Knowledge Access in Canada - and Beyond

Thanks Paul,

 

Seldom do I agree as much as with this trends summary. Already made some adjustments in my portfolio in anticipation. I'm not confident our gurus can prevent a period of stagflation and that will be really painful.

 

The one I question most is online education. It is the only platform that makes sense for everyday training, but I think that the really good stuff will be for those with $$$$$$$$$$$$ sort of like insider trading. Corporations and governments control data the way the church used to. The noose is tightening rather than easing in Canada. Knowledge is now a traded commodity which is bad for humanity. What is free is mostly on the level gossip, uninformed opinion, outdated and junk science, and titillation that passes for curiousity.

A trend that I would add is getting off the grid and small is finally recognized as beautiful. The only mid to long term solution in the 'developed' world is to pull back on economic expectations and consumer culture- back to 1940s-50s level of consumption and knowing how to do things for ourselves. Any visit to a supermarket reveals how packaged life is. That's not sustainable and not good.

 

Stormy outside.

Cheers,

Walter

J.S. Moir, Ph.D., University of Toronto, Professional Example

Your humble servant here admires your determination, grit as doctoral students to hang on and hang in with your studies despite challenges in your personal lives, e.g. health issues.  Your consistent first-class work is even more impressive when you share some of the background to your lives with your humble servant here.  Thank you for this sharing.  It honors, continues a tradition that began full-force in my life when I had such a sharing relationships with the late Prof. J.S. Moir at the University of Toronto, where I was a Graduate Fellow for a M.A.  Yes, our work is professional; it is also personal.  This does not mean "personality psycho-babble stuff."  It means genuine sharing, rapport between student, teacher.  Right now I am studying Confucius; he emphasizes the value of the master-student (teacher-student) relationship as one of the great relationships that we humans can experience.  You are going to have such relationships with your own students as professors after your doctoral degrees.  Continue the tradition.  Dr. Rux

Win and Compete to Educate

Jeanine, wow, thank you for sharing this.  Folks like your humble servant here suspect such things; you offer proof.  What changes things is the lack of money.  Education does not need more money - this does not mean cutting pay for teachers.  It needs less funding so it must asking the first question:  In what business are we?  In addition, a country that knows how to win wars and compete economically will know how to educate its youth.  Sadly, America is losing the capacity to win and compete for now.  You may find the attached "speech" for my Rotary (Madison, WI, West) Club on Thursday of this week of interest, for it is one way of expressing what is missing.  Thank you for your sharing.  Dr. Rux  (This applies equally to Canada.  The "win and compete" insight in fact comes from the late Toronto Globe and Mail columnist Richard J. Needham, a favorite of this writer.)

Rights without duties in Canada

Hi Paul,

it's starting to sound like Italian politics.  With most public institutions in disrepute anything can happen. Credibility has been shifted to the noise makers. Whatever happened to enlightened despotism like in the 18th C?

I suspect that our countries and global structures are simply too big to regulate and even more difficult for most people to understand. The alternative is to think local and act locally, not think global and act locally as the idealists suggest. The word revolution keeps cropping up in many contexts. Let's keep our eye on where revolution is happening and see if we could face that set of circumstances. I'm trying my best to stay sane. I think I may revive the Rhinocerous Party which had one item in it's platform: if elected an MP would resign. In my riding back in the 70s we generated some buzz and garnered 5% of the vote.

I sometimes reflect back on a discussion I started with my students a decade or so ago about citizenship in the broad context of values and ethics. My question to them was, "do you think you owe anything to your society/". They were silent. It became apparent that the vast majority had no sense of obligation towards their country if what was meant by that was service to our society, as in voluntary work for minimal pay for months or even years. They saw the benefits of society as their right with no apparent obligations beyond waving a flag and cheerleading. I'm proud to be Canadian but don't ask me to actually do anything for my country!

I have not been able to sort this out satisfactorily because kids still are idealistic and want to make things better. The analogy that I find useful is that of the 'fabric' of society. Fabric is made from many strands, often in many colours and patterns. The quality of the strands and the quality of the weaving are paramount if the fabric is going to function well. If the weave is too loose it weakens even if the strands are strong. If the weave is too strong for the strands, it tears. So we can have colourful fabric in our society but when we actually have to use it, it needs to be well-made.

There are many torn strands in society throughout the world and the winds of change are blowing through the holes. We are desperately  trying to patch a worn out fabric.

