CTPF Dir.

Teachers Pension Fund Leadership Changes

By Jim Vail

New CTPF Ex. Dir. Carlton Lenoir

The Chicago Teachers Pension Fund just named its new Executive Director Carlton Lenoir and lost Chief Investment Officer Angela Miller-May in the midst of a battle between trustees and the staff over alleged acts of racism and unprofessionalism.

Lenoir was the chief benefits officer at the $62.2 billion Illinois Teacher Retirement System (TRS) and had earlier worked for the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund as an accounts counselor. He is also a graduate of Whitney Young High School with over 32 years of experience.

"I have always had a desire to serve the public school system" Lenoir said in a CTPF statement. "When I left CTPF in 2005, I believe it was to prepare for this opportunity."

A national search for a permanent Executive Director commenced after the departure of Executive Director Charles A. Burbridge in October 2020. 

Trustees and others have expressed fear that the Chicago pension fund problems could result in a merger between TRS and CTPF which could erode health benefits retirees currently enjoy. 

Miller-May was named the chief investment officer at the $53.1 billion Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. She told Pensions & Investments that her last day at the teachers pension fund will be Aug. 13 and the board is meeting internally to discuss an interim CIO. 

CTPF President Jeffery Blackwell served as the interim director and even voted himself into the temporary role, which upset enough people that the Illinois state legislature passed a bill in June banning trustees from taking on staff positions, unless under certain conditions.

Blackwell has led a fight against three minority trustees and one white trustee, all female, in which he alleged they engaged in unprofessional and disrespectful behavior that mandated they issue apologies and their censures were printed in the CTPF newsletter.

Blackwell made headlines last summer when he made a speech to the board of trustees about a "cabal of evil" permeating the teachers pension fund in which blatant racism, misogyny and vile disrespect between trustees and staff members must be dealt with. 

Interestingly enough, he choose to focus his assault on three female minority trustees, and his reprimand against those trustees never mentioned anything about racism or misogyny. No details about their alleged transgressions were reported and some of those trustees complained that they had no idea what they were being charged with. Three of the four trustees that Blackwell and the board voted to censure usually vote against the president.

The question on a lot of people's minds will be whether the new executive director will be able to heal a divided pension board and bring the trustees together. It will also be interesting to know how he treats the forensic audit that will take a close look at the fund's dwindling resources.  

Big business led by publications like Crain's Chicago Business criticize CTPF and other public pension funds because they want them eliminated. 

Teaching Patriotism

 TEACHERS ARE ASKED TO TEACH PATRIOTISM

 By Stephen Wilson

    The Russian Ministry of Education and Science have announced they intend to introduce a new topic called 'Patriotism' which school teachers have to instruct children from the First to the Ninth grade from September 2022. Nobody knows what this topic exactly entails!

 

'Ulrich had passed the first test of his character when he was still on the borderline between childhood and adolescence: it was on an essay on a patriotic theme. Patriotism was a special subject in Austria. German children simply were taught to despise Austrian children's wars and to believe that French children were the descendants of enervate debauchees, running away in their thousands whenever a German Landwermaan with a big beard so much as walked up to them. And with the rules reversed, and all desirable alternations made, exactly the same is learnt by French, Russian and English children, who for their part have also been on the winning side,' wrote the author Robert Musil, about how patriotism was taught in schools in his masterpiece 'The Man Without Qualities'. 

But the protagonist Ulrich makes a mistake in his essay on patriotism by first defining it as not claiming that your country is the best in the world and that God could easily made the world in a different way. This is not the answer the school authorities are seeking. It is too deep. They don't know whether to expel him for defamation of patriotism or blasphemy. So they don't expel him. Instead, his angry father packs him off to another school in Belgium as punishment for his 'impudence'. If Ulrife was at a Russian school he might receive a two or be expelled for both blasphemy and being unpatriotic. For over the past six years Russian officials at schools have been practically keeping a sharp eye on how deferential teachers and pupils are to the state and how patriotic they are. But current day Russian proponents of patriotism might well experience the problems reached by the characters of Musil's novel. In the novel a patriotic movement called the Collateral campaign drifts nowhere because none of the members can reach a consensus as to what patriotism actually is!

