “under-represented” special interest groups) are also well-meaning good people – any evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

And if I freely and magnanimously acquiesce to all demands made by members of groups x, y and z – no matter how plainly unreasonable these demands may be – members of groups x, y and z will appreciate and remember my generous fair-mindedness and will never turn on me or take any unfair advantage of me or attempt to oppress me or my friends, colleagues, or loved ones…

This was the fatal error committed by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in his naïve 1938 dealings with the Nazis at Munich.

Chamberlain wrongly believed he was negotiating with essentially noble, fair-minded and reasonable people. He claimed he had achieved “peace in our time” when in fact he had only achieved a very short-lived appeasement that ultimately resulted in the near extinction of western democratic civilization under the iron boot of Nazi fascism.

There is also a long and tragic history of naïve, cloistered intellectuals and ideologues naively developing and/or endorsing philosophies and ideologies that contributed to the horrific wars, genocides and cultural revolutions of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc. – e.g. Heidegger, Sartre, Chomsky, et al.

These political cataclysms often subverted, terrorized and engulfed the ideologues themselves (e.g. Trotsky, Adorno and various other members of the Frankfurt and Vienna schools, Che Guevara, Malcolm X, etc.).

Many foolishly believed the answer to right-wing Nazi fascism was an idealized, emancipatory, subversive, counter-cultural, left-wing Marxist-Stalinist-Maoist totalitarianism (Marcuse, de Beauvoir, Chomsky, Abbie Hoffman, et al.).

Obviously there are no jack-booted, goose-stepping Nazis or Bolsheviks presently holding massive Nuremberg-style rallies at UT or at other college campuses. Not yet anyway.

But decades of groupthink and intellectual, political and “collegial” appeasement have in many respects rotted the academy to its very core – and may ultimately result in the effective extinction of anything that can any longer honestly be called the academy.

If you happen to be one of those truly dedicated, serious-minded, well-informed and well-intentioned people on campus – but are merely hoping for the best and keeping your head down and covering your own behind and counting on the universal common decency and good will of others – you may be in for a very rude awakening.

The rudest awakening of all might be to discover your own well-meaning but misguided assumptions and ideological delusions have lulled you into complacency, or even made you an active, if unwitting anti-freedom fighter pawn participating in your own demise.

As Eric Hoffer so rightly noted in The True Believer – deluded, fanatic idealism and oppressive totalitarianism come in many, often highly deceptive and seemingly benign forms – from across the entire political spectrum. And as often as not, idealists who firmly believe they are fighting evil and oppression are in fact contributing to them.

Anonymous said...

Hello Anonymous 7:22 AM?

Wake up girl! I have read that silly book that has given Dr. Jacobs his latest inspiration. While Anonymous 5:32 maybe means well and is doing his or her homework, (s)he misinterprets who the lizards represent in the book. The reptiles are not the faculty. They are part of the dual persona of Great Leader-Administrators, who are half mammal/half reptile.

The author describes this shape-shifting behavior as the "natural way" of leadership. Whenever Great Administrators feel the need to "lay down with the lambs" they straightaway act like lions (thus become Alpha male mammals).

But, when their venom rises such that they suddenly feel the urge to kick employee butt and fire folks these Great Leaders will themselves for the good of their organization (and its stockholders) flip their switch to become cold-blooded reptiles. Such is transformative change.

I have summarized for you the advice that passes for wisdom in J.B. White's book. If President Jacobs likes this book he widely and frequently quotes from these days (but without attribution) so much, then someone should immediately send a message to Garcia.