The renewal of societies and organizations can go forward only if someone cares.
- John Gardner
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Thursday Melange
From Nicholas Bate, of course.
I understand he's writing a sequel to "Meet Molly."
The man never sleeps.
You Have Sinned!
They tell us, for example, that it is immoral to go out for dinner when people in Africa are needy; they set up committees charged with designing speech codes for how precisely we should phrase an invitation for sex; they monitor the jokes that we tell so as to stamp out “hate speech”; they prescribe the right attitudes to cross-dressing, sex-change operations, and which bathrooms transgender people should be using. They have made it illegal to inquire about the age, marital status, drug use, or alcoholism of job applicants. They suspect child abuse if we spank our tantrum-prone child or hug our neighbor’s. We find ourselves censored if we use words such as “mankind,” “fireman,” or, when referring to God, “He.” Discrimination against blacks and women is (rightly) condemned, but discrimination in favor of blacks and women is praised. We are permitted to make fun of fundamentalist Christians, WASPs, and conservatives, but the sky will fall on us if we dare to laugh at the absurdities of deadly serious egalitarian moralizers. Attendance at sensitivity-training sessions has become mandatory for many teachers, police, civil servants, and blue-collar workers. At these sessions, ideologically reliable instructors tell their captive audience, as if they were children, how they should think, talk, and behave. Ideological indoctrination has become part of compulsory courses at universities and colleges, and more and more high schools as well.
Read all of John Kekes at City Journal on "The Menace of Moralism."
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Appreciating Disconnection
We have never appreciated a solitary stroll, a camping trip, a face-to-face chat with friends, or even our boredom better than we do now. Nothing has contributed more to our collective appreciation for being logged off and technologically disconnected than the very technology of connection. The ease of digital distraction has made us appreciate solitude with a new intensity. . . . In short, we've never cherished being alone, valued introspection, and treasured information disconnection more than we do now. Never has being disconnected - even if for just a moment - felt so profound.
- Nathan Jurgenson
Sleep Secrets
What is a common topic of discussion in my social circles?
Sleep.
People can't get enough of it. They try breathing techniques with mixed success. Adjusting the daily schedule only works if one has the power to do so. Various over-the-counter medicines don't always kick in.
I'd be tempted to say it is a true sign of aging but many young people have the same problem.
If you know of serious solutions, please pass them along.
Monday, September 27, 2021
Justice for Donovan
Althouse points to yet another opossum outrage.
Wait until The Opossum Lady gets wind of this.
The Endurance of Paper
My starting point for this book was not Leonardo's art masterpieces but his notebooks. His mind, I think, is best revealed in the more than 7,200 pages of his notes and scribbles that, miraculously, survive to this day. Paper turns out to be a superb information-storage technology, still readable after five hundred years, which our own tweets likely won't be.
- Walter Isaacson in Leonardo Da Vinci
The Debt Ceiling Kabuki
Back in that summer of discontent I talked to a journalist who was very concerned about the “dysfunction” in Washington. So am I. But I told her then what’s still true today: that the real problem is not the dysfunctional process that’s getting all the headlines, but the dysfunctional substance of governance. Congress and the president will work out the debt ceiling issue, probably just in the nick of time. The real dysfunction is a federal budget that doubled in 10 years, unprecedented deficits as far as the eye can see, and a national debt (more accurately, gross federal debt) yet again bursting through its statutory limit of $28.4 trillion and soaring past 120 percent of GDP, a level previously reached only during World War II.
Read the rest of David Boaz at The Cato Institute.
Making It Look Easy
If you and your team do extraordinary work and fail to provide at least some information to your boss as to what went into that achievement, then you've made what may be a huge mistake. You've inadvertently downplayed achievement, perhaps in the name of modesty. Don't be surprised if that work is later regarded as routine and not much of an achievement at all.
I Retired from Celebrity Status Years Ago
Shaq is retiring from celebrity status, noting that celebrities are out of their minds.
Sunday, September 26, 2021
Saturday, September 25, 2021
Age of Acceleration
We're entering an age of acceleration. The models underlying society at every level, which are largely based on a linear model of change, are going to have to be redefined. Because of the explosive power of exponential growth, the twenty-first century will be equivalent to 20,000 years of progress at today's rate of progress; organizations have to be able to redefine themselves at a faster and faster pace.
