Reflections on Citizenship and Society:

Moral Philosophy, Political Economy and Right Action

Introduction

What constitutes good citizenship? That’s a question we don’t ask ourselves often enough and, it seems, less
recently than historically. There’s a simple answer – don’t always make all your decisions strictly on the basis of
your own private, narrow and short-term interests. Balance your own advantage with what’s right for your country
and people. Why? And how?

In an earlier collection that is part of this series on the “Good Republic” we looked at what it takes for and for our
leadership to have a healthy Public Square. (Heroes, Leaders and Public Morality: Values and a Healthy Public
Square ). We also took a look at the fundamental policies, based on fairly rigorous investigation and analysis, of
required in current circumstances (Crisis in the Public Square: Thinking About Futures, Policy and Politics). In the
latter we outlined the economic, foreign and defense and domestic policies that we thought the evidence showed
were best suited to the challenges of the time.

In the former we looked at the responsibilities of public leadership, especially on a moral basis. Leaders are not
those who are always right nor those who can persuade the most people to follow them. They are those who act
as best they know how and recognize they can make mistakes. They are especially those willing to take
responsibility for their decisions and, most critically, wade back in when previous decisions don’t work and find
some new way forward.

Those are two legs of the stool on which a healthy public square rests – it’s bedrock foundations, as it were. The
third leg of that stool is a self-responsible citizenry. Those who are willing, like our idealized leadership, to make
the best decisions they can, to make them with more than their own interests in mind, and be willing to change
when circumstances call for it. But most importantly good citizenship requires you to be open-minded, tolerant
and respectful of others and their rights. While simultaneously insisting on the adherence and dedication of all,
leaders and citizens, to fundamental principles and standards of behavior.

One good reason for doing that of course is that it’s the right thing to do. But the deepest reason is that it works.
The Public Square depends on civic institutions and good leadership but more than anything it depends on good
citizens – those willing to participate actively, in good faith and constructively. And – here’s the return – we are
each utterly dependent on the health of the public square for our own well-being and prosperity. In other words
the healthier the public square the better our lives will be, in terms of opportunity, security, and prosperity.

Now nobody has the time and resources to become truly informed on every issue. So how does one conduct
oneself as a good citizen? That’s both easy and hard. We have representatives who we select because we
haven’t the time to attend to everything. If we ask them to do nothing more than always advantage us at the
overall expense of our societies then we will get a nation of log-rollers, trading off one favor for another, and drive
ourselves to the lowest common denominator.
If, instead, we ask your representatives to work for us and for the public square then life will be better for
everyone. At the end of the day there are four simples for good Citizenship:

1. Be tolerant and respectful of others.

2. Make your choices and decisions not for your own sake alone
3. Choose good people to represent you, who you respect and trust, who will tell
you the hard and real truths. Not those who tell you what you want to hear.
4. Ask you representatives to make their choices by balancing the immediate
interests of their constituents with the broader needs of the public square.
Those are rules that anybody can follow at any time in any society, even those where the public square is
dysfunctional and broken.
Table of Contents
1. Beyond Glory: a Deep Play About Medal of Honor Winners 3
2. Retroactive Reflections on the 4th:Where Were You.....? 5
3. Values & Culture 8
4. Christmas Spirit and Dinner Miracles 9
5. And Peace Unto Men....Practicing Spirit 11
6. Following the Spirit: Leaders, Leadership and the "Wise" Course 12
7. Practicing the Spirit: Respect, Tolerance and Civitas 14
8. The Sage of Omaha: Values, Integrity and the World We Want 17
9. How Much for that Fish in the Window? 18
10. 911 Memorial: Fix the Problem Don't Repeat the Crash 19
11. From Misconception to Collective Affirmation: the Inaugural Renewal 21
12. Reflections & Remembrances: Memorial Day, D-Day, Today 25
13. Frontline Lessons Brought Home: Others, Selfs and Manners 28
14. McNamara's Legacies and Lessons: Beyond Simple Answers 31
15. Sausage Eating Lizards: Sonia, Spooks, Death Panels and the Pope 34
16. Lizard-brains vs. the Public Good: Time to Embrace the Suck 38
17. Veterans, the Wall & Magic: Fear, Stress & Loathing on the Reform Road 43

READINGS

1. Values and Attitudes 47

2. Culture 48
3. Science & Technology 49

Page 2 of 49
Beyond Glory: a Deep Play About Medal of Honor Winners
http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2007/08/post.html
Posted by dblwyo on August 9, 2007

Dan Henninger of the WSJ has a deeply moving review of an even more deeply moving play (which I haven' t and
won't be able to see right now...SADLY) which if you get a chance to see it sounds as if you should. The highly
respected WSJ theater/arts critic Terry Teachout briefly reviews it on his blog though and we reproduce part of it
here: (the show information is Beyond Glory )
TT: Southern fried gothic Today' s Wall Street Journal drama column contains the first fruit of my
recent travels, a rave review of a rare revival of Tobacco Road by Triad Stage, a company based
in Greensboro, N.C. I also review the New York premiere of Stephen Lang' s Beyond Glory and a
production of Pirates! (an updated version of The Pirates of Penzance) at Paper Mill Playhouse in
Millburn, N.J.:
It took long enough, but "Beyond Glory," Stephen Lang' s fire-eating portrayal of
eight recipients of the Medal of Honor, has finally opened Off Broadway two
years after I saw it at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. "Mr. Lang' s one-man play is
no simple-minded piece of flag-waving," I wrote in this space in 2005. "It is an
unsparingly direct portrait of men at war, pushed into narrow corners and faced
with hard choices. It is also one of the richest, most complex pieces of acting I' ve
seen in my theatergoing life." I went back to see it again last week, and I stand by
every word of my original review....

Lang' s play is based on the book Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty and takes eight of the
24 stories contained in as it'
s source material. And in that spirit here'
s Henninger'
s column reproduced in full. At
the bottom the Online WSJ video interview with him is embedded and a couple of the projects that the NEW/NPR
have organized are referenced, including Operation Homecoming. The goal of that project was to get great writers
to hold workshops for the troops so they could tell their own stories.

