Kill the Kids

Esarhaddon had a different way to punish "the guilty soldiers who plotted to make my brothers rule over Assyria." He admits: "I killed their children." (Esarhaddon 1 ii 8-11). He deemed this punishment sufficiently severe (kabtu) for their heinous crime of not supporting him.

But Esarhaddon was actually not next in line for the throne, his brothers were. At least one of them, however, had assassinated his father in order to claim the throne, only to be out-maneuvered by Esarhaddon. In a military coup it is seen as important to kill the old guard. The soldiers might have been loyal, but had the misfortune of having been loyal to the wrong side.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

Orthodoxy ensures balance between the gospel’s powerful and correct principles. In the body of gospel doctrine, not only are justice and mercy “fitly joined together [for] effectual working,” but so is everything else! (Eph. 4:16.) But the gospel’s principles do require synchronization. When pulled apart from each other or isolated, men’s interpretations and implementations of these doctrines may be wild.

Love, if not checked by the seventh commandment, could become carnal. The fifth commandment’s laudable emphasis upon honoring parents, unless checked by the first commandment, could result in unconditional loyalty to errant parents rather than to God.

How Not to Do Literary Analysis

Ben McGuire has a clear debunking of an ill-attempted literary analysis over at Interpreter. It is well worth the read.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

Knowing beforehand how we are determined to respond to temptation is vital. When Joseph resisted the entreaties of Potiphar’s predatory wife (Gen. 39:7–12), he was prepared, and he firmly declared his loyalty to Potiphar, but chiefly to God: “How … can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9.) Joseph’s obedience was an act of many-splendored loyalty—to God, to himself, to his future family, to Potiphar, and, yes, even to Potiphar’s wife, perhaps sick from her sensual searchings.

The inconsistency of immorality with caring about other matters may be illustrated thusly. What if our increasing care and concern for the environment of nature around us were applied to human nature? Anyone about to commit adultery or fornication or a homosexual act would first be required to submit an environmental impact statement. The rippling consequences of what was about to be done would be assessed and set forth beforehand so the predatory and the misled could at least contemplate, in part, what they are about to inflict on themselves and others.

Matthew 24:14

Throughout his prophecy of what will happen, Jesus has repeatedly told his disciples that certain things were not a sign of the end. Wars and rumors of wars, for example, are not signs of the end (Matthew 24:6). Plagues, famines and earthquakes are just the beginning (Matthew 24:7-8). Afflictions, offenses, hatred, betrayals, persecutions, false prophets must all be endured before the end (Matthew 24:9-13). Finally, Jesus gives his disciples a sign of the end:

καὶ κηρυχθήσεται τοῦτο τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς βασιλείας ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ οἰκουμένῃ εἰς μαρτύριον πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, καὶ τότε ἥξει τὸ τέλος.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the civilized world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)

The end comes only after the voice of warning goes to all nations.

Two questions, however, remain unanswered in the passage. What is this gospel that must be preached? The end of what? Each of those questions needs to be considered.

Matthew uses the term gospel four times (Matthew 4:23; 9:35; 24:14; 26:13), three of them in the phrase "the gospel of the kingdom." But for all that, he never tells us what it is, probably because he and his original readers already knew what it was. Probably the closest we get to understanding it is the final charge in Matthew 28:18-20, but that is probably a summary statement.

What end Jesus is referring to also needs to be considered. Many assume that the end is the end of the world. Some assume that it refers to the end of things as we know them. Hugh Nibley, in an unpublished manuscript entitled "The End of What", argued that it was the end of the Church. Another way of looking at the matter is to consider that τὸ τέλος means the end in the sense of the goal. So the goal is to have the gospel preached in all the world. The initial question was about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, the appearance of Jesus, and the end of the world. It would appear that if Jesus took those questions in order (and they do not refer to the same thing), that the end in question is the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. This would seem to be supported by the next verse which talks about the abomination of desolation.

Whichever it was, the preaching of the gospel was the key prediction.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

The day the Prophet Joseph ended his bondage in Liberty Jail, 6 April 1839, involved yet another significant event. Heber C. Kimball recorded in his journal that on that day

the following words came to my mind, and the Spirit said unto me, "write," which I did by taking a piece of paper and writing on my knee as follows: . . . "Verily I say unto my servant Heber, thou art my son, in whom I am well pleased for thou art careful to hearken to my words, and not transgress my law, nor rebel against my servant Joseph Smith, for thou has a respect to the words of mine anointed, even from the least to the greatest of them; therefore thy name is written in heaven, no more to be blotted out for ever, because of these things." [Words, p. 18]

Note how much importance the Lord attached to our being loyal to his servants! It is no different now.

