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OUR ENEMIES WITHIN , an outline of attacks by segments of the academiccommunity including Harvard, Georgia and Duke on independent judgment the very basis of

creative thought.

by Paul Henrickson, Ph.D. tm. 2011

The Bertrand Delacroix Gallery advertisement below was selected mainly by chance ,

but, in part, because it represented, in ge neral. The tenor of most advertisements

which are, understandably, focused on the achievement of profit through the

movement of funds. It is a modestly acceptable practice typical of a commercial

environment. Unfortunately, by its nature, this attitude ve ry often finds itself in a

antagonistic relationship with the ideals of truth and maturity of intellectual

development....growth, as it were, of the human spirit.

It is in this sense that I am using it as an illustration.

The smaller images I have inter spersed throughout as a means of underscoring the

advertisements message. The inclusion in the advertisement, of famous names is

sometimes motivated by the desire to assure the reader that the claims, whatever they

may be, are legitimate. In this case thes e inserted images of the works of those

mentioned as having influenced Ron Agam only seem to demonstrate that 1) Agam

was not in the least influenced by them, 2) was negatively influenced by them which

may be indicated by his works having moved closer to t he concepts of nihilism...a

psychiatric delusion. This is sometimes called minimalism and it often remains

uncontested on the grounds, and the fear of, being thought ignorant.

In this case I admit my ignorance of Ron Agam s motivations and this allows me to

ask what might be important questions. First among these might be was the sons

lesson learned from the father that it is a virtue to get the most profit from the least

effort? The puritan fathers taught us that an application to duty was an admira ble

virtue and Yaacov Agam has very successfully entertained and fascinated us and to

the extent that a diversion might be therapeutic he has benefited us. But, seriously, he

has demonstrated that changing ones point of view gives a different image and THIS

is an important contribution . So, at the moment, we bless the father and doubt the

son.

But the financial world spins on and Ron, for some inexplicable reasons, seems to

have been awarded the Legion of Honor the requirements for which it is stated that

the recipient must have produced works of eminent merit. Well, I suppose that will

have to pass as the meanings for eminent include: prominent, conspicuous, and

lofty and do not strongly suggest quality except, perhaps, in merit but that leads

us into more serious conflict since it is related to: value; character or accomplishment

that commends praise; excellence; state of being worthy of appreciation and I am blind to

those qualities in Rons offerings.


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The following is a copy of the advertisement announcing the exhibition with the

additions I have made such as the underscoring (used to draw attention to the claims

of virtue on Rod Agams part) and the inclusion of images associated with the artists

mentioned.

Bertrand Delacroix Gallery is proud to present an exhibition of paintings by

Ron Agam. Agam brings fresh, new elements to his work where he furtherexamines the interaction of colors. He seeks to expose the harmony and

effective balance of these varying colors with placement and scale.

Agams personal exploration in the world of painting is a testimony to his

childhood, where he was influenced by the works of the masters of the early

stages of geometric abstraction, such as Elli llssitsky,

Malevitch, Mondrian and later Joseph

Albers. In various sizes, these paintings are meant to resonate beyond the two-dimensional

surface and to utilize the varying energies of the colors that fuel his vis ion. Agam asserts that my shapes, colors

and forms are the expression of an artist that lives in the present, creates for the future with a deep respect for

the past.

Ron Agam was born in Paris and raised in Rehovot, Israel and Paris. From

an early age Agam was encouraged by his father, artist Yaacov Agam, to

pursue art. Ron studied at New York University, where he was captivated

by the local art scene and the stimulating environment of the artists of that

time, among them Andy Warhol . Throughout hiscareer, Agam has exhibited across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, in

cluding the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Martin-Gropius-Bau,

Berlin; New York Historical Society, New York; Mitsukoshi, Tokyo; and Zurich Kunsthaus, Zurich. His work has

been featured in major news publications, such as Time and Newsweek.

