WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Since the bombs went off on Monday at the Boston Marathon, people around the world have been anxiously awaiting news in the case. Wednesday saw a bizarre cycle of reports and retractions about the identity and possible apprehension of suspects that left many frustrated with mainstream cable news networks. Meanwhile, many members of the massive message board Reddit used online tools to conduct their own manhunt.

After authorities released photos of two suspects Thursday afternoon, things progressed rapidly leading to a car-jacking and a shoot-out and the eventual death of one of the suspects. With suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev still on the loose, an eager public was left to pursue other angles, often aided by online resources.

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In 1970, economist and business theorist Albert O. Hirschman published a book entitled Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. 

As a student of business ethics, this book helped to shape my intellectual and philosophical perspectives on a person’s real life options when confronted by organizational mistakes, mismanagement, or mischievousness. I’m not sure if Professor Hirschman would agree with my interpretation of his overall thesis, but it’s a model I’ve been effectively using in the classroom for years.

When an organization makes a mistake, starts moving in the wrong direction, or does something blatantly illegal, I think members of that organization, from top to bottom, are forced to make a choice about what they should do.

The first choice is loyalty: On one hand, loyalty suggests agreement. “Whatever the company is doing, I see no problem with it!” Loyalty can be the product of fear: “If I speak up, will I lose my job?” It can be a product of indifference: “What do I care? I just want to get paid.”

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Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, and Marissa Mayer, COO of Yahoo, are arguably the youngest and most well-known females in corporate America today. In the male-dominated world of business, where only slightly more than 4 percent of Fortune 500 companies are led by women, Sandberg and Mayer are wunderkinds who achieved early success and rose to the top at a meteoric rate.

In both financial and feminist circles they are considered rock stars, trail blazers and gurus to be studied and emulated.

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[Note: Nico Lang and Leah Pickett wrote these reflections on Roger Ebert's influence on them as writers, movie goers and people prior to the news Thursday that the legendary Chicago film critic has passed away.]

Yesterday Roger Ebert announced that he was stepping down as the lead film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. I’ve known this day would come since he first broke the news about his battle with cancer in 2006. Since then, each of his reviews has felt like a precious resource or an old letter, something you know you need to keep close to your heart.

I knew one day I would have to write him my own letter to tell him how much his work has meant to me — and inspired a generation of young critics. I wish that day weren’t today.

The first time I read an Ebert review I was a lonely kid, living in the suburbs of Ohio.

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Let me be clear, I’m not a fan or follower of Ned Ludd. I am not a Luddite.

Technology can be the engine of beneficial economic and social change. Case in point, the “age of the computer” has revolutionized the world. Computers have changed how we know, what we know, and how we communicate.

Today, iPads, iPhones, and smartphones have become our private portals to the world. Both by means of voice and text, we use them to garner information, conduct business, order merchandise, and thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, stay connected to family, friends, and, theoretically, an infinite number of acquaintances and absolute strangers.

The downside of our ability to be constantly connected is that we have, in fact, become overly connected. These miraculous machines have created a new draconian protocol of instant messaging and instant response. The habit of using our own various phone devices has become an addiction and part and parcel of our daily routine.

We check them as soon as we get out of bed, in the bathroom, while having coffee, on the train, walking to a meeting, at a meeting, at the store, most annoyingly, while simultaneously talking to a person who is right in front of you, and, most alarmingly, while driving a car.

A recent survey indicates that 1 out of every 5 car accidents occurs while one of the drivers is texting.

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I totally get it: Detroit and the international car community are the main drivers (pun-intended) in industrial production and economic well being.

No one can debate the fact that as goes GM, Toyota, Honda, BMW, Mercedes, etc, etc, etc. – As goes the world economy.

What I don’t get; or, should I say, what I no longer get is why we collectively are so fascinated with cars. Recently, I went to the Chicago Auto Show, and frankly, I was underwhelmed! Oh sure, there were a number of beauties to be found there.

Cars that mimed and mirrored car executive Robert A. Lutz’s iconic statement: “We are in the art business...art entertainment and mobile structure, which coincidentally, also happens to provide transportation.”

Yes, there were a number of stunning pieces of art there to covet and admire: Jaguar Roadster; Corvette Stingray; Ferrari F12 Berlinetta; Infinity Q50 Sport; and, of course, the Maserati Quattroporte.

But except for these stand out Cinderella’s, the rest of the ball was populated by a pretty pedestrian (again, pun-intended) crowd. As far as I was concerned, most of the cars on display, very much looked alike.

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In the last 10 years, the electronic age has us totally interconnected. Social networking of all kinds – Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Socialcam, texting, platforms such as iPads, iPhones, smartphones and computers of all kinds.

These tools have forever altered the normal concept of time and space. They have replaced it with an immediacy that has taken on a life of its own. All of us are now no more than a click away from communicating with everyone we have ever met or known in real or virtual time.

Thanks to the wild, wild word of the web, we can be anywhere and everywhere with the stroke of a key or click of a mouse.

In essence, what all of this has done is to radically change the pace and rate of our lives. Not only are we bombarded with more input, information and data than ever before, we are now required or at least strongly expected to respond to it faster than ever before. At one level, the increased pace and rate of change is a good thing. It forces us to be more agile, more responsive, more adaptable to an ever-evolving world. It opens us to more options and possibilities.

On the other hand, the increased rate and speed of input and change is exhausting. Here’s the problem. When life becomes an Olympic endurance event (the Everydayathon), when the stopwatch is always ticking, when are we supposed to have fun?

When will there be a time to be human in the old fashioned way?

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