 

Ventura and Stern I suspect, know how to tear things apart but probably not how to weave things together,

Walter

PS. My daughter-in-law commented yesterday how quickly I can go from the practical to the theoretical on any topic. I've done it again, it seems.

Will Canada follow USA union busting trend?

Shaun, unfortunately, I do not know offhand of any seminal works about this topic.  It is a fascinating one, for the current governor of Wisconsin broke the public service unions, which includes state tech/junior colleges.  We have daily protests, literally daily, five days a week, in our state capital because of this.  The union members and friends conduct a sing-along under the dome in the state capitol at noon.  It has resulted in arrests and ongoing "bad blood."  The governor did not announce during the election his union-busting agenda; it came as a total surprise!  As I write this, I do not know how many other states in fact have taken this route.  Yes, your question about union impact on operations and learning outcomes is timely, crucial.  It may be a good time to explore how widespread union-busting is right now in education.  How has union busting helped or hurt?  Meanwhile, as you observe, how has the union presence helped or hurt outcomes, operations where unions are still legal?  This is a great issue.  Lack of unions means lack of tenure, job security.  More and more we are becoming Daniel Pink's classic Free Agent Nation.  Yes, as an administrator, you may face challenges over unions, busting them, keeping them.  FYI   Your humble servant has been a member of public teacher unions in both Ontario, Canada and Illinois, USA.  In fact, he went on strike in Ontario.  He is a friend of unions because of the due process pressure they exert on management.  Yet, he operates as a "free agent" as he types this.  This is a very good issue to pursue.  It is not going away soon.  Dr. Rux

Future of Natural Resources

Walter, thank you for confirming my suspicions of the downside of this.  Here, the fracking would occur on the banks of the Wisconsin River, and the danger of its contamination looms.  It is crazy.  As Freud observed, humans have two subconscious drives - eros, to live, and thanatos, to die.  It is always a race between the two; of late, it seems thanatos is gaining on eros.  Thanks for your update.  Yes, the Great Lakes are a vital resource.  Americans, and Canadians too, live in an illusion of endless natural resources.  There are, however, limits (conservative word, concept there); we are approaching them.  In our Anglo-Saxon heritage the story of Robin Hood sums up the popular culture.  It goes like this.  Robin lives in the forest preserve, the king's forest; of course, anything associated with the king is bad.  Hence, conservation, reservation of natural resources by the king, aka the state, is bad.  You get the drift.  Thanks for listening.  I am grateful to be able to share.  Paul 

Elora calling

Walter, in 2013 Jane and I need to get out butts over to Ontario so we can visit with you and D-K in person, live, face to face. It's been too long. Thank you for keeping in touch, sharing your wisdom, and your friendship. You are the best. Meanwhile, the Republic teeters along. Jane and I will vote for Obama and the rest of the Democrats. We believe in fairness; the Wall Street gangsters control even more of the Republicans than they do of the Democrats. Besides, we need our Social Security and Medicare now. People here are somber. You see few bumper stickers, yard signs, buttons, etc. They know the "wheels are coming off the wagon" and the gangsters on Wall Street and their stooges in Washington - despite the horrific economic damage here, which is still mounting. The American people overall are good people when they remain true to their historical values. I make no apology for the "old time religion," for it brought me to Canada. The Pilgrims, New Englanders believed in the sanctity of "Conscience”; it became my heritage too. Canada today is where America was in the 1950's. It is a sane, balanced place yet; people there still have a sense of optimism that is sadly missing here. The best part is Canada remains a fabulous reminder of what once was here and could be here again! Thank you for the comparison. I sorely miss the Great Dominion to our North. It preserves American "know-how" without the violence. I guess at heart I remain an old Loyalist, "old school," Conservative, in the true sense of the word, concept, cf. Edmund Burke, one of my heroes. Anyway, Elora, Ontario keeps calling me now. My old friends in Wiarton have been dying out; thankfully, Elora has emerged to start a new cycle for me. I love Old Ontario, its ways. God willing, I will establish ongoing connections with it; it is not far from Barrie!