His commitment to art as well as political efforts to bridge nations demonstrates his unique position as an artist

and humanitarian. In 2008, he received the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the Government of France, the

highest honor in France.

The underlined portions are my additions The words underlined were chosen to

carefully shift our attention from the real qualities of the works displayed to those

qualities one might hope might be there. Since the desirable qualitie s were absent

word substitutions had to be made to in order to lead the viewer into a position to see

the works as the gallery director would like the viewer to see them. There is some

evidence suggesting the one who composed the advertisement doesnt beli eve what

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he wrote that these paintings were meant to resonate The writer slipped up, or,

better still, he couldnt refrain from telling the truth. Or, perhaps, he selected the

wrong examples, but he did use the word meant as opposed to have .

(Top: In a red night, 2011, 48 x 48 x 3 inches, Mixed media on canvas; Bottom: Into the Galaxy, 2011, 84 x 84 x

4 inches, Mixed media on canvas)

For information and images, please contact Vanessa Campos at [email protected]

The information below is provided to let the reader know something of the way those who decide matters related

to the French Legion dHonor decoration function. The information is from their report.

Propositions and social honors

Some procedural questions regarding the

award of the French Legion of Honor

developed. The answers are below:

1) What are the conditions for

proposal?

One is eligible for nomination in the class of Knight

(chevalier) of the Legion of Honour over the course of a

career of at least 20 years with an assortment of acts of

eminent merit.

One is eligible for nomination in the class of

Knight (chevalier) of the National Order of Merit

over the course of a career of at least 10 years

with an assortment of acts of distinguished merit

(in reality, the Council of the National Order of

Merit looks at 15 years of activity).

return

Payment is made by

check to agent

comptable de la Grande

Chancellerie de la

Legion dhonneur

(example fee: 20 Euros

and 28 cents for

knight). You will receive

the certificate after the

decoration ceremony.

20 euros and 28 cents is not a bad investment for

all the uninformed admiration it buys


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2) Can I apply for a decoration?

No. It is not possible to request a decoration

Perhaps Rons father Yaacov asked in his stead.

This would not require doing a return favour for

the intermediary spokesman.

Yaacov Agam is justifiably famous for his

application of the changing effects of human movement on the perception of a

stationary relief object. The importance of this, however, has, I think, yet to be

established as has the true significance of the legion of honor by t he French

Government or the New Mexico governors awards of merit. The question remains asto whether these people are qualified to make these sorts of judgments. I know

someone who maintains that it is of no importance that the person presenting the

award is aware of the significance of any accomplishment for which he presents an

award, or even that the people watching need to understand the why of it. It is

enough that it takes place. It is simply a social act and one of no particular moral

consequence.

It is at this point that I step in for I am not capable of tolerating the implication that the

arts are merely frivolous entertainments for a mentally and physically indolent and

last wealthy class. My position is that the arts have a real meanin g and while that

meaning has proved itself to be extremely elusive and that it requires significant effortand mental struggle to both discern an d to explain it as a phenomenon it is, however,

worth the effort.

In specific regard to the gallery announcement above it seems clear that its designers

do not expect its readers to also be critical thinkers and they seem content to have

been modestly clever in their deceit . If it works its good, I guess, and who could

argue with Bill Richardson , the Governor of New Mexico or the French Government?


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I have found it undesirable to, in general, compare the work of one person with that of

another except in term of clarifying not qualitative differences but di fferences in the

approach to creative behavior. It is in this sense that I should like to briefly touch

about another artist who painted flowers, i.e. Georgia OKeeffe. It is my hope th at the

perceptive individual will see the important differences between Ron Agam and

Georgia OKeeffe without a wordy explanation.

AGAM

OKEEFFE

or photographs of flowers by others:

My point in this simple comparison is to demonstrate the presence, or the absence, of

imagination, insight, or other extensions of thought that might go beyond the mere

statement of fact...otherwise, in terms of artistic expression as opposed to a statistical

count what might be the point? One normal question that might follow these

observations might be that which asks for some explanation from the Legion of Honor

that might explain their reasons for awarding Ron Agam the highest honor, (but the

lowest grade) citing his contribution to French culture.