- Ray Kurzweil
If His Life Had a Soundtrack
Kurt Harden at Cultural Offering reveals ten albums that have become an important part of his life.
Eclectic and interesting choices. I have to catch up on some of them.
Power and Harmony
A free society requires some confidence in the ability of men to reach tentative and tolerable adjustments between their competing interests and to arrive at some common notions of justice which transcend all partial interests. A consistent pessimism in regard to man's rational capacity for justice invariably leads to absolutistic political theories; for they prompt the conviction that only preponderant power can coerce the various vitalities of a community into a working harmony.
- Reinhold Niebuhr
Friday, September 24, 2021
The Factory of the Future
The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.
- Warren Bennis
Marketing Meeting
"Okay, team. We want to sell a variety of products to this group of customers. How should we do that?"
"Consider their needs and wants and show how our products can help them?"
"Maybe, but perhaps a little too traditional. Any other ideas?"
"Insult them. Peddle guilt. Tell them that they are morally deficient or in some way deeply flawed and that only by supporting us will they be somewhat redeemed."
"I like that. I really like that."
Thursday, September 23, 2021
First Paragraph
China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution shook the politics of China and the world between 1966 and 1976. It dominated every aspect of Chinese life: families were separated, careers upended, education interrupted, and striking political initiatives attempted amid a backdrop of chaos, new beginnings, and the settling of old scores.
- From The Cultural Revolution: A Very Short Introduction by Richard Curt Kraus
The Rise is Not Guaranteed
There is a widely held belief that high quality will always overcome barriers and eventually achieve its just and appropriate level.
That is comforting but untrue. Consider how close we came to missing the true abilities of George C. Marshall, Winston Churchill, Jane Austen, Ulysses S. Grant, Harry Truman, Martin Luther King Jr., and many others.
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
The Modern Cultural Revolution
Yes, there are people out there who decry the use of objectivity and rigor in research.
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Miscellaneous and Fast
- Delia Cai: Welcome to the Gated Internet.
- Glenn Greenwald on the recent indictment related to the Russiagate fraud.
- The trailer for "Better Left Unsaid."
- Maxim: Tom Cruise's "Risky Business" Porsche is sold.
- Heather Mac Donald on diversity and the English Touring Opera.
- Eli Lake on choosing to lose in Afghanistan.
- Abe Greenwald reviews "The Authoritarian Moment."
And It is Worse Today
Not only do the democracies today blame themselves for sins they have not committed, but they have formed the habit of judging themselves by ideals so inaccessible that the defendants are automatically guilty. It follows that a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does and thinks will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself when its existence is threatened. Drilling into a civilization that it deserves defending only if it can incarnate absolute justice is tanamount to urging that it let itself die or be enslaved.
- Jean-François Revel in How Democracies Perish (1983)
Monday, September 20, 2021
Reading Lists and Stuff
Part of the morning was filled with correspondence and preparing reading assignments for some coaching clients.
My ancient HP laserjet printer, a real warhorse, finally went down after years of loyal service. I need to schedule a ten minute mourning period before the new one arrives.
I've been asked to give a (super-condensed) presentation skills briefing via Zoom to a team of leaders who are scattered around the country.
Less is more.
Subtract
Excitedly, I told Gabe how Ezra had removed a block - and that's when it clicked for her. Her response gave me the language to bring countless others up to speed, without them walking around in circles behind a lawn mower and then spending hours playing Legos with a toddler. She said, "Oh. So, you're wondering whether we neglect subtraction as a way to change things?"
That sounded right to me.
- From Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less by Leidy Klotz
First Paragraph
The Founding Fathers who drafted the U.S. Constitution in 1787 feared political parties, popular democracy, and centralized government. Contrary to these sentiments, the national politics that emerged has been that of intense partisan conflict, the continual expansion of suffrage, and the expansion of federal power. Early on, American politics became a blood sport with political candidates and officeholders assailing opponents in negative, and often, vicious ways, to win votes within an electorate that had increased in size and expressed a multitude of interests. By the 1830s all politicians, whatever their party affiliation, proclaimed themselves democrats and "men of the people." The only consistency between the Founders' dream for the new republic and what emerged was a profound faith in constitutional government.
- From American Political History: A Very Short Introduction by Donald T. Critchlow
Gabriel
There was first word in 2017 that Daniel Silva's extraordinary Gabriel Allon spy novels would be coming to the screen.
Fans cheered and immediately made casting speculations.
