THE EARTHIAN, Number Twenty-Nine, April 18, 2022, Effective Learning Publications https://blog.effectivelearning.net/ , 32 East Main Street, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, specializing in Adult education.
THE EARTHIAN is an approximately monthly digest of articles written by free-thinking truth-seeking critical-thinking creative-thinking truth-accepting hard-hitting independent writers in linked Internet journals containing facts, perspectives, theories, models, analyses, and recommendations concerned about psychological, moral, ethical, philosophical, social, economic, political, military, religious, and ecological states of affairs affecting the existential well-being of all species of fauna and flora around Spaceship Earth, especially the human species.
“ASK LESS WHAT YOUR NATION CAN DO FOR YOU—ASK MORE WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR SPACESHIP EARTH”
Individuals Are Not to Praise or Blame for How Earthian Economic, Social, and Political States of Affairs Evolve
ONE SCENARIO
By ROUT LOGGER
A participant in a seminar like the one I conducted in Richard John Stapleton’s novel As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases, asked a participant last weekend how the new Earthian management system Spaceship Earth, Inc. recommended in the Rooster novel could possibly be implemented. I did not know at the time how it could be done. I still do not know of course, but I have at least imagined a system that might have the slightest chance of working.
Building on the idea published in the novel that thousands if not billions of democracy chapters should be established around Spaceship Earth in which ordinary Earthian humans would be randomly-selected to lead democratic discussions about Earthian existential problems to develop consensual answers about what should be done, Earthian humans having somehow figured out a way to abolish the abominable system always used around Spaceship Earth that entailed allowing empowered fascist nationalistic leaders to make such decisions, such as Putin deciding to invade and bomb Ukraine and Bush II of the US deciding to bomb and invade Iraq, regardless of where their marching orders actually came from, I imagined the following system.
Should Spaceship Earth, Inc. democracy chapters be established all around Earth, the chapters could develop consensual answers regarding existential matters from the bottom up that would filter up to randomly-selected humans who would summarize the consensual answers and implement consensual tactics, strategies, and policies developed around Earth for dealing with the whole computerized Spaceship Earth system, that would be operated and controlled using artificial intelligence programming in magnum computer systems. Randomly-selected groups of dozens of Earthian humans of high intelligence with impeccable moral and ethical credentials would control codes for changing the Earthian Magnum Computer System programming. Each member of these groups, who would serve limited terms, would have one vote for every change in all Earthian management system tactics, strategies, policies, and procedures that were programmed and instantiated to maximize the economic, political, psychological, and social OKness of all Earthian humans, based on a computerized count of the number of times a particular idea for change from around Earth was recommended by thousands or millions of Spaceship Earth democracy chapters.
The system would require a strict system of security controls like the current nuclear codes of the US, hopefully providing security several magnitudes more secure than current USian nuclear codes, to make sure a madman could not get in control of any aspect of the Magnum Spaceship Earth Operations System.
Seems to me a management system such as this would be significantly better than previous systems used around Spaceship Earth that have empowered fickle, egotistical, greedy, power mad, insane, grandiose, not-very-bright Earthian humans to make existential decisions affecting the OKness of thousands, millions, and billions of humans.
A tough lesson for Earthian humans to accept propositioned in Effective Learning Publications books is that everything that happens in human states of affairs is either predetermined or accidental and therefore individuals are not to blame or praise for what happens in human states of affairs. This is easier to swallow after accepting that believing and acting otherwise will support and perpetuate the I’m OK—You’re Not OK life position that has bedeviled, sabotaged, and undermined Earthian humans since time immemorial, making losers out of most of them. This is another reason why large group consensual answers such as those described above are vastly superior.
For more information on the use of Transactional Analysis https://www.itaaworld.org/ to create better discussion groups and democratic processes read Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning. https://www.amazon.com/Born-Learn-Transactional-Analysis-Learning/dp/0692584331
For more information on how to co-construct better organizations and economic systems using transactional analysis read Business Voyages: Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Discovering and Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds https://www.amazon.com/Business-Voyages-Schemata-Discovering-Co-Constructing/dp/1413480810
Read “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc,” https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-evolution-of-spaceship-earth-inc/ for some management science ideas on how Earthian humans might eventually co-construct an economic system that is viable and satisfying for everyone aboard Spaceship Earth, making it possible for all Earthian humans to develop an I’m OK—You’re OK life position.