 

Anxious about the views of potential non-conformist students, the Minister of Education and Science have announced their intention to introduce a new school topic called 'Patriotism' into the schools from September 2022. School teachers will be obliged to teach the topic called 'Bringing up children to be Patriotic'. The only problem is that nobody knows what the contents of this subject suggests! How do you define patriotism? Does it simply mean 'To love your Motherland'? Is it the patriotism defined by the Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov or is it simply identified with the Orthodox religion? If you define it as Orthodox then you can immediately imply that a large section of Russians are unpatriotic because they are Buddhist, atheist, or Muslims! If you equate patriotism with practicing virtues, then  which virtues? The virtues of Aristotle or Christianity? There is a huge difference here!  

 

The Chairman of the Union 'Teacher' Vsevolod Lukhovitski states that the very notion of an upbringing in patriotism lacks sense as every aspect of a teacher's activity encompasses some form of it. Why is there a need to introduce yet another extra subject? He states, 'There is no separate upbringing in patriotism. Such a subject does not exist. There is simply 'upbringing' which a teacher does in all his work. This is all invented by officials.' He wonders how it might be taught and whether teachers and pupils will be obliged to show their patriotism by saying twenty times 'I love my motherland'. He believes that the majority of teachers will not pay attention to it.

 

It is most likely that what the state has in mind concerning patriotism is a rigid definition which is equated with absolute obedience to authority. Already school teachers are being asked to act as the ears and eyes of the Russian authorities. In other words they have been asked to report any activities of their students such as expressing opposition to the state or going on demonstrations. Not only should walls have ears but also teachers. A headmistress of school number 24, in the Nizhigorodski region, Yelena Moiseevoi, was fired from her job for refusing to hand over a list of the names of school students to the state who had gone on demonstrations against the government. {As many as 2500 people have signed a petition in support of this headmistress} An English teacher at school number 90, from Tolyatti, Alena Skovortsova, was asked by her headmistress to vote for the government party United Russia. She was informed that should she refuse to cast her vote in this way her work would be handed over to another teacher. Alena sent a complaint to the Inspector of Labor as well as the procurator on the grounds this director was blatantly violating the law. 

So we are witnessing more attempts by the authorities to intervene and influence the views of school teachers. If a school teacher involves her or himself in political activity that supports the state this is welcome, but if the teacher performs political activity at odds with the state he or she is infringing the need to be 'neutral.' In other words, neither a teacher nor a pupil have a right to their own political opinion. Now if anyone opposes the government they risk being labelled a foreign agent or 'traitor'. There have even been recent attempts to fire in mass Metro workers who happened to go on demonstrations or visit an opposition social site. The trade union have managed to win many of those unfair dismissal cases. This is why any attempts by officials to introduce a new topic such as patriotism needs to be either ridiculed or ignored. Hopefully officials will forget this proposal and return to their daydreaming or harmlessly building castles in the air.

CTPF Audit

Teachers Pension Fund Agrees to Forensic Audit

By Jim Vail

The Chicago Police Pension Fund is so under-funded that a group of
retired officers are conducting a forensic audit.

When Mary Cavallaro took over as the interim director of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund last October, the trustees voted unanimously to conduct a forensic audit.

A forensic audit is a detailed report on how all the monies are spent to make sure all spending is accounted for in a pension fund that manages more than $12 billion.

It is a normal practice, especially when a new director takes over and wants to make sure he or she is not accused of theft if accounting errors are discovered on the previous director's watch.

The motion to hire a forensic auditing firm to do an audit of the fund subject to final contract negotiations was passed by a vote of 10 - 0 at the October 2020 pension board meeting.  

However, a motion to authorize the Internal Audit Director to retain BDO to conduct the first part of phase 2 of a forensic audit which would not exceed 280K passed, but not unanimously, at the May 2021 meeting.

The trustees who voted in favor of continuing the audit were retired trustees Lois Nelson, Maria Rodriguez and Mary Sharon Reilly, and teacher trustees Gervaise Clay and Tina Padilla.

The trustees who voted against the audit were President Jeffery Blackwell, Principal trustee Jerry Travlos, CPS board trustee Dwayne Truss and teacher trustee Jaqueline Price-Ward.

Three trustees abstained - CPS board trustee Miguel Del Valle, and teacher trustees Jim Cavallero and Phil Weiss.

The vote pattern was similar to the battle taking place between President Blackwell and three minority female trustees. Blackwell introduced a motion to censure trustees Clay, Padilla and Rodriguez and reprimand Reilly for conduct they deemed unprofessional and disrespectful.

The trustees who supported Blackwell to mandate public apologies from the three minority female trustees and Reilly also joined Blackwell to either vote against the forensic audit or abstain.

