Reading an eBook. Reed College’s mutating Honor Principle.

20240912

I finished reading Edward Dutton's Woke Eugenics today. A couple of observations.

First, it is an eBook. It's an open format with a number of readers available. My understanding is that it was developed by Adobe. I first used the Adobe e-book reader. It is an incredibly clumsy piece of software. I don't know what Adobe had to do with inventing it, but there was nothing about it that I liked. After struggling through Dutton's book, making highlighting and making notes, I discovered that there is no way to export them. That's rather unfriendly.

I asked for a list of the best e-book readers and I came up with a dozen, top-rated being Microsoft's Aquila. The fact that Microsoft was doing the recommending probably had something to do with it. In any case, it is free and it is although it has its flaws, it is better than the Adobe product.

None of them are quite as slick as Kindle, but given that I would just as soon avoid putting another nickel in Jeff Bezos’ pocket. I'll go with it. I like the idea of an alternative to the Amazon monopoly.

I will post my review of Dutton's book shortly. Although it has its flaws, Dutton has one major insight that overcomes whatever shortcomings there may be. The situation that the world is in is a result of evolution. Dutton, the evolutionary psychologist, understands that. He has a description of how it came about. Actually, several descriptions, several alternative hypotheses. He is not wedded to any of them, and each of them may contribute somewhat.

Dutton’s bottom line is one that I believe myself. The world must go through this process, whether it's evolution or Spengler’s cycle of civilization. Trying to stop it by political means is not going to be effective. The November election may slow down or accelerate what is coming, but it will not greatly alter the course of history.

What this means for me is that I need to think long term. As I have written before. I need to prepare my children, and have them prepare their children to survive the long haul through tumultuous times. I should not be concerned with my own future. This generation is not going to save civilization. It is more likely to witness the chaotic end of an era.

Returning to the theme of woke, it is something I know well.  I experienced it from my former neighbors in Bethesda, the in-laws among my former family, and certainly in my couple of years as a graduate student at the University of Maryland.  When I was smacked across the face by woke once again this week. I could only laugh.

Here's the story. Reed college, Portland’s Little Red Schoolhouse, which did its best to make a good communist of me sixty years ago, wants to keep their alumni actively engaged with the college. To that end, they set up discussion groups based on the curriculum of the Humanities 11 course that we took when I was a freshman. Humanities 11 (now 110) was indeed a very good course, introducing us to all sorts of ancient documents. What I remember best is the manorial documents from medieval England and the Domesday book.  Hum 110 has (of course!) since lost its western focus. 

I welcomed the opportunity to study the texts that they suggested, starting with Gilgamesh, the world's oldest extent piece of literature. I am not a philologist but I'm interested in what they know, how they know it, and what these texts reveal of life 5000 years or so ago.  I have reviewed similar books, including The Bible as History and The Bible Unearthed- Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts.   I wrote that yes, I was interested.  I answered furthermore that, since they were looking for somebody to host a group, I would be glad to do it.

In due course of time. The school wrote me back and said that I had been appointed the host of a group of Reed alumni located in Europe, from Spain to Turkey. They gave me a list of the books we were going to read, ten or so, and the email addresses of the other people in the group.

That day I compose a letter introducing myself to them, saying that I was an experienced book reviewer and my interest would be in writing reviews of what we read. I was looking forward to getting to know them. Since our first text Gilgamesh, which it has been reconstructed from a large number of fragments of clay tablets, there is no canonical version and we needed to stick with one single version, the best of which seems to be the one by Andrew George, published by Penguin books. I found that I could read it for free through archive.org, but decided to overcome my antipathy to Amazon and buy it in Kindle format because it would be much easier to manage.