Read As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases. This recently-published novel features a new kind of seminar invented and coordinated by Rout Logger that might reduce the probability of Earthian human extinction that requires participants in a seminar to speak out and up when randomly selected by a Truther rooster positioned in the center of a randomly-selected group of forty humans sitting in a circle. The Truther rooster resembles a spinning weather vane. The rooster is programmed to bob its head up and down and raucously crow after being twirled by a randomly-selected seminar participant, as it spins round and round winding down, letting group members know it’s time to wake up and get to work, before it’s too late. When the Truther rooster stops spinning whoever is at the end of a line of imaginary fire extending from the rooster’s head to her or him sitting in the circle is automatically selected as the Leader of the Moment for the group, proving pure democracy can happen. The Leader of the Moment must then lead the group into a democratic discussion of what s/he considers the most serious existential problem around Spaceship Earth.
According to Effective Learning Publications books, achieving Earthian human sustainability entails such things as Earthian humans peacefully reducing through natural attrition (natural deaths exceeding births) the human population aboard Spaceship Earth, never doing work that machines can do better, and delegating the day-to-day management of systems for scheduling, producing, and distributing the necessities of life to artificial intelligence programs and supercomputers, assuming sufficient quantities of non-human clean energy can be discovered and developed using mind grants.
This is possible managing Spaceship Earth using the general algorithmic matrix algebra form
Max CjXj, s.t. AijXj ≤, =, or ≥ Bi
explained in “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.” at https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-evolution-of-spaceship-earth-inc/ .
Riding aboard an airliner about to land at night traveling at four hundred miles an hour at thirty-five thousand feet with clouds, rain, wind, and lightning below, what would you rather have determining the path, speed, and angle of descent of the aircraft for touch-down, the plane’s auto-pilot, radar, and computer system or the pilot and co-pilot, seeing nothing out their windows below but clouds and lightning?
The main reason why delegating the scheduling, production, and distribution of the necessities of life to AI programs and magnum computers would be a good idea is that magnum computers and algorithmic AI programs do not get greedy and power hungry or play psychological Games. Thus far in Earthian human history most leaders and rulers atop large organizations such as nations have become corrupt one way or another playing psychological Games, acting out selfish greedy ego trips, hogging all the power, money, strokes, stimulation, and recognition they could get their hands on for themselves and their cronies, leaving the hindmost to their underlings. Whatever their limitations and possible threats, algorithmic computer programs and super computers are not egotistical, greedy, and power-hungry.
Thanks to Buckminster Fuller for providing the above airplane-landing metaphor in his book Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, first published in 1969, and for planting seeds for other ideas in the essay “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.,” published in the Effective Learning Report, such as computers being the best hope for mankind and humans not doing work machines can do better, being paid to think instead with what Fuller called mind grants. Fuller said unemployment all around Spaceship Earth could be eliminated overnight with mind grants. Buckminster Fuller was the inventor of the appellations Earthian and Spaceship Earth.
If you have ideas on how to democratically discuss in Game-free ways economic and political problems and opportunities in something like the Ogeechee Economic Forum https://blog.effectivelearning.net/ogeechee-economic-forum/ scroll up to and click on the RESPONSES tab at the top of this blog page and speak out about them in writing.
If you feel you’ve gained value from THE EARTHIAN, go to the Internet or any walk-in bookstore around Spaceship Earth and purchase one or more of the above books. As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases is the latest and probably most engaging Effective Learning Publications book. Rout Logger is the protagonist of the novel story. It’s available now as an ebook at Barnes and Noble for $4.99 at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/as-the-rooster-crows-earthian-okness-increases-richard-john-stapleton/1140476381?fbclid=IwAR3iCgbUb4GxgKUAkGOJNBQlbEQmAkKMMQ6DVcc3B085PbntX_VWVi3G-Pg.