Faith and Fiber

The American people may have "Iraq fatigue," but that doesn' t mean they' ve stopped paying
attention. A few days ago, the Gallup/USA Today poll reported that, over the past four weeks,
belief that the extra troops in Iraq were "making the situation better" rose to 31% from 22%. The
percentage who say the new troops don' t matter dropped to 41% from 51%. Somehow people
have found their way to reports that Gen. Petraeus'counterinsurgency strategy is toting up gains
on the ground. Here in the U.S., any such news a half-world away from the troops in Iraq will be
processed immediately into the chopped meat of our politics. Example: If the Iraq commitment
turns steadily positive, the Democratic leadership' s domestic antiwar strategy may leave the
party's candidates on thin ice as they slip and slide toward the primary season. This ensures that
the war, the one in the U.S., will be fought with recrimination and accusation. Imagine the
surprise, then, when the most cathartic experience I' ve had recently in matters of war or peace
was seeing a stage play about . . . war. The play is "Beyond Glory," written and performed by
Stephen Lang at the Roundabout Theater in New York.

In barest outline, Mr. Lang, who originated the role of the accused Marine colonel in the Broadway production of
"A Few Good Men," brings to life eight recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor from World War II, Korea
and Vietnam. Without interruption for 80 minutes, Mr. Lang recreates eight different men, who relate the hellish
events that earned them the Medal of Honor. As described recently by Journal theater critic Terry Teachout, this
is "acting of the highest imaginable quality, a performance that will sear its way into your mind and linger there
forever after." An understatement. After seeing "Beyond Glory" the first time a month ago, curiosity sent me to the
Web to learn more. New York theatergoers normally would expect to wait ' til Manhattan turned red for a play
about the Medal of Honor. And as always, you' re waiting for the inevitable footlight political lecture. Never came.

Page 3 of 49
Stephen Lang plays it straight. No "message." In a conversation about the play last weekend, Mr. Lang said this
play'
s about "humility." So how did this happen? What emerged from the effort to reverse-engineer "Beyond
Glory" were so many "good news" stories, all tied to the subject few want to think about nowadays -- war -- that
one hardly knows where to begin. The beginning itself was just luck. Several years ago Mr. Lang came across a
new book by a suburban New York basketball buddy, Larry Smith.

A former managing editor of Parade magazine, Mr. Smith had managed to draw forth first-hand oral histories from
24 recipients of the Medal of Honor, an astonishing feat given the traditional reluctance of veterans to talk about
the details of combat experience. So for starters there was this fine book, published in 2003 by W.W. Norton,
called "Beyond Glory." Stephen Lang transformed eight of them into dramas to tell out loud. The play, "Beyond
Glory," opened in 2004 on the edge of Arlington Cemetery, at a small theater inside the Women in Military Service
Memorial. Some nights only three people showed up. He played on. Then he got a strong review, and lots of
people started attending. One was a program director at the National Endowment for the Arts, Jon Peede. Mr.
Peede had been asked to direct a new NEA program called Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime
Experience. Its intention was to help soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, or their families, to put their experiences
into writing -- fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The idea was suggested to NEA Chairman Dana Gioia, a poet, by
Connecticut poet Marilyn Nelson, who' d recently served as a visiting writer at West Point. Good for the poets.

Reluctant to wait years for Congressional funding or to divert money from other NEA programs, Chairman Gioia
sought private funding for Operation Homecoming. Quietly, the Boeing Company stepped up, ultimately giving
$1.2 million. The soldiers'tutors at NEA's workshops included writers such as Barry Hannah, Tobias Wolff, Mark
Bowden, Victor Davis Hanson and Tom Clancy. The result is a book, "Operation Homecoming" (Random House),
which -- again some understatement -- is breathtakingly good. One of the chanted mantras of our time is, "But I
support the troops." Terrific. Now read "Operation Homecoming" to find out who they are, what they think, feel,
want, have learned, won and lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. Stand in a bookstore and start with chapter five, "This
Is Not a Game." But we' re ahead of the story.

Jon Peede told Chairman Gioia he' d just seen a pretty amazing play about Medal of Honor recipients that would
make a nice fit with "Operation Homecoming." Result: Stephen Lang was able to put the Medal of Honor' s reality
in front of soldier audiences all over the world -- in Europe, at Pearl Harbor, the DMZ in Korea and of course in the
Middle East, memorably aboard the aircraft carrier USS Vinson in the Persian Gulf. He performed on the Vinson
three times in a day, losing 10 pounds. Two shows were done on the flight deck, each time before 500 to 600
sailors. In the evening he did it in a smaller room for about 100 officers. Some wept. Here' s why one person wept
at "Beyond Glory." I didn' t know who the eight MoH soldiers and Marines were the first time I saw the play. The
fourth man portrayed is Adm. James Stockdale. In the 1980s, I worked with Jim Stockdale (and later met him
several times) to shape a long, remarkable feature that he wrote for The Wall Street Journal on the meaning of his
seven years as a prisoner during Vietnam at Hoa Lo, the Hanoi Hilton. Stephen Lang, using Stockdale' s words,
revealed the reality of Hoa Lo prison -- the torture known as "the ropes," the years in isolation, the ruined but
never-broken man. When Stockdale/Lang slits his wrists to avoid being "taken down," and describes why, it is
unbearable.

Last Saturday after he' d finished the matinee performance (the play closes a week from Sunday), I asked
Stephen Lang: You' ve now spent several years with these eight guys; what do you think "Beyond Glory" is about.
"For the longest time," he said, "I couldn'
t give it a name. I finally concluded that what binds these men is faith and
fiber." Pretty simple. Faith and fiber.

Page 4 of 49
Retroactive Reflections on the 4th:Where Were You.....?
http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2007/08/retroactive_reflections_on_the.html
Posted by dblwyo on August 9, 2007

We' re well into August and by and large it' s been

a lovely summer for us here in Ct. A bit warm on
many days but nothing like in prior years; and it
cools down at night so the house can be opened
up. Quite a bit of rain from time-to-time, but many
blue and beautiful days. Not only can' t complain
but actually should celebrate the Summer. Which
brings it'
s own slate of events and occurrences
besides somewhat predictable weather. Not least
of which is the 4th of July. In my little corner of the
world that means fireworks, parades (in my little
town it'
s a few veterans, a band or two, lots of
Cub/Brownie Scouts, some firetrucks) and
picnics. All in all, nothing special. But it is. When
you really stop and think, it' s very...very special.

