Larry D. Lauer

When a major crisis occurs somewhere in the world, news organizations send their top reporters to cover it.

Ukraine is a good example. Many reporters feel it’s important have Ukraine on their resume.

This is called herding. The result is that other important news events often are underreported.

Competition, staffing problems, faulty polling research, are the ways herding can be explained.

Budget problems can cause news organizations to cut staff which usually limits their reporting capacity.

Herding therefore might explain why so many news organization predicted a major Republican “red wave.” As we all know, this predicted wave was much smaller than reported.

News media herding happens when an event somewhere in the world is powerful enough to compel the news media’s and the public’s attention.

Living your passion is the best pathway to happiness.

First clarify your passion, and then make living it your primary resolution for 2023.

If you exercise your passion in a group, it’s important to understand the realities of organizational politics.

There are managers who will make those acting out their passion feel persecuted.

There are those who will become jealous of those with a passion… as they achieve notoriety outside the organization.

But even in the midst of hostilities, resolve to stay positive, offer help when you can, and stay focused on your passion.

People’s behavior will often make you angry. Even so, in the end your success will let you know you were right.

So, resolve to make happiness happen in 2023…live your passion and beyond!

Christmas for me has always been a time for reflection.

This Christmas, I have been reflecting on college teaching as a profession… and my experiences over the years.

It was a fascinating realization that I was a student all my life and never considered becoming a teacher… until graduate school.

It was there that I discovered Marshall McLuhan’s book, Understanding Media… and my subject-matter quickly became “media revolutions, and how they were changing everything.”

As a teacher’s assistant, I quickly found that the best teachers were those living and growing with their subject-matter.

I also found that teaching this way would mean I would never teach the same class in the same way twice.

My 2022 Christmas reflections made me very happy. I chose to become a college teacher living my subject-matter… and this is why “living your subject-matter (or your passion)” could become your pathway to happiness in 2023

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The education of journalists and opinion writers should include a good measure of historical and philosophical context.

For example, Machiavelli sometimes is believed to have been an autocrat. But other philosophers pointed out that he was a fairly balanced political thinker. He no doubt believed in very strong leadership, but was probably not advocating autocracy.

Francis Bacon followed his father into politics, where corruption at the time was everywhere. Charged with corruption his political career ended when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Even so, he is still remembered for his belief that “knowledge is power.”

Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were interested in politics but they chose to focus more on teaching politicians about philosophy.

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke believed that rational thinking came only from direct experience. Our mind is a complete “blank slate” when we are born.

Karl Marx believed in socialism and wanted to bring about rapid social and political change. He was not a communist, as many believe.

Existentialists simply believe that each individual develops his or her own philosophy, which usually includes elements of both religion and philosophy.

Some of our founding fathers actually read classical philosophy. You can find it right there in the Declaration of Independence.

Maybe the world really does need more “philosopher kings!”

When people discover that my undergraduate major was philosophy, their response often is something like, “Oh that really explains a lot.” Maybe so, but here is my explanation of how media, politics, and philosophy shapes my thinking even today.

For example, Plato was born into one of Athens’ politically influential families. After his true mentor Socrates was executed, Plato decided to dedicate his life to philosophy. He established his “Academy” which set out to educate and train politicians in philosophy.

This is why “media revolutions change everything” is a fundamental philosophical and political idea. If social media was available to Plato, there is no doubt that he would have explored both its’ positive and negative implications for Athens.

For Plato, knowledge was about truth, beauty, and virtue… and so it came to the world from a much higher authority.

In addition, Plato describes the ideal community in his Republic as harnessing people’s desires and talents for the greater good of the whole. Rulers, he argues, must therefore become philosophers… even Philosopher-Kings.

Plato saw an Athens “in decay,” and therefore, many of his ideas about leadership and community are clearly relevant for us today.

Pandemic and other social changes are causing parents and students to rethink the value of a college education.

The high price of some universities and the need for costly student loans are causing a great deal of rethinking about benefits.

Lower cost community colleges, transferring later to universities, and job training institutes, are becoming possible alternatives.

In addition, politically extreme trustees and alumni are working to influence curriculum at some institutions, causing these institutions to lose some of their appeal for many people.

Professors with controversial ideas are feeling that academic freedom is being threatened, and elect early retirement or leave the academic profession.

Budget pressures also can result in widespread incentives to retire early.