RECOMMENDED LINKED ARTICLES RECENTLY PUBLISHED IN INTERNET MEDIA BY RELEVANT HARD-HITTING TRUTH-SEEKING TRUTH-ACCEPTING WRITERS DEALING WITH EARTHIAN HUMAN EXISTENTIAL STATES OF AFFAIRS
APRIL 18, 2022
The following article includes the most detailed comprehensive interview I have read about what caused the Ukraine showdown and what’s at stake. The interviewee is former Swiss intelligence officer and NATO advisor Jacques Buad. According to Baud the main originating cause of the invasion was the US and NATO pushing farther East in Europe to control and depower Russia, adding new countries on Russia’s border to the NATO alliance, while enticing Ukraine to also join NATO. According to Baud, Ukraine has been heavily influenced by right wing extremist fanatical Nazi-like elements in recent years, who control about two percent of the Ukrainian parliament, but ninety percent of mercenaries hired by Ukraine to attack and de-Russify Russian-speaking Ukrainians in eastern Ukraine. According to Baud the immediate triggers for the Russian invasion of Ukraine were Ukraine attacking Russian-speaking Ukrainians in Eastern Ukraine, Ukraine preparing to invade and retake Crimea, and Ukraine refusing to sign the Minsk agreement stating they would remain neutral in the USian/NATO-Russian conflict by not joining NATO. Read the article for yourself. It’s a good article and there is more to it than what I mention here.
As I have said before I do not think any of the parties in this showdown have fully clean hands, including the US, and there are no fully good good-guys enmeshed in this disaster, including Zelensky. According to Baud, Zelensky ran for office promising to bring peace and unify Ukraine, but he caved to right-wing fanatics after he got in office. Baud says Zelensky has been told by the extreme right-wing Nazi-like AZOZ faction he will be killed if he signs a peace agreement with Russia that upholds the Minsk agreement, thereby maintaining Ukrainian neutrality in the overall showdown between the US/NATO alliance and Russia.
Who knows what sort of nefarious vile and venal secret agreements and machinations the Ukrainian peace process entails among stakeholders with skin in this showdown, which is another third-degree psychological Game of “I’m Only Trying to Help You,” with all liars, thieves, fanatics, murderers, and Persecutors playing the Game claiming to be heroic patriotic Rescuers in mass media pandering to their serf-like followers, resulting in another Earthian disaster for millions of innocent human Victims, which could get a lot worse, including morphing into WWIII and shooting off and dropping nuclear bombs anywhere around Spaceship Earth, a mother of all reigns of ignorance, stupidity, and terror.
If only all nations around Spaceship Earth would just obey the golden rule—do unto other nations as you would have them do unto you—war—what Mark Twain called the “atrocity of all atrocities”—would be eradicated from the face of the Earth.
But, alas, since nations have never trusted all nations they have only selectively applied the golden rule with some nations for short periods of time in alliances, giving fascist national dictators an opportunity to do all sorts of vile and venal things internationally, since enforceable international laws banning such things have never existed—so fascist dictators can undermine, sanction, invade, bomb, whatever—playing the most ubiquitous human psychological Game on Earth with a clear conscience, a Game played by almost everyone to some extent, when push comes to shove in all sorts of showdowns in all sorts of groups and organizations, including families, “You Made Me Do It.”
“NATO INSIDER ON UKRAINE: US, EU sacrificing Ukraine to ‘weaken Russia’: fmr, NATO adviser ,” by Aaron Mate, THE GRAYZONE, https://thegrayzone.com/2022/04/15/us-eu-sacrificing-ukraine-to-weaken-russia-fmr-nato-adviser/?fbclid=IwAR1MuqrQ1zMaoNv1SAJ5N914_EksuVZo2dpMXALPp2Cqj76UT4WF5yQ1TR0.
April 18
Here’s another incisive article by Courtenay Barnett cutting to the chase regarding the nitty-gritty of some Ukraine issues. Barnett is an appreciated repeat contributor to the Effective Learning Report.
“Relevant International Economic Considerations in the Ukraine Showdown,” by Courtenay Barnett, EFFECTIVE LEARNING REPORT, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/relevant-international-economic-considerations-in-the-ukraine-showdown/.
April 16
It’s hard to focus on global warming and climate change (GWCC) when it’s much more exciting and patriotic to focus on the Ukraine showdown and militarization and nuclear weapons proliferation (MNWP), both being ecological cancers that could metastasize, eventually causing the extinction of Earthian humans.
“Our Long Memories,” by Scott Parkin, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/15/our-long-memories/?fbclid=IwAR1KHcTIeFKl8hXgK_dHtoFEIPn_DihrhczPl3NOFmoBPRn_1RZ1Pg34TVQ.
April 16
Say it aint so Joe
“Housing Affordability Declines Nearly 23 Percent in Less Than a Year,” MISHTALK, https://mishtalk.com/economics/housing-affordability-declines-nearly-23-percent-in-less-than-a-year?fbclid=IwAR0nR5O5gG4fC0uqH0Nzc3ZSyHeHeP8_g_99SFX5RqkdpL0EXI83CVxMObw.