That action to the mind of the non-thinking, non-observing, common man means

that Ron Agam must be a great photographer since government knows all and is all

powerful. But to the mind of one who thinks and evaluates it means that the

government is characteristically stupid, but such a conclusion is based on the false

assumption that it is the photography that is being judged where, in fact, it is merely a


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device to ensure support and has nothing, directly, to do with photography, except

for, down the line, it misleads the believing and trusting populous w hich may, after

all, be the purpose of government as government sees it.

A colleague, who happens to be French and variably chauvinistic, sent the following

explanation: As for the son, his latest photos The huge flowers are ridiculous, a

failed artistic tentative, and the photos of the New York firemen are probably good photo journalism,

but nothing to do with art, it is the dramatic subject matter that make the photos, plus some

basic photographic Technics. A war photojournalist has more merit, since he has to go to a

dangerous place to get his dramatic photos, this one just happen to be there it seems.I don't think one

deserves the legion d'honneur because one "happen to be there". Apparenly this Frenchman

was not favourably impressed and I still have no t located a Diplomatic explanation ,

so, somehow, I seem left with the idea that the honor was one he bought.

MORE SUBTLE WAYS of dominance and power in academia

In discussing T.J.Clark and an emergence of a new intellectual emphasis at

Harvard,the art critic Hilton Kramer wrote: There had indeed developed a distinctiveFogg tradition at Harvard. It was a tradition based, above all, on the close, comparative

study of individual art objects, and one of its goals was to produce a certain kind of expe rt

intelligence aesthetic intelligence . In the perspective of this tradition, it was assumed

that for the mastery of such intelligence the cultivation of sensibility a sensibility for

objects was quite as essential as the acquisition of historical knowle dge; that, in other

words, aesthetic intelligence was virtually meaningless if separated from the disciplines of

connoisseurship . I had the disturbing understanding from the statement that its

conclusions ought to have been turned around and that the algorithmics of the

discipline were meaningless without the sort of aesthetic intelligence on occasion

displayed by Bruce Chatwin. In actuality, of course, these two approaches, the

disciplined (outside impositions) and the intuitional private inner res ponses with thepower of the work itself triangulate with those of the observer to form the result of

understanding.

However, my disagreement with Clark m ight be with what seems to be his

insistence that the most worthy quality in art is its political affiliation. Lucy Lippard

seems to have a similar point of view, but for those who expectedly, are lucid thinker s

how they might have overlooked the fact that the major shift in art on the 19th

century

was one which abandoned its admiration for authority (political authority) in favour of

a more personal vision . Some of that movement was apparent even 400 years earlier

but it hadnt quite taken the form it did with Cezanne, Monet, van Gogh and Gauguin.

Later, it might be observed, this independence of peso nal vision may have been


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regrettably exaggerated in discussions of the works ofPeterPaul Rubens.

I have the very strong impression that there may have been a developing mutual

irritation between Clark and Freedberg. Not having met Clark I cannot speak from

personal experience, although the description provided by Kramer seems as three -

dimensional as any by Henry James. One might say that it is because Kramer, James

and I were exposed to a we ll-outlined code of social intellect that, in the light of my

experiences with Sidney Freedberg where he rather surprisingly displayed a Zionist

blindness to other extant realities and this, appropriat ely and ironically enough, in the

gardens of I Tatti.

