(Cheap talk, Games of Chicken and winning with Truth)

Harvard’s motto is Veritas – truth. It’s been defended by a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes (father of the Supreme Court Justice) in a long-lost Diversity, Equity and Inclusion battle of the 19th Century, as the original motto “Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae” (which had been shortened to exclude the Veritas and simply use the “for Christ and church”) was reversed to focus instead on the more inclusive and secular Veritas. I’ve put the poems here so you can see the sentiments that drove the return to truth:

Two Sonnets: Harvard
At the meeting of the New York Harvard Club,
February 21, 1878.

"CHRISTO ET ECCLESLE." 1700

To GOD'S ANOINTED AND HIS CHOSEN FLOCK
So ran the phrase the black-robed conclave chose
To guard the sacred cloisters that arose
Like David's altar on Moriah's rock.
Unshaken still those ancient arches mock
The ram's-horn summons of the windy foes
Who stand like Joshua's army while it blows
And wait to see them toppling with the shock.
Christ and the Church. Their church, whose narrow door
Shut out the many, who if overbold
Like hunted wolves were driven from the fold,
Bruised with the flails these godly zealots bore,
Mindful that Israel's altar stood of old
Where echoed once Araunah's threshing-floor.


1643 "VERITAS." 1878

TRUTH: So the frontlet's older legend ran,
On the brief record's opening page displayed;
Not yet those clear-eyed scholars were afraid
Lest the fair fruit that wrought the woe of man
By far Euphrates--where our sire began
His search for truth, and, seeking, was betrayed--
Might work new treason in their forest shade,
Doubling the curse that brought life's shortened span.
Nurse of the future, daughter of the past,
That stern phylactery best becomes thee now
Lift to the morning star thy marble brow
Cast thy brave truth on every warring blast!
Stretch thy white hand to that forbidden bough,
And let thine earliest symbol be thy last!

Today, they are standing up against the threats from the current administration to severely curtail their federal funding – in all, $9 billion is at stake, with consequences for the community beyond the ivy walls. Having watched Columbia’s recent capitulation, humiliation, and apparent loss of both funds and sovereignty, they will try to resist. Let’s hope this provides a mechanism and incentive for the many other schools threatened already for one reason or another – or who will be threatened – to stand up for academic freedom, the advancement of science, and future generations of Americans and global citizens.

The school has a $53 billion dollar endowment pulled together from rich alumni, strong market performance in recent decades, and non-profit tax status. While certainly of the elite, what they do with the money does touch many lives, locally and globally. The website has been revamped in the fight to explain this, and help people see directly the connections between federal funding and their individual and collective well-being.

The administration only seems to understand zero sum games – ones with winners and losers that cancel each other out. The threats they have been putting out there during this second term, however, are not zero sum. They are worse; they are games of chicken. On everything from tariffs to universities and law firms, these games of chicken have high, high stakes that are resulting in serious lose-lose outcomes. We are all overwhelmed by the difference between the 45 and 47 administrations – the complete capitulation of most of Congress, the Supreme Court, the law firms, universities, and so on. The loss of respect on the world stage. The loss of private capital and public infrastructure and knowledge. 47’s confidence in its control of the other two branches of government as well as his mafia-style have moved us from the cheap talk of the 45 administration – where there was a lot of what ended up as inconsequential bluster – to this new much more frightening set of games. The rapid and widespread capitulations have been in response to the avoidance of the worst lose-lose outcomes, as summed up in Columbia’s statements claiming ‘active dialogue’ rather than the clear efforts at appeasement.

But these chicken games are worse than one-on-one battles; effects are correlated. Harvard’s resistance may even be giving Columbia and others a bit more spine. Recent days confirm the administration’s shoelaces are tied to the accelerator and they are willing to go over legal, constitutional, financial, and moral cliffs to hear the MAGA cheers. We need to find ways to cling to Truth while they go right on over. We can see for example that countries like China and Canada, retaliating against tariffs, are smart enough to try to target MAGA supporters if possible. Which brings us to our actual poem of the day, and a little John Maynard Keynes to introduce it: “In the long run we are all dead.” But in the meantime, fight for and with truth because the lies will fail. 

Magna Est Veritas

Here, in this little Bay,
Full of tumultuous life and great repose,
Where, twice a day,
The purposeless, glad ocean comes and goes,
Under high cliffs, and far from the huge town,
I sit me down.
For want of me the world's course will not fail:
When all its work is done, the lie shall rot;
The truth is great, and shall prevail,
When none cares whether it prevail or not.

                                        Coventry Patmore

Cover image credit: “Cliffs of Moher in fog” (AKA The Cliffs of Insanity) by Lachlan & Marline is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.