When Blackwell first voted in favor of the forensic audit last October he was only a trustee, while his vote against the audit in May was cast while he is serving as the interim executive director of the fund until a permanent director is named.

Phil Weiss ran on the Members First ticket to upset Core in last fall's teacher pension election and won possibly as a protest vote since the fund has been experiencing problems. This is what he said as a pension trustee candidate:

"I am running for Trustee of the CTPF because I am concerned about keeping our pension assets Safe and Fully Funded. CTPF is the oldest pension pension in Illinois, however, our assets are only funded at 47.5%. That is an undeniable fact. Our liabilities outweigh our financial commitments. Many stakeholders believe that our pension is funded at an acceptable level. I do not share that belief. I also do not believe that our overall Return On Investment is at a level demonstrating Maximization of Profits. The CTPF mission is clear, to provide, protect and enhance the economic well-being of our members. Are we truly meeting our mission? The answer is NO."

So then why would Weiss not vote for the forensic audit to make sure there are no problems with the fund? 

Second City Teachers asked Weiss about his vote to abstain - neither a yes or no vote - and he replied: "I respectfully have to refer you back (to) Michelle Hollemann."

Hollemann is the director of communications for the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund.

Forensic audits are important and more and more pension funds across the country are conducting them.

A recent forensic audit of the Ohio Teachers' Pension Fund revealed widespread failures and mismanagement, according to Forbes.

The forensic investigation of the $90 billion-plus State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio commissioned by the Ohio Retired Teachers Association found a lack of transparency, little to no legislative oversight of the pension, Wall Street firms pocketing lavish fees with little scrutiny, investment costs that were misrepresented.

"Billions that could have been used to pay retirement benefits promised to teachers have been squandered," the report stated, according to Forbes. 

Pension experts noted that it is unusual for public pension trustees to possess financial expertise. That is why audits are important. 

"It's exceptional when public pension board members take their fiduciary duties seriously and speak out about issues such as lack of transparency and mismanagement of investments," the Ohio investigator said. "The teachers, school employees, and taxpayers of Pennsylvania should know how each and every penny of their money is being invested."

Another area of concern for the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund is overpaying retirees. A forensic audit of a Massachusetts police pension fund discovered that they overpaid its retirees by hundreds of thousands of dollars over 10 years, according to the Boston Globe. 

The state investigation found officials mishandled the benefits of dozens of former transit police staff and that the fund operated for years with no system to track and end payments to retirees when they are no longer eligible to receive them, the Boston Globe reported.

Trustees are questioning whether CTPF has a system to track retirees here when some retirees who were dead were still receiving pension fund checks.

Forcing recipients still alive who received extra payments is extremely stressful to the retirees when they need to repay thousands of dollars on a fixed retirement income.

Some retired Chicago policemen formed a group called the CPD Pension Board Accountability Group to conduct an independent forensic audit of the Chicago Police Pension Fund - one of the worst funded public pension plans in the U.S. with a funding ratio of only 23 percent.

One problem the unfinished Chicago police audit discovered is that 35 percent of its investments were liquid (blue-chip stocks, cash and treasuries) and 35% are illiquid, which are considered more risky alternative investments with hedge funds, private equity and real estate. Those type of investments have come under increased scrutiny for their performance numbers and excessive management fees, Forbes reported. 

The CTPF has stopped investing with hedge funds.

Teachers & Covid

COVID 19 CRISIS CONTINUES IN RUSSIA

Many teachers are being told to choose between taking the vaccination or losing their jobs

By Stephen Wilson

 

 

'Covid 19 is still killing people! Save lives by getting Vaccinated', and 'How many more people have to die before you take the vaccination? Get vaccinated.' 