I think I reluctantly understand Clarks possible irritation with Freedberg if,

indeed, Clarks down to earth materialism came into conflict with Freedbergs

simultaneously parallel, doubled meaning communications. The limited experience

had with him had revealed to my understanding that the words he uttered served two

purposes, one was ostensibly to contribute factually to whatever the subject and the

other more subtle was to cast doubt on the value of the other persons contribution,

insight, or knowledge. It is an uncivil but often effective tactical device in situations

where one might think one is surrounded by threats to ones ego, but quite

inappropriate where all parties are ruled by efficient and polite beh aviour. These

occurrances are not difficult to detect for there is a sense of nonsense about them

even while both participants may use the same words. I suspect that such a

conversational gambit may come from the training some get when exposed to the

concept that words may have multiple definitions from which an aware and clever

speaker can choose and, thereby, redirect the course of discourse. Such a use was

employed in reverse by the judge who ruled in favour of the merchant of Venice who

required his pound of flesh. yes, she agreed, he could have his pound of flash, but

not one drop of blood.

Jonathan Weinbergs (Weinberg was a student of Clark and later taught at Yale) are

willfully difficult paintings, consciously serious. He believes that it is the duty of a


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modern painter to try to do difficult things . This statement

comes from an internet item describing Weinbergs academic and creative position.

So, I must ask, wherein lies t he difficulty here? Since there is a remarkable absence

of technical problems in this work the difficulty must lie with the remarkable groinal

assemblage. That must certainly be include d in the lexicon of aesthetics, but what,

(need we ask?), does it have in common with Hyman Bloom or even Jack Levine ?... just

to keep this discussion within the family.

At least it can be said about both Levine and Bloom in the illustrated works here that both

have a subject matter and both play with the elements of composition and structure.

ART EDUCATION, AS ALWAYS A LITTLE AESTHETICALLY ILLEGITIMATE, NOW

SUPPORTS ITS OWN FUNGUS FEEDING OFF DECAY. The business leaders at

Harvard as well, notably Teresa Amabile, both she and Mark Runco now in charge of

the Torrance Creativity Center reveal the symptoms of misconception. Here business

and aesthetics, usually oriented 180 degrees apart , are now joined in the single effort

of promoting the apotheosis of the mediocre. Amabile attacks the issue of how best

creative solutions may be found in cooperative effort forgetting entirely that creativity

is a lonely path and the only compromises are those which benefit the singly -held

vision. It is likely only the singly held vision that is capable of responding to a

budding creative concept...all others are uninvited interlopers and promote

concessions and consensus both of which are diminishing of the creative concept.

They may, also, in some instances, appear necessary. and therein lies a distressing

conflict.


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Because of a dream I had over a problem I detected in this presentation I must now

clarify an apparent misconception. The Torrance Center, as I have known it, has never

emphasized art as the primary expressive arena for creative thinking but it had been

tolerant of art educations efforts. Under Torrance himself the Center there, nor the

Bureau of Educational Research at Minnesota ever excluded art from its

considerations. But concurrently the Ceenter never seemed to know how exactly to

deal with it.

By way of an ill ustration of this series of barriers to an understanding of the

complexity of creative thought one of the tasks used by Torrance to tap creative

expression was one called The Circles Task which was comprised of a single sheet

of paper with 30 same-sized circle drawn upon it with the instructions to the subject

to draw as many different images as possible within a certain time period. All of this

set of subjects did what they were told. One did not. T he illustration here is my sketch

of what the subject did. The original drawing is notavailable. It demonstrates that the subject was not obedient, reinterpreted

instructions to better fit his private needs and came up with a solution the task

designers had not anticipated. In effect, it demonstrates a too limited conception of

the nature of creative thinking. Others, the non -creative others, are unable to

anticipate a creative thinkers thoughts and when tasks which by their design

anticipate a response they merely place a block on the level of their discove ry. It is

rather, more in line with the non-creative persons sense of survival to inhibit

potential changes in orthodoxy.

This may explain why Dr. Runco has suggested that creativity studies be taken out ofthe art department. This is, from my point of view, a ridiculous suggestion since of all

the educational experiences available to school children in the United States only the

art department, or classroom hour per week, allows for the experience of searching

creatively. Although Elliot Eisner talks the talk but doesnt always walk the walk, in his

third address to the John Dewey Lecture presentations at Stanford in 2002 gives a

very clear explanation of the importance of the creative process and if we are to

believe some reports of Nicolai Tesla the mental processes involved in his approach


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are similar to those of contemporary artists in their studios . All of which might point

to some serious misconceptions of Runco discussed below.