April 15
Here’s an interesting read by Pepe Escobar
“Exclusive: Russia’s Sergey Glazyew introduces the new global financial system,” by Pepe Escobar, THE CRADLE, https://thecradle.co/Article/interviews/9135?fbclid=IwAR28c8ATjV0E5bZOWa9zwgK5wIRCkOk2QZQJGi0MlAKbcGViybrTqza2kWI.
April 15
Could not agree more
“Stop the Geopolitical War Now,” by Richard Falk, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/15/stop-the-geopolitical-war-now/?fbclid=IwAR3Q75xfTIlmNTCd6llpIZxp8eesYaPW3PQFRPc3H0rD_6wZQMbtMyYOFS8.
April 15
Say it aint so Joe
“Ukraine and Yemen Wars Highlight US’s Role as Biggest Arms Dealer in the World,” by Mike Ludwig, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/ukraine-and-yemen-wars-highlight-uss-role-as-biggest-arms-dealer-in-the-world/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR2Hnk4u_g36QeYL0oSadjEPi1NT3u3c4MB9OkRzJFGQsnqjaq1QpXdBPNI.
April 15
Did not know about this
“Momentum builds behind a way to lower the cost of college: A degree in three years,” by John Marcus, THE HECHINGER REPORT, https://hechingerreport.org/momentum-builds-behind-a-way-to-lower-the-cost-of-college-a-degree-in-three-years/?fbclid=IwAR1MuqrQ1zMaoNv1SAJ5N914_EksuVZo2dpMXALPp2Cqj76UT4WF5yQ1TR0.
April 15
Say it aint so Joe
“In North Korea, penthouses are mainly for the unfortunate few,” Reuters, ASIAONE, https://www.asiaone.com/asia/north-korea-penthouses-are-mainly-unfortunate-few?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=addtoany&fbclid=IwAR2rL1F6aOlc8G0lqKY65x-GZpDNR68OpR8Iq4dzkfiEhpOlM4AUfmtM8hA/.
April 15
The tongue might be mightier than the sward if you control enough media coverage.
“Billionaires eye parallel media universe,” by Dan Pimack and Sara Fischer, ASIOS, https://www.axios.com/elon-musk-twitter-billionaires-free-speech-social-media-c74547a6-e51d-48fa-b2bd-3d7458f2adb4.html?fbclid=IwAR1klQjQ_6x0ieWmfv_-vBYmnigwuABZ4ta4v1pe_3VyK1ZcgNyM1OPCPMA.
April 15
A blatant violation of human rights
“’We’re suing,’ says ACLU as Kentucky GOP enacts draconian abortion ban,” by Jake Johnson, INTREPID REPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/35319?fbclid=IwAR28cirbkMjBut7XXawZN8bN3LN63wdBcQ7rPNBsj1ZXK5aFX-p7J8ywPLo.
April 15
Is this possibly the single most serious existential threat facing Earthian humans?
“Thawing Permafrost is Roiling the Arctic Landscape,” by Mark J. Lara, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/14/thawing-permafrost-is-roiling-the-arctic-landscape/?fbclid=IwAR3MWVZk8qA_DRq9A1JI-BSJ-mESu4gBg6h3yP2mgt8_ci0EPJpBox3pPXY.
April 15
What Winston Churchill said about democracy, “Democracy is the worst possible form of government, until you consider the alternatives,” might also be said about capitalism, but maybe not. Here’s what Richard Wolff has to say about the matter.
“The Role of Capitalism in the War in Ukraine,” by Richard D. Wolff, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/14/the-role-of-capitalism-in-the-war-in-ukraine/?fbclid=IwAR1U4L-RPwOfzPmPBCo9Sn5g6ILzpnToYVN6guM07t0HWAHarExp7RJAeXM.
April 15
A cogent article
“’F*ck You Money’,” by Jack Raines, YOUNG MONEY, https://www.youngmoney.co/p/fck-money?fbclid=IwAR2aBnd54ZCxYidb4EIej7RUt8ppy22SvdcSzJyoD7gJUv2GJO-us2zt6NA.
April 15
Here’s a “conservative” article I generally agree with.