Here' s a little exercise for you - next time you'

re
driving around your neighborhood imagine a couple or three things. Let' s assume folks are pretty decently off -
whatever that means to you - so they have jobs, homes, families. None of that happened by accident nor alone.
They had to make some effort to get to where they' re at - and renew that effort every day. And nobody makes the
doors, windows, shingles, cars, food, etc. etc. etc. in all those houses. In fact that'
s true for all of us - we'
re
comfortably inter-twined in this crazy-quilt network of mutual dependencies and exchanges. And all better off for it
by far. If you ever saw some of those History Channel specials, say Iron Age House for example, you have some
small glimmer of the efforts involved in just getting a bucket of water.

Now, just supposed you' re driving down the street waving at your neighbors and somebody pops around the side
of their house and cuts loose with an AK-47 ? A joke ? Unimaginable? Well, not in many places in the world. The
fact that we have a shot at making a decent living, in nice neighborhoods filled with the physical things of a good
life and are secure from attack and in our families, possessions and rights is not ordained by the fundamental
nature of the Universe.

It is a result of a lot of hard work and sacrifice by a lot of folks for a long time - from your neighbors and your
efforts to the folks in the local Firehouse to our servicefolk around the world. And all the folks like them for
hundreds of years back who kept on keeping on. But is particularly due to the efforts of some folks who made
extraordinary efforts and sacrifices in those years. And if you wouldn' t mind, I'
d like to share some reflections on a
few and what we owe them.

Let me start with the founding of the country and, obviously, the founding fathers (& mothers). Having read a bit of
history it'
s been a great learning experience for me to get some glimmer of what they went thru - we were gifted
with an extraordinary group of talented, energetic, hard-working and principled folks. For example it was literally
thru Washington' s force of will that we preserved and kept the Army together (In particularly I'
ve never been able
to grasp his dedication that winter at Valley Forge). Equally important was his taking the Presidency (having
refused the crown and been called the greatest man in history by no less than George III) because without it the
country wouldn' t have held together. Consider that his contemporary was Napoleon - who made himself Emperor!
But even in the early years (the book to read is Founding Brothers ) post-Washington there were many crisis. The
thing to keep in mind that no Republic in history had held together as a republic for long - though Rome, Venice
and Holland gave it darn good runs. And NONE had covered the geographic size and complexity of populations -
this was truly an experiment.

Page 5 of 49
Of the several stories that Founding Brothers tells which illustrate how fragile the early years were one especially
resonates with me: Hamilton' s duel with Burr when the former labeled the latter Catiline. Which in the Roman
metaphor vernacular the founders used meant a talented & brilliant politician who would act only in his own
interest. A charge deadly to Burr' s career, later confirmed and which Hamilton refused to withdraw. I' ve paced the
distance of their duel and it would have been hard to miss. Hamilton fired in the air with his shot while Burr aimed
to kill. In other words Hamilton considered the establishment of the principle of public-minded integrity so
important he was willing to die to protect it - and did, and he did. Burr'
s career was finished by that episode and
the principle of public virtue built into our DNA.

Four score and seven years afterwards the principles of government by the people, of
the people and for the people were tested again. In a world where NOONE believed it
was workable or sustainable in the long-haul; and for which the Civil War was the
crucible. Perhaps no man did as much as Lincoln to make it work - nor are there many in
history with his combination of characeristics that could have (the wonderful book to read
is Team of Rivals). And the Gettysburg Address is well worth re-reading and thinking
about - once you understand what it is you' re reading. My understanding of the Address
and what the last "full measure of devotion" entailed was honed by the movie Gettysburg
- which is (within limits) as historically accurate as possible and captures both the
battlefield, the terrible command decisions, crucial points and the terrible pressures.

It helps to know that Lee kept attacking because, on good information, he thought that a
peace offer was pending that would have been accepted by the Union, especially if he
won. And this was the first time since the beginning that the Union Army stood! What
would you gamble ? Of many great scenes the one that chills my blood is where the
commander of one of Pickett' s brigades explains that 3-year veterans are going to charge across a mile of open
field KNOWING that most of them will die miserably on the off chance of breaking the Union line. KNOWING
exactly what they' re facing and what the consequences are.

But let me let Sgt. Buster Kilrain sum it all up:

There's many a man alive of no more of value than a dead dog. Believe me. When
you've seen them hang each other the way I have back in the Old Country. Equality?
What I'm fighting for is to prove I'm a better man than many of them. Where have you
seen this "divine spark" in operation, Colonel? Where have you noted this magnificent
equality? No two things on Earth are equal or have an equal chance. Not a leaf, not a
tree. There's many a man worse than me, and some better... But I don't think race or
country matters a damn. What matters, Colonel... Is justice. Which is why I'm here. I'll
be treated as I deserve, not as my father deserved. I'm Kilrain... And I damn all
gentlemen. There is only one aristocracy... And that is right here.
[points to his head]
Strangely enough with the war swirling around them it was Lincoln and the Republicans of the time who passed
the Transcontinental RR act which created a continental nation, set up the Homestead Act which helped settle it,
land-grant Universities which laid the foundations for both educating it and making science and research key to
our prosperity and many other critically significant innovations. There was little difference between the way things
were done in America in 1830 and Florence in 1230 - a businessman could have changed places easily. But
neither could have gone to 1870 or 1890 or beyond because the railroads created a national economy.
Between 1880 and 1920, or so, we started as a nation of isolated villages and became an urban, industrialized
nation that was the greatest economic power on earth. And went thru enormous changes in social structure,
economics and business and political and administrative organization. Now a lot of people played many and great
roles in bringing this all about - too many to discuss. And not as dramatic as the Founding or the Civil War.

Page 6 of 49
Nonetheless the Progressive Era was as much a crisis that threatened the existence of the Republic as either of
those two crisis. A good book to read is The Search for Order which is still the best comprehensive synthesis
across the period though Wikipedia has a nice starting point, albeit brief. But the more important hint is to check
out the list of Presidential Rankings and notice where Roosevelt and Wilson rank; and ask yourself what was
required that two of our greatest served back-to-back. Let us, again, let TR speak for himself and for us:
In our complex industrial civilization of today the peace of righteousness and justice, the only kind
of peace worth having, is at least as necessary in the industrial world as it is among nations.
There is at least as much need to curb the cruel greed and arrogance of part of the world of
capital, to curb the cruel greed and violence of part of the world of labor, as to check a cruel and
unhealthy militarism in international relationships.

