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CSUDH Habermas UWP

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: May 6, 2001
Latest update: May 6, 2001
jeannecurran@habermas.org

Civil War: All for One and None for You By Neal Gabler, Week in Review, May 6, 2001, New York Times. backuup

Neal Gabler points out the general yearning to end some of the hostility, even in politics. This, says Gabler, is working to Bush's advantage, for the President smiles, shakes hands, and speaks in the name of getting along. But, in reality, the President has been unrelenting in following his own very conservative agenda, which definitely favors the corporate world. Gabler suggests that as long as the visual impression and the general sound-bite impression is one of congeniality and collegiality, the public is untroubled. We used to call this "lip-service" to an ideal. And it goes to right to the heart of ethics and integrity.

Read the article, and consider our discussions of trust and how hard it is to come by. Consider the sense of disrespect one feels when one finds that a leader has not acted as he/she has spoken. I'd like us to do a sociodrama in which we try to establish trust under the situation described by Gabler.