Debate and Controversy

"Werner Erhard, founder of the Hunger Project, recipient of the Gandhi Humanitarian Award, and the creator of est – a highly successful personal growth seminar experienced by over a million people – is a classic example of a teacher who has been adversely portrayed in the media.", V.J. Fedorschak, The Shadow on the Path

Over the years, Werner Erhard and his work have been the subjects of newspaper stories, magazine articles, television and radio programs, movies, and books. Unfortunately, a number of these stories have been founded on misconceptions and misrepresentations.

WHAT SELLS VS. THE TRUTH

These outside forces have had a major impact on how Erhard and his ideas have been viewed. In fact, the Los Angeles Times revealed that a well-organized media campaign was engineered to ruin Erhard's reputation. When published over and over, those misconceptions and misrepresentations have developed lives of their own.

Over time, many of those misconceptions and misunderstandings have been corrected in the mainstream media. Several publications have now documented that the allegations made about Werner Erhard were untrue and recanted. (See Time Magazine, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Daily News, The (London) Times Magazine, The Tablet – and Common Boundary.

For example, in the July 1993 edition of The San Jose Mercury News, Erhard’s daughter admitted she had been offered $2 million in book royalties by a reporter – whom she later sued – to lie about her father being abusive. In addition, the March 16, 1998 issue of Time Magazine, made clear that allegations about Erhard being abusive to his family were recanted and untrue. Business Wire, in an article titled, "IRS Settles Lawsuit Brought By Werner Erhard", as well as Time Magazine and other publications, corrected misstatements by IRS representatives that had implied wrong doing on Erhard’s part regarding tax matters.

One example of misstatements in the press is the often-repeated phrase describing Erhard as a former "used car salesman." Erhard did in fact sell new and used cars for a brief period in his early twenties, about the same age that many people are waiters, waitresses, and the like. However, it is almost never reported that Erhard was the vice president of a Fortune 500 company by his late 20s.

A book written by Dr. Jane Self, 60 Minutes and the Assassination of Werner Erhard, chronicles these and other misrepresentations about Erhard.

RECOGNIZED FOR LEADERSHIP

Werner Erhard has been recognized worldwide, including being given the Mahatma Gandhi Humanitarian Award, for contributions in a broad range of concerns. Werner Erhard continues to be engaged by corporations, charitable organizations, and governmental agencies around the world as a consultant in creative and strategic thinking, corporate culture, productivity, and leadership.

In its 40th Anniversary issue (May 15, 1985), Fortune Magazine recognized Erhard’s significant contribution to corporate leadership and strategic thinking. Fortune noted Erhard's work, which introduced the idea and value of empowering people, as the major management innovation of the 1970s. (See also Industry Week).

Erhard is the founder of several non-profit charitable organizations that have had a profound and lasting impact on such issues as hunger (including spearheading successful campaigns to raise money for famine relief in Cambodia, and later in Ethiopia in the 1980s), disability, education, youth at risk, and international development.

MISCONCEPTIONS IN THE MEDIA

"A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.", William James 

As with many new technologies that are on the leading edge, when Werner Erhard introduced his work, it was largely misunderstood. No one knew how to discuss it or relate to it on its own terms. There were no pre-existing categories or paradigms into which his work neatly fit. Consequently, early on, many tried to attach familiar and simple labels to his work – labels that in and of themselves often cast Werner Erhard and his work in simplistic and inaccurate terms.

Werner Erhard’s legacy and sustained influence have continued in mainstream culture. The notion of transformation is now seen as a powerful, practical, and relevant resource in contemporary society.