9/18/2023 0 Comments Life choices cheats![]() ![]() It's so easy, and it's so tempting in a crunch to jump on the Internet to grab somebody else's work. The Internet makes it infinitely easier to plagiarize, and plagiarism is now the biggest form of cheating. It is commonly assumed that technology is what's behind more cheating going on these days. According to surveys, between two-thirds and three quarters of high school and university students admit to some cheating within the past year. And I learned that cutting corners was starting earlier. I learned that the problem of steroids in major league baseball and other sports is worse now than ever before. I learned that many people lie about their credentials and, indeed, that half of all résumés contain lies. ![]() That's 6% of our GDP! I learned that ethics of many doctors - the professionals we trust more than any others - are not what they should be, and that pharmaceutical companies often use money and gifts to tempt doctors to prescribe this or that drug, neglecting the interests of their patients. I found out that tax evasion has more than doubled in the past decade - soaring to over $345 billion a year! I learned that employee theft was the single biggest form of crime in the United States - $600 billion a year in employee theft. I also learned out that there was much more cheating by ordinary Americans than you might expect. I learned that the greed and dishonesty in corporate America of recent years has been worse than anything we've seen since the Robber Barons of 100 years ago, and that the scandals involved not just a few bad apples in a few rogue companies, but dozens of respected companies, investment banks, and law firms. I've learned a lot of things that I would have preferred not to know. And since these scandals, I've been researching, writing, and speaking about the ethics of Americans. And, in fact, Ken Lay is on trial right now for his evident complicity in the Enron meltdown. I started writing this book a few years ago when the corporate scandals involving Enron and WorldCom exploded onto the headlines. If we can make America's campuses operate more fairly and more honestly, we've taken a big step in the right direction.īefore saying more about this, though, let me say a bit about The Cheating Culture. For anyone interested in making this country a better place, these issues of integrity are actually a pretty good place to start. ![]() As I see it, widespread student cheating is connected to a much bigger crisis around ethics and fairness in America. In fact, they are rarely even a great faculty cause. Now, I can say with some certainty that issues such as cheating and academic integrity have rarely been a great student cause. And often these efforts start at universities, with students working for change and also trying to build, on our campuses, a microcosm of the kind of society they would like to see. It is usually the next generation coming up that has the idealism and energy to overturn the status quo. But I very much doubt that such change will come from the older generations that hold power now. While the Cheating Culture spotlights many disturbing facts about greed and deceit and cynicism, and about good people doing things they really shouldn't be doing, I'm optimistic that this culture is not here to stay and that we will again see a society that is more honest and more fair than now. One of the best results of this book has been getting invited to speak to students. It's really struck a nerve! I suppose that's because there's quite a bit of cheating these days. But this book about The Cheating Culture has been different. You know, I've written a number of books, but I'll confess: Most of the other ones sank without a trace and nobody paid any attention as seems to happen to so many authors. His concrete suggestions for leveling the playing field and resisting the cheating culture are a challenge to college students to "Be the change you want to see in the world". He is optimistic about the potential for a more fair, more honest society based on equal opportunity and rewards for those who work hard, dream big, and push forward. His message to students is that change is on the way. He explains the three great forces driving the cheating culture, and he questions whether people really want to live in a society characterized by a panoply of cheating behaviors. On Campus: Author Discusses the "Cheating Culture" With College StudentsĮ-mail: a recent discussion with college students, David Callahan probed the "dark side of American life", the cheating culture which has taken root in business, sports, academe and other areas of American society. ![]()
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