Posts tagged actions
the Ides of march
Mar 15th
Ah.
March 15th.
The ides of march.
Caesar to the seer: “The ides of March have come” < the prophecy had not been fulfilled>
The seer replied: “Ay, Caesar; but not gone.”
And we know the rest of the story.
By the way. Every month has an ides. Ides just means the 15th (or halfway).
It’s just that stabbing Caesar <23 times> has kind of marked the 15th of march as THE ides of ides (i just wanted to type ‘ides of ides’).
My lesson with this whole Caesar thing?
1. Don’t gloat before victory is assured <or count your chickens before they hatch>.
If it had been me I think I wouldn’t have wandered over to the seer and shoved his prophecy in his face until the 16th (just to be sure).
2. Nothing good ever happens when a group of men gather wearing togas (see Animal House as key source of proof).
3. Never wear white before Memorial Day (or whatever the Roman equivalent would have been). Bad things can happen.
Anyway.
March 15th is a big date (a lot happened).
Some examples …
1493 – Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after 1st new world voyage * this was the BIG trip ..
1869 – Cincinnati Red Stockings become the 1st pro baseball team
1937 – 1st state contraceptive clinic opens (Raleigh NC) * and now they want to get rid of them all
1946 – British premier Attlee agrees with India’s right to independence * now one of the biggest economies in the world
1985 – The first Internet domain name is registered (symbolics.com). * so this is where smartphones and texting and all the worldwideweb stuff hit the fan ….
Ah.
The biggie (although I have found several discrepancies on the specific date I am sticking with this one) … if Shakespeare, through his play, made the ides of march common knowledge to all … it was his own England that took a step toward freedom of religion (something that I think everyone could use a reminder about).
1672 – King Charles II of England enacts Declaration of Indulgence
Now.
While in today’s world indulgence may mean an extra scoop of double fudge chocolate chip in 1672 it had to do with the right to worship whatever it is you wanted to worship.
This declaration:
- suspended all penal laws in matters ecclesiastical for not attending the established Church of England or not receiving communion according to its rites;
- permitted people to worship other than in the established Church of England either in private houses or in chapels;
- ended the requirement that people take various religious oaths before advancement to civil or military office.
Oh.
The declaration applied to Catholics, Protestants, Unitarians, Jews, Muslims, and people of any or even no faith.
The declaration closed with …
And although the freedom and assurance we have hereby given in relation to religion and property might be sufficient to remove from the minds of our loving subjects all fears and jealousies in relation to either, yet we have thought fit further to declare, that we will maintain them in all their properties and possessions, as well of church and abbey-lands as in any other their lands and properties whatsoever.
My oh my.
How forward thinking was this? <albeit they did it for a number of nefarious reasons>
“remove from minds all fears and jealousies in relation to …”
I honestly cannot figure out whether in today’s world we are becoming more religiously divisive or indifferent. What I mean is that almost every study I see seems to show a growing group of people who are just ‘seeking a path to God” regardless of one organized religion and yet those who actually decide to follow a particular organized direction are becoming even more entrenched in their beliefs (to some extraordinarily restrictive perspectives).
In the end … I don’t know that it really matters as long as there is respect for the freedom to worship. And maybe we could all use a good reminder of ‘remove fear & jealousy’ with regard to that respectfulness.
Maybe we should dedicate future Ides of March to rereading the Declaration of indulgence rather than Shakespeare (although both are worthwhile).
I mean what the heck.
St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and that is certainly indulgence.
memory part 1: 65 years ago
Aug 20th
So. This is about amnesia.
Or lack of long term memory.
Look.
We Americans certainly have a pattern of historical amnesia on occasion.
And the day I am going to refer to edges upon an amnesia moment.
VJ Day.
Huh?
Known most for this picture to the right.
VJ Day is the day that Japan officially surrendered to the US and ended World War 2.
Of course everyone has seen the picture but if you think about it (beyond the obvious joy of two people – regardless of whether it was staged or not) it is a peek into a world none of my generation knows.
A world that believed total victory was possible. A world that said large sacrifices needed to be made to gain large things (democracy, freedom … stuff like that). A world that said you made hard decisions that often in retrospect may look not as black & white as you would like but in the moment achieved what needed to be achieved.
The Cold War (a 50 year silent war) was on the horizon.
This is a world difficult for any of my age group or younger can fathom.