Future of Religion in Canada

Marta, at the conference, I met a young Canadian woman who immigrated to Canada from the Middle East.  She lives in Windsor, Ontario, and has a MBA from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.  She is a wonderful person.  I plan to explore how she and I can co-author a book on the future of religion in Canada.  I studied at the U of Toronto with the greatest historian of religion in Canada, ever, John S. Moir as part of my M.A. from there.  He died last year.  When I last saw him he asked me to do this study for him.  Out of loyalty I plan to do it.  Right now, I want to use the mind mapping approach to conduct depth interviews with expert people.  Having a devout Muslim woman on the team would enhance the objectivity and credibility of the study.  Our 1.5 hour session at the Chicago World Future Society Conference 2013 came away with this trend.  As the economy worsens, which it will in this country for sure, people more and more will turn to religion for solace, comfort.  They will give up on the false gods of money, politics, materialism and return to what is "authentic."  If however the USA embarks on a war against Iran we can also expect the emergence of fundamentalism and hostility between Christians and Muslims.  In fact, one of the mind maps at the conference centered on War with Iran in 2018!   Is this probable?  Is it possible?  It most surely, probability there, would lead to fundamentalist backlashes in both Christian and Muslim communities, sadly. There, you have a concise summary of what emerged at the conference.  I hope we have sense enough to stop wars and seek common ground on core values, since both Muslims and Christians - and Jews - share the Old Testament in common.  The Prophet called these three religions "People of the Book" and called for Muslims to treat the "People of the Book" with exceptional kindness, concern, and "family" - like love.  It is amazing how oil politics distorts and ignores core teachings. 

Brazil and Canada and USA

Marta, the panel on the future of Latin America was stunning at the WFS conference in Chicago over the weekend.  At the workshop was a past President (three times elected) of the Dominican Republic!  I had an exciting visit with him.  Here is an example of what the panel presented.  Brazil purchases more from the USA right now than all of Europe combined!  And we are busy jabbering about Europe in our mass media with hardly a word about Brazil!

Declining Value of American Tourists in Canada

Hi Paul,

Unfortunately the wealth gap can keep growing if seen on a global scale. The empires have always used colonies to subsidize internal standards of living and it is only when the empires decline that the internal gaps in wealth become troubling. In 1965 America GIs could live off base in Germany and drive a Porsche if they wished. By the 1980s they could only afford to live on base and shop at the PX as Europeans caught up to the American Empire. American tourists used to dominate the world market. Having just returned from Europe it is striking that I met not one American but lots of Asians. In Canada American visitors are no longer a priority because they spend a fraction- about 1/3 of what Asian visitors spend. Americans are better off than in 1950 but their relative position in the world has changed and that puts the focus on internal gaps. Psychologically this is a well established phenomenon: a relatively lower wage hurts far more than a nominally lower wage as long as you make more than the next guy.

 

The empire has the costs of maintaining the structure for an elite who are unwilling to pay for it.

 

The myths of "free enterprise" - there has never been such a condition- perpetuate a Utopian dream of easy money for everyone. Globalization has undermined the nation state to a point where the laws are written by corporations who have no national loyalty. They are the new empires and the citizens of countries are patsies to these corporate behemoths- most agricultural subsidies go to large corporations (read ethanol), most science subsidies go to large corporations, even private prisons are subsidized (a good private prison is where the "customers" keep coming back.

Most egregiously, the military are run for the benefit of corporations -read Haliburton- with $200 hammers and a propaganda machine that keeps people in terror while more people are committing suicide each year for various reasons despite almost no visible terrorist threat.

 

We no longer talk of citizens, but rather taxpayers and our focus is on spending ( making a living) rather than making a life worth living. Our language has been co-opted by the true believers (Hoffer) in money and the message is broadcast through advertising which is the air we breathe well beyond anything Orwell presented in 1984, Stalin was able to achieve through brutality and murder by the millions, or Goebbels with the Nazis. Obesity, drug addiction, fanatic sports aimless "malling" are all symptoms of this social malaise. Remember 'the lonely crowd'.?

 

The correction is happening. We will eventually need to find a way to help people live lives, build communities and societies rather than give them "freedom' to flail about in a world governed by forces they can't even imagine let alone control.

 

This isn't an American, but rather a western challenge. With 25% educated youth unemployed in most of the West there is great potential for social unrest like in the 30s. The 'Freeters' in Japan are a cautionary tale.

Toronto points to the future.

Jason, look for educational technology, e.g. simulations, which are cheap and self-paced to more and more displace teachers, professors. Digital technology has the capacity now to "automate" learning and relegate teachers to the role of facilitators more and more. Teaching is what somebody does to us. Learning is what we do for ourselves; what we do for ourselves in the final analysis has more lasting impact. Call it discovery learning if you need a theory, name for it. The teacher unions here in Wisconsin are already worrying about this looming trend; higher education will also embrace the trend. We are in short looking at "teacherless" education, one of the core workshops at the 2012 World Future Society in Toronto, which your humble servant here had the good fortune to attend. 2013 is in Chicago! Closer.