Some Older News Finally Makes the Headlines

Two recent reports (here and here) talk about how the so-called Affordable Care Act (apparently Congress is exempt from truth in advertizing laws) is making life as an adjunct instructor in colleges, which was already abysmal, even worse. In response to the claim that adjuncts are now in purgatory, John Rosenberg claims:

More recent data suggests that the adjuncts and other contingents are no longer in purgatory but are being rapidly transported to a much hotter location. - See more at: http://www.mindingthecampus.com/forum/2013/10/obamacare_hits_adjuncts_hard.html#sthash.XzF4TKZG.dpuf

More recent data suggests that the adjuncts and other contingents are no longer in purgatory but are being rapidly transported to a much hotter location.

Perhaps this realization is just hitting some colleges and universities (and thus media outlets), but my friends who are adjuncts were hit by the problem a long time ago (also noted here back in April). Several of them were dropped and those who were not have had their hours severely curtailed. Yet for all that, university administrators are behaving in a strictly rational manner. I do not fault them. (I do think there are individual instances where one could make a case that productive adjuncts have been dropped when unproductive employees were retained.) It seems that universities that have relied heavily on adjuncts will either have to hire more of them to do less work, or rely more on full time faculty. Either option exacerbates the problem for adjuncts.

Mor

e recent data suggests that the adjuncts and other contingents are no longer in purgatory but are being rapidly transported to a much hotter location. - See more at: http://www.mindingthecampus.com/forum/2013/10/obamacare_hits_adjuncts_hard.html#sthash.XzF4TKZG.dpuf

More recent data suggests that the adjuncts and other contingents are no longer in purgatory but are being rapidly transported to a much hotter location. - See more at: http://www.mindingthecampus.com/forum/2013/10/obamacare_hits_adjuncts_hard.html#sthash.XzF4TKZG.dpuf

More recent data suggests that the adjuncts and other contingents are no longer in purgatory but are being rapidly transported to a much hotter location. - See more at: http://www.mindingthecampus.com/forum/2013/10/obamacare_hits_adjuncts_hard.html#sthash.XzF4TKZG.dpuf

More recent data suggests that the adjuncts and other contingents are no longer in purgatory but are being rapidly transported to a much hotter location. - See more at: http://www.mindingthecampus.com/forum/2013/10/obamacare_hits_adjuncts_hard.html#sthash.XzF4TKZG.dpuf

More recent data suggests that the adjuncts and other contingents are no longer in purgatory but are being rapidly transported to a much hotter location. - See more at: http://www.mindingthecampus.com/forum/2013/10/obamacare_hits_adjuncts_hard.html#sthash.XzF4TKZG.dpuf

Today's Maxwell Quote

From A More Excellent Way (1967), 34:

One of the great qualities Jesus had was his ability to demand of his disciples quality in thought and action, which, while temporarily uncomfortable, finally produced a cohesive kind of loyalty based on a sense of accomplishment which all followers very much need to have. One wonders if the tolerance of unnecessary mediocrity in others isn't at some deep level of consciousness, a way of protecting ourselves or excusing ourselves for our own personal mediocrity. In human relationships there are too many tacit, silent deals in which one person agrees not to demand full measure, if the other person will agree to mediocrity when excellence may be possible. In any event, the unwillingness of most leaders to set standards, to administer feedback when standards are not met, to praise clearly when standards are met, stands in the way of the development of excellence on the part of followers with inevitable loss in follower effectiveness and follower satisfaction. The leader who makes no demands of his disciples cannot really lead them at all. The sense of new excitement and new challenge generated by the gospel will be blunted by leaders who shield followers from the full demands of followership.

Solutions that Do Not Work

A recent article by an economist on a particular problem have wider application. I would like to highlight a couple of proposed solutions that she says will not work because they have wider applicability than the particular problem she is discussing.

The first of these is denial:

For those of us who are not Jedi warriors, refusing to admit it when something has gone wrong usually makes the problem worse, not better. Once people understand that you’re willing to lie to them about how well things are going, you lose a lot of the support that you’ll need to fix the mess you’ve made.

The second of these she terms blamestorming. This neologism has a particular meaning:

it describes the tendency of an organization in which things have gone wrong to waste a lot of time looking for a scapegoat rather than, say, fixing the problem.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From this talk:

The ecology of effectiveness in human affairs suggests, for instance, that concentrating on the quality of life in the home is, ultimately, the best way to raise the quality of life in society. A concern for justice in the home—experienced and discussed—could do much to assure concern for the underprivileged, which could undergird wise legislation or even make legislation unnecessary. One of the best ways to replicate love, trust, discipline, and concern is for children to experience these, to know their fruits, and to refuse to be satisfied with a world devoid of such qualities.