The re-structuring of American society was obviously not our only challenge. It was followed by WW1, the Great
Depression (did you know by-the-way that there was a right-wing plot against Roosevelt which aimed to replace
him with Gen. Smedley Butler, Commandant of the USMC, organized by several of the richest men in the nation ?
Rather similar to how Hitler was funded and came to power, don' t you know ?). Obviously we owe a great deal to
a great many people not least of whom were Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. AND the members of the
greatest generation. For anybody who' s seen "Saving Private Ryan" the gist of the problem is pretty clear but let
me recommend without qualification that you see "Band of Brothers" - the magnificent HBO TV series.

As a closing note though I'd like to pass on one key statistic - as best I recollect it. If you'
ve seen Private Ryan you
have some feel for the risks - front-line combat troops had, over the course of the European campaign, a casualty
rate of some 120%, wounded or killed. I' m not quite sure about that figure. However, the bomber crews of the 8th
Air Force, who had to complete 25 missions, stood approximately 0% chance of doing so. Can you imagine
getting up in the morning, eating breakfast, gearing up and smiling as you climbed into your bomber KNOWING
that your chances of coming back were less than 50% on that mission ? And that you had to do it again tomorrow
? And the day after? And the day after, until you didn' t come back.

Moving beyond WW2 and into the modern era we endured many tumultuous events from Civil Rights and the
Riots, on. Yet at the same time it was a period of unrivaled prosperities - the first widespread rise of a large
middle-class in history (Halberstam' s "The Fifeties" is a superb grounding in all the changes and innovations that
set the entire framework since then. Very highly recommended.). One of the things that passed most people by
however was the Cold War, which was a real war, cost real resources and lives, changed many parts of the world
(how well would Africa be doing now without having been a battleground for the covert war). The book to read is
The Cold War: A New History , by the dean of Cold War historians John Lewis Gaddis.

His most, among many, telling quotes is "that it was not a conflict where victory was
pre-ordained" (paraphrasing). Which many (almost all of us, forgot, or never knew).
The Pentagon desperately needs cultural experts for today' s conflicts yet they are
widely unavailable - partly because their parents raised them in the false belief that
the entire thing was a fabrication of the Pentagon ! A true story. Well the movie that
is as gut-wrenching as Private Ryan in it' s own ways, and also a fairly accurate
composite of many of the major crisis of the early Cold War as well as the general
War in the Shadows is the Good Shepherd. Well written, acted and directed - almost
unfortunately so. It'
s one moral crisis after another - each of which exceeds any I' ve,
or most of us, ever faced in scope and consequences.

Yet that was only a small part of everything that went on. We' re forty years on from
the "Summer of Love" when all the fundamental shibboleths (look it up...please) were
thrown up for re-consideration. As Andrew Shepherd put, "it' s all about character,
Bob". Have you considered what this country would have been like if instead of
Martin Luther King we' d had a Yasser Arafat? His dedication to the fundamental
principles for which, and on which, this country was founded was and is extraordinary. And we' re just now coming
to the end of the first wave of aftershocks and re-building our society based on the incorporation and inclusion of
all the people. Not done yet, though! It's well worth watching King' s "I Have a Dream" speech with that in mind.

Page 7 of 49
Let me close this rather longish post (essay :) ) with a final note. It'd be an appropriate
and obvious choice to point to all our troops scattered in far-away places going in "Harm' s
Way". Taking nothing whatsoever from those folks (& pointing to the prior post on Medal
of Honor winners) though let me point you to another Halberstam book "Firehouse" about
a firehouse in Mid-town Manhatten that lost 1/2 the house on 911 (everybody on the
engine and ladder trucks but one guy who was severely injured and survived only by a
fluke). The dedication to service, the sacrifices and the continuing struggles of their
families, friends and survivors can stand for all the efforts of all the folks, just ordinary
ones like ourselves, who live their lives from day-to-day yet make what efforts are
necessary.

And, finally one last little touch to put it all into emotional perspective let me look to Alan
Jackson as he asks, "where were you...", but add in all the other times and places:

Values & Culture

http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2007/09/weekly_reader_23sep07_iii_valu.html
Posted by dblwyo on September 23, 2007

This is Part 3 (of 3) of a week that saw a lot of interesting postings across the spectrum of our interests. Prior
posts focused on Political Economy (Weekly Reader 23Sep07: Political Economy & Int' l Affairs) and the
consequences for Politics & Policy (Weekly Reader 23Sep07 II: Politics and Policy). The argument being that
economics and economic development is the foundation that underlies all other decisions but the choice of
policies and the political processes by which they are developed control the trajectory of the economy. And further
that these decisions are reflected in the rules of the game, the Institutions, by which we managed our societies
and our relationships between societies. The third leg of that stool however is values – and this week was a huge
swath of interesting and valuable readings, albeit some very painful ones, on Values and Culture.
Stop and ask yourself what are your values? That is, what are the principles by which you and those around you
evaluate the world, make choices and judge the state of things? Everybody has values, reflected in the choices
they make, even when those values aren’t explicit, thought out or formal. What do you think they should be ?
What role do you think they should play? What is the value of values? Now those are important and fundamental
questions.

Values help tell use who we are, our place in the world, how we relate to others and what we expect of them. In
particular they are the glue that holds are societies together. Let me borrow from Douglas North, Nobel laureate in
Economics, who says “The greater the specialization and divisions of labor in a society, the greater the
measurement of costs associated with transacting and also the greater the costs of devising effective moral and
ethical codes”. He goes on, “Strong moral and ethical codes of a society is the cement of social stability which
makes an economic system viable”.

In other words the more complex a society and the larger it is the more difficult it is to get everybody to work
together rather than pursue their own advantage only. Put more strongly, without a common set of strong, shared
values societies are NOT feasible nor is development possible. We’ve spent the better part of the last 100 years
testing a) whether or not that’s true and b) whether human kind was some sort of programmable, socially
th
engineerable robot who could be re-programmed to suit the beliefs of the ideologists. In fact I argue that the 20
C. was the largest field experiment in political economy in history and that the ideologies of Communism and
Fascism failed massively and miserably.

So as you skim over the following excerpts, and hopefully follow-up with the originals for more depth where
desired, that might be worth remembering.

Page 8 of 49
Christmas Spirit and Dinner Miracles
http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2007/12/christmas_spirit_and_dinner_mi.html
Posted by dblwyo on December 26, 200

Well the plan was to dive back into "serious" topics with several more Iraq commentaries already outlined and
sourced. Fortunately I can't quite bring myself to do it in light of the season in general and the miracles of
yesterday in particular. What miracles are these you ask? Why the miracles of my Christmas Dinner, says I ! And
those would be?

