Edward Trezise, University of Gloucestershire
In a review (Leith, 2007) of Oliver James’s latest book ‘Affluenza: How to Be Successful and Stay Sane’, James explains why in his view ‘we are all f****d up’ – this is because of what he calls ‘Selfish Capitalism’ or the Affluenza of the title. This is a ‘virus’ that spreads throughout affluent countries and affects our mental health. In the view of Erich Fromm we have moved from a state of “being” to a state of “having.” James sees modern education as “little better than a systematic method of spreading the virus’. Substantial research evidence suggests that a social addiction to materialism has led to a variety of problems (Kashyap et al, 2006, p369). Various authors (e.g. Giacalone and Thompson, 2006) suggest that one of the worst offenders of promoting this materialism is the University Business School; and the teaching of Management Ethics and (Corporate) Social Responsibility, in particular. Recent corporate scandals have proved to be a damming indictment of business education, with several executives from Enron and WorldCom having MBAs. The educational problems appear to be one of pedagogy, politics and ideology – how can we (re) sensitize our students – shift from the ‘purely’ material goals to restore the balance of our health and planet – can we beat the ‘virus’? One theory that may help is postmaterialism, (Inglehart, 1997) which focuses on the beliefs and values ‘and traits that are associated with the best of the human condition – forgiveness, hope, altruism, gratitude, benevolence, transcendence (see Cameron and Dutton and Quinn, 2004). The materialism and the ‘virus’ it spreads are situated in the Messianic Times where we are not only harming ourselves, but also the planet with ecological disasters and the threat/reality of Global Warming (Catastrophe): we are tasked with taking responsibility for ourselves, and the world. The philosopher most closely associated with the ethics of responsibility and the idea of ‘hope’ and ‘transcendence’ is Emmual Levinas. Even his first work (On Escape, 1935) Levinas refers to a certain Weltenschauung, between human beings and the world a “bourgeois spirit and its philosophy” that champions the self-reliant self as manifested in the triumph of the will, effort work, imperialism and capitalism. This lack of morality is “shameful”
The aim of this paper is to explore Levinas’s ideas of time, responsibility, and ethics within the context of these messianic times and the teaching of Management Ethics and Social Responsibility within Universities, so as to suggest how the/a future may be both possible and desirable/ethical.