Those are the slogans that momentarily flash up when you walk down the Leningradski Shosse while you emerge from the metro station Aeroport near the city center of Moscow. But as soon as this billboard is read it folds away quickly as another huge poster surfaces advertising holidays in what is usually an over-crowded Russian resort in either Sochi or the Crimea! But my attention wanders to a floating pink balloon with a silver ribbon nearby. How did it get there? This solitary abandoned balloon is bobbing about the relentless traffic and is being blown in different directions. Will it be run over by the traffic? Will it burst? It begins to descend on to the front window screen of a car but is sent veering toward the park. And then it vanishes from sight. Whence did this balloon come from? Was it from a birthday party or some promotion of a new shop? Had it reached the other side of the road? When I walked over to the park I was startled by its banal odyssey. I found it lying on the grass grounded on the park. It seemed inert and had shrunk a little. It looked languid, limp and sagged. All its energy had been spent. The fate of this balloon being blasted by the ongoing traffic in all directions sums up how many people might see themselves in this crisis. They have not much control over their own fate. They feel helpless and their energy dissipated. They are being blown around by inexplicable forces from different directions. After this they feel as listless as this balloon. They feel dejected, deflated and abandoned. Only a few months ago the Russian government had told them they had won the battle against the Virus and that there would be a return to normality. They were also told that taking the vaccination was voluntary. Now at the Institute of Power and Energy, at schools and many work places workers are being told to take the vaccination. And if they don't take this vaccination they will be fired from their jobs. So why does the President tells them one thing, and employers another thing?

 

The Russian government seem to be coming round to the idea of officially making taking the vaccination compulsory even if they don't officially admit this. There is no doubt that over the past week we have been witnessing a third wave that is unprecedented. It is dubbed the Delta strain. It is far worse than the second and third wave and people are justified in being anxious and alarmed about this deepening crisis. The number of deaths from Covid 19 has broken records. On 6th July as many as 737 are recorded as dying. The average death rate is more than twice the number as recorded during the second wave. And the number of deaths and infections has shot up in practically all the regions of Russia. The number of deaths from Covid in relation to the number of ill has risen from 3.3 to 6% in Saint Petersburg, 1.1 to 2.5% in Moscow and from 2.4 to 6% in the Irkutskoyi region. Experts warn that the potential number of deaths can reach from a further 320,000 to even half a million.

In Moscow, 1.3 million are estimated to be sick and as many as 6.5 thousand people are infected everyday.

 

It is odd to read an avalanche of posters and pictures pleading with people to take the vaccination. But what if they can't do this? In order to take the vaccination you have to show documents, medical insurance and in some cases, have to pay a fee. This red tape can deter at least one million migrants in Moscow who lack the proper papers and income. An additional problem is that in many of the regions of Russia the vaccination is unavailable. They face the same problem as Germans who also can't obtain a possible vaccination due to shortages.

The Russian government like many governments see salvation in ensuring the whole population is vaccinated. Officials are under pressure to strongly persuade or rather 'force ' their employees to take the vaccination. They have also been taking a few measures to convey the impression that they are seen to be doing something. For instance, you can only currently visit and dine in a restaurant, cafe or pub if you can show a Q. R. code. This would indicate you have taken a P.C.R. test or a vaccination. The problem with this is that it doesn't often work. 

"My American friend was invited to a birthday party which was held at a restaurant," said Yevgeni, a Russian businessman. "He thought he had a Q.R. certificate but discovered the one he got was for travelling and not visiting restaurants. He discovered he needed to do three tests to do three different things on his business trip to Russia. He told me, 'Look I don't have the time to do all this!'"

It seems that this vaccination is often being enforced without any careful discretion or discrimination. The way in which this vaccination is being imposed does not reassure a population which deeply distrusts the vaccination not to mention doctors.

 

According to a recent Levada opinion poll, as many as 54% of Russians don't want to take the vaccination. As many as 33% claimed they feared very negative side affects and 20% would prefer to wait until further trials. {The vaccination tests only passed through two stages when it requires a third stage}.

 

The huge extent of opposition to taking this vaccination was indicated by the number of people purchasing fake documents which falsely confirmed they had taken the test. That a considerable number of people have purchased such documents is indicated by the fact government officials have widely published the legal consequences of taking such measures. Rogue companies who do this can face heavy fines and sellers severe prison sentences.

So we see a Russia that is deeply divided about taking this vaccination and what to do next. Despite the constant wailing of ambulance sirens along the Leningradski motorway, people continue to casually stroll around the streets in a laid-back manner. Everyone seems relaxed until you notice the tense faces of very old people or the infirm. They tend to keep on their masks  practically everywhere, never mind in shops.

 

It is highly likely that the Russian state will adopt much more radical measures to control the situation as the death toll dramatically rises. That suggests an official compulsory vaccination program as well as enforcing a lock down in Autumn may be on the cards. They may well be forced to make several U-turns!