It was on August 14th in 1945 that Americans were greeted with a two-word newsflash, “Japan Surrenders” World War II was over.
(note: it was August 15th in Japan, but, because of time zone differences, it was August 14th in the US.)
Most of us greeted the VJ Saturday as a day away from the office. Just a weekend day that gave us an opportunity to spend time with family, to shop or just relax.
It should have been a big day for remembrance.
August 14th marked the end of a conflict that claimed more human lives than any in history.
Many people believe that WWII ended with the dropping of the two A-Bombs on Hiroshima on August 6th and Nagasaki on August 9th but the Japanese did not immediately surrender after these attacks. In fact, there were Japanese rebels who wished to prolong the war
All Americans should take time to remember days like V-J Day and remember the men and women who fought to preserve the precious freedoms we almost lost.
War brought America together. Our military and citizens performed heroically, sacrificing on the home front as well as in combat. Political and personal disagreements were set aside. Output from our factories soared as the country became the arsenal of democracy in this global conflict. Americans united and labored as one, working toward a single goal: victory against the forces of totalitarianism and racist ideologies.
Victory would come, but it was hard won. On May 8, 1945, Germany capitulated. Then, following the atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered on august 14th.
There is urgency to addressing our historical amnesia. WWII veterans are dying at the rate of 800 a day, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This year there are 1,981,216 surviving veterans in the USA. In 2020 there will only be 269,721. Those who experienced V-J Day are leaving us.
Nowadays, it seems VJ Day celebrations are muted mostly because as we look in retrospect we tie the end of the war with the Air Force B29s, Enola Gay and Bockscar, dropping Little Boy and Fat Man, the atomic bombs on the essentially civilian targets of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombs killing over 200,000 people, including many women and children.
My opinion?
Muted celebrations.
What’s done is done and don’t think for a moment that the Japanese wouldn’t have dropped a couple on the Allies (Americans and/or America) if they had them.
War is an ugly. And WW2 was all that. But one cannot suggest that the Allies should have sacrificed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of their own troops in an invasion of Japan in order to spare Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
But. War is about winning (within a morality structure) with the least expenditure of your own soldiers and people. Period.
Oh. I would also like to point out, even without an atomic bomb, the Japanese managed to kill more innocent Chinese civilians at Nanking alone than the two atomic bombs together.
Historical amnesia.
Now. Historical amnesia is a scary thing. Because in generations and cycles and recurring actions (recurring mistakes) and memories it means we forget. And if we forget it means we are more likely to do again. Sound silly when you talk about something like a war the size of World War 2? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm … not really.
At the end I have some casualty graphs.
I sometimes believe World War 2 is becoming just a phrase.
As time goes by the true extent of that conflict (versus say a 9/11 which admittedly did happen on our home land which WW2 did not) is stunning in comparison. It may not be fair to compare 3000 to 1 million but numbers are numbers are numbers.
And if we do not remind ourselves of things like this on occasion we are doomed to make similar mistakes in the future and allow it to happen all over again.
Why? Because, of course, it could never happen to us (or so we say to ourselves).
Anyway.
Thus, while we may be a forward-looking people, I encourage all Americans to pause and reflect on the sacrifice of the Hero generation. The GI generation.
Remember V-J Day. Remember all remembrance days of World War 2 and the Korean War.
Seek out a GI veteran (heck. any veteran actually) and thank him or her.
They really did change the world.
To end this.
Some historical numbers to remember. Many many people took part in World War 2 and sacrificed a lot for us to be living the lives we lead today.
And we shouldn’t forget what they did … for us.
The Complexities of Conscience: Knowing what to do
Feb 3rd
So. I had lunch with a high school friend I hadn’t seen for over 25 years (and it was a lot of fun) and she mentioned one of the guys in our high school had produced the documentary “Darfur Now.”
It is a documentary about the atrocities in Darfur, the westernmost region of Sudan. It poses a fundamental question: How do you respond to an event such as a government-sponsored mass murder of part of a country’s civilian population?
The United Nations has estimated that by 2007, 200,000 people had been killed and 2.5 million displaced in Darfur.
The truly heartbreaking documentary takeaway is that “You see that kids really are just kids.” And there is an overwhelming sense of hopelessness.
In the movie, the official voice of the Sudanese government belongs to Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations, who scoffs at the notion of a genocidal campaign against the people of Darfur. The conflict is an internal matter, he insists, and has to do with the apportioning of scarce resources.