And then, silence.
We Live in Strange Times
Jonathan Turley on the allegations regarding General Milley's calls to China.
I was expecting an immediate denial. This entire story is very disturbing.
Sunday, September 19, 2021
Saturday, September 18, 2021
Decisions, Decisions
Option A: You have given up no options, the situation is stabilized, and you retain the ability to pursue those options in the future.
Option B: You have taken a seemingly bold step which might be emotionally pleasing but the other options have now disappeared and you have surrendered the initiative to the other side.
Frequent Reaction: Option B! Option B!
First Paragraph
White against green. The contrast was beautiful, thought David Victor Jones, resting on a hill above the rice paddy. The paddy was bright jade, the trees around it emerald, and the ducks were white.
- From Means of Escape: A Memoir by Philip Caputo
Bring Donuts to the Hearing
For example, judges have been found more likely to grant parole at the beginning of the day or after a food break than immediately before such a break. If judges are hungry, they are tougher.
- From Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment by Daniel Kahneman, Oliver Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein
Friday, September 17, 2021
A Confession
I resisted getting a smartwatch. The more the FutureLawyer extolled the virtues of smartwatches, the more I admired the beauty of my Seiko kinetic watch. From the standpoint of beauty, my Seiko is not equaled by any smartwatch on the planet.
But then I figured that I could benefit from the health features of a good smartwatch. During a false start with a minor smartwatch - which I returned - I consulted the Sage of South Florida, who owns more smartwatches than - to borrow an old expression - Carter has pills. After learning that I'd committed the sin of getting an iPhone, he sighed for a while then made an important observation. I'm paraphrasing here but he muttered that it would be easier to transfer everything from my iPhone to an Apple smartwatch.
He could not bring himself to utter the word "Apple" but I know what he meant.
And so I pondered.
Being somewhat impatient and seeking simplicity, I finally got an Apple smartwatch. To my surprise, I really like it. Knowing about health and emails and texts is one thing, but the best feature, oddly enough, has been the Dick Tracy feature: being able to make and receive phone calls from my watch.
That may sound minor but on several occasions, I have learned about important calls which I would have missed if I had not been able to glance at my wrist and see the number. Missing those calls would have greatly complicated my day if not the order of the universe.
Do I like the look? It's okay.
Are there androids that are prettier? Undoubtedly.
Is the wristband dorky? You bet.
Does the watch do what I want it to do? Definitely.
And that last point wins the day.
Theology from an Oxford Don
There are few ministers who've influenced as many people as C.S. Lewis.
[Photo by Luke Tanis at Unsplash]
Thursday, September 16, 2021
Never Discount the Usefulness of a Magnetic Level
Patrick Rhone is making impressive progress on the fence.
Beautiful Meetings
- Clear objectives.
- Prepared participants.
- Shared commitment.
- Careful listening.
- Candor.
- Specific actions.
- Follow-up.
- Tangible progress.
First Paragraph
There were no taxis outside the station, but there were plenty of porters. One of them took my suitcases.
- From Surrender on Demand by Varian Fry
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Reprise: Late Night Reading (a.k.a. Nostalgia for Roy Macridis)
that book?"
I have to confess, however, that the only book that invariably put me to sleep - and I mean within ten minutes - was Roy Macridis's book on comparative government. When I was a young and alert student of government at the University of Arizona, I had to take a comparative government class. The class was challenging and interesting but packed with little drills such as comparing the Swiss government to that of the Italians or the Chinese. For some arcane reason, the Macridis book was part of the required reading. Regardless of the time of day, it was the equivalent of chugging a gallon of ZQuil.
Now, of course, there are nights when I regret having given it away.
First Paragraph
When Hitler came to power I was in the bath. Our apartment was on the Schiffbauerdamm near the river, right in the middle of Berlin. From its windows we could see the dome of the parliament building. The wireless in the living room was turned up loud so Hans could hear it in the kitchen, but all that drifted down to me were waves of happy cheering, like a football match. It was Monday afternoon.
- From All That I Am: A Novel by Anna Funder
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
First Paragraph
In the summer of 1955, at the end of my sophomore year in college, I worked as a chauffeur in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. It had not been my first choice of jobs. I was originally supposed to work as a salesman for the Continental Insurance Company, which had made me an offer during a campus interview at my school, DePauw University. When the interviewer said there was an opening for me in the company's Atlanta office, I jumped at the chance. It was the perfect arrangement for me. I would have a job in the place where I most wanted to be - at home in Atlanta. At the end of the term, brimming with the confidence of a young man with two years of college behind me, I packed my bags and headed south thinking everything was in place.