Transgender

TRANSGENDER PLAY PROVOKES RUSSIAN POLITICIANS

By Stephen Wilson

 

A play where Jesus Christ identifies himself as a woman and transgender which was performed with the approval of a Union of Scottish Teachers {the Education Institute of Scotland} to celebrate 'Pride month', has provoked angry comments from Russian Foreign Secretary Sergei Lavrov, that schools in the west are teaching  children that Jesus was bisexual. He regards it as another example of how an 'autocratic democracy' allows  schools to  impose their largely unwanted values on children.

 

A Scottish teachers' Union known as the Education Institute of Scotland sponsored and supported a Scottish play to celebrate 'Pride month ' in Scotland. The play, titled 'The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven', by Jo Clifford, is about a man who identifies as a woman and depicts Jesus as a Transgender woman. The play was performed in Scottish schools in honor of 'Pride Month', which defends the rights of gays and transgenders. When Sergei Lavrov learnt about this event from  'Christianity Today', he declared that this represents a typical case of how a boundlessly permissive society seeks to impose their values on not only America and Europe but abroad. Scotland  represents a striking example of an 'Autocratic  democracy in action.' 

Lavrov is not alone in lamenting the performance of this play. An article published by the conservative journal' Christianity Today'  also expressed dissatisfaction. John Denning stated the play was inconsiderate of the views held by  E.I.S.Christians. Denning declared, "This play deliberately imagines Jesus as a Trans Woman and puts words into his mouth that he never said, misrepresenting him. That's deeply offensive for many Christians ... It is hard to see how a teaching union justifies using the subscriptions paid by its members to promote this play."

 

However, this is hardly the first time some people in education have offended Christians. When I was a student at Glasgow College 30 years ago one of the questions I came across in a psychology exam I was sitting went 'Was Jesus Christ a Schizophrenic?' I think most if not all students skipped that question because it was just impossible to answer as well as absurd.

 

How might the proponents of staging such a play answer those negative claims? They might argue, 'Well, the play is fiction. It is just a play! Why take it so seriously?' However, this is not the main argument they are making. The aim of Pride Day is to counter not only discrimination against gays and transgenders, but to protect school students who are often bullied for their sexual orientation. So contrary to what people think, there is no intention to offend or attack school students, but to defend them from homophobia. The reaction of the Russian Foreign Secretary is just the kind of thing that you would expect from a Russian state that is set on forbidding gay marriage.

 

That is not how some Scots and Russians see things. They claim that people are attempting to not only impose their values on school children but even fire employees who disagree with, say, Transgender views. Instead of a tolerant and open-minded discussion about Transgender, the debate has been characterized by threats, coercion and being forced to take special courses on 'How to fight transgender discrimination in Education'. A Russian math lecturer told me "I had no choice but to do this course. The situation in England has gone crazy. If a person has to fill in certain application forms he is asked are you 'male, female or transgender? A lot of people are perplexed by the need for such questions." A Russian businessman told me, "I have friends who lived in America that have decided to return home to Russia because they don't want to be brought up in those values." A Scottish woman recently told me, "The Russians probably think we have gone insane". She seems to have hit the mark. 

It is important to mention that while some people have nothing against gays they express reservations about the Transgender question because they think that gender is largely a biological rather than social construction. For instance, when the author of the Harry Potter novels, J.. Rowling expressed her reservations it led to a hysterical over reaction where people threatened to 'cancel her out'. Cancel out means to stop her books being published and denying her right to a livelihood. In other words, if a teacher or actor expresses a disagreeable opinion they can be fired from their job and even blacklisted. In Scotland, a lecturer at a Scottish university was suspended from his work simply for defending one of Scotland's greatest philosophers, David Hume. He argued that it was senseless to topple his statue. The anger against David Hume stems from his connection with the slave trade! In this case, Albert Einstein would also have lost his job because he claimed that his theory of Relativity was largely inspired by a novel interpretation of Hume. One might ask the reasonable question "How can you fight persecution with another form of persecution?" The German philosopher Nietzsche warned 'when fighting monsters watch out you also don't turn into a monster'.

The bullied can easily inadvertently become a bully. As the saying goes 'Two wrongs don't make a right'.