Potential , Runco tells us in the abstract of a paper entitled Creativity and

Education written while at the California State University at Fullerton ,is not always

obvious, but educators and others working with children should consider defining

creativity in literal terms, as thinking or problem solving that involves the

construction of new meaning. This in turn relies on personal interpretations. These

are personal and new for the indivi dual, not on any larger scale. This approach is

consistent with the educational premise to understand is to invent , and it allows

educators to target students self -expression. The emphasis is thus on the individual,

the self. Equally significant for educ ators is that this view posits that creativity is

widely distributed.

In general, the above statement will improbably make sense, but only if the reader,

with great and generous effort brings to that problem whatever from his own

experiences fills in the gaps. As it stands, it is quite meaningless except in such

isolated expressions such as potential is not always obvious where even there itmay have been more on the mark to have said that potential (for creative thinking) is

most often misinterpreted and seen as disruptive and undesir able. The idea that the

highly conservative nature of most teachers would allow itself to first recognize, and

secondly, encourage a new meaning within a classroom of thirty, even as few as

twenty students is expecting the very rare. On top of the nearly impossible , Runco

then suggests that the teacher might not be able to understand this very personal

interpretation which may be true, but it is hardly encouraging to anything but a sort

of nihilistic fantasy projection , which, as I understand it, would end only in a very

procrusteanly tyrannical environment or the mental imbalance of the teacher. In short,

I doubt that teachers given the responsibility to meet certain academic standards

required by the school system would h ave the necessary presence and control overevents to conduct the sort of mentorship Dr. Runco may have in mind.

To top off the accumulated nonsense of the above quoted paragraph Dr. Runco states

that the view he presumably supports posits that creativity is widely distributed.It

is at this point that Drs Runco an Amabile join forces in their incomprehension of the

literature on creativity and/or their alliance to demolish its humane accom plishments.

Creativity, by definition, is uncommon and their efforts, along with those of Edward de

Bono, despite claims to the contrary, to redefine it either in theory or practice. Even Paul

Torrance, who made brave efforts to be the understanding, encouraging and tolerant

protective guide to the creat ive personality found it, at times, difficult to resist the pull

of the common place when conventional mediocrity demanded its right to have avoice and to thereby out chorus the soloist. .

However, creativity is not widely distributed unless, of course, o ne has, for some

reason mislabelled the quality , and were those investigators such as Mark Runco and

Teresa Amabile to ever have observed, and recognized, extraordinary perception at

work they could never have maintained that it was a common place. It is, by way of a

contrasting proposition, nearly a truism, that only the common place can be found

acceptable by the commonplace. And one of this views inevitable companions is that


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anything else is weird, and out -of place, or in Runcos words indiscrete and ought

not to be encouraged, and th e extension of this idea would be exterminated. While

Runco states that virtually every individual has the mental capacity to construct the

personal interpretations that are involved he fails to include that some have lost the

freedom to exercise it due to a w eakened resistance to social pressures and he an

Amabile seem unaware that the concept they promote do nothing but add more

pressures.

The conclusion arrived at by Dr. Runco is that c reativity is something we can find in

every child, not just the gifted or highly intelligent. Actually, I can probably agree with

that statement, however, I take strenuous exception to what he failed to include which

is that some who may have had the adventurous capability of thinking creatively have

stopped doing so because of the socio-mental construct imposed by society at large

as well as specific powers within it. I can only wonder why Runco did not, here, take

advantage of the finding that an I.Q. score of over 120 points did no t seem to

contribute to scores on creativity, a finding which sort of raises the question as to

what use are the I.Q. points beyond 120 if they seem not to contribute to productivity?