Teaching face-to-face vs. on-line teaching is also being debated… with some professors thinking that their subject-matter works just fine on-line…others think otherwise.

What to do with over-built facilities is also an issue in some institutions, especially with many staff able to work from home.

As a result, part-time or adjunct faculty (often less academically prepared) are being hired to replace full-time professors with traditional permanent (usually called tenure-track) positions.

While reducing costs, this will usually reduce the number of significant research activities… a traditional feature of most important universities.

Athletic visibility and television contracts can now become important for both student recruiting and income.

Did you ever have the opportunity to work for a person who was also a truly remarkable human being? I did. He brought me on to his staff as the “communication guy,” but I never imagined how much I would learn about communication from him.

Whenever I was struggling with a project he would say, “come sit with me.” I quickly learned that sitting with him really meant collaboration. We would sit silently until one of us was motivated to say something. Words really mattered to him and so I would always take away substantive ideas about how to proceed.

One day he asked me to help promote the tennis center, a passion he shared with then trustee chair Bayard Friedman. Another time he asked me to help John Roach with a booster organization following the collapse of the Southwest Conference. I found that “sitting” and collaborating with Friedman and Roach worked just as well as it did with Tucker.

After publishing a few articles about institutional communication, I had a publisher approach me about writing a book. I asked Tucker’s administrative assistant to schedule some time to talk with him about it. He quickly said if you are asking for time off to write a book, the answer is NO! But if you are asking if I think you should write that book my answer is YES.” I followed by inviting other authors to “sit and collaborate” with me about finding find my own approach to writing books. Once again, sitting and collaborating worked.

One day he came down to my office and asked if I was happy. I said how nice it was that he came to check on how well I was doing. But he reacted by saying “if you’re happy it’s bad. That usually means we are in a crisis”. I could not bring myself to tell him that I was always terrified when we were facing a crisis. But I must admit that I did enjoy “sitting with him” to find our best approach and language.

I never wrote his speeches. But one time I caught him putting some notes on the back of an envelope. He then proceeded to reward his audience with truly profound remarks. Profound, brief, and almost poetic language was his amazing strength. I tried to emulate this, but eventually came to realize that no one really could.

I was Chancellor Tucker’s communication guy, but I learned more about my subject-matter from him than I ever imagined I would. He was a master communicator, inspiring leader, and a truly wonderful human being.

1. Leaving Afghanistan too quickly… a missed opportunity to brand himself as tough with compassion
2. Not having a plan to protect the gains made by women and other U.S. supporters in Afghanistan
3. Not visiting the Mexican border with his Vice President to deal face-to-face with his critics
4. Not putting in place a clear pathway to citizenship for all immigrants
5. Making the Pandemic and boosters his primary priority… causing him to miss other timely issues
6. Not dealing with right-to-life exceptions soon enough… the consequences of repealing Roe v. Wade
7. Relying too much on gas price reductions when food price increases became the big inflation issue
8. Waiting too long to address Trump’s shortcomings head-on
9. Looking too tired on TV… when his age was becoming a verbalized concern
10. Failing to prepare a successor from his political party

Climate change and extreme politics have come together to bring us frightfully dangerous times.

Choosing “political party over country” has been the result of political polarization in Washington.

Gaining power and keeping it now has become the primary political objective of politics today.

The Supreme Court has now become totally political… and a complete champion of states’ rights.

As a result, the party in power in most states is passing extreme laws… about the right to bear arms, right to life, and reshaping districts to make it almost impossible for the party in power to lose an election.

Social media are also fueling hate groups… paving the way for autocrats, dictators, and increased violence. Some even talk of a social media-inspired civil war.

Verbal assaults on police and the FBI are producing threats of violent attacks on them… and their families.

These are extremely dangerous times.

Once power has been gained, the objective became to keep it no matter what.

1. Media revolutions changed everything… most especially politics.
2. Politics has now become a game with all new rules.
3. The Republican Party has fine-tuned playing this game.
4. Winning and holding on to power became the only objective, no matter one’s personal beliefs.
5. Personal integrity and traditional party ideology are now fading away.
6. Democrats, focused on internal party disagreements, have been criticized for not playing this game more skillfully.
7. This game will likely lead to an autocratic government… and along with it the end of fair elections and American democracy.

Politics today has become a game with new rules that require saying whatever it takes to win and hold on to power, whether its true or not.