Michael Gordy

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College and graduate school. AB, Carleton College 1966; PhD, The University of Texas at Austin 1970. Taught political philosophy at various universities for ten years, ending up directing a program in the Ethics of the Professions in the University Professors Program at Boston University. Received a grant to write a book on a French political philosopher in 1981, moved to France and never moved back.

Board member of the association "Science and Conscience", Geneva, Switzerland. Board member of the association "Vie et Savoir", Geneva, working on a project in Benin, Africa.

University professor in political philosophy; wine merchant; Organizational strategy consultant; fundraiser and consultant in public health and development.Now doing strategy work for international organizations (WMO, UNISDR and WHO especially) and working on global health issues with foundations, helping them choose projects and raise funds. Involved in the planning stages of creating a theoretical-practical synthesis to be called (tentatively) The Institute for Socio-Economic Transformation. I am currently the personal strategy adviser to the Deputy Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization and strategy consultant to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for the International Strategy on Disaster Risk Reduction. I was hired to help each organization revise its post-2015 strategy to include practical ways for them to cooperate with each other on projects dealing with the overlaps of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. The intent is to move beyond meetings and blah-blah into practical action. I hope it is not just an exercise in self-deception...but my colleagues are quite serious and knowledgeable, so who can tell at this point? We'll find out.

Spent a year travelling in Asia and Australia, funded by AT&T, giving speeches about the so-called 'knowledge economy' and other political-economic fantasies.

Professional watchword: Don't believe everything you think.

Caveat: Don't blame me, God made me this way...

Play trumpet, walk in the mountains, read, cook, travel, participate in political, economic and social discussions, write. And talk (probably--surely--too much).

Taught ethics in a maximum security prison in Texas one summer. Moved out of the US. Helped bring two wonderful human beings into the world and shared fully in raising them.

Now I live in the Dordogne, in SW France, with the love of my life.

Small book on disaster risk reduction and the global socio-economic system published in July, 2016, by Springer Verlag, a global publishing house based in Germany. The title is: "Disaster Risk and the Global System: Ruminations on a Way Forward"

Series Title : SpringerBriefs Climate Studies
ISBN : 978-3-319-41666-3
Edition Number : 1

After partially recovering from all attempts by the primary and secondary school systems to socialize me, I willingly allowed 'higher' education to take another shot at it. I had to scrabble to where I could view (and smell) the top of the academic heap before having the confidence to escape, moving to France in 1981 on a research grant and never returning except to visit.

We are here to learn something. If we knew what it was, we wouldn't have to stick around any longer. Time to 'twist the kaleidoscope' and take a look at things anew.