How Uri Got His Nobel Prize Pt. 03

A Harvard student, Sue Bronowski, loved academic debate but hated bullying by the powerful (usually men) against the weak (usually women).

She was appalled when she heard that one of the Professors gave better marks for poorer essays to women who attended his one to one tutorial class. It was an open secret what happened in these tutorials. It was a 3 letter word starting with s and ending in x.

SUE INVESTIGATES

Sue attended one tutorial to see if this was myth or not. The Professor had been open, engage in sex acts and get good marks. He has exposed his penis and expected that Sue would give him a blowjob.

The Professor said "Don't think I am the only one taking advantage of the tutorial system."

To Sue that meant institutional sexism. The "blowjobs for grades" system was endemic. Sue made her excuses and left. She now had the problem of what to do about the endemic sexism.

BLACKMAIL

She went to Uri for advice. Uri told her that she could make a formal complaint, but that would be a long and protracted process. Other women and men who had given blowjobs would deny it. They might face expulsion themselves because they knowingly received inflated grades.

The students might make her life a bit challenging. Social ostracism is hard to bear. Going public would be a disastrous course of action. She would be very unpopular airing Harvard's dirty laundry in public.

Uri suggested that good old fashioned blackmail could help her cause much better. Threatening the Professor with a civil action for emotional distress would make him sit up and pay close attention. Sue liked the idea and hired a female solicitor to clarify her legal entitlements.

CEASE AND ASSIST LETTER.

Sue's solicitor suggested a variation on the "cease and desist" letter usually sent on cases of harassment. The solicitors letter would make several demands beyond accepting that he had exposed himself in anticipation of a lewd act.

The Professor would have to pay a fixed monthly sum (20% of net salary) to a charity of Sue's choosing.

He would have to commit to stopping this abhorrent activity.

But crucially he would have to reveal the names of the other Professors. This was the novel "assist" part.

Failure to fully comply would result in a civil action where a jury could award ruinous damages.

The letter ended with this "Our client has a tape of your recent tutorial and will use this in the class action."

The Professor had 14 days to comply.

Sue and Uri discussed the solicitor's advice and Sue instructed her solicitor to send it.

URI TAKES ADVANTAGE

On the basis of "never look a gift horse in the mouth" Uri thought of ways he could benefit from Sue's legal threat. He hit upon the best way to further his need for time travel back to Hitler's Germany.

He would blackmail the errant Professors to appoint him as Head of Harvard Ethics. That way he could authorise ethical (and more importantly unethical) time travel experiments.

WHY ETHIC COMMITTEES ARE IMPORTANT.

Uri knew that universities had conducted some unethical experiments in the past. Probably the most famous 2 experiments were setting up a fake prison and getting people to give fatal level of electric shocks to another person. Both have been used as movie films.

These were allowed because there were no checks and balances to shackle the lead experimenter. All universities across the world now have a system to make sure experiments are ethical. Without the imprimatur of the Ethics Committee the University will not authorise an experiment. Nor will the university give it funding or allow its name to be used in seeking outside funding.

So Uri being appointed Head of Ethics was his chance to subvert the system. He could, on the sly, authorise unethical experiments if he could find suitably shady people to finance them. Of course officially Harvard wouldn't be involved if a time travel experiment went wrong and he couldn't use Harvard money.

THE HISTORICAL COMPARISON

In effect he would defeat the whole Ethics rigmarole. The system had a weakness. It assumed that the person in control would want ethical research. As a historian of the Weimar and Nazi period of German history Uri found it ironic that Weimar Germany had made this assumption of good intent by all parties. None of the American academics who collectively composed the Weimar constitution imagined that an oik like Hitler could beat the Weimar system.

As Hitler said, following his unsuccessful attempt to seize power by military force "I will use democracy to defeat democracy."

So, using democracy to defeat democracy, Hitler was able to subvert the Weimar Republic's system of checks and balances.

THE LAST CHECK AND BALANCE

Technically speaking it was only when Hitler became Chancellor and President that he became an absolute dictator. President Paul von Hindenburg could have removed Hitler and the Nazis from power. He had dissolved other Weimar parliaments.

Some historians speculate that Hitler blackmailed Hindenburg by threatening to reveal the President's dodgy tax evasion.