“’We the People’ Are the New, Permanent Underclass in America,” by John & Nisha Whitehead, THE RUTHERFORD INSTITUTE, https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/we_the_people_are_the_new_permanent_underclass_in_america.
April 13
Sounds good to me
“Ancient Dreams: ‘I Am A Citizen Of the World’,” by Michael Welton, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/13/ancient-dreams-i-am-a-citizen-of-the-world/?fbclid=IwAR3LxKtHxYISliK55s30kEIl63FVYVcr90nXORQOHfRN-9YZ4JdNTumINGk.
April 11
Obeying fascists and fighting wars is much more exciting and satisfying than worrying about global warming and climate change.
“Scientists Hit the Streets,” by Robert Hunziker, COUNTRERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/11/scientists-hit-the-streets/?fbclid=IwAR0o9xKPw2TBlW7bcay37Wh2IqmCF5ukajkL0Dlb1JDfcGLwt5hsHnv_j-M.
April 11
Fascism is once again growing and marching around Spaceship Earth, as in the 1920s and 1930s.
“The Rise of Digi-Fascism,” by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/11/the-rise-of-digi-fascism/?fbclid=IwAR10xyYa9mDKYMLe_1hAL7Qrpxg-WbjDuSeKrV3WUP8kLCXpfwIkR4ZOcug.
April 11
Loyal Victim cult members are being fleeced by Rescuer Trump playing the psychological Game I’M Only Trying to Help You, which is the only payoff they will get from Trump when the Game finally ends. Surely they know by now in their Adult ego states that Trump has no knowledge, skills, abilities, plans, or policies that will help them socially and economically. Satisfactions they might gain from playing Games with Trump will be purely psychological. For more information backing this assertion read my recently released book As the Rooster Crows Earthian OKness Increases, now available as an ebook for $4.99 at barnes & noble and $3.99 at amazon.com. Trump is not the only federal politician, repug or dem, playing I’m Only Trying to Help You with voters. You would be hard pressed to find a federal dem or repug politician who has visibly increased the economic and social OKness of middle, lower, and working class USian civilians in the last sixty years.
“Trump is Raking in Millions of Dollars With Fascist Fundraising Emails,” by Mike Ludwig, TRUTHOUT, https://truthout.org/articles/trump-is-raking-in-millions-of-dollars-with-fascist-fundraising-emails/?utm_campaign=Truthout%20Share%20Buttons&fbclid=IwAR09x97TYhTUXCwqyDPsD7zy2DW-eRHqJy3pGeW5evcl_MD3AMdz0h05KCg.
April 10
Say it aint so Joe
“Sit back and watch Europe commit suicide,” by Pepe Escobar, THE CRADLE, https://thecradle.co/Article/columns/8853?fbclid=IwAR1jtDrWgW77kWlWkPQPqNR75i9GgmU7mVCLS_cIl041hAptSkiWbiWqgL8.
April 9
Somethin’ to think about
“The Costs and Benefits of Tribalism—A Roundtable,” by Chris Ferguson, Cory Clark, Bo Winegard, and Allen Buchanan, QUILLETTE, https://quillette.com/2022/04/09/the-costs-and-benefits-of-tribalism/?fbclid=IwAR09x97TYhTUXCwqyDPsD7zy2DW-eRHqJy3pGeW5evcl_MD3AMdz0h05KCg.
April 8
Here’s some more comprehensive economic and political analysis of disparate data bases by Michael Hudson.
“The Dollar Devours the Euro,” by Michael Hudson, COUNTERPUNCH, https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/08/the-dollar-devours-the-euro/?fbclid=IwAR134JxBjEZfRljCSN1MphKEJOvowY5mOA9KkVL4K-a3ekmN4OyJvVViwSU.
April 8
This article contains information unknown to me before I read it, but overall it generally confirms what I had been thinking about the situation.
“The Military Situation in the Ukraine,” by Jacques Baud, THE POSTIL MAGAZINE, https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine/?fbclid=IwAR0H09negvAOD4fCPcw86eneukIcIWUb-dWo8zO_rwIXG2lhFwLLcOE37IU.
April 5
Interesting
“A New History of World War II,” by David Immerwahr, THE ATLANTIC, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/world-war-ii-empire-colonialism/629371/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share&fbclid=IwAR1lmWvPg2clTpWEsa4O206veooyloGLtEkywNVqPcSngC1cYYU7axjRBiw.
