I’ll be honest—this is an ethics blog, after all—this has not been a great year for my family, for my nation, for ethics. I leave 2018 more pessimistic than I entered it, and I hate that. I feel alienated from a lot of my friends, and am feeling futile–I really hate that. I’ve spent too much of 2018 angry at selfish, dishonest, intellectually lazy, ignorant and mean people, and not enough—almost none, really—having fun. I can’t remember the last time I had fun.
The people, events and things that salvaged the year and made it bearable–the Red Sox had the best team and season by far in my lifetime, and it’s ridiculous how much that helps my state of mind—include the readers and commenters here on Ethics Alarms. As a group and individually, you all are attentive, respectful, serious, tough, smart and generous. Thank you.
Proethics also had a good year, even if some clients behaved spectacularly unprofessionally—how can you be unethical to an ethics company?–and even if every inquiry we got about sexual harassment training withered and died when I insisted that I wouldn’t do boilerplate junk, and would talk about the importance of due process for those accused.
True, I was targeted by a couple of vicious and ideology-driven social justice bullies and feminist Furies this year with minimal damage: I was slimed on a legal gossip website and blackballed on NPR for, the complaining host said, “seeming to defend Donald Trump,” which I wasn’t. I lost a contract for refusing to apologize to brainwashed Chinese academics for describing Mao as a mass murderer, which, or course, he was. As the year ends, Facebook is blocking my posts.
That’s OK. I appreciate the opportunity to practice the courage, integrity, obstinacy and stubborn adherence to principle that Jack Sr. worked so hard to instill in me. (Still working on it, Dad!).
I learn so much researching and writing this blog: as one of my mentors, U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue once told me, “Sometimes I don’t know what I think until I hear what I have to say.” I wish I had a bigger megaphone, a larger audience, more influence, a higher place on the cognitive dissonance scale. That I don’t is my own fault and failing, of course; there’s a price for being a dilettante. Well, I’m not going to wallow—if there was one thing I learned from directing “Follies,” regret will kill you.
So my resolution this year is the same as it has been for many years now. I want to end 2019 smarter, wiser, and more ethical than I began it, and if I can be of any assistance helping others to do the same, that will be wonderful.
Ethics Alarms 
Keep the faith Jack. You made 2018 better for me.
Do good anyway.
Happy New Year !
I can always count on you (and Jordan Peterson:)) for the truth. And for that I’m deeply grateful. Happy New Year Jack!
Dear Jack,
12.31.18
10:45 p.m. Pacific Time
So you know, you accomplished your goal from December 31, 2017. You helped me become smarter, wiser, and, I believe, more ethical in 2018. Your discernment, analysis, frankness and humor in conveying how you see and understand our changing culture, and the means for compensating for the lightening-fast changes ethically, is important and of great valuable to many, and certainly appreciated by me. I raise my non-alcohol sparkling cider glass, with a toast to you, wishing your and your family a very healthly, happy and prosperous 2019. Thank you, and keep up the great work you do !! And, truly, may God bless our Nation !
“Let It Be”
May everyone have a better 2019! And I need to remember to pay attention to the forest and not just the trees. I may not have had a best seller, but my health had an improvement. Plant a wind break against the blowhards…
Thank you, Jack. Since September 2016 when I first discovered you, you’re writing has been an inspiration for me. I have used you in lessons, tried to tell people about you, and have learned so much. I may not be looking forward to the political and cultural turmoil of 2019, but I look forward to more of your work. Keep at it.
Wishing you a happy 2019 Jack. I’m still here, still reading all of your posts even if I don’t always comment.
I do believe your 2018 has been a success. I have enjoyed your blog immensely, learned a lot, and it’s helped keep perspective.
Best of luck with 2019 and may you do as well.
For what small comfort it might be, Jack, yours is the only website/blog that I follow on a (nearly…as much as possible) daily basis, and feel that it’s beneficial to do so. I hope the coming year brings you less stress and more satisfaction from the good, if not universally appreciated, work that you do.
I do the same, Willem. I only comment here, as well.