Are their other views defining identity worth exploring? Well, it is worth asking, 'What constitutes a person's identity?' Is a person really defined by his sexual orientation or gender identity? Nobody to my knowledge would call the works of Russian composer Tchaikovsky 'Gay music' or the pictures of the artist Francis Bacon 'Gay art '. Most people do not care whether those people were gay and were more interested in their works as well as how they personally related to them. For example, my father met and drank with Francis Bacon in a London pub and liked him very much because they exchanged amusing anecdotes. He did not know he was gay or even cared. A person's identity is not defined by whether they are gay but other deeper inner aspects of his personality, as well as his acts. A person's core identity is defined by his soul which is often inscrutable to other people. Each person is a mystery. This point has been made again and again by Russian philosophers and by the Austrian author Robert Musil in his work 'The Man without Qualities.'  We could argue that a person is much more deeper than his or her sexual orientation or gender. That is why it makes no sense to present Jesus Christ as having a particular sexual orientation or identity. At least people should be freely allowed to debate and discuss this point which is often lost.

Book Review

BOOK REVIEW

THE CONFUSIONS OF YOUNG TORLESS  

Author: Robert Musil

Translated by Shaun Whiteside and published by Penguin books, London 1978

Review by Stephen Wilson

 

 

Robert Musil's most accessible book must be 'The Confusions of Young Torless'. You are more likely to find an English translation in any decent English bookshop including Moscow than his long unfinished work 'The Man without Qualities' which in English, is often out of print. The advantage of the former novel, published in 1906, is it is shorter, concise and thin enough to fit into your coat pocket when travelling. It is a perfectly portable book. It is certainly not too bulky and heavy as the elusive masterpiece 'The Man without Qualities' which runs on for over 1000 pages! [to the read the latter you can find an English version of it on the Internet}

 

Who on earth is Robert Musil you may ask? And why read this novel? Well, don't be surprised if you have never heard of him! Most readers haven't. His works must be one of the biggest kept secrets of Modernist literature. Posterity has not been kind to him. Robert Musil was an Austrian writer who hailed from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was the master of incisive satire who wrote deep psychological and philosophical novels which explored the dark psyche of people in works such as 'The Confusions of Young Torless' ,'Three Women', and 'The Man without Qualities ' which he wrote for twenty years. Being Jewish, he was forced to flee from the Nazis and settle in Switzerland.

 

Since the novel 'The Confusions of Young Torless ' has often been misconstrued it is worth refuting some prevailing interpretations. Firstly, Musil's novel is not a parable about the rise of Fascism or a prophetic novel which predicted their rise! This novel was published in 1906 and Musil himself only made this claim after the rise of Fascism. You don't hear any suggestions from the characters on how to form a secret underground nationalist movement based on racial superiority or endorsing an explicit aggressive nationalism. Yes, it is not impossible to envisage the two sadistic bullies Beineberg and Reiter joining the ranks of the Nazis, but in this novel they don't seem to have worked out any clear ideology or world view. Another absurd claim is that this novel is like an autobiography of Robert Musil himself and that he himself is largely Torless. Not surprisingly, Musil rejected such allegations. Who would want to be identified as being like the sadistic bully Torless? This is especially true if you are a refugee who fled from the Nazis. Such a view underestimates the lively imagination of the author who largely invented his own characters.

 

When you read on the back page of the Penguin edition statements like 'the book also vividly illustrates the crisis of a whole society, where the breakdown of traditional values and the cult of pitiless masculine strength were soon to lead to the cataclysm of the First World War and then the rise of Fascism. 'A century later, Musil's first novel still retains its shocking prophetic power.' This is misleading commercial hype designed to appeal to more readers. Never judge a book by its cover. Without wishing to sound glib, this is a novel about the alienation, adolescence and psychological crisis of a young person who is groping in the dark for unanswered questions and easily susceptible to bullying at a military boarding school. It is a novel about the dark roots of bullying and how people break down.

 

The plot of the story centers around the entrance and experiences of young Torless at a military boarding school and how he is struggling to adapt to this new situation. The novel offers a great description of the alienation and loneliness experienced by Torless in an entirely new environment away from his parents. He is attempting to find a foothold as well as answers to complex life questions which nobody can answer. Like many children, he feels utterly misunderstood. Neither religion, teachers or fellow pupils can offer him any direction or answers to his problems. He sees no logic behind the school system. The knowledge they are learning seems not only tedious but pointless. There is a beautiful but eerie passage about Torless looking through a window and what is really out there in the darkness. We read:

'From the deserted garden a leaf danced every now and again to the illuminated window, cutting a bright strip into the darkness, which seemed to shrink back to avoid it, then to step forward again a moment later and stand motionless like a wall outside the windows. It was a world all to itself, the darkness. Like a black enemy horde it had fallen across the earth and killed the people or driven them out or done whatever it had done to make sure that it erased every last trace of them.'{pages 23-24} Torless can 't find peace of mind. In one passage you read 'His life was geared towards each new day. Every night was for him a void, a grave, an extinction ... He had not yet learned the ability to lie down to die each day without thought'. Page 36} I recall from childhood my grandmother advising me, "Try not to think too much before you go to sleep or you'll never manage it. Try to free your mind from thinking". It was an art she had mastered, but like Torless I really struggled.