Oxford Style - in Canada

Ronda, think of our course this way. It is "Oxford style." At Oxford University, students get a tutor. They meet with their tutors one-to-one weekly. The tutor assigns reading; the student does the reading. Then, both student and tutor meet the following week to discuss the readings. The tutor, of course, is a world-class expert who likely has done all of the reading on the topics that libraries can provide! I had the great honor of engaging in such a learning experience at the University of Toronto for one entire academic year! Once weekly, I met one-to-one with Prof. John S. Moir, who passed away last year, ouch. He gave me reading assignments. Go to the library and read about this and that topic. Then, I would come back a week later to discuss what I had discovered and read on the subject with him! The bond between us became powerful, personal, and highly professional. We remained in contact after I earned my M.A. from Toronto under his guidance. This included periodic visits with him and his wife at their home in Brantford, Ontario. I told him when we last visited, two years ago, that he remains my hero; I want to be to my students what he was to me. There, we are going to do our course "Oxford style," although it will be only for eight weeks, not an academic year of nine months. Sadly, the factory model of learning has marginalized this one-to-one learning style, method. Yet, when we experience it, we never forget it. We can have this "Oxford style" experience.

Lean Learning

Yes, education is a business; as our economy tanks and budgets crash with it, more and more you will see a business ROI - return on investment - approach to education replace the trendy psycho-babble that now runs it. Watch for application of such techniques as "lean manufacturing" - doing more with less - to education. The days of more are over. Educators are going to "hit the wall" - get a reality check - soon because of this.

Can Canada avoid trends in American education?

Dave, thank you for this.  What's missing is the collapsing standards overall as the educational dinosaurs scramble to enroll bodies - real and fake - to get cash flow at any cost.  Except for hardcore subjects like medicine, the M.D. hopefully will not get watered down, and fields like no-nonsense engineering; the other subject areas, the "soft sciences" and the humanities will suffer from Gresham's Law - "bad money drives out good money." Degrees will have little or no meaning or value in these fields, unless they come from very elite, tough standards, no-nonsense college or universities.  As one of my UW-Madison professors put it in our course on ethics of higher education, "The colleges and universities that keep high, high standards will always be in demand, for there will always be people with money to buy the best."  Also, he observed, to create such high standards you could not let the business office call the shots.  You had to let high academic values, standards set the agenda; the money would follow.  Instead we have the reverse in more and more cases.  Making money in the short run regardless of standards will blow up the organizations peddling valueless degrees.  The one with hard, tough, steely academic standards will in fact survive and make money.  As A.J. Nock observed, "Americans have a gift for turning everything into a racket."  In this case, so-called higher education has become a racket.  In the end, however, people will not pay for fake degrees, and those who are serious and can benefit from learning will go to those places that have maintained good-and-hard standards.  There, you have your humble servant's studied opinion.  Paul 

Look South Not North

Sonia, this is thoughtful. To it, let me add this. Ralph Peters, one of the leading military strategists in our country, in his lastest books, New Glory, argues that America's future is to the South, Latin America, not Europe or the Middle East, or Asia, any longer. Latin America has the resources, markets, and human resources we need to keep our economy moving and support our aging population. Therefore the issue of knowing Spanish will become increasingly important in America, and for incoming Hispanics to America knowing English will be crucial also. We are moving into an new era of hope if we refocus South. Your interest in promoting ESL is on trend, and, yes, much needed.

How similar are trends in Canada to trends in USA?

I have no respect for the government anymore'
Welcome to The Michael Savage Newsletter, your daily insider report on all things "Savage."
In today's issue: It just so happened that Michael Savage’s Tuesday night show coincided with President Obama’s State of the Union address.
“You can listen to this Politbureau speech on other radio stations across America if you want to,” Savage told his audience, adding, “All I see is a bunch of grifters slapping each other on the back.”
___________________________________
“Watching the prelude to the State of the Union speech, I feel like I'm looking at the Ukrainian parliament,” said a disgusted Dr. Savage, adding:

The only difference is, they'd be punching each other out. At least we the people would get some entertainment out of that.
All I see is a bunch of grifters slapping each other on the back. You just know they're cutting deals in the back room.
I don't even feel it's my country anymore.
I have no faith in them. I have no respect for this anymore.
And I'm not going to sit and watch this clown giving another speech calling for higher taxes and more regulation, and listen to the stooges on the Democrat side clap like a bunch of seals.
That's all Obama's talking about: tax and spend. Soft Marxism and hard crony capitalism.
Tax the people. Control the people from cradle to grave, and then reward your crony capitalist friends by not taxing them, or giving them sweetheart contracts and grants.
Do you really feel that you live in a representative democracy?