April 4
This novel is about a fictional management professor and consultant Dr. Rout Logger who secured funding from wealthy donors for an on-going discussion process that was conducted in central city hotels in randomly-selected cities of the US on the first Saturday of the month starting in October 2019.
Forty participants were randomly-selected from pools of USian citizens based on demographic criteria designed to maximize diversity among the group members, including members living in and identified with widely divergent psychological, social, economic, political, religious, educational, and philosophical states of affairs.
The major purpose of the process was to increase the OKness of the group members by forcing them to engage in rational Adult ego state democratic discussions of serious problems facing all Earthian humans. The group members were paid five thousand dollars per Saturday session in which they participated. The meetings entailed morning and afternoon sessions of three hours. Each session was started by a roulette-like spinner, a copper rooster, called the Truther rooster, that would spin and crow when twirled. Whomever was sitting at the end of an imaginary straight line of fire extending from the rooster’s beak to the circle of forty participants would be randomly selected as the Leader of the Moment, proving true democracy can happen. Each Leader of the Moment was required to answer three existential questions: What do you think is the most serious problem right now? what do you think the alternatives are for dealing with the problem? and what do you recommend for dealing with the problem?
The story includes dialogues between Rout Logger and the group members and between group members dealing with the issues the randomly selected members brought up answering the existential questions and dealing with psychological and social problems group members had adjusting to the group process.
The process lasted six months, to March 2020. Rout told the group members at the outset that the process might be continued for a year or more. Instead, it was terminated after the March meeting because of Covid-19.
Rout was convinced the process did increase the OKness of the group members in six months. How much would be impossible to prove but he was convinced their OKness level went up, as he defined OKness. His donors were also convinced OKness increased based on data and information Rout furnished them. Rout used some transactional analysis lingo and jargon in the process but he also explained how it could be understood by all members. The story ended with Rout and his donors working on a new computer-based Game-free democratic discussion system based on zoom technology that could be rolled out around Spaceship Earth.
AS THE ROOSTER CROWS EARTHIAN OKNESS INCREASES, by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVE LEARNING PUBLICATIONS, https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/as-the-rooster-crows-earthian-okness-increases-richard-john-stapleton/1140476381?fbclid=IwAR3iCgbUb4GxgKUAkGOJNBQlbEQmAkKMMQ6DVcc3B085PbntX_VWVi3G-Pg.
April 3
I agree with the Pope about this, but I think more fortunate countries should do more to help fellow Earthians condemned to live in unfortunate countries deal with the conditions in their countries that are causing the need for migration, such as inadequate resources and overpopulation, doing things like what the USian Peace Corps did or does, started by John F. Kennedy in the 1960s, which is rarely mentioned anymore.
“Pope blasts Russia’s ‘infantile’ war,” by Michael Winfield, THE HILL, https://thehill.com/news/wire/3257104-pope-blasts-russias-infantile-war/?fbclid=IwAR1hnNRrxoTve6gYItaKVoVAaHJDIEOstzouPAhjoPOD-f1UId-Kwv1f5ok.
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ABOUT THE EDITOR
Here’s Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA in his office at Georgia Southern University the year he retired in 2005, the senior professor of the university that year. The photo was shot by Lori Grice, a former student, founder of Lori Grice Photography.
The object under his left hand is a Classroom De- Gamer™ he invented in 1978.
He would spin the spinner of the De-Gamer in his classes to randomly select a student at the beginning of each class session to lead a discussion of the case assigned for that day, a case taken from a real business prepared by professional casewriters at Georgia Southern, Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Alabama. Grades were based eighty percent on class participation; the rest of the final grade was based on two case write-ups. One write-up was about what the student observed, researched, analyzed, and wrote about an existing business in the local environment or a business plan the student created. The other write- up was an analysis of a professionally written case about a real business assigned as the final exam. Cases used in his courses were taken from all functional areas of business, such as entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, operations management, control, management information systems, and business policy and strategy.
He learned how the case method works teaching with Bernard Bienvenu, DBA and Rexford Hauser, DBA (Harvard Business School doctorates) at what is now known as the University of Louisiana– Lafayette in 1969-70.
He has published refereed journal articles and books explaining how his democratic Game-free Adult-Adult I’m OK—You’re OK case method system works, by banishing Persecutors, Rescuers, and Victims playing psychological Games from the teaching and learning process, first documented in an article titled “The Classroom De-Gamer” he published in 1978 in the Transactional Analysis Journal.