Miraculous Christmas Dinner Menu

Kir Royale with cheese and pears

Salad with Seasoned Balsamic Dressing

• with Domaine du Pere Caboche Tavel, '07

Marinated and slo-cooked Roast of Pork, accompanied

by Basil Tomato Polenta and Ratatouille

• with Montenevoso Montepulciano D'Abruzzo, '06

Ghiardelli chocolate with Costa Rican Tarrazu coffee

• finished with Tarrazu, Christian Brothers Brandy VS

and CAO Brazilia cigar

At this point what do you think ? Stop for a minute and fix your reactions.

This guy is nuts, that sounds likes a nice little dinner but so what? Or nice dinner but where' s the miracle ? Or
even better, other than being Christmas dinner what' s all that got to do the Spirit of Christmas? Particularly with
compassion? And on that line why re-post yesterday' s Christmas card?

Well my composite card, showing the Annunciation and Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom and Compassion,
was about wishing the world well. More than that it was about wishing we'
d all realize that we could in fact do
more than wish each other well but could, in fact, thru Compassion and Wisdom do well for each other. After all
what is Faith without Good Works?

I'
m prepared to argue that there were several miracles in that dinner and, in a certain light, have a lot to do with
helping out our fellows.

Aside from the small pre-miracle of my being up and about with the energy to put up this post so early, which in
it'
s own way counts as a small miracle, there are at least three that come to mind.

First Miracle

Consider the menu - wines and brandy from France, Italy and California, ingredients from Italy, France and the
US, coffee and cigars from Latin America. BtW - all the wines and liquor were from $5.99 or so bottles yet were
quite excellent. How did this abundance of superb food and wine end up on my table and at such low prices?

Second Miracle

Page 9 of 49
Stop and think about that meal in another light ? While the portions were relatively small
that was a matter of choice, not necessities. Certainly the scope and complexity of the
meal was a choice, and as we' ve pointed out, highly affordable as well as being tasty ?
How many times in history have how many people been able to have a meal like that ?
Robert Fogel, Nobel Prize in Economics, has spent his life investigating that question
and the answer is not very often for not very many.

The reason all the heroes in British 19thC novels were tall, dark and handsome is that
they were because they' d been eating well. While the lower classes were in such sad
shape that mal-nourished that many of them were unfit for the Army in WW1. The Dutch
have the tallest average height of any people on earth (for those of us who like tall
blondes - just sayin - this makes a visit all the more worthwhile in addition to the beer,
museums and the general good manners and friendliness) because they' ve been eating
well, as a general population, for centuries. In America' s early days our wealth of land
enabled us to eat as well as any people in history and so we too ended up tall and healthy.

The French didn't manage to get the average caloric intake up to this standard for the bulk of the populace until
the middle 1950s, post the Marshall Plan and economic recovery.

Third Miracle

BtW - up until the 1830s the Chinese Empire had, for centuries if not millennia, managed to get a decent diet for
the majority of it'
s population both in terms of caloric content and composition. Have you noticed also btw that in
the 90s many Japanese tourists were no longer so relatively short compared to Westerners but the younger ones
were quite tall ? And there were a lot more of them too. And after a while that there were a lot of Taiwanese,
South Koreans and SE Asians in some places as well who appeared to have lived in societies that crossed the
Fogel threshold.

Fourth Miracle ???

Is it going to be possible to take China, India, Brazil and others across that threshold as well ? To go where
peace, economic progress and a stable social-political order finally took the French and the Germans ? To go
where history, effort, luck and good governance had earlier taken the Dutch and the Americans ? Well the cheap
answer is that only time will tell.

The not so cheap answer is, IMHO, that it is indeed possible, we're on that path and we'
ll get there over a lot of
darn hard work if it'
s sustained over the next few decades. If we don't screw it up.

And to keep on that path will require, among other things, both Compassion and Wisdom. After all what Good
Works come about without Faith ?

Page 10 of 49
And Peace Unto Men....Practicing Spirit
http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2007/12/and_peacu_unto_menpracticing_s.html
Posted by dblwyo on December 27, 2007

Well we' re gonna keep up riffs and variations on the Spirit of

Christmas for a while. Don' t know if you got to the bottom of my
"Christmas Card" but it pointed you at the Wikipedia entry for the
famous Christmas truce of 1914. Which should have been
more than famous. Yesterday' s little reflection on the miracle of
Christmas dinner was asking what it takes in the world to make
sure that more people have the capability to enjoy such. Now as
it happens more people have been brought out of absolute
poverty in the last twenty years by economic progress in China
and India than at any time in human history. We have the
potential to move much of the rest of the population into a more
prosperous and human life in the next twenty, but not if there are
any more Xmas truces.

Let me quote from Johh Keegan'

s introduction to his history of
the First World War:

It doesn' t get any clearer than that, does it ? The

first WW1 was unnecessary, brutal, wasteful, set
the stage for the horrors of the 20thC that followed
and destroyed the élan'of Western European
civilization. Not sure if anybody recognizes it but
there' s a great, black irony in that label too - Élan'
was French military doctrine where charging with
style, grace and ferocity was supposed to
overcome any deficiencies in weapons, tactics,
strategy or good sense. Here' s the thing that
occurred to me and keeps on occurring - the futility
of trench war was clear and undeniable by
Christmas 1914. Whey didn' t they just stop ? Right
Thinking (Wisdom) is not just a good idea or a
Buddhist religious percept (that' s not a typo for
precept btw). It' s survival, prosperity and happiness
for millions when we' re talking about our national
leadership and their grasp on how things work.

It is one thing to read about the horrors of a stupid war and lament the wastages and
might-have-beens. It is almost entirely another thing to grasp the emotional impacts
and consequences. What it did to the survivors and what it meant for their societies
and civilizations. The first time that truly began to sink in for me was R.F.
Delderfield' s great novel (To Serve Them All My Days ) about a Welsh schoolmaster
who' s invalided from the front and takes up teaching in an English public school. The
book is many things, including the best exploration of what it means to educate the
whole person I' ve ever read (cf. William James, "Talks to Teachers") but it is also
about emotional recovery and redemption in the face of life' s challenges and
tragedies. One of the early scenes is when the lead must console a student who' s
father, a professional soldier, who' s killed in action. Toward the end, the book covers
basically 1918-1939/40, that boy is now himself a pro and is killed as part of the
rearguard on the retreat to Dunquerque.

