E-publish or perish

John O'Brien (JOBRIEN@UCS.INDIANA.EDU)
Thu, 16 Jun 1994 15:56:48 EST

Read makes a good point about my post, the implication of capriciousness -
which is NOT what I had in mind . . . yet the funding, downsizing problem
is one of politics never-the-less . . . even though the shortfall is
quite real. Please understand that I am making reference to decades of
political decisions about the allocation of resources (many of which were
obviously the wrong decision, if we are to believe the results that we
face). Personally, I can never forget the transition from Gov. Regan in
Calif. to Gov. Brown some years ago, and the sudden shift from statements
of State poverty to the discovery of a surplus in the State treasury that
was disbursed to the population of the State.

Politics . . . yes, when you consider one University in the mid-west reduced
faculty FTE's at the same time that several $100,000.oo per year administrative
positions were allocated and hired.

Politics . . . yes, in the sense that today's politician and administrator
(as well as those of the past) ride the budget reduction, balancing tide
at the expense of the academy . . . because we cannot collectively show
our `value' over the long run.

Yes, D.R. . . . I believe that politics are much of the problem . . . but
not everything is politics as a locus of prime cause for human behavior. And
politics in this society is based on both the power and influence of organized
groups, as well as the general perceptions of what is left of our voting
population . . .

It just seems to me that the social sciences, for all of its real knowledge
about power and politics and human live . . . have done an incredibly and
almost unbelievably non-job for promoting the value of our own case and
needs over the last thirty years.

I think, like D.R., I have become stunned by watching the national equivalent
of early 1960's $19,000 house in Topanga Canyon become $1,000,000 plus pieces
of real estate . . . and $75.00 a month rents become $500.oo dollar a month
over the span of a few short years, . . . where much of the change (it can
be argued) was politically caused.

Capricious behaviors . . . NO, for the most part . . . NO. That wasn't my
intended implication . . .

John