- From Vernon Can Read: A Memoir by Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.
Cheers for WordPerfect
FutureLawyer's praise for WordPerfect hits the spot. I used Word Perfect years ago and found it to be far superior to Word.
Unfortunately, since 99% of my clients were using Word, I made the shift to The Dark Side.
For a non-techie such as myself, WordPerfect was far more intuitive. It was much easier to sort out any questions than navigating the maze in Word's system.
Monday, September 13, 2021
"Dismal Sequels"
Americans intervened in Afghanistan in order to deny safe haven to terrorists and somehow to change that country for the better. Alas, at the end of the 20 years, Afghanistan finds itself back in the seventh century. It was America that got changed, almost beyond recognition. Americans split down the middle and became their own worst enemies. Their politics grew hysterical and vicious and surreal. They took to despising one another.
Read the rest of Lance Morrow's essay in City Journal.
My Dodged Bullets List
As I grow older, I have learned to shift many of the setbacks in my life to what I call My Dodged Bullets List.
When the events happened, of course, there was pain, anger, embarrassment or frustration. I cannot pretend otherwise.
Time, however, has brought perspective. Now I find myself saying, "Thank God I didn't get stuck with that!"
If you don't have such a list, I strongly recommend starting one.
You may need several pages.
[Photo by Jan Kahanek at Unsplash]
Sunday, September 12, 2021
Uncontrollability
Do you remember the first snowfall on a late autumn or winter day, when you were a child? It was like the intrusion of a new reality. Something shy and strange that had come to visit us, falling down upon and transforming the world around us, without our having to do anything. An unexpected gift. Falling snow is perhaps the purest manifestation of uncontrollability.
- Hartmut Rosa in The Uncontrollability of the World
[Photo by Filip Bunkens at Unsplash]
Saturday, September 11, 2021
First Paragraph
The mailman delivered the packet just as Captain Finsterwald and Airman First Class Merriwether had finished searching Major Davies's cottage.
- From Our Man in Camelot by Anthony Price
One of the Early Novels about Terrorism
The last paragraph of The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad:
And the incorruptible Professor walked, too, averting his eyes from the odious multitude of mankind. He had no future. He disdained it. He was a force. His thoughts caressed the images of ruin and destruction. He walked frail, insignificant, shabby, miserable - and terrible in the simplicity of his idea calling madness and despair to the regeneration of the world. Nobody looked at him. He passed on unsuspected and deadly, like a pest in the street full of men.
Friday, September 10, 2021
Gone Wild
Stakeholder capitalism pretends to be a milder form of capitalism, but it's actually capitalism gone wild: it encourages capitalism's winners to wield greater power in our democracy. Ordinary Americans who vote at the ballot box each November are like the poor devotees who wait in the long line at the temple. Meanwhile, CEOs and investors issuing moral fiats from Davos are the rich devotees who get to cut the line.
- Vivek Ramaswamy, Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam
A Leader, Both Future and Present: Immunized from Woke Politics
When acceptance is the highest value, when avoiding condemnation online is worth more than the truth, the truth will be swiftly discarded. Online likes, followers and reputation — weak, empty values — dominate the teenage world because teenagers are not being taught alternative ones by the culture or, often, by the adults in their lives. They — we — are not being given the tools to answer the questions that really matter: What is truth? What is justice? And what is the purpose of life?
Read all of David Idfresne's essay at Common Sense with Bari Weiss.
Quiet, Slanted, and Dangerous
We've all heard of people who have been stealing from their organizations for years.
I'm more worried about those who been quietly inserting extreme ideological slants into HR training programs.
"Unhinged" is a Word That Often Comes to Mind Nowadays
Like most persons trained in political science during the 1960s my early writings were concerned with describing the process by which policy is shaped and with mapping the alignment of forces rather than with evaluating the substantive content of policy. Nonetheless, firmly seated in the back of my mind, was the substantive interest in reconciling the need for governmental authority with claims of liberty and fairness. As I grew older and grappled yearly with the task of explaining new laws and Supreme Court decisions to students, a conviction grew until it weighed on me like lead - that many civil libertarians had become unhinged.
