Saturday, March 26, 2005

False Advertising

Prof. Gavin Kennedy of Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland -- who presumes to lecture us about the meaning of Adam Smith's writings -- is in fact a professional bull**** artist:

His books on Negotiating include:

  • Managing Negotiations (co-author) (1980; 3rd edition, 1987 Business Books Ltd)
  • Everything is Negotiable (1983) (2nd edition, 1990 Arrow Books)
  • Negotiate Anywhere (1985 Arrow Books) Superdeal
  • How to Negotiate Anything (1986 Hutchinson)
  • The Economist Pocket Negotiator(1988 Basil Blackwell and the Economist Publications)
He is a co-author of the Negotiating Skills Portfolio (1986 Scotwork) and The Art of Negotiation, a Rank Training film, (1983) which is now available in the interactive format. He is also author of the video package: Everything is Negotiable, from Guild Sound, and Vision, 1987. Currently, he is working on Beyond Selling , a new training video for Rank. Professor Kennedy is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
And what does Prof. Kennedy have to say about Adam Smith? Among Kennedy's pearls of wisdom are these:
Smith never wrote a word about "capitalism", yet he is hailed as the "high priest of capitalism"....He is alleged to be an advocate of "Laissez Faire" though he never used these words....
Yes, and the American Constitution doesn't include the phrases "checks and balances" or "limited government," but it demonstrably incorporates checks and balances and aims to limit the power of the central government.

Does the word "Bible" appear in the Bible? I doubt it. But the Bible is the Bible, nevertheless.

Poor Prof. Kennedy. If his name weren't painted on his forehead he wouldn't know who he is. Perhaps he doesn't. Perhaps he thinks he's Adam Smith.