Some Useless Trivia

In honor of my one year anniversary of blogging, I look back at the most popular posts with some notes:

11. A report on the resignation of a university administrator. It is not often that people publicly tie their actions to repentance, even rarer that people will repent of their improper actions relating to someone else's crime.

10. The debunking of a certain malicious rumor.

9. A report on book burning at San Jose State. The irony of someone opposed to carbon emissions deliberately burning something is both astounding and hypocritical.

8. A response to the accusation that I believe the Book of Abraham is pseudepigrapha.

7. A memorial about some great people that I have been privileged to work with. These were and are really great people.

6. A report on an article discussing a bullseye from the Book of Abraham.

5. A report on Syvia Nasar's lawsuit against her own university for misusing the funds of her endowed chair.

4. A retrospective on Hugh Nibley's famous (or infamous) talk on Leaders to Managers. This talk was one of Nibley's more popular talks but was very unpopular in certain quarters. Nibley's reading of the Book of Mormon was usually very careful, but I think he distorted it a bit here to make his point.

3. A report about an archaeologist claiming to find the city of Abraham. There are reasons to be cautiously optimistic about this particular site.

2. The survey of things that Elder Maxwell had to say about doing ancient scholarship.

1. The day's Maxwell quote back on March 29th. From this quotation we know exactly what Elder Maxwell would have thought about one issue because he directly addressed it.

A number of people enter my blog through the very first post, so I do not count that one.

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Those were not necessarily my favorite posts. Some of my favorite posts, in no particular order, were:

One can find some very strange practices in the apocrypha. This one from Tobit I find amusing.

There is a different way of looking at the Christmas story in Luke which would probably dramatically rewrite your typical Christmas pageant.

Looking at leadership and management among the Vikings. In many ways I think the earlier Vikings had the right idea. The earlier notions of leadership may have worked better than the later ones.

You would not normally think about foreign relations between the Roman and Chinese empires, but there was some ancient Chinese influence on Roman economic policy. The ancient world was much more interconnected than many of those of us who study it would like to think.

I have always found the notion of Coptic Buddhism amusing, but it actually exists in a way.

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All told I have published 758 posts in the past year on this blog, averaging just over two a day. Originally I thought that I would be putting out about one every two weeks.

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One of the constant themes in this blog was expressed by Screwtape in C.S. Lewis's book, The Screwtape Letters (chapter 27):

Only the learned read old books and we have now so dealt with the learned that they are of all men the least likely to acquire wisdom by doing so.

Old books should be read by more than just the learned. Things in old books enlarge the memory of people (Alma 37:8) and seeing their mistakes might help us to avoid those same mistakes (Mormon 9:31). Perhaps that is being too optimistic.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From Things As They Really Are (1978), 58-59:

One reason the Church can stand with comparative independence is that it is founded upon the truth about things as they really are. Though the "way of truth shall be evil spoken of," and though such "pillars of the truth" are a temptation to some who want to try to pull them down, the living Church will stand. A dying civilization can, of course, be annoyed by the living Church. People who are cut to the very center by the truth, the laser of our Lord that emanates from the living Church, will gladly "turn away their ears from the truth, and be turned unto fables" (2 Timothy 4:4); it is so much less painful.

Singing Hymns in 1 Maccabees

After a big battle, the Maccabees sang a hymn:

καὶ ἐπιστραφέντες ὕμνουν καὶ εὐλόγουν εἰς οὐρανὸν ὅτι καλόν ὅτι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ

And they returned singing hymns and they praised heaven: "For he is good and his mercy endureth forever" (1 Maccabees 4:24)

The line "For he is good and his mercy endureth forever" is actually the name of the psalm that they sang. It was Psalm 118 which repeats the line a number of times during the course of the psalm. It is also said to have been sung in 2 Chronicles 5:13; 7:3; and Ezra 3:11. It appears to have been one of the more popular of the psalms. It seems to be less popular in modern times.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From Things As They Really Are (1978), 45-46:

The revelation of 1830 in which Christ said that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth" (D&C 1:30.) . . . was, and is, a designation so significant that the key words contained within it must not be passed over lightly.

The word only asserts a uniqueness and singularity about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the exclusive ecclesiastical, authority-bearing agent for our Father in heaven in this dispensation.

Had the Lord said the Church is a true and living church (or if the name given had been A Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), this would have implied there are other fully acceptable alternatives available to man. Thus what was said by the Lord in 1830, not surprisingly, was consistent with the instructions given in the grove to Joseph Smith in 1820; the answer to Joseph's prayer about which church to join was, "Join none of them."

