Congratulation to OG&B on its newest endeavor, UNMASKED.
The podcast on the Eudaimonia
Institute was excellent. My compliments to Melissa Libutti, Heather Hartel and Emily Eisert

From its earliest days Wake embraced academic
freedom. Evolution was taught, “dangerous”
thoughts were debated, and later long time relationships were broken to foster
academic freedom. Now, unfortunately, Wake allows organizations to not only donate but to pick the instructor
and text of the Eudaimonia
Institute. While the contract with Wake Forest University was not disclosed,
the contract resulted in the creation of a Moral Foundations of Capitalism
(MFOC) center, a MFOC course, a MFOC
speaker series, faculty and staff partially compensated through the contract
payments, and formal distribution of Atlas Shrugged to all undergraduate
business majors.

How exactly did James
Otteson end up as the professor? To
quote from Dark Money, The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the
Rise of the Radical Right he has a close connection to the Koch
organizations, ‘But during another session at the (Koch) summit that June, a
speaker explained to the donors just how
deliberate and politically disarming the term was. James Otteson, a
conservative professor of political economy at Wake Forest University called
it “a game-changer.” In fact, he told the donor group he was
planning to build a “well-being” center at Wake Forest, where he
already was executive director of the BB&T Center for the Study of
Capitalism. One anecdote, he said, illustrated the “power of positive
framing” free market theories as a movement to promote
“well-being”. He recounted
that a colleague whom he described as a prominent “left wing political
scientist” who “rails” against Republicans and capitalism, had
been so entranced by the idea of studying the factors contributing to human
well-being that he had said, “you know, I’d even be willing to take the
Koch money for that.” Upon hearing
this the donors laughed out loud. “Who can be against well-being? The framing is absolutely
critical,” Otteson exclaimed.’
(pages 363-364) And later ‘. As
an example the report profiled the trailblazing record of John Allison, the
former Cato Institute chairman, who had overseen grants to sixty three colleges
while running BB&T bank. All of
these programs were required to teach his favorite philosopher, the celebrator
of self-interest, Ayn Rand….’ (pages 365-365)

Does the study of Ayn Rand promote the
spirit of pro humanitate? It is one
thing to promote free-market ideals ( Friedman and Hayek), quite another to
promote an author who states “It was the morality of altruism
that undercut America and is now destroying her.” Rand also states “Capitalism
and altruism are incompatible; they are philosophical opposites; they cannot
co-exist in the same man or in the same society.” Rand is in violent disagreement with Wake’s heritage, ”
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as
ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done
it unto me.”

It is time to debate if the costs outweigh the benefits of the Eudaimonia
Institute.

Tom Daly ’69

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty [and the price of academic integrity at our universities].

Congratulation to OG&B on its newest endeavor, UNMASKED.
The podcast on the Eudaimonia
Institute was excellent. (https://wfuogb.com/2017/03/is-there-a-price-for-happiness/)

From its earliest days Wake embraced academic freedom. Evolution was taught, “dangerous” thoughts were debated, and later long time relationships were broken to foster academic freedom. Now, unfortunately, Wake allows organizations to not only donate but to pick the instructor
and text of the EudaimoniaInstitute. While the contract with Wake Forest University was not disclosed,the contract resulted in the creation of a Moral Foundations of Capitalism (MFOC) center, a MFOC course, a MFOC
speaker series, faculty and staff partially compensated through the contract
payments, and formal distribution of Atlas Shrugged to all undergraduate
business majors.

How exactly did James Otteson end up as the professor? To
quote from Dark Money, The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the
Rise of the Radical Right, he has a close connection to the Koch
organizations, ‘But during another session at the (Koch) summit that June, a speaker explained to the donors just how deliberate and politically disarming the term was. James Otteson, a conservative professor of political economy at Wake Forest University called it “a game-changer.” In fact, he told the donor group he was planning to build a “well-being” center at Wake Forest, where he
already was executive director of the BB&T Center for the Study of
Capitalism. One anecdote, he said, illustrated the “power of positive
framing” free market theories as a movement to promote”well-being”. He recountedthat a colleague whom he described as a prominent “left wing political scientist” who “rails” against Republicans and capitalism, had
been so entranced by the idea of studying the factors contributing to human
well-being that he had said, “you know, I’d even be willing to take the
Koch money for that.” Upon hearing this the donors laughed out loud. “Who can be against well-being? The framing is absolutelycritical,” Otteson exclaimed.’ (pages 363-364) And later ‘. As an example the report profiled the trailblazing record of John Allison, the former Cato Institute chairman, who had overseen grants to sixty three collegeswhile running BB&T bank. All of
these programs were required to teach his favorite philosopher, the celebrator
of self-interest, Ayn Rand….’ (pages 365-365)
How does the study of Ayn Rand promote the
spirit of pro humanitate? It is one
thing to promote free-market ideals ( Friedman and Hayek), quite another to
promote an author who states “It was the morality of altruism
that undercut America and is now destroying her.” Rand also states “Capitalism
and altruism are incompatible; they are philosophical opposites; they cannot
co-exist in the same man or in the same society.” Rand is in violent disagreement with Wake’s heritage, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as
ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done
it unto me.”
It is time to debate if the costs outweigh the benefits of the Eudaimonia
Institute.

Tom Daly ’69