Written by Winston P. Nagan   

The Florida Governor is now the edge of the right wing attack on the liberal arts in American higher education. The specific target of the Governor is also one of the strongest academic units in the University of Florida: The Department of Anthropology. The Governor seems to think that turning out Anthropology majors is uneconomic in a time of economic stress. It would be of some value to examine the Governor’s political style from an Anthropological point of view. Indeed, if one were interested in the real Governor Scott, I suspect that the methods and theories that shape the modern discipline of Anthropology could make the Governor a study of both, insight and public policy relevance. The Governor’s business life has a strong analogy to a creature made popular in the Anthropology of law by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. Stressing Anthropological relevance as a tool for looking at law realistically, Holmes suggested, we should look at law from the point of view of the “bad man”. What drives the bad man is absolute and unadulterated self-interest. The central driving motivation of the bad man is that self-interest trumps moral sensibility. The bad man functions not with a concern for goodness or ethics, but a concern for only what it will cost him if he acts selfishly or unethically. It appears that this is how the Governor ran his business. And that process may be described as the triumph of self-interest over common sense morality.

His business success, which involved a modest investment on his part, grew in record time to a billion plus operation. Apparently this great success was accompanied by his corporation pleading guilty to at least fourteen corporate felonies and agreeing to pay a staggering 840 million in criminal fines, civil damages and penalties. Later, the company agreed to pay further settlements and additional fines totaling some 881 million. In large part, the corporate fraud under Governor Scott involved a staggeringly institutionalized form of fraudulently billing the federal government. In short, Scott’s operation was involved in massively cooking the books and cheating the taxpayers. How did Scott escaped going to jail? Scott resigned from his firm, and left with a golden parachute of 300 million dollars. Why was he able to escape a proper personal accounting for his egregious “bad man” business practices? We should note that he left a company having to foot the bill for its fraud in the region of a staggering 1.7 billion dollars. At that time these fines were considered to be the largest in American history. Governor Scott was certainly a history making CEO of his firm. Even more startling was his departure with 300 million dollars. It apparently pays to be a “bad man”.

However, the Governor’s history making record is eclipsed by the fact that when he was deposed by the federal authorities, Governor Scott took the 5th Amendment 75 times. From an Anthropologist angle the conclusion that may be drawn is that had he spoke the truth he would have incriminated himself. I do not believe that in the history of the entire United States there has been an elected Governor who in context of a criminal investigation took the 5th Amendment 75 times.

Recently the Governor decided that he would appoint himself as the oracle who would define the future of the state of Florida’s higher education. His public depreciation of an entire discipline, Anthropology, was indeed a brave initiative for a man who probably knows nothing about this field. When the American Anthropological Association requested a meeting with the Governor, he refused to meet with them. Looks like here again we have another version of the Governor taking the 5th Amendment to avoid being exposed for not knowing what he is talking about.

Right now if we look at the 5th Amendment in a broader Anthropological light then the Governor’s use of the 5th Amendment has gone up to 76. Clearly this is a record. It is amazing what an Anthropological perspective can bring to our understanding of human relations.