- Richard E. Morgan, Disabling America: The "Rights Industry" in Our Time (published in 1984)
Thursday, September 09, 2021
Book-Burning in Canada
“We bury the ashes of racism, discrimination and stereotypes in the hope that we will grow up in an inclusive country where all can live in prosperity and security,” says a video prepared for students about the book burning, Radio Canada reported.
In total, more than 4,700 books were removed from library shelves at 30 schools across the school board, and they have since been destroyed or are in the process of being recycled, Radio Canada reported.
The National Post on a bizarre "reconciliation" effort.
These people are dangerous.
Nike's End of Men
For all the talk of a racial reckoning within major industries, Nike’s main problem is this: It’s a company built on masculinity, most specifically Michael Jordan’s alpha dog brand of it. Now, due to its own ambitions, scandals, and intellectual trends, Nike finds masculinity problematic enough to loudly reject.
Read the rest of Ethan Strauss's essay here.
Scholars Under Fire
FIRE: The targeting of scholars for ideological reasons from 2015 to the present.
[Photo by Nathan Dumlao at Unsplash]
Wednesday, September 08, 2021
Intolerance on Campus
Common Sense with Bari Weiss: Peter Boghossian resigns from Portland State University. An excerpt:
I noticed signs of the illiberalism that has now fully swallowed the academy quite early during my time at Portland State. I witnessed students refusing to engage with different points of view. Questions from faculty at diversity trainings that challenged approved narratives were instantly dismissed. Those who asked for evidence to justify new institutional policies were accused of microaggressions. And professors were accused of bigotry for assigning canonical texts written by philosophers who happened to have been European and male.
Pathological Dualism
There is a moral dualism that sees good and evil as instincts within us between which we must choose. But there is also what I will call pathological dualism that sees humanity itself as radically . . . divided into the unimpeachably good and the irredeemably bad. You are either one or the other.
- Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
Commitment
Purpose gives direction to one's efforts, but it does not necessarily make life easier. Goals can lead into all sorts of trouble, at which point one gets tempted to give them up and find some less demanding script by which to order one's actions. The price one pays for changing goals whenever opposition threatens is that while one may achieve a more pleasant and comfortable life, it is likely that it will end up empty and void of meaning.
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Good Intentions and Bad Ideas
Carefully going through this in preparation for a project. A friend who works in civil rights said he's read it three times. I can understand why.
Tuesday, September 07, 2021
Portland: The Decline
- The Washington Examiner: “How Portland Became Portlandia.”
- Vulture: “The Portlandia Effect.”
- NPR: "‘Portlandia’ is Ending, and Portlanders are OK with That."
[Photo by Janne Simoes at Unsplash]
Monday, September 06, 2021
The Hard Work Behind "Other People's Money"
After attending City College of New York, Mr. Sterner sold tokens for the New York City Transit Authority. (They cost 15 cents each at the time.) He worked from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and wrote seven plays in nearly six years in the booth. When he could not sell his work, he went into real estate.
- From the 2001 New York Times obituary for playwright Jerry Sterner.
Labor Day
- From Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader's Guide to the Real World by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall
Sunday, September 05, 2021
Saturday, September 04, 2021
Down for the Count
The next time some academics tell you how important 'diversity' is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.
- Thomas Sowell
What We Need
A stack of sharpened pencils. A notebook with quality paper. Coffee from a decent bean. A chunk of solitude.
- Nicholas Bate, whose blog slogan is "Business of Life + Life of Business."
The Worst Is Yet To Come
"This is the greatest loss of military equipment in the history of warfare by one power."
- Victor Davis Hanson
Read more and see the chart at Cultural Offering.
Friday, September 03, 2021
There's Not Always a Link
Never assume that wisdom automatically comes with the following:
- Experience
- Education
- Title
- Rank
- Honors
- Wealth
- Creativity
- Fame
Thursday, September 02, 2021
We've Sunk Deeper Since Then
Something has gone terribly wrong with the way we view and talk about 'race' in America. For the truth is that we no longer make sense on the subject of 'race.' We have talked ourselves into a hole full of rhetorical quicksand. Our attempts to clarify merely confound, and language itself has become a trap.
- Orlando Patterson in The Ordeal of Integration (1997)
Leadership
Wally Bock has a great post on the meaning of "leader."
[I had to smile at his mention of the Landmark books on history. I loved those books!]
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