Locals at the Monastiraki Metro Station, Athens, Greece, 2018
For those that have been wondering what I’ve been up to writing-wise, I’ve been finishing the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) on the leadership book my co-conspirator, Ryan Martens and I have been writing. It’s getting more readable, but it’s still interesting to write a book on leadership that says you have to develop your people, but at the same time realize as the author that how you develop people is intrinsically tied to how developed you are as a leader! It turns into an Escher-esque strange loop for sure!
And, on the lighter side, I happened across this article about Nina Hartley, noted porn star, and now free speech activist, who had been invited to the University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse, by the Chancellor, Joe Gow. Apparently, he hadn’t briefed the President of the University of Wisconsin system, Ray Cross, about Hartley’s appearance and the use of university funds for her speaking fee. For those of us that hire speakers, uh, Hartley’s $5K fee seems rather, uh, modest. Pun intended.
It’s all profiled in this link in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and while it’s really not a funny topic, any time there’s a porn star involved, I still have to laugh. Is it really a conflict of morals? Cross maintains that it is so. In a letter obtained by the local paper, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
“Apart from my personal underlying moral concerns, I am deeply disappointed by your decision to actively recruit, advocate for, and pay for a porn star to come to the UW-La Crosse campus to lecture students about sex and the adult entertainment industry,” wrote Cross in a letter obtained by the Journal Sentinel.
Or could it be something else? Hartley sheds some light with her opinion below:
“”As an advocate for sexual liberation, I’ve long been cast as either a threat or a menace,” she wrote, “and I posit Chancellor Gow was pressured into his decisions by those uncomfortable with my message and how my expertise was acquired.”
If one looks at the closing phrase in Hartley’s analysis, methinks there might just be an insight into how modern academia views experiential education! v-Meme conflict indeed!
It's About Empathy - Connection Ties Us Together 
There is a very well known writer named chris hedges.
He used to work at NYTs and also has advanced education—in theology ( from Harvard Divinity School).
Theology I gather is a much more advanced and useful field than biology, mathematical logic or physics, or engineering. If you follow the alphabet, theology is somewhere between philosophy, scientology and zoology.
Hedges is very anti-war, and is also credited with helping start the War on Iraq—had a front page story in NYTs talking about the WMDs owned by Saddam Hussein. Now he says that was a mistake.
C Hedges is also very much against porn. His new book is called the Fairwell Tour. Its a regurgitation of ancient books by Emile Durkheim and so on . Suicide and anomie.
When Hedges speaks in DC to talk about poverty and inequality he goes to ward 3—politics and prose bookstore–avg family income in that area is around 200.000$. He doesnt go to my area (ward 4— (avg 35,000$) and wouldn’t even consider ward 8 (avg 10.000$/yr).
I have a relative who is now a sociology professor in Oregon. Her mother was or is a famous AIDS doctor in NYC. She set up one of the first street clinics in NYC–harlem, greenwich village etc.
She was horrified to learn her daughter was doing light porn to fund her graduate studies. But she got her phD.
I do not support paying anyone for ‘free speech’ at a college campus. I would do it –give me a speaking tour at 5000$/speech and a private plane.i will do 100 speeches–except i do ‘music’.
Greece is not Papua New Guinea. For awhile i stayed at the Hotel Acropolis in greece. you just climb up there and sleep outside. Watch the people break plates.
I had to work on island of Crete in greece–you get 8$/day. I took a hike up the moutnains and found a wallet with no id and alot of money in it so i quite my job, and caught a plane to India to see some more moutnains. Himalayas. i also visited some quantum biologists in New Delhi. They told me when you go back to USA , do some experiments to confirm our theory–but i’m a theorist—i dont do experiments or lab work.
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