I wonder if this doesnt relate to the question of the relationship betw een knowledge(an I.Q.score no higher than 120) and creative production? I mean, why is it that the

knowledge that is represented by an I.Q. of more than 120 seemingly not useful in

creative production? Does this point to the possibility that the creative mind

recognizes the material it needs and the uncreative mind simply as a big appetite?

Runco describes a school, or home, situation where, in order to preserve a form of

social harmony he reminds us and asks:

Have you ever used the phrase, now is not the time

for x, y, or z with your own children or with your

students? (This is a sure killer)Perhaps you mean that that is interesting

but not appropriate right now. You were suggesting

that your charge exercise discretion.. not only is the charge going to recognize the put off

as a restriction, but the school system forces him to stay where he is...ironically (and

this may be the obverse side of the coin) we all need assurance and there are times when

loving assurances and expressions of personal acceptance are counter productive

where any search for a creative, unusual or advancing solution is desired .

While Runcos views and those of Amabile would be found very attractive t o

tyrannical mind sets, I would readily recognize that creating an atmosphere conducive

to creative thinking would be extremely difficult for mose techers I have known and,

as well, that due to the so -called emergency economic situation increasing the clas s

size to 50, 60 and even 70 is a sure fire way of increasing the possibility of

encouraging creative responses of a negative kind and only in the most hardy,

enduring and angry. All others will have been destroyed. The more civilized human

spirit can be easily crushed.

ART CRITICISM AND ART EUCATION ARE NOT ALONE


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If one accepts the objectivist view then and eliminate s considerations of technique

whether complicated or simple, the drawing of a worried blo nd female copied by

Lichtenstein from a newspaper comic strip should be an ideal for Rand, and, on top of

that, the fact that he copied it rather than to have used his imagination in its creation

should, according to Rand, be an added virtue toward the goal of adopting an

objective view. Somehow, all this seems to lead to the conclsuion that an objective

pont of view is one lacking as much perception as is possible. After all, how more

onjective and uncritical can one get than to tak e the very commonplace and copy it.

When Rand discusses the matter of property and tells us that the work of an architect

is his work and only by the application of an other priority is it the property of the one

who buys it. I have no objection to her maintaining that the original thought should be

the property of the one who originated it, but, there is, after all anothe r matter to

consider and that is that most thoughts, even original ones, are related, that is

picked up from earlier ones even though the more recent thought might be a

misinterpretation of the earlier one it makes little difference since mistakes have value

in that they lead, hopefully, to corrections .

ROY LICHTENSTEINBLACK & WHITE 1961 - 1968Bis 15. Mai 2011

Die Albertina prsentiert die Schwarzweizeichnungen ergnzt durch ausgewhlteSchwarzweigemlde erstmals gesammelt in einer Schwerpunktausstellung.

My response to this Roy Lichtenstein advertisement providing other world

populations the symbolic opportunity to extend penance (to the mindless American) for

attributed sins against humanity (not recognizing degrees of worth) takes on the attribute of

yet another load of imposed guilt (for being stupid) raising the question of balancing the

torture.... it is enough already!

We grandly reward the man who insults us who uses the system to point out how we

are. In point of fact we turn the insult into an object of veneration and never

understand the insult as an insul t...we just have a lot of fun no matter what it is we are

doing and eventually we transform the insult into a blessing and then comes the day

of judgment. Regrettably, at this moment I am unable to point out where anyone may

have transformed Lichtensteins sneaky arrogance and ethnic insults into anything of

value, but I am looking forward to the experience.

