Code of Coercion

Conservatives should not even apply to America’s schools of social work

By George F. Will

Washington Post

October 14, 2007

Fatherland, socialism or death

Venezuela’s schools receive orders to create the “new man”

From The Economist print edition

Oct 11th 2007

Often the best way to evaluate ourselves is to imagine how our proclivities look in foreign settings. 

In these two recent articles we get to see how an aspect of the American character is playing out in Venezuela. 

Most Americans would probably condemn what’s going on in that South American country, yet many would approve of the same kind of coercion that is going on at a smaller scale in American schools of social work, because they would say it is for legitimate causes and because it does not threaten the physical security of the individuals concerned.  According to George Will, some social work schools even require compliance with the social work profession’s code of ethics.

When you think about it, when a person has invested their economic resources in advanced education, and then is denied advancement solely on the basis of their belief system, if they cannot fully endorse the professional code of ethics, that is a threat to their economic welfare, especially when it comes in graduate school, which is where one pursues the basic professional degree in social work. 

From the Venezuelan perspective, Americans who complain about the Venezuelan educational program are hypocritical if they tolerate the kinds of coercion that goes on in American social work programs.  Don’t all educational programs have an agenda?

Extremist thinking is a prominent feature of the fundamentalisms of our day, and to the extent that socialism in Venezuela and social idealism in American social work have taken on quasi-religious overtones, they may very well be participating in the secularization of fundamentalism.  Our problem is not so much that we have become tolerant, but that we are surrounded by so many dominant fundamentalist types that moderate people dare not speak.  Our media-driven culture demands outspoken voices in order to keep up interest levels, to attract viewers and listeners, and sometimes even to get things done.  Moderate people are just too boring!  It appears that for social work, “advocacy” has become the institutionalization of charismatic leadership.

But the really big difference between the two systems is that Venezuela’s educational program is for the general population and the American social work schools are focused on professional education.  General education includes students with a far wider range of competency and commitment levels than professional education. Professional values and Codes of Ethics are a measure of the level of professionalism of a profession - the degree to which it is self regulating and defines itself.  What George Will may be so upset about may just be some examples where some schools or individuals have taken the activist, liberalizing social work agenda to an extreme.  As a social conservative, he probably reacts instinctively against such outbursts, even if he would appreciate most of the accomplishments of these activists if he was aware of them.

In any case, we are still likely to value and respect the contribution of our social work schools but look down on the Venezuelan educational system.  It does not take much thought once you read these two reports to see that we need to examine our assumptions.  The parallels between the two systems are striking even though they are not exactly the same.  We allow the roots of hypocrisy to grow if we do not critique ourselves through the experience of others.

Open Season on Secrets

Navy Times (27 Aug 07)

Spy stories abounded during the cold war, and the object was often to obtain information that is now readily available on the Internet, sometimes unintentionally because we are still just getting used to the implications of our relatively new online environment and have not yet figured out how to protect what most of us believe is our right to privacy. 

As this article from the NAVY TIMES reminds us, “Global information companies such as Google and Microsoft provide millions of regular folks a bird’s-eye view of everything from U.S. military installations to their very own backyards - sometimes with incredible detail.”

What recently alarmed military officials was that the image of a submarine with its top secret propeller blades clearly visible appeared on Microsoft’s mapping tool, Virtual Earth, the week before this article was published.  This is considered a highly sensitive national secret that has been kept hidden for decades; and the blades are supposed to be covered with tarps when they are out of the water.  But here they are now displayed on the Internet for the whole world to see!  Somebody forgot the tarps.  They probably didn’t think anybody would notice.

When first reading this article, I could not help but thinking of Moses so many years ago when he began to act on his insurrectionist impulses.  He looked around to see if there was anyone watching - presumably anyone who would squeal - and thinking the coast was clear, he killed the slave driver who was abusing his people.  For all practical purposes there was very little privacy in ancient times, but of course there were Israelite slaves around, so of course there was at least one witness.   We can all identify with moments of looking around to see if anyone is observing us, as well as having what we thought was personal becoming a public matter.  Moses thought nobody important would notice; but Pharaoh found out and he had to escape Egypt.

In those ancient times there was safety in always being seen; and survival was rooted in family and community life.  Only nighttime offered a degree of solitude, but that came at the price of fear.  On the other hand, the imposition of stark darkness at nighttime without artificial light allowed more time for meditation.

As people continued to reproduce and fill the earth, developments in technology, trade, and urbanization brought people into ever more closer living arrangements until in our present day we no longer experience greater community, but rather greater anonymity.  Artificial light has allowed us to extend our busy-ness to the point that we are sleep-deprived.  We are an increasingly urban society, though we still have strong rural roots. When too many people live too close together and then change locations frequently, there is no realistic way to develop the kind of intimate community where people personally know and understand very many of their neighbors (if they even see them on a regular basis).  We have come to assume that we have a great deal of privacy and anonymity, but we are discovering that now even our identity can be stolen without our knowledge.

This story of satellite surveillance also reminds us that we are always exposed to God’s surveillance.  We always knew that, but we never quite imagined hard copy photographs being available at the last judgment!  We don’t often think about the amount of video surveillance that goes on in the name of crime control, but we ought to have figured out by now - through the long period of Christendom, when virtually everyone in Europe believed they were being watched by God and would be disciplined or punished by God if they sinned - that threats of judgment and punishment did not significantly prevent crime in the past.  Apparently video cameras are not doing any better in today’s post-Christian world.  At least the additional appeal of God’s love draws us toward a higher and stronger motivation for our pursuits than the fear of punishment ever could inspire, though I must admit that the possibility of being exposed as a useless person on the last day gets my attention - that’s not a punishment, but not something you would look forward to, either.

We must all give account to God.  Our main choice is whether we want to put it all off till later; or whether we will settle matters now through self-examination so we can look forward to that meeting with a sense of hopeful expectation.  When we judge ourselves, we are exercising our minds according to what God desires if we make use of the resources he has given us in making those judgments.  That is what spiritual living is according to the Apostle Paul.