Page 11 of 49
A consequence brought on by the fecklessness of the statesman who instead of settling a just and fair resolution
at Paris opted instead for a retributive and vengeful, I believe the word is revanchist, strategy. And thereby sowed
the seeds of the most destructive war in human history.

The book to read to understand what was and what might have been is Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the
World . In it you'
re likely to learn that despite some brilliant and talented folks it was ingrained attitudes and lack of
imagination combined with an appalling lack of practical wisdom as to how to go about it that turned that
settlement into WW2. In particular Pres. Wilson thought that great ideas and flowery words would result in an
idealistic outcome. Without understanding what was truly required.

On the other hand we do learn so there is hope. If you want to read the best book of applied statesmanship and
practical political economy try the recent history of the Marshall Plan (The Most Noble Adventure: The Marshall
Plan and the Time When America Helped Save Europe ). In it you' ll learn what a forward-looking, though
admittedly somewhat self-interested, foreign policy can do. And what it takes in terms of imagination, insight,
political skills and leadership. Because, make no mistake, this wasn' t a no-brainer and was a hard-fought sale.
And a hard-sustained one as well. And make no second mistake - Europe was threatened by total political and
economic collapse in 1947 with the Italian and French governments likely to be overthrown by Communists. Stalin
was conquering Eastern Europe and would have the West as well. The modern world as we know it was saved,
shaped and structured by this effort.

Two other things you ought to know and learn from this book:

1. The European statesman set out to pursue the same sorts of revanchist and narrowly self-interested policies
and maneuvers that led to WW1 and were followed at Paris.
2. The modern European world, including the EU, has it's roots in the common efforts forged at this time thru
American and European collaboration. In particular the foresight of Jean Monnet, leadership of Robert
Schuman and the focus of the Americans and their insistence on a pan-European solution.

If we would like to put Christmas dinner on more tables we' ll need that same sort of pragmatic, far-sighted
statesmanship. Statesmanship that sees us each doing better when we all do better and is willing to do what' s
needed and required to build that sort of world. The real trick is not to wait until after the next world war but to
exercise that statesmanship preemptively!!

Following the Spirit: Leaders, Leadership and the "Wise" Course

http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2007/12/following_the_spirit_leaders_l.html

Let'
s keep on with the notion of the broad aspects of Christmas Spirit - previously we asked what is it and what
are its'consequences, either by presence or absence. Sometimes, in fact often if not always, we forget what we
owe to those who went before us and what contributions they have made to our current peace and prosperities. In
some circles this is called Leadership and it calls for Leaders who put the welfare of the public ahead of their own
immediate gain. More importantly, it calls for Leaders who have a vision of Moral Leadership and fundamental
bedrock values that they will adhere to in pursuit of the general welfare under the most trying of circumstances.
The WSJ recently published a historical story about Gen. Washington' s resignation of his commission that
provides perhaps the best illustration of this I'
ve ever heard of.

Washington's Gift Our revolution could have ended in despotism, like so many others. There is a
Christmas story at the birth of this country that very few Americans know. It involves a single act by George
Washington -- his refusal to take absolute power -- that affirms our own deepest beliefs about self-
government, and still has profound meaning in today' s world. To appreciate its significance, however, we
must revisit a dark period at the end of America' s eight-year struggle for independence. … the previous eight
months had been a time of terrible turmoil and anguish for Gen. Washington, outwardly always so
composed. His army had been discharged and sent home, unpaid, by a bankrupt Congress -- without a

Page 12 of 49
 victory parade or even a statement of thanks for their years of
sacrifices and sufferings. Even America' s best friend in Europe,
the Marquis de Lafayette, wondered aloud if the United States
was about to collapse. A deeply discouraged Washington
admitted he saw "one head turning into thirteen." Was there
anyone who could rescue the situation? Many people thought
only George Washington could work this miracle. For a long
moment, Washington could not say another word. Tears
streamed down his cheeks. The words touched a vein of religious
faith in his inmost soul, born of battlefield experiences that had
convinced him of the existence of a caring God who had
protected him and his country again and again during the war.
Without this faith he might never have been able to endure the
frustrations and rage he had experienced in the previous eight
months.

This was -- is -- the most important moment in

American history.

The man who could have dispersed this feckless Congress and
obtained for himself and his soldiers rewards worthy of their
courage was renouncing absolute power. By this visible,
incontrovertible act, Washington did more to affirm America' s
government of the people than a thousand declarations by
legislatures and treatises by philosophers. Thomas Jefferson,
author of the greatest of these declarations, witnessed this drama
as a delegate from Virginia. Intuitively, he understood its historic
dimension. "The moderation. . . . of a single character," he
later wrote, "probably prevented this revolution from being
closed, as most others have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish."

Do we really need to say much else after reading that excerpt ? Of course we will but take a moment and really
stop and think about an act with few if any parallels in history. Consider if you will that Napoleon was a near-
contemporary of Washington' s, the choices he made and the consequences for history. Or George III' s comments
that "this made Washington the greatest man in history". Consider that not only would Washington have been
within his "rights" to seize power and protect his soldiers but many thought it would be RIGHT to protect the
integrity of the country as well.

In fact this was not the only act of selfless public spirited choice on his part either. It could be argued, and I do,
that being the central soul of the Revolution and holding the Army together thru many tribulations was also a great
act. And serving as the first President and laying the foundation both for a strong and respected central
government was as well. And his final act, after serving two terms, to again step away from power, Cincinnatus
returning to his farm after having yet again saved the Republic. That is true Civitas.

Which is not to say that Washington was a perfect person, nor without his own quirks and problems. Nor even to
argue that he was the only great-spirited soul among the Founding Fathers. In fact he couldn' t have done, in
almost any of these cases, what he did without them. While there are many fine biographies of Washington and
others of the Founders the book to read is Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation , which surveys
several major crisis of the early days of the Republic. You ought to come away from it with a sense of how fragile
were our beginnings, how likely to fail and what we owe these folks.

