I think that we ought to look at lists with more of a
critical eye.
We are being overtaken by measurement in virtually every
area of our academic world--rankings, FT Top 40 list,
Business Week list, Starbuck list, etc. The materialist
ideology of our culture has taken the line from the Little
Prince (What is essential is invisible to the eye) and
turned it on it's head. If we can't measure it, it isn't
worth it; if we can't be at the top of the list, we figure
we must not be very good. While I don't mind the lists per
se, I think that the overwhelming focus on measuring things
just doesn't get at some important things.
My chapter, for example, is on the Google list (trust me,
I'm not celebrating!)--but Matthew Fox's book, The
Reinvention of Work, is not. But if I had not read that
book, I wouldn't have written the chapter or done the
Handbook. I wouldn't be in MSR.
The most spiritual thing I've ever written is on
transcendent education in AMLE. No doubt, it won't get the
notoriety of the chapter or the book. But when I want to
remind myself where I need to go, I re-read the article on
transcendent education. I've never totally re-read the book
chapter.
Maybe rankings, citations, and journal lists are telling us
what others think is important, and as such, they are a
great indicator of how the "general population" thinks. But
the "general population" also thought that the Iraq War was
great for awhile. The "general population" also thought
slavery was great for awhile. The "general population" buys
stuff they don't need just so that they can impress others.
In some ways, every time the "general population" cheers at
something, I wonder when we are going to find out that the
object of their cheering is either wrong, misguided, or
fails to really understand the heart of what is happening.
I claim to know very little for sure, but I think that a top
10 list of what inspires us is not on either list.
Bob
Robert A. Giacalone, Ph.D.
Department of Human Resource Management
Acting Director, Center for Ethics and Organizational Integrity
313 Speakman Hall, FSBM
Temple University
1810 N. 13th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19122
e-mail:
ragiacal@temple.edu
Work phone: (215) 204-7038
Fax: (215) 204-8362
Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar.--Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society - Krishnamurti
To care for anyone else enough to make their problems one's own, is ever the beginning of one's real ethical development--Felix Adler