Hindenburg's death ended the Weimar Republic's last check and balance on absolute power. Not one of the bright academics had thought that a democracy would allow one person to be Chancellor and President. Hitler saw this fatal flaw.

URI'S AIM

Uri was looking for someone who was willing to time travel back to Nazi Germany in order to write first hand about key questions about Hitler. He had assumed that this would be a man. He hadn't even considered a woman But Sue caught his eye because her thesis title was "Women In Nazi Germany: Complex Complicity".

URI PLANTS A SEED

Uri approved Sue Brown's thesis title. The title read

"To challenge Mary C. S. Frasier of Gettysburg College's contention "Because of generations of systemic misogyny and racism, women posed no perceived threat to the Nazi men".

Sur will show that the well known Nazi phrase "Kinder, Küche, Kirche" ("children, kitchen, church") was actually a Nazi phrase. Sue wanted also to show that it wasn't an accurate portrayal of Nazi rule. She wanted to show that Church women threatened Hitler's 3rd Reich."

THE TREASURE TROVE

Uri found a treasure trove for seeing Sue in this footnote

"Jaclyn Foster agrees... women of Nazi Germany cannot be placed in one category. The lack of primary documentation is a major reason for gaps in knowledge among historians of the subject. We do not know whether the destruction of documents was deliberate or accidental. It may be because of women's lack of importance.

But we crave these invaluable primary sources".

Uri saw this "feminist craving" as the key tool to attract Sue to his project. For his purposes it should read *BUT WE CRAVE THESE INVALUABLE PRIMARY SOURCES" in capitals and in bold type.

If Sue were in Nazi Germany, in the Nazi Women's Organisation, she could ensure the primary documentation was saved. Sue might be in a position to provide that primary documentation herself.

At some future date Uri would "pitch" this idea to Sue. He didn't want to play his "getting primary sources" trump card just yet.

URI TAKES ADVANTAGE OF CIRCUMSTANCE

When Uri saw the German books to be quoted for the thesis he immediately saw that Sue had one absolute requirement for his project. She could read German. He quizzed her and she revealed she spoke excellent German as well.

He immediately reconsidered his earlier assumption about a man being sent back in time. Sue would be an excellent person for the project, if she was interested in going back in time.

Uri told Sue "I will need to see you about the books in German. I will need to make sure that you are quoting them in context."

Sue agreed. Uri now had lots of chances to meet her. But he wanted to plant a seed and so said "Looks like it is a view from the masses. If you had the chance to be with the Nazi top brass for a year, where would you like to be and with whom?"

Sue said "Off hand I don't know. But it would make for an interesting life being pro woman in an environment that so blatantly anti-women."

Uri said "There were women Nazi organisations. I will try to point you in their direction. Perhaps the library can obtain books in German for you."

THE SEED

Uri didn't want to press his luck and thanked Sue. They arranged to discuss progress in 2 weeks time. Uri hoped Sue would be attracted to the "interesting life" and to write her thesis as an eye witness.

In the meantime Uri had to investigate the Nazi Women's organisations.

He didn't realise that he had fallen in love and book finding and chats about historical research was to bond his, and her, affections.

THE BAIT

Uri now had a bait for a great academic historian, which through the tinted eyes of someone falling in love, he was convinced that Sue was.

If Sue was the official Nazi Women's Organisation historian then she would also meet the top Nazi officials, even Hitler himself.

She might even be able to clarify "What Hitler knew and when" about the Holocaust. This topic is the subject of much modern historical debate.

Sue might be able to prove when Hitler conceived the plan, even if only in outline.

SUE AGREES

Uri recognised that he was in love with Sue and she recognised that she loved Uri. Gradually she came to know about and support Uri's idea of time travel. Even the immorality of blackmail and subverting Harvard's ethics arrangements didn't stop her loving him.

Sue agreed in principle that she would go back in time and try to become the official Nazi Women's Organisation historian. It would be challenging being in such an immoral environment. It was a dirty job and she was prepared to do it.

What attracted Sue was that she would be THE source for feminist historians of the Nazi period. It was an aim that made the risks of being a time traveller worthwhile. She would, in that select field, be an immortal.