The art of closing minds

In 1982, philosopher and classicist Allan Bloom rocked the academic establishment with an essay in National Review about the failure of universities to serve the needs of students.

Five years later he expanded the artyicle into a book, Closing of the American Mind, which became an unexpected bestseller, according to Wikipedia, and sold close to half a million copies in hardback. It remained at the top of the New York Times Non-fiction Best Seller list for four months. The Wikipedia entry goes on:

Bloom's criticism revolves around his belief that the "great books" of Western thought have been devalued as a source of wisdom. Bloom's critique extends beyond the university to speak to the general crisis in American society. Closing of the American Mind draws analogies between the United States and the Weimar Republic. The modern liberal philosophy, he says, enshrined in the Enlightenment thought of John Locke – that a just society could be based upon self-interest alone, coupled by the emergence of relativism in American thought – had led to this crisis.

He goes on to criticise modern culture:

Pop music employs sexual images and language to enthral the young and to persuade them that their petty rebelliousness is authentic politics, when, in fact, they are being controlled by the money-managers whom successful performers like [Rolling Stone Mick] Jagger quietly serve.

One of Bloom’s supporters, fellow conservative Norman Podhoretz, noted in his defence that

the closed-mindedness in the title refers to the paradoxical consequence of the academic "open mind" found in liberal political thought – namely "the narrow and intolerant dogmatism" that dismisses any attempt, by Plato or the Hebrew Bible for example, to provide a rational basis for moral judgments.

The mogul Murdoch
All of this came back to me when reading the AUT student journalists’ paper Te Waha Nui and one particular writer’s obsession with Rupert Murdoch. So much so that she spent a day trying to boycott him, an idea prompted by a Twitter and Facebook campaign at the height of the phone-hacking affair (now the fuss has died has anything changed, has the sky fallen, has anyone else died?).

Even National Public Radio in the US, hardly a friend of the Murdoch media empire, thought it dumb – mainly because it listed a series of things for which we should thank Mr Murdoch.

It included:
• Watching Fox and Searchlight films such as Black Swan and Cannes Festival-winner The Tree of Life or downloading from Hulu;
• Watching the National Geographic channel (or in New Zealand almost any TV worth looking at from Russia’s English language TV through to the new Soho channel that will show all the top BBC and HBO programmes (for see below);
• Reading the Wall Street Journal, The Times and anything published by HarperCollins (including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit); and
• Attending or watching basketball (in the US), rugby league (Australian and New Zealand), rugby (everywhere).

That a journalism course should entertain such a boycott shows the accuracy of Bloom’s warning. I was therefore not surprised that the NZ Media Ownership Report 2011, now published by AUT’s Centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy (JMAD), blames most of the evils in the world on overseas dominance of local newspapers, radio and TV (TVNZ excepted).

The document, which runs to nearly 30 pages, quotes stories and columnists, such as John Drinnan, that back its arguments while ignoring those that don’t – such as whether the NZPA will be missed (I, for one, don’t mourn it and think the daily newspapers are the better for it).

[Disclosure: The report contains one brief negative mention of the NBR’s “pay wall” based on old 2009 data; we last issued up-to-date figures in July.]

Emmy’s plug for Sky
If proof was needed, this year Emmy’s outshone the Oscars as an indication that the quality of TV drama is rising as fast as TVNZ shuns it.

Hence the need for Mr Murdoch’s Sky TV, about the only place where you can watch the likes of perennial winner Mad Men and series such as Boardwalk Empire, for which Martin Scorsese received the directing award.

Sky’s new highbrow channel, Soho, will have many of the other Emmy’s winners: Game of Thrones, Mildred Pierce, Downton Abbey, Boardwalk Empire and no doubt The Kennedys.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the Brits are providing The Hour and The Shadow Line. If you haven’t heard of these, read “The new age of British drama,” an Independent article that mentions 30 top TV dramas that may be coming our way, Sky and Soho willing.

If not, I will be asking John Fellet why.

A KiwiSaver scheme for health?
Politicians injected more than the usual amount of spark into annual Healthcare Summit in Auckland this week.

Delegates are always faced with the conundrum of rising demand and costs in the face of ever-tightening budgets (though the public health spend keeps taking up a bigger share of the budget).

Act's Don Brash got off the mark early with his outline of a KiwiSaver-style account for healthcare – an idea that should have appeal but probably won’t be mentioned anytime up to and during the election campaign.

Labour's Grant Robertson impressed with an undertaking that his party's policies would be evidence-based, while United"s Peter Dunne revealed how IT was making it possible for pharmacies to receive prescriptions by email, give flu injections and dispense other basic medical services.

ACC Minister Nick Smith pointed to further changes that should give employers a better deal. Already the accredited employer scheme is reducing claims and costs; it is proposed to widen this to smaller businesses.

An independent claims resolution service and a regulator are on the way, as well as an IT-based single claims service. Mr Smith likens the extension of private provision to that of broadcasting, where the state retained some services while allowing the private sector to compete on an equal basis.

“This is how I respond to claims it amounts to privatisation. ACC will always remain the basic provider; it creates a healthy tension that is good for both sectors,” he says.

I responded that the same model might be used to resolve the insurance impasse in Christchurch, where the state may have to step in as last-resort provider.