 

The sad narrative of how Torless falls out with one of his friends who is a prince seems convincing. The other pupils mock the prince for not only his manners, religion and background, but how he looks. Torless initially gets on with him only to fall out over a religious argument. We hear that 'They had been arguing about religious matters. And that moment had been the end of everything. Because as though it was quite independent of him, Torless's intellect had lashed out at the gentle prince. He heaped upon him the ridicule of the rationalist, like a barbarian he smashed the filigree structure in which the boy's soul was housed ,and they parted in anger. Since that time then they had not spoken a word to one another. Torless was dimly aware that he had done something idiotic, and a vague, emotional insight told him that the wooden ruler of rationalism had shattered something fine and delightful at an untimely moment.'{pages 8-9} The prince later leaves the school.

 

Instead of retaining the good friendship of the prince, Torless gravitates to the company of two bullies; Reiting and Beineberg. Those characters can on the surface appear charming, eloquent and persuasive, but turn out to be cruel bullies intent in exercising a brutal will to power over the other pupils. When they discover that one of the pupils, Basini has been stealing money from the the lockers of other pupils to pay off his debts, Reiting, Beineberg and Torless try to punish him. They blackmail him by asking him to be their slave and perform all kinds of humiliating tasks. They perform their own punishments, in a secluded attic in the dead of night. At night, the bullies waken Basini and force him to accompany him to the attic. They flog and sexually abuse him. But their aim is to psychologically and physically strip his of every remnant of his dignity. So the trio act as a self righteous judge, jury and executioner. Although Torless does not physically harm Basini, he mentally tortures him by asking painful questions. In one passage you read:

Basini was crying. 'You are tormenting me'.

'Yes, I'm tormenting you. But that's not the important thing for me. I just want to know one thing: if I push all that into you like knives, what is inside you? What is happening inside you? Does something explode in you? Tell me! Suddenly, like a piece of glass that suddenly explodes into a thousand splinters before it's shown so much as a crack? The image you've made of yourself, isn't it extinguished by a breath? Doesn't another one leap to appear in its place, as a magic lantern pictures leap out of the darkness?' Pages 117-118} 

Anyone who has been subjected to a long interrogation by a sadistic police officer will find those words echo their own experiences. What is more, the scenario where cadets bully other cadets reminded me of my own experience when I was in the Army Cadet Force for two years in the early 1970's. I recall that at one Army Camp in Scotland one unpopular cadet found himself being tormented by a crowd of cadets who swayed his bed back and forth to make him sick. This happened during midnight. When the corporal asked his officer for advice he was told, "If you make an example of one of them by beating him up the rest will fall into line". Cadets who ventured into the local town were advised not to wear their uniform or they risked being beaten up by the locals who hated soldiers.

 

The novel reminded me a little of Kafka's 'The Trial.' Just as surreal trials are held in secret attics about the city, so in Musil's novel self styled judges are punishing Basini for alleged crimes in a secluded attic. The thoughts about Torless, as he stares through a window into the darkness reminded me of the German Philosopher Nietzsche who declared, 'If you look long enough into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you'. Torless even detects an abyss at the roots of mathematics. The idea of imaginary numbers behind math torments him with the thought that mathematics might be an irrational science built on fragile foundations. For instance, negative one times negative one turns out to be one! When an odd character in 'The Man without Qualities', the murderer Moosbrugger, is asked 'What is 14 plus 14? 'he answers 'About 28 to 40' suggesting that the answer need not necessarily finish at 28 depending on the context.

 

Torless begins to have second thoughts about Basini and thinks about how to help him because he understands that the bullies might easily flog him to death. What happens next? Does Torless protect Basini or does he flee? Will he break down or keep his composure? Will Basini be murdered by the bullies? I think it is worth finding it out for yourself by buying the novel! The beautiful prose, dramatic dialogue and convincing understanding of life through the eyes of a confused boy make this book a must! It is certainly not always a pleasant read but worth taking the trouble. So go out and get it!