Soundings, November/December 2002

Complete this sequence: Archimedes, Galileo, Newton, Einstein. . . If you said "Percy Julian," you are thinking like PBS's diversity-crazed historians of science. For the last several years, PBS's science show "Nova" has been pursuing an occasional series of programs known internally as "Lives in Science." Its first production was about Einstein. This year the subject was Galileo. According to the New York Times's "Television" section (October 27, 2002), three additional projects are already underway: Archimedes will be the focus of next year's program, Newton will be featured in 2004, and in 2005—Percy Julian. No, Julian does not have an entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, but he was a reasonably successful black chemist, and race, apparently, was a sufficient motive for PBS to prefer him to, say, Richard Feynman. Thus, affirmative action now extends not only to granting opportunities, such as slots at an elite college, it also covers granting recognition for actual achievement.

What happens when profits are without honor in their own country? Could the answer be: recession? "CEOs are hunkering down at the threat of jail. As a class they're under legal, political and societal assault, brought about by apparent crimes of a few of their peers, a general impression of excess by imperial CEOs and, of course, the collapse in share values after the boom from mid-1999 to mid-2000. It's not easy to assume risks when Eliot Spitzer, Robert Morgenthau and the SEC and Justice Department are all in the field. Not to forget the swarming piranhas of the tort bar, suing even the best of firms because their share prices fell." Robert L. Bartley, "Thinking Things Over," The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2002.

In today's culture, of course, one cannot expect CEOs to make spending decisions as rationally as their illustrious predecessors did. Consider this report from Silicon Valley: "In the lackluster economy of San Francisco, psychics are busier than ever. . . . 'Since the decline of the dot-com era, there's been an increase in the use of tarot by women and men seeking career choices,' said tarot reader Mary Kay. 'I see more interest in long-range planning instead of love and 'will I live happily ever after'" If tarot readings are the dot-com workers' idea of long-range planning, it is no wonder that their industry failed.

But then how can one explain the runaway success of those who peddle the paranormal? According to Robert Leysen, who employs more than 110 tarot readers and astrologers at eleven Psychic Eye bookstores in California and Nevada: "I would never run my business by what a psychic tells me. I'd be out of business." "Nasdaq Down, Psychic Readings Up," Wired News, October 12, 2002.

Columnist Ana McDonald has found a logical defense for anti-American terrorism. It is simply altruism in action. "Muslim leaders like Osama bin Laden, Yasser Arafat and yes, even Saddam Hussein strive for an ideal that Americans can endorse: social justice. 'The bedrock message of the Koran is that Muslims must build a just and decent society, in which poor and vulnerable people are treated with respect,' explains noted religious historian Karen Armstrong in a Washington Post column.

"Here is our most cherished democratic standard — equality — yet it predates us by 1,400 years. Indeed, American democracy owes much to Islamic example. . . . A good Muslim leader's decisions must be made in consultation with others, never alone or arbitrarily. Here we see the democratic ideal foreshadowed. …

"Now if these were all the attributes of [good Muslim] leaders, the Arab countries might love us. But on one key point, we differ dramatically. The Islamic ideal requires leaders to live modestly, as the people do. Their leaders — the good ones — take personal responsibility for the poor and ensure that wealth is fairly distributed. But our wealthy live quite differently than our poor, so Muslims judge us immoral. . . . So when radical Islam attacks America, they are trying to attack social injustice" (The San Antonio Express-News, December 2, 2002).

Though the Wall Street Journal makes fun of McDonald ("Best of the Web Today," December 2, 2002), her connection of religious altruism to religious terrorism is quite logical. But that fact, rather than leading people to excuse terrorism against capitalist countries, might prompt them to check the premise that altruism is a moral ideal.

Nazi hunters in the West have spent decades tracking down perpetrators of the Holocaust in remote corners of the globe, where they have hidden themselves from sight. But being a communist means never having to say you're sorry, not even for "Brother Number Three" in the genocidal regime of the Khmer Rouge. "Now 72, Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, 70, are living out their twilight years in a luxury villa tucked away in a leafy back street of Phnom Penh. Their neighbours in the quiet residential district include numerous families whose relatives were murdered by the Khmer Rouge. The couple are often seen strolling in local markets or dining in the capital's finest restaurants.'" Kathy Marks, The Independent, December 7, 2002.

And lastly, this, from the frontiers of multiculturalism. According to the Guardian (November 3, 2002): "Detectives hunting the killers behind the 'Torso in the Thames' child murder are investigating . . . allegations that human flesh is being offered for sale in London. . . . Officers suspect that gangs . . . are involved in trading substances used in African witchcraft that may include human body parts. . . .

"Experts believe African witchcraft rituals are on the increase in Britain. Professor Hendricks Scholtz, a South African expert in witchcraft . . . said: 'As the communities grow, elements of African culture will be inevitably transported to Britain.'" Culture?