Sudan has refused to comply with the International Criminal Court’s recent arrest warrants for Ahmad Harun, Sudan’s minister of the interior, and Ali Kushayb, a leader of the Janjaweed militias, for crimes against humanity.
I guess I share all of this because in my own little world this is an unacceptable action against humanity.
But I honestly don’t know what to do about it.
Does America send troops?
Does America shirk responsibility and pass it along to UN?
Is it even our role to take care of this?
I wrestle with this. And I could argue both sides. In the end I land on, if we don’t do it who will? Sort of like if I see a crime happening across the street (like a child being beaten by thugs) and I have the power to do something and I don’t, am I not complicit to the crime?
Maybe more importantly to me as a person as I think about this:
How would I be able to go to sleep that night if I did nothing?
Darfur is a horrendous example of what is happening outside our borders but it makes you start thinking. Like. You wonder if things like the holocaust wouldn’t have happened if more people had stood up and done the right thing. In the end I guess we also have to wonder what we would have done in that situation. It is difficult when you talk about theoretical life versus real life. Unfortunately, Darfur is real life. The here and now.
Anyway. It is sometimes easy to ignore these types of things happening outside our borders.
Out of sight out of mind
It is very easy even in the age of YouTube and cellular images to just not see what is happening elsewhere.
Because we have our own problems.
Recession. (And all the stuff that comes with it).
Our soldiers dying in Afghanistan (and do we want to send more somewhere else)
Maybe worse is ignorance. Where is Darfur? Does it really matter? And, of course, our overall perceptions of undeveloped African countries.
If we haven’t been there it is often easy to think of some of these places like horse and buggy countries. Absolutely some of these places have rural areas with spotty technology and living support (we forget how large some of these places are geographically because maps kind of lie with regard to size and stuff).
So. In the end I have no answers just questions. However. I do have a suggestion even more important than watching Darfur Now. A way to give yourself real perspective.
How can you gain perspective? Oh. It’s easy. Evil shows its price tag. Read the rest of this entry »
my thoughts on conflict and people
Feb 2nd
So. What is it about me and conflict?
First. I like contradictions in life. Smart and funny. Silent but says a lot. Liberal conservative. Cynical optimist. Things like that. Oh. And enlightened and conflict of course.
Contradictions are powerful. They create a chemistry ending in positive friction (when done right) and the fire for innovative thinking and thoughts. In general I believe they make life interesting.
Second. Conflict is part of life. Humans are neither passive nor stagnant. We move. We do. We think. Combine that fact with individuals are unique (although they may group together) and inevitably there is some conflict. It can simply be healthy competition or it can be staggeringly evil intended activity (i.e. there will be conflict because your point of view and thoughts shouldn’t exist and I am going to extinguish them).
Third. I believe conflict can be “managed”. Maybe call it competitive camaraderie. I call it enlightened conflict. I believe if people know more about stuff (I don’t really believe it needs a technical term) then conflict will be conducted with knowledge. Ignorance guides conflict toward evil interactions and knowledge guides conflict to responsible interactions.
Fourth. “Enlightened”. My focus in life, whether I have recognized it or not, has been overcoming ignorance. Fulfilling curiosity – either mine or anyone’s life I glance off of. But I would envision someone would argue I am fighting for some version of pluralism. Freedom to learn and think different thoughts. I love freedom of speech but it is less important to my thoughts globally. Possibly because I believe the less ignorant people are the more likely they are to speak out (therefore we will end up getting some form of freedom of speech as a byproduct of this whole thing).
In the end I imagine what I really care about are people’s actions. They can remain mute as far as I am concerned as long as their actions respect others opinions and lives and global responsibilities.
Summarizing my deal with conflict.
My theory is conflict will always exist (human nature). On all levels – from huge populations aligned for ‘whatever’ cause to an individual aligned behind a belief. And that is okay. The friction between beliefs and causes often creates the spark for something better. Yup. I am suggesting conflict and friction is good (I apologize to all the “why can’t we all get along” groups). Good conflict leads to positive friction and ideation and evolution of ideas. And I believe we should try to manage that conflict globally by developing kind of a ‘values’ rules of competition.
Simply it revolves around two thoughts
- Positive friction.
- Enlightened conflict.
The first is based on curiosity plus friction equals better ideas and thinking.
