Public peace intellectuals

Where are they?

Who are they?

Why didn’t they keep us out of war?

Can they do better?

4/29/2020 Concerned Philosophers for Peace 2007 conference Manchester College Tom H. Hastings PeaceVoice 1

Public intellectuals

By a public intellectual, I mean someone who uses general ideas drawn from history, philosophy, political science, economics, law, literature, ideas that are part of the cultural intellectual tradition of the world, to address contemporary events, usually of a political or ideological flavor, and does so in the popular media, whether in the form of Op Ed pieces, television appearances, signing full-page advertisements, or writing magazine articles or books addressed to a general audience.

—Richard A. Posner 4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 2 of 33

Public philosophy?

American politics lacks an animating vision of the good society, and of the shared obligations of citizenship.

—Michael Sandel 4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 3 of 33

Peace philosophy

Schools of philosophy call for the Sandelist communitarian view, the Rawlsian individual rights liberalism, with principled arguments over fairness, economic justice, human rights, the person and the society and so forth and so on—where is the argument for nonviolent conflict management? Who is making the argument that peace is a human right? Why isn’t this even on the scoreboard?

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 4 of 33

Where are peace intellectuals?

•Peace and Justice Studies Association •Concerned Philosophers for Peace •Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies •Peace and Conflict Studies Consortium •International Peace Research Association •various other academic peace sections in disciplines •peace and justice institutes •nongovernmental organizations •independent peace scholars

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 5 of 33

Why didn’t they keep us out of war?

Silent enim leges inter arma—In war, the law is silent, said Cicero in 52 B.C. So, it would seem, were the peace scholars as the Bush administration sold the invasion of Iraq to the American electorate. Were peace professors afraid? Discouraged? Disempowered? Doing something else more important? Were we simply overwhelmed and not competent enough to stand effectively against lies, faulty thinking, ahistorical claims and shrill fearmongering? Or is there a vast media conspiracy that rejects our writing, our thinking, our peace analysis and our right to explain it publicly?

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 6 of 33

What good is your voice?

There is little evidence that public intellectuals are highly influential. If this is right, there is little payoff to the public as a whole in becoming well informed about the limitations of academic expertise and even less to an individual member of the public; a single individual’s opinion on an issue of public moment is unlikely to be influential— which is why voters tend to be poorly informed about such issues.

—Richard A. Posner 4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 7 of 33

The uniformed electorate

Is Posner correct? Is the lack of influence by one public intellectual the reason voters are ill-informed? Or could it be that voters are overwhelmed with the incessant drum of the Big Lie and the endless drone of the master narrative of the war system?

Careful, careful danger near!

We will tell you whom to fear.

Whom to loathe and whom to hate and when we must retaliate!

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 8 of 33

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 9 of 33

Who reads your opinion?

Op-eds serve as an inexpensive way to get your message out to the public, and are quite often read by decision makers and opinion leaders.

—The Communications Network 4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 10 of 33

•hostile media •incompetent writing •discouraged writers •time issues

Problems

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 11 of 33

Hostile media

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 12 of 33

Boring writing

Public-intellectual goods are entertainment goods and solidarity goods as well as information goods.

—Richard Posner 4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 13 of 33

Size matters

In the op-ed world, like the spy game, smaller is better. Actually, precision is best. If you write a piece 500 words long and send it to a paper that wants 700 words, you won’t get it placed. Most papers seem to prefer 500 700 words, but it varies widely.

4/29/2020 Don’t make the editor cut it.

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 14 of 33

Time issues

Good morning! Time to finish grading papers for your 2 p.m. class so you can make your 8 a.m. meeting with the Chair, the 9 a.m. Retention committee meeting, the 10 a.m.-noon advising sessions, the working lunch with the conference committee, the 1 p.m. faculty meeting...

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 15 of 33

And now, how?

•establish expertise •bootstrap from your credentials into various media •be persistent •be fresh •be timely •be focused •target markets with a market-specific hook •take a position •stress exclusivity •think over the horizon Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 16 of 33

Establish and use your expertise

A timely, well-written and provocative piece can establish the writer as an expert on a particular topic.