He studied TA with Martin Groder, MD; Graham Barnes, PhD; Vann Joines, PhD; and many others at the Southeast Institute at Chapel Hill, North Carolina (1975-1978).
He has degrees in economics, organizational behavior, and management science from Texas Tech University (1962-1969), and an organizational and educational certification in transactional analysis from the International Transactional Analysis Association (1978).
He had his own case method track at the undergraduate level in the business school at Georgia Southern University taught by him alone in the management department, four or five different elective case method courses offered each academic year (1970-2005), in which he led, coordinated, and graded twenty-five or so students each year who took all or most of those case method courses in their junior and senior years, of about two hundred students who signed up for all of his courses each year, using a democratic circle or amphitheater classroom layout. He also taught most semesters two sections of a capstone integrative business policy course he added to the business school curriculum in 1970 that was required for all undergraduate business majors that could be elected by any student in any major, in which he used the case method. He was the only professor in the business school to use the case method in any course.
His students agreed to a course learning contract that stipulated they would read the facts of the case before class and would lose a whole letter grade from the course final grade if the De-Gamer randomly caught them obviously not having read the case before class, if they had not slipped a note under his office door before class telling him they had not read the case, which they could do twice during the course without penalty.
About ten percent of his students made A’s and about five percent made D’s. Most made C’s, which is about right, since C = Average. There were almost no F’s in his courses. The main criterion for course grades was the quantity and quality of ideas sold by students in case method discussions. He used peer ratings to give students feedback showing what their fellow students thought about the quantity and quality of their ideas sold in class, having made it clear the final decision about final grades was his. He did not believe in Lake Wobegon grading.
No student was ever forced to take one of his courses to graduate, and the most hardened Game- players in the school did not sign up for his courses after he issued his Edict of 1972 in which he clearly spelled out in his syllabi the penalty for getting caught unprepared. His Classroom De-Gamer™ was roundly discussed by students in bull sessions across campus every year and was labeled various things, such as The Wheel of Fate and The Death Wheel. Most students near the end of his career called it The Spinner. He appreciated the fact Georgia Southern honored his academic freedom as a tenured professor, allowing him control of his teaching methods, classroom layouts, grading procedures, and course books, cases, and materials.
He conducted primary survey research in 1992 that discovered longitudinal data (published in “Evidence the Case Method Works” in Business Voyages: Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Discovering and Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds, 2008, pg. 475) that showed his case method students during 1972-1982 reported higher yearly incomes in 1992 than students electing the same courses in 1972-1982 taught by professors using the authoritarian lecture method and the row and column classroom layout, who graded students based on how well they memorized “right answers” for so-called objective multiple-choice tests, indicating learners learning in Adult—Adult I’m OK—You’re OK Game-free learning processes graded subjectively became more successful in the real world of business than learners lectured to in Parent—Child I’m OK— You’re Not-OK un-De-Gamed learning processes. Only former students who had worked in the real world ten or more years after graduating from the Georgia Southern business school were included in the study.
For more information on these classroom management ethical issues see Stapleton, R.J. and Murkison, G. (2001), “Optimizing the fairness of student evaluations: A study of correlations between instructor excellence, study production, learning production, and expected grades,” the Journal of Management Education, 25(3), 269-292. Stapleton had one of the lowest student grade point averages among professors in the business school and was one of the lowest-ranked professors as an instructor on computerized campus-wide student evaluations weighting only instructor excellence scores up to about 2000; but he was one of the highest-ranked professors in a computerized student evaluation he designed that generated data also showing and weighting study production, learning production, and expected grades scores for each professor, published in “Optimizing the Fairness of Student Evaluations.”
To read the Optimizing Fairness article in full, go to https://blog.effectivelearning.net/fair-teacher- evaluations/ . After this research was published, Georgia Southern in 2001 added study production, learning production, and expected grades questions to the student evaluation form used campus-wide.
“Optimizing the Fairness of Student Evaluations” has by now (March 28, 2022)) been cited as a reference in 84 refereed journal articles concerned about student evaluations in several academic disciplines, including nine new citations since April 2021, proving the article is still being read and cited by serious academics twenty-one years after publication.
As the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein propositioned, “The case is all there is.”
If so, everything else said about Earthian human states of affairs is a rendition of what was or might be.
For more on Stapleton’s cultural, educational, and professional experiences go to https://blog.effectivelearning.net/.
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