The second is lack of ignorance plus conflict equals respectful competition (and yes … unfortunately the competition can be war … but it is war understanding the repercussions on humanity and the toll it takes).
If I could do what I really want to do it would be to create a global program or educating a global generation of kids. I have written some fairly extensive thoughts on how to create a global program for kids (up to 8 years old) to help fight ignorance and create a more balanced global community with respect to individuals, their beliefs and the environment (it is not a math, grammar, etc. education program). Someday I hope to find someone who will ask me to implement it.
Until then? I will hope that I can impact the little corner of my world with positive friction for enlightened conflict.
“Enlighten the people, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.”
Thomas Jefferson
There is a Time to Talk and a Time to Act – Part 1
Jan 22nd
Ok. I had a pretty cool job in college. I worked in the early 80s for a company called Contemporary Security Company (the guys who stand on fields and in front of the stage wearing t-shirts that have CSC on them doing “crowd control”). I have a zillion stories from those three years but I will only tell one here.
At this CSC job unless you were about 6′ 4″ 220 you started (and ended) doing bottle check when people came in stadiums, or worked popular bar mitzvahs. Well. I am maybe 5’8″ in shoes, but stocky, and didn’t really want to be stuck checking and chucking liquor at U2 side gate entrances at barely minimum hourly wages.
At the time there was a club called The Starwood in West Hollywood. It was a zoo of a place with live bands on one side and DJ dance floor on the other. Lots of drugs and drinking and general debauchery. Pretty much no one in their right mind at CSC wanted to work that job (6 main security guys and one supervisor every night). So every weekend CSC management was scrambling for staff. 
I figured it may be a way to stand out. I volunteered. The first time. “Nope. You will get killed.” Second time volunteered. The same response. Third time? Their desperation kicked in. “Be there by 6 to check in.”
So I get there. The supervisor who was pretty much there every weekend (a big guy named Laurence who had played football at USC) took one look at me and said “why the fuck did they send you?” After some debating we ended up with me as one of the doormen and giving guys on the floor a break throughout the night.
From that point on I ended up working weekends there off and on maybe a year and a half. And it quickly led to me gaining a supervisor role.
All because it seems like I understood the balance between talking and acting. Now understand that at The Starwood we probably averaged “an incident a night per security guy” every single night. The best Starwood example I can describe about talk versus act came maybe in about month two there. We were short a guy and I was on the floor. There was a really tall guy really drunk and really being an asshole. He was maybe 6’6″. So I wandered over and tapped him on the back (I wanted to tap a shoulder but I didn’t think asking him to lean over so I could reach it would be appropriate) and told him to quit being an asshole or he was going to have to leave.
Now. Let’s be clear. I didn’t mind a good fight now and then when I was younger but I did find that 95 percent of the time I could talk our way through to a solution. (probably mastered this after realizing a cracked bone in your hand REALLY hurts).
So my initial attempt at diplomacy created a fairly succinct response. This guy turned around and laughed and said “little man, I think I’m gonna be an asshole and stay.”
I punched him as hard as I could right in his stomach (I would have aimed for the stomach even if it wasn’t the only thing I could actually reach).
As he kneeled on the really nasty dirty floor, looking for some oxygen I think he dropped, I yelled in his ear “nope big man, you’re leaving”.
We kind of moved him along out the door at that point and that was that.
To be honest. That job taught me a lot about business. And this lesson was if you are the smaller guy sometimes it is more important to stop talking and just do something.
Interestingly that little event also stopped all talk about whether I was big enough or tough enough to work at The Starwood. As a matter of fact, any talk about any event.
Now. I am not proposing you go around punching people. But I have to tell you. I have no doubt in my mind if I had not taken the offensive I would have ended up in a world of hurt.
I see lots of companies talking and talking and, well, talking. And while not quite The Starwood (where that kind of action would mean you physically got the shit kicked out of you) it is interesting to note while they are talking (and talking) some other company is punching the crap out of the company. As a manager (this is the lesson I learned), sometimes your company needs to come out punching. For two reasons:
- You may not be the biggest or the bestest but if you can sneak in a really good punch you may be able to take ‘em.
- People look at you differently if you actually make the punch (and even more so if you do it at the right time)
This is just the first of the Contemporary Security Company (CSC) lessons I will share with you. And even if you don’t like the lesson maybe you will like the story.
