Today's San Francisco Chronicle contains an op-ed piece by Harold Gilliam in which he laments the changes that have occurred at UC Berkeley. But near the end he puts those changes in a larger context and states very elegantly what we have been feeling for many years:

    "A man is rich," wrote Henry David Thoreau, "in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."

    By that measure, the multibillionaires are the poorest among us. But we don't have to adopt Thoreau's Spartan lifestyle at Walden Pond to recognize that there is much to be said for the moderation of accumulation. Peter Whybrow, a UCLA neuropsychiatrist, in his new book, "American Mania -- Why More Is Not Enough," writes that an insatiable drive for wealth is hardwired into our brains by evolution. Most prehistoric humans lived on the edge of starvation; those who failed to gather as much food as possible did not survive. Those who did became our ancestors. So our genes are telling us to grab all we can. More can never be enough.

    The market conveniently tells us how to indulge that atavistic mania for more. But markets have no conscience. They have no values other than the dollar. And conscience, Whybrow writes, comes not from our genes but from the values we absorb from our culture, including respect and consideration for others.

    So our lives are shaped by the tension between the market and the conscience. Whichever is dominant at any given time depends on the climate of the culture. Who could doubt that the climate of the U.S. at the beginning of the 21st century overwhelmingly favors the values of the market? The pressure to eat more, drink more, drive more, buy more and pile up more debt is dinned into our ears and flashed before our eyes day and night.

    Is it any wonder, then, that the demands of the marketplace have invaded academia? Is it reasonable to expect universities to reject the current values of the national culture?

    But a seismic shift in public priorities could occur.

    There have been periods in the past, including the administrations of Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, when a new climate of opinion took over, shifting national values away from the unregulated market toward conscience, compassion and common sense. If this shift should occur again, it is likely to have a salutary effect on academia -- in Berkeley and beyond.

    Maybe we can only wait with hope for the next swing of the pendulum. Or maybe we can give it a push.

Here is the rest of his piece.

Bev and Jerry