The first story is about Alexander Hamilton'

s duel with Aaron Burr. Both politicians, statesmen, self-made men,
revolutionary heroes and founders. But the "slur" on Burr that Hamilton refused to retract was calling him Catiline -
the infamous Roman general and politician who was also many of these things. But who, when not elected
Consul, mounted a revolution to seize power. The Founders were steeped in the history and moral values of the
Roman Republic - the charge was exact, deadly and, as it turned out true. Hamilton had first shot but fired in the
air. I'
ve seen a mockup of life-sized models at the right distance. For anyone reasonably skilled missing would

Page 13 of 49
have been difficult and these were both combat veterans. Burr shot and aimed well and Hamilton died later of his
wounds.

In my book he chose suicide in the public service. The aftermath ruined Burr' s political career and made him
outcast and pariah. His later attempts to form a secessionist state were only a belated confirmation in that book.
Yet again Washington and the Founding Brothers were not the only great leaders and statesmen to step forward
when need called. In fact an interesting exercise is to look at a list of American presidential rankings and see
who's in the top ten. Obviously it includes FDR who saved our society from collapse into either Fascism or
Communism as many countries did as well as led us in the greatest world conflict in history. But it also include TR
and Wilson who together conceived, formulated and emplaced the new institutional forms required to adjust
America to the radical shifts in socio-economic structure brought about by industrialization and, in essence,
created a new (the 2nd) Republic just as FDR' s reforms created the 3rd. (The Radical Center: The Future of
American Politics )

The list also includes Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower who collectively created the cohesive strategy,
policies, politics and mechanisms that under-girded our fight and eventual victory in the Third World War. A
victory that was by no means the most likely outcome and one from which the whole world benefits today.(The
Cold War : A New History,The Fifties )

Yet in my mind Washington' s true peer was Abraham Lincoln who rose from abject poverty thru grit, self-
education, and faith & ideals to save the Republic from itself. When he rose to give the most memorable
evocation of the spirit of the Republic, "government of the people, by the people, for the people" it was by no
means a certain outcome then either. In fact most of the most advanced nations of the world expected us to fail
on their readings of history and circumstances. Perhaps the best combined advanced executive, leadership,
political, team-building and communication manual I' ve ever read is Doris Kearns Goodwin' s biography Team of
Rivals.

The opening graphic depicts Washington surrendering his commission conjoined with Manjusri the Bodhisattva of
Wisdom AND Compassion. Compassion to act for the well-being of all and the Wisdom to do what needs to be
done. A Bodhisattva is, to the best of my understanding, an enlightened being who chooses to stay involved in the
world for the betterment of all.

It strikes me that we don'

t have to look to ancient history or, if you like, mythology for examples of real-world
Bodhisattvas. Despite occasional clay feet what really matters is the warm heart and wise head and there we' ve
had more than our fair share. Blessings indeed.

Practicing the Spirit: Respect, Tolerance and Civitas

http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2007/12/practicing_the_spirit_re
spect.html
Posted by dblwyo on December 30, 2007

What are Leaders without Followers ? No one can be a

George Washington without being able to persuade
others that the path they want to walk is the right one. In
fact the best leadership is that which helps the group (the
society) find and express that path and commit to it with
energy. Yet at the same time helps to shape it, stimulates
the emergence of the best and guides its'development
.
In other words there is an interaction with the citizens of a
society which shapes the future and the character of the
citizenry, and is as important as that of the leaders. In fact
they are co-dependent and co-evolutionary. There are
many qualities we could consider but three stand out, in

Page 14 of 49
my mind: Respect, Tolerance and Civitas. We explore those qualities more below but before digging in let'
s look
at the principles of conduct, personal and social, enunciated by another great man.

Before naming him let us frame the situation by looking to William James:
The mutations of societies, then, from generation to generation, are in the main due directly or
indirectly to the acts or the examples of individuals whose genius was so adapted to the
receptivities of the moment, or whose accidental position of authority was so critical that they
became ferments, initiators of movements, setters of precedent or fashion, centers of corruption,
or destroyers of other persons, whose gifts, had they had free play, would have led society in
another direction.

Societies of men are just like individuals, in that both at any given moment offer ambiguous potentialities of
development. Whether a young man enters business or the ministry may depend on a decision which has to
be made before a certain day. He takes the place offered in the counting-house, and is committed. Little by
little, the habits, the knowledges, of the other career, which once lay so near, cease to be reckoned even
among his possibilities. ... It is no otherwise with nations. They may be committed by kings and ministers to
peace or war, by generals to victory or defeat, by prophets to this religion or that, by various geniuses to
fame in art, science or industry. Great Men, Great Thoughts, and the Environment

You may have guessed from the illustration that our next exemplar of a great man is Muhammad, Seal of the
Prophets of Islam. Out of respect for some practioners beliefs on representation we show a calligraphic
representation of his name and fundamental tenets, "There is No God But Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet".
In the 7th C his insights and wisdoms made as profound an impact on the world as any leader ever has. And
obviously that impact continues to today!

Despite the headlines and events of the last several years when you dig into the Five Pillars of Islam and its social
teachings they present a code of conduct, of citizenship, that one can'
t help but admire. In fact in reading about
them the transformation of my own views was personally startling. They are tenets we would wish all citizens of all
societies would adopt and adapt.

Five Pillars

We can summarize the Five Pillars as: 1) there is only one God and Muhammad revealed the truths of belief, 2)
Prayer - each person is obligated to pray daily to remind themselves that they are created creatures and to
apprehend the wonders and mysteries of that creation, 3) Charity - the fortunate are obliged to share with the
unfortunate as a religious duty, 4) Ramadan - the observance of the anniversary of Muhammad' s revelations and
his migration to Medina which laid the foundations for Islam's success and 5) Pilgrimage - once in each life a true
Muslim will visit the Holy City of Mecca to commemorate those revelations but also to learn about and participate
in the great equalities of all believers.

One is also tempted to consider belief in the Quaran as a sixth pillar: 6) the Quaran reveals the deepest truths, is
God' s word in the sense that it captures as best as possible in words the perfection of an "Uncreated (or Perfect)
Quaran. Any body of citizenry which practiced these percepts would be a citizenry of Respect, Tolerance and
Civitas.

Social Teachings

But what clearly reveals the depth of ideal citizenship are the social teachings.

1. Economics - Islam is acutely aware of life' s material basis and, while encouraging competitiveness and prosperity,
insists that it be conducted fairly and with justice. Practically it broke open the barriers of caste and reduced the
abuses of special interest groups.