—DePaul University Media Relations 4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 17 of 33

Leverage and be dependable

Use your credentials to assist your marketability into print pages, which can sometimes in turn result in other media interest. “Newspaper editors and broadcasting producers regularly read the Op-Ed pages of national newspapers when seeking experts on particular subjects. Op-Ed editors also solicit pieces from writers with whom they have established a relationship or people with expertise on topics in the news.” —DePaul University Media Relations 4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 18 of 33

Be persistent

If your Op-Ed is rejected at one publication, don’t be discouraged.

—DePaul University Media Relations 4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 19 of 33

Discouraged writers

When being interviewed by a young writer, Pearl Buck mentioned some rejection and the young woman said, “But you don’t get rejected. You’re Pearl Buck.” Pearl Buck replied, “Young woman, I am a writer. I get rejections.” 4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 20 of 33

Keep it in perspective

The Good Earth

fourteen times, but it went on to win a Pulitzer Prize.

Norman Mailer’s by Pearl S. Buck was returned

The Naked and the Dead

was rejected twelve times.

Twenty publishers felt that Richard Bach’s

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

was for the birds.

Before he wrote

Roots

, Alex Haley had received 200 rejections.

Robert Persig's classic,

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

, couldn’t get started at 121 houses.

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 21 of 33

Be fresh, original, and contrarian

An original point of view…will also make your piece stand out.…A point of view contrary to prevailing public opinion or the newspaper’s editorial position will also greatly improve your placement chances.

—DePaul University Media Relations

Be timely, controversial, but not outrageous. Be the voice of reason.

—John McLain, McLain Communications 4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 22 of 33

Focus

The single most important piece of advice I can offer is to make your column about one thing. Only one thing.…Try to say what you want to say in a headline. If you can’t phrase your main point in six or eight words, you probably need to do more thinking.

—Glenn Kranzley, Editor, The Morning Call Comment Pages 4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 23 of 33

Target and hook

If you want your piece published in a specific market, target it. Do you wish to write to the decisionmakers in Eugene, Oregon? Mention something or someone that connects obviously to Eugene. Read the Register-Guard. Do they like 700 words? Write between 690-710. Show them something that none of them could have written. Work on the peg, the hook, the angle. Think globally, write locally.

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 24 of 33

Take a position

An op-ed is not an essay, something that slowly unrolls like a carpet, building momentum to some point or conclusion. It’s just the opposite. In an op-ed, you essentially state your conclusion first. You make your strongest point up front, then spend the rest of the op-ed making your case, or back-filling with the facts. Don’t equivocate. Educate your readers without being preachy.

—John McLain, McLain Communications 4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 25 of 33

Stress exclusivity

Editors want to be the first to publish any piece. The more content of their paper that is original to them, the better. This is becoming a different world now that we have blogs. If you really want to convince an editor that your piece is original and exclusive, stress that you are holding back from publishing electronically until you have a decision from that editor. Otherwise, be honest about blogging your piece and never ever offer an already printed piece as exclusive; always be forthright will all editors.

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 26 of 33

Think over the horizon

Anticipate anniversaries, seasonal news, pending legislation and threatening wars. Be accurate in your facts and assertions. Speculate conservatively but backed by the facts and precedent. Have a nose for what is going to be news and show editors you can get something to her or him first.

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 27 of 33

Write tight and argue actively

Find, sort, examine, try out, polish, and use active verbs (like this sentence). Skip the boring, hyperbolic, leading, substitute-for-facts-and-research adjectives and adverbs (unlike this sentence).

“Near the end, clearly re-state your position and issue a call to action.”

—John McLain, McLain Communications 4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 28 of 33

PeaceVoice

You are still in the bind of time. It takes time to compose and polish an op-ed. It takes time and fiddling around to look for an outlet.

That is the advantage of PeaceVoice, a project of the Oregon Peace Institute. We are funded by an Oregonian family foundation to be your free op-ed literary agent. You write; we strive to place it for you.

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 29 of 33

PeaceVoice operates for you

Write your 400-700 word commentary and send it to [email protected]

across the U.S. If one of them send your full text to them exclusively. If that editor uses can freely reprint. . We will in turn send a teaser of your piece to hundreds of editors asks to see the entire piece, we your piece, we then move the full text to our website and any editor

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 30 of 33

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 31 of 33

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 32 of 33

Go public!

Someone needs to speak up...

4/29/2020

Public peace intellectuals: Tom H. Hastings, [email protected], http://www.peacevoice.info/ 33 of 33