In writing to my group saying as much, I provided a link to the 500 and some reviews that I have resurrected from Amazon. It's a fairly diverse and I think scholarly collection. Includes books from feminists such as The essential feminist reader and Women after all and critics of same such as Sexual utopia in power.  It includes books by noted African-American authors such as Character Building by Booker T Washington and The Soul of black folks by W.E.B. DuBois, and Take Your Choice - Separation or Mongrelization by segregationist Theodore Bilbo.  Analysis of the race situation from the left such as An American dilemma - the Negro in America and right Tragic Failure- Racial Integration in America

Quite predictably, I suppose, one of the snowflake flakes wrote the college to say that I was unsuitable as a host.  I would make him/her/they uncomfortable – no indication who it was or exactly why.  If he/she/they did a little research they could well and found other writings, because quite a bit of me on the Internet.  At any rate, the college wrote to say that this one particular unnamed participant would be uncomfortable with me in the role of host. Would I consider stepping down?  She referred to the Reed Honor Principle, a term I of course recognized from sixty years back.

I was not surprised, and wrote back immediately, saying, certainly I would be happy to give up the role of host.  They can name whoever they want. I'll be happy simply to participate as a member.

I am sure that that is not what the snowflake in question wanted. They undoubtedly want me totally banished. That was exactly what they wanted when I was a student at the University of Maryland twenty years ago. I never said anything objectionable, never used any foul language – although they did all the time. Simply my being me was an affront to being woke. I'm sure that's the case here again. More than that, the snowflake I am sure would not relish getting into any sort of an intellectual discussion with me because she would look like the fool she most certainly is.

That's the way things stand now. My guess would be that the college will not find another person in this group to step up and host it. I would furthermore guess that they snowflake in question is not going to want to continue if I am in the group. In any case, if I'm still there, it will put the college in the difficult position of asking either asking me to leave or telling her that she doesn't have to participate if she doesn't want to. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

In writing to me, the college coordinator cited the Reed College honor principle. Here’s what it says on the website. The bolding is theirs.

The most common interpretation of the Honor Principle mentions that any action that causes unnecessary pain or discomfort to any member of the Reed community, group within the community, or to the community as a whole, is a violation of the Honor Principle. This is just one interpretation of the Honor Principle.

When I was a student 60 years ago, the honor code (not principle, as I recall) emphasized intellectual honesty, mutual trust, and integrity. As an example, the school had a practice of giving take-home tests that we students completed unsupervised in our own rooms. The honor code required that we not talk to one another and not use references beyond our own notes.

There were objective standards. If you cheated or plagiarized, the evidence was there to be found. It of course required respect for other people as individuals. It was expected that we would not curse or slander our fellow students in the course of intellectual discussions. Here is a statement of the honor principle from 1973 (bolding is my own):

“The members of the Reed College community believe that they should take upon themselves a responsibility for maintaining standards of conduct which ensure an atmosphere of honesty and mutual trust in their academic and social lives. Such standards of conduct rest upon a principle of honor rather than a constitutional system of right and law. This principle entails the unquestioned integrity of the individual in all areas of his intellectual activity, and a shared responsibility for enabling the college as a whole to achieve its highest aims as a community of scholarship and learning. The Honor Principle also demands the respectful concern of each person for the other, and the exercise of conscionable judgment in all actions toward individuals and their property. Let it be understood that such integrity, concern, and judgment are not simply matters of an individual’s intentions, but rather entail qualities of conduct which are clearly reflected in one’s actions. Although the college does not call upon its members to sign a pledge of honor, it does recognize the necessity for tacit agreement by all its members to support the Honor Principle by governing their own conduct in accordance with its spirit, by respecting regulations which the community has established, and by acting in a responsible manner toward honor violations which come to their attention. Members of the community should recognize their obligations to notify the Judicial Board of actions involving a breach of the Honor Principle, even though such actions may be their own.”

By today’s honor principle statement, I could just as easily accuse this unnamed (almost assuredly a) woman of causing me discomfort via her unsubstantiated attack on my integrity. We would then have a Mexican standoff – she making me uncomfortable, I making her uncomfortable. However we all know how that would wind up. I, as a straight white male, would automatically lose. It is a question not to be brought up.  I’m content to wait and see how this plays out.

That’s the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the strong man is ever gladder to be gone. It appears entirely possible that Kamala Harris will indeed ascend to the presidency, signaling the end of the noble experiment begun by my ancestors 248 years ago. My prudence in simply staying gone and shutting up will be vindicated. So will Edward Dutton’s call that we are all being swept along by evolutionary forces beyond our power to resist.

Graham