Euphemisticly Speaking

Academia loves both jargon and euphemisms. It probably loves jargon more, but the two are closely related because both are a means of avoiding plain talking. Arthur Henry King used to emphasize to his Shakespeare classes how little plain speech there was in Shakespeare because the characters were more interested in affectation and impressing others.

So, a piece by Charles Krauthammer on the subject of euphemisms this week caught my attention. He is talking about politicians; I will excerpt a few quotes that I think apply to academia and elsewhere as well.

Krauthammer lists a number of recent cases of egregious euphemisms and asks why they should be used.

After all, famously declared Hillary Clinton, what difference does it make?

Well, it makes a difference, first, because truth is a virtue. Second, because if you keep lying to the American people, they may seriously question whether anything you say — for example, about the benign nature of NSA surveillance — is not another self-serving lie.

And third, because leading a country through yet another long twilight struggle requires not just honesty but clarity.

Euphemisms, Krauthammer argues, lead to confusion.

The confusion of language is a direct result of a confusion of policy — which is served by constant obfuscation.

And whither does this obfuscation lead?

The result is visible ambivalence that leads to vacillating policy reeking of incoherence. 

In academia obfuscation is often used to mask muddled thinking and incoherent arguments.

The wordplay is merely cover for uncertain policy embedded in confusion and ambivalence about the whole enterprise.

I understand the need for disciplines to have specific jargon. Sailors, for example, have a name for every rope on the boat. Apprentices were required to "learn the ropes" (the origin of that phrase) so that they would then "know the ropes" (the origin of that phrase) so that when an order to do something specific with a certain rope was given, the sailor would know exactly what to do, which could mean life or death for the whole ship in some situations. From an outsider's perpective, all that nautical terminology is jargon; from an insider's perspective it is necessary specificity. But the advantage of knowing the ropes, is that in calm seas you can teach someone else the ropes. Too often in academia, obfuscation is used to obscure the fact that you really do not know what you are talking about. As Hugh Nibley once said, "If you cannot explain it to a five-year old, you probably do not understand it yourself."

Euphemisms are often failed attempts to candy-coat a policy reeking of incoherence.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From A Wonderful Flood of Light (1990), 6:

Words that are harsh-sounding and uninviting to moderns are woven into the fabric of the gospel—words such as repentance and obedience. In his "careful" conditioning process (see 2 Nephi 28:21) the adversary has seen to it that words like these give religion a bad name. In a world with a marketplace orientation such words have no soothing or appealing "marketing" dimension to them.

Blessed are the Meek, for They Shall Inherit the Earth

Visiting grade schools occasionally one cannot help notice the prominent displaying of posters about what a child should do when he or she is bullied. I cannot imagine that these measures would have been effective when I was in school. The very presence of these sorts of posters (which were not around back then) makes me wonder if bullying is more common now than then. When I see these posters, I also wonder how effective the advice that they give actually is. My guess is, not much. Two reports out this week confirm my hunch.

In the first one, it is noted that

what’s really changed is that real bullies don’t face consequences anymore.

It used to be that bullies had something to worry about. The bullied kid might catch them alone and beat them up. These days, that’s hardly a risk at all. We’ve become a society that views physical force, even in self-defense, as unacceptable.

This is not just idle talk:

Across the country, there are stories of bullied kids who fought back . . . and were promptly suspended or expelled. Last year, 9-year-old Nathan Pemberton of Colorado Springs fought back after his bully physically attacked him. He was suspended.

Furthermore:

Last week in Stafford, Texas, a bullied girl who was getting beat up by her tormentor dared to not just take it. She was promptly expelled despite the fact that this was a modern sort of fight — that is, caught entirely on cell-phone video. Is the official policy to just quietly surrender when you’re being pummeled?

Though we often talk about blaming the victim, this is actually punishing the victim. The author notes that two teenage girls, who bullied a classmate so much that she committed suicide and then bragged about it, are unlikely to receive any punishment for their actions.

The bullies of our youth could be stopped with a surprise punch. The ones of today have protection from that, thanks to our zero-tolerance policies. We’re raising a generation of superbullies.

The other story is about what happens when schoolyard bullies grow up and enter the workplace. If "between 30 and 37 percent" of people "have been bullied at work," then there certainly is a problem there as well. Reportedly

workplace bullying can lead to psychosomatic illnesses, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts and increased medical expenses, not to mention reduced productivity.

One would think that the reduced productivity alone would be sufficient reason to be concerned about the problem.

The article cites Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik who

calls the worst workplace bullies "high aggressives."