Why should the achievements of western civilization be further degraded by

experiencing the obligation to admire the apotheosis of comic strip characters raised

to the level of Monet, Munch, van Gogh or de Kooning? A real part of the problem lies

with the abilities of people to discern, to recognize they are discerning and then

develop means by which what is discerned might be evaluated. These activities are

lonely ones they are not initially done in concert. Consensual validation and


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discussion of interpre tations are important but one will have nothing to discuss if

they know nothing if what they have seen. It is a natural part of the educational

process undertaken by the individual himself to notice, to question and to evaluate. In

so far as Lichtenstein i s concerned it should be sufficient to state that he dramatically

called the publics attention to the lowest common denominator of pictorial concern

and made millions. These two factors should demonstrate, one might suppose, the

additional fact that he wa s right...but not alone, he had help . His behaviour becomes

offensive when we get to realize that his efforts and those who have abetted him have

become socially offensive when, like farting loudly in public, there are efforts, by

others more worthy of at tention and understanding. He may be welcome to his

rewards but the rest of us do not deserve the deprivation imposed by neglect.

Perhaps I have misjudged the behavior of the Austrians in providing yet another

major show of the work of Lichtenstein and that it is not an expression of their

remorse for their part in the German holocaust which, even though, it may have

differed in kind and in number from the deceitful circumcision and murder of the

Canaanites.

As a consequence of the above and very brief analysis I view the Lichtenstein

exhibition as either an intended insult to my profession, or an expression of his

frustration with his incompetence or an expression of Austrian careless ignorance or

their wily ways of dealing with power. It is, at any rate, an unfriendly event.

MOUNTEBANKS AND CLOWNS

I should imagine that such as Dr. Shelly Carson at Harvard and Teresa Amabile, also

of Harvard and Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School and Dan Ariely of Duke's

Fuqua School of Business that the evidence of characteristic prevarications among a

population of creative types should be conclusive., that is, creative people are liars and,consequently, if we honor our Judaic-Christian tradition it must have been the devil

who spawned the type.

This may be a naughty knot to untangle, but, I should imagine that these researcherswere using as their testing populations types already involved in the virtuous business of

making money. I have not been able to locate, yet, a description of the population ofsubjects they tested, but working backwards from the reported results it would seem

logical they would have used students available to them. I would have. Therefore, then,our test subjects, in these reports, are predisposed to the values of the business world

and it, therefore, seems logical to me that their best students would, as an intentional

goal, perform well on tests of lying.

On the other hand, one might be tempted to ask why those coming from the business-

mind-set would have supported, so directly, research that emphasizes they are in the

business of telling lies, augmenting deceit, pulling scams. Dan Ariely very entertainingly


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admits being a clown, but, more importantly, also informing us howwe are not in charge of our own decisions, (and, thereby, weakening independent

resolve) that they are made by not disinterested others aforehand, leads us to suspect

that he senses an avenue of profit in an application of studies involving brain function.

Perhaps, this business-community interest in creativity , at least as an advantageous

catch word, may be a dramatic prelude to a public confession, world-wide apology and

a vast repentance beyond measureable scope..but I doubt it. More than likely it is their

comprehensible response to the implication that, as a type, they, the business

community, are a threat to a moral society and that, by way of contrast, truly creative

individuals are so objectively curious about their work that the thought of adulterating

their studies with preconceived desirable results is anathema.

My work and my interest in the existence of liars and the processes of lying began,

ironically enough, with the surprising comment by an Irish friend and colleague of

Marvin Montvel-Cohen, then at the University of Guam to the effect that Jews were the

cultural leaders of the world and that creative people do not lie. Later, at The

University of Northern Iowa I put this second proposition to the test and much to the

dismay of the University found it to be true, that is, within the limi ts of that study,

which resulted in the conclusion that decisions based on Grade Point Averages would

eliminate from the teacher preparation program the most perceptive and creative

subjects but reward the agreeable liars and thereby, perpetuating an ambiance of

misrepresentation, cultural bias and the authority of convention. None of which

promote an advancing civil consciousness.

As a result of Arielys interest in this form of public tomfoolery and in , as well, serious

research suggest he conjoin my creativity studies with his studies in corporate deceit in

an effort to learn just to what extent honest perceivers might be turned into mindless

performers, or, whether anima will survive and surmount procrustean mutilation It is,

after all, a matter of the survival of the self...whatever that might be.

.