Happy 2019, Jack, I hope it’s a good one. I know of late I’ve been slowing down here a bit, partially because I’m trying to get better about total focus during the day, partly because two of my biggest nemeses here have faded away or been kicked out. I also think being angry all the time was making me less smart.
Here’s to a better 2019 and thank you, Jack, for all that you do. I start each day more informed and a little bit wiser after reading EA every morning.
P.S., the best thing you did this year was turfing Chris out the door.
That was funny!
Chris showed his true colors, and knows he was being beaten soundly by commenters here. His little progressive echo chamber is SO proud of him…
Jack,
Happy New Year. While I never comment, I read your blog nearly every day. While I do not always agree with you, I learn from you. That is a blessing. Thank you for your hard work, diligence and integrity.
You are kind to send this, and it helps get the year off to a positive start for me. Thanks so much.
Thank you, Jack, and Happy New Year. Keep at it: your blog is very good and makes me think and grow – an important thing to do during these interesting times.
What they said.
“I can’t remember the last time I had fun.”
You had to derive some satisfaction when you banned that dipstick “Lawyer In Everything But Degree” from EA after issuing an iron-clad take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum.
Maybe not fun, but the juice was worth the squeeze, am I right?
Happy New Year to all!
Well, given that the guy sued me, that its cost me hours of billable time and the cost of a trip to Boston to slap it down, and now I’m going to spend time today writing a defense brief, that’s a debatable proposition…
Happy New Year Jack. As far as fun is concerned, I have found that I need to discipline myself to engage in activities that lead to fun. I have an appointment every Tuesday and Friday that requires me to leave my office and go engage in an activity that I truly enjoy – only about an hour each of those days, but it makes a huge difference. In my last contract negotiation, those two appointments per week were written in stone.
Try it.
There is a strange article in the NYTs about people in Arizona throwing rocks at and slashing the tires of the driverless Waymo vehicles being tested there.
It seems to me an interesting metaphor but, please excuse me, I do not want to increase your pessimism!
I believe it is fair to say though that we are on the verge of more tumult, not less. We have seen the lines that are being established. And I think the degree that the *opposition* will go in what I think is a project of control. I have to say it was distressing for me to read that your site is being blocked — a first step if the environment grew darker to being banned or deplatformed.
[And I am aware that for many who contribute to your blog that I and people like me are not ‘productive helpers’ but rather parts of the problem. In fact it is us that must be apprehended and modified].
I tend to discover (or do I merely invent?) links between seemingly unrelated events:
From the NYTs:
How, I ask, could they have so little faith? 🙂
Similarly, we live within Systems that are interlocking systems directed by powers and forces (the word ‘elite’ is a bit tired and cliché but what other word do we have?) that do not have our best interests in mind. They have a World to create though, and we may or we may not be their obstacle to overcome. Or is my view totally mistaken? (Some say it is: conspiratorial, paranoid).
I listened to part of a talk by a philosopher who says that the time we live in is a confusing and difficult one because it is similar to the time when the printing press was invented and knowledge, ideal, opinion and information was broadcast into the societies of Europe. But it is all increased a hundred or a thousand-fold now. It happened then much more slowly. It took years and decades for the ideas to have effect. Now, in this present, a chaos of ideas is available in a single moment and the mind cannot process it all . . .
Who can make sense of things? Everyone is trying to make an interpretation, trying to choose a side, trying to clarify a position, and trying to influence others to *see things as they do*.
When I am accosted by a robot in the street and told to “Come along with me, Miss, you are being arrested for questioning by GovCorp”, those who threw the stones at the driverless cars will perhaps make more sense to me.
I echo the sentiments other commenters have offered. Except Steve-o’s. Sure, Chris could be absolutely baffling, but I miss the opposing voices. Plus, he gave me an idea of the general mindset of the people teaching my children.
That is FRIGHTENING!
I echo THAT sentiment.
My first thought, when I found out he was teaching English to Third Graders, was “Yeah? And what else?”
Eighth graders I thought . . . (?)
I remembered Third, and don’t really care enough to trace his old comments. In any case pre-high schoolers..
[ sub.media/ ]
[ crimethinc.com ]
[ itsgoingdown.org ]
The more one understands ‘their’ position, the better one can define alternatives.
An instructive example.