Fair Canada and Unfair USA

Walter, here are some thoughts on Obama's impressive speech. He is clearly an accomplished speaker, big time.

The key word, concept is fair. A Canadian from Burlington, Ontario, who attends Rotary here with me, said in conversation with me that in simplest terms the difference between Canada and the USA is fairness. Canada practices fairness. I have lived it.

For example, nobody goes bankrupt in Canada because of medical bills. They do here. Last month, we were in a discount store, and Jane engaged the young woman behind the checkout register in short conversation. The clerk was working two minimum-wage jobs to pay off $8,000 in medical bills! This does not happen in Canada. The USA is not fair. Greed rules supreme here now.

The two parts of his speech, brief, but scary, that caught my attention big time were his backing of Israel, in effect, against Iran. The entire chamber roared approval - for the next war. Obama's bringing Hagel into the cabinet as secretary of defense is part of the runup, "bipartisan" support for the next war in the Middle East. North Korea is a "loose cannon" too, and it could get bloody.

As my late UT professor, J.S. Moir observed, Canada in effect is 30 million Democrats. You repeat his observation too.

Often, what is not said is as important as what is said. For instance, there was no mention of recovering the loot stolen from the American people by the bloodsucking vampires on Wall Street. Big Money owns Washington, DC here. More and more what occurs there has no connection to the "little people" outside the "Beltway." Fakes, phonies and frauds populate D.C.

Yes, Obama put on a good show. He got it right about starvation wages. For instance, here in Citrus County, Florida, the average annual wage is, yes, $17,000. A husband and wife might buy a used trailer house on such pittance; they do. When we go to Wal-Mart here we see lots of "rough" people, the $17,000/year persons living in the shadows here. It is disgusting. It is not fair.
We see good, honest people here each and every day. The American people are good people; we are an abused people. It is not fair that the people who do the work, obey the laws, pay the taxes, and, yes, fight the wars, get ripped off left and right here. My concern is another war in the Middle East will "pull down the house" on them, us. At some point, they are going to get mad.

God bless. Take care. Paul

Paul Rux, Ph.D.
Imagineer
www.paulrux.net

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Keep the Gun Crazies out of Canada

Walter, thank you for this thoughtful, as always, reply.  I concur with all of it.

I do not own any guns; I do not want to own any guns.  As you point out, this gun stuff is toxic to tourism.  The other more potent threat, however, is the recruiting of former special forces alumni into private mercenary groups like Blackwater.  They are the highly-armed, disciplined, experienced shock troops, or Praetorian Guards, to support the corporate power structure if and when push comes to shoves.  Compared with Blackwater, the NRA are amateurs, and if the NRA gets in the way, Blackwater will crush them. It is disgusting; more and more we are reluctant to venture into public places, e.g. movie houses.  Online education will get a boost from this spreading terrorism, call it what it is; online shopping, too, will benefit from this growing fear of public places because of the gun nuts out there.  It has reached the point that one of my online students, a doctoral student, in Texas, tells me teachers there now lock their classroom doors out of fear!  Thank God you live where you do; do not let the rot, cancer of gun mania poison Canada.  This includes taking a swift severe line with the mutants who shoot up places like Toronto.  Stop it now, good and hard.  It is bed time now.  Paul

Federation of the Great Lakes

Marshall, this is first-class, thoughtful, thorough, and of obvious practical value.  Your humble servant here more and more embraces the concept of "economic domains" instead of political boundaries.  For instance, Dubuque, Iowa, on the Mississippi River forms a natural tri-state economic domain with SW Wisconsin and NW Illinois.  Folks there are starting to realize this and act on it.  Great!  What happens in Madison, WI, Springfield, IL, and Des Moines, IA - except for taxing and regulations - has little if anything to do with the economic health of this tri-state interface.  Yes, economic domains, not political boundaries are the future engines.  The consul general of Canada from Chicago told an audience last year, where this writer was in attendance, that the Great Lakes states, Ontario and Quebec could easily form an economic domain without the baggage of the rest of the political structures to east, west, and south.  He said such an economic domain would create the 7th largest economy in the world - and 14th largest population concentration!  We are, yes, edging toward understanding and applying the insights of "economic domains" in the future.