"They don't have a well-developed sense of empathy," she says. "They are high on narcissism."

They are horrible one second to a target, she says, then perform beautifully with smiles for a supervisor.

Consequently,

the way bullies treat others has a lot to do with perceived social status. People above them get treated well, those "below" not so well.

Lutgen-Sandvik says that bullies

target anyone perceived as a threat. Bullies fear losing their place of power. Driven by fear, she says, they don't care about others' feelings. 

Bullies are concerned mainly with themselves.

"Bullies target kind people," [Sam] Horn says. "Popular people. People others respect. Bullies see such people as threats. Bullies feel intimidated and target their victims to diminish them — thinking that if they shrink their victim it will make them taller."

Because the victims often have high senses of empathy and morality, Horn says, they are confounded by the bully. "They can't believe that someone would act this way," she says. "Because they are people of integrity, they question themselves and ... feel powerless."

 The common advice is to confront the bully. That advice might not be the wisest.

[Gary] Namie says confrontations or reporting the incident to a boss or human resources officer may only increase the bullying as the bully feels threatened and retaliates. A study by the institute says 69 percent of victims have confronted the bully and 93 percent of those confrontations failed to stop the bullying.

When the odds are one in fourteen, you have better odds at craps. The problem with several recommended strategies in dealing with bullies is that they work only in exceptional cases.

[Sam] Horn admits, however, there is no one right way to deal with bullies.

Other proposed strategies also do not work.

It may be, however, because of his position in the company, the bully won't be cowed, reprimanded or fired. In cases where the victim was required to go through mediation with the bully, 33 percent of the time the victim was fired or quit. The perpetrators were fired only 3 percent of the time.

So working through mediation or human resources has only half the success of confrontation. And in a third of cases, it is the victim who is punished. Any strategy that is eleven times more likely to punish the victim rather than the perpetrator is not an effective strategy for justice.

In the end,

a company has to tolerate bullies for them to exist [in the workplace].

This is why I am not sanguine that a program or push by a politician, no matter how well intended, is going to stop bullying in the schools. If there are no effective methods of stopping bullies, then good intentions alone will neither prevent nor stop bullying. One could legislate that the tide should not come in and that might be as effective. Such well-intentioned efforts are even less persuasive if the politician in question resorts to bullying himself. Some of them do not even realize the irony or the hypocrisy.

Historically, there have always been bullies. If the conventional wisdom is that rewarding behavior generates more of it, then we should expect bullying to increase.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From Men and Women of Christ (1991), 59:

Lest we worry overmuch that our meekness might be an open invitation for others to abuse us, it is well to note some of its less-understood features. For example, meekness may not always "win", especially in worldly matters or in the short run; but in the long run the meek will inherit the earth. And meekness is not the acceptance of imposition; it can still be firm, still insist on fairness, even reprove with sharpness on occasion. Meekness also can ask inspired, piercing questions. Meekness impels us to speak the truth in love. Meekness brings its own compensatory blessings, especially that of an enhanced direction from the Holy Spirit.

Reading Between the Headlines

This news story tells about the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the dedication of the Liberty Jail visitor's center. This is the list of speakers for the two day event:

• M. Russell Ballard (member of the Quorum of the Twelve)
• Robert C. Gay (member of the First Quorum of the Seventy)
• Karl Ricks Anderson (local historian from Kirtland, Ohio)
• Donald Keyes (president of the Missouri Independence Mission)
• Alexander Baugh (professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU)
• Susan Easton Black Durrant (professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU)
• Daniel C. Peterson (professor of Islamic studies at BYU)

I have heard rumors that say that Professor Peterson is not in the favor of Church leaders in Salt Lake. I have a hard time squaring such rumors with the fact that he was invited to speak on such an occasion. I suspect that the rumors are wishful thinking on the part of those circulating them.

Today's Maxwell Quote

From That My Family Should Partake (1974), 81:

Sometimes opposition is undeservedly intimidating simply because we do not know of or use the resources available to us with which to deal with that challenge; we lack the perspective necessary to place that challenge in proper perspective. It was G. K. Chesterton who asserted that the humble man often sees big things because, first of all, he strains his eyes more than the average man in order to see what other men miss. Second, the humble man is both genuinely overwhelmed and uplifted by his adventures in wider perspective. Third, the humble man is apt to record such remarkable experiences (in his mind and for others) more accurately than if he were processing these experiences through proud, perceptual screens.

One cannot read of Moses, though raised in a royal court, still being described in the scriptures as "very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth" (Numbers 12:3), without pondering the importance of meekness, since the meek shall inherit the earth.