Page 15 of 49
 2. Women - Islam forbade and forbids infanticide in a time when daughters were regarded as disasters. It also insisted
that daughters were entitled to inheritances, that they were entitled to education, vocational choice and suffrage, and
preceded similar Western codifications by centuries. And while multiple wives are permitted they are not only not
encouraged but a wife must give her consent freely and on marriage husbands must provide wives with an
entitlement which is theirs forever.
3. Race Relations - all stand equal before God. Islam has achieved a degree of interracial harmony unique in human
history; in fact many blacks in the early days were early converts.
4. Force - Islam abjures the use of force except, locally, to the extent of the injury. And on the social level only in the
cause of a Just War, that is to either right a horrendous wrong or in defense, which is identical to Catholic doctrine.
Moreover it insists that war be conducted as humanely as possible when it is found to be the only last recourse.

These interpretations are drawn from, and should consider: The World'
s Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions
by Huston Smith.

This last may cause particular ire and upset being interpreted thru centuries of conflict between Islam and the
West. Yet, historically, it was Muslim societies that tolerated Jews, Christians and others. After the Reconquista of
Spain Catholics expelled the Jews yet to this day the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople still holds his seat in a
Muslim city. Now these interpretations present the beliefs, tenets and practices of Islam as the best they might be
and, again, history shows many falling aways and failures to achieve this standard. Yet that is as true of the West
or any other society.

At the end of the day, therefore, perhaps we can look at these principles and hope that such "best practices" are
ones with which we can come to terms. Which leads us back to Citizenship defined as Respect, Tolerance and
Civitas. Respect of the rights and humanity of others, not blind relativism. Respect in my book includes holding
people responsible for their actions, good and bad. Tolerance - which resonates thruout these Islamic principles -
is the acceptance of others right to exist, have their own beliefs and practices and acceptance of them as human
too. Finally Civitas - in ancient Roman Law it meant a municipality where the rights and duties of full citizenship
were extended. But in practice it meant much...much more. It meant all the sense of commitment to those Laws
and associated institutions and a belief in a civil society where all could prosper. And a commitment to conducting
one' s life not just for oneself but with these larger obligations in mind.

As a sort of Final Word on good Citizenship let us turn back west to Teddy Roosevelt in Citizenship in a Republic:

"A democratic republic such as ours - an effort to realize in its full sense government by, of, and
for the people - represents the most gigantic of all possible social experiments, the one fraught
with great responsibilities alike for good and evil. The success of republics like yours and like ours
means the glory, and our failure of despair, of mankind; and for you and for us the question of the
quality of the individual citizen is supreme. … in the long run, success or failure will be
conditioned upon the way in which the average man, the average women, does his or her duty,
first in the ordinary, every-day affairs of life, and next in those great occasional crises which call
for heroic virtues. The average citizen must be a good citizen if our republics are to succeed.

There is need of a sound body, and even more of a sound mind. But above mind and above body
stands character - the sum of those qualities which we mean when we speak of a man' s force
and courage, of his good faith and sense of honor. We must ever remember that no keenness
and subtleness of intellect, no polish, no cleverness, in any way make up for the lack of the great
solid qualities. Self restraint, self mastery, common sense, the power of accepting individual
responsibility and yet of acting in conjunction with others, courage and resolution - these are the
qualities which mark a masterful people. Without them no people can control itself, or save itself
from being controlled from the outside.

In short, the good citizen in a republic must realize that he ought to possess two sets of qualities,
and that neither avails without the other. He must have those qualities which make for efficiency;
and that he also must have those qualities which direct the efficiency into channels for the public
good. But if a man' s efficiency is not guided and regulated by a moral sense, then the more
efficient he is the worse he is, the more dangerous to the body politic."

Page 16 of 49
The Sage of Omaha: Values, Integrity and the World We Want
January 30, 2008
http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2008/01/the_sage_of_omaha_values_integ.html

The prior post, while our regular weekly collection of interesting stories and links, had a couple of central themes.
One of which is what kind of world do you want to live in ? A question that' s with us every day in how we live our
lives but is also central to this year's elections. On both a personal, micro level and on a community, national and
macro level. In fact it is, at least subliminally, THE central question of the election though not yet at center stage
among the punditry. It IS however center stage with voters, especially for the younger folks.

I recently ran across an interesting set of comments on these

topics by, of all people, Warren Buffett. The Investment guru of
the century and the folksy sage of Omaha. Now as it happens
he was supposed to be speaking about security analysis and
investments. But he began his time with a focus on the values
that make for a happy life. And ended it with comments on the
nature of the world and what kind of world we' d like it to be.
Now I' d recommend watching all ten parts of this vidclip series
but the picture at right will take you to Part 1 on individual
values, which is as good an argument for living a life of
integrity, finding good work that you love and being satisfied
with a reasonable lifestyle as any I' ve ever heard. And a
pragmatic and workable one as well. Zen-like in fact when you
parse it out.

Part 10 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfuXKpMFUjc )
which talks about the nature of the world is, in my view even
more interesting. It riffs on Warren's idea of the Ovarian
Lottery. That if you're in his audience you've already WON
because you' re an American, a college student and have the
drive, ambition and intelligence to leverage your opportunities.

He' s not, emphatically NOT, picking on anybody in particular but putting some real ground truths out there (and
bear in mind this speech was circa 1998). Here' s a paraphrase on his model Supposed God dropped by and
asked your help in re-designing the world ? Here' s the catch - once you put your specifications out there then
your name goes back in the lottery bowl and gets re-drawn. Suppose God reaches in and pulls out 100 marbles
and your name is on one. In ' 98 the chances were about 1 in 20 at best that you' d even be an American. Of that
one maybe 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 would be a college student. Which is no guarantee of anything. Nontheless with a
reasonable level of effort such a person is going to live a life that'
s healthy, fairly well rewarded, eat good food,
drink good wine, see interesting places and have a fair shot at doing rewarding work to make their way. What
about the other 19 ? Their chances ain' t so good.

Well that makes things pretty darn clear to me - I' d like a world where a larger portion had a better chance. Where
that portion grew fairly rapidly and their share of things got better and better.

The thing is that'

s not just me or idiosyncratic - it'
s been the goal of most people now and thruout history. But now,
more than at any other time in history more people have a shot. And more and more will have a shot if we can
keep the wheels on the wagon as it roars down the hill.

Page 17 of 49
Let me put it another way. In fact try these three:

1. Would you rather have a larger slice of a smaller pie or a smaller slice of a much bigger pie?
2. Odd paradox - I'
m better off when we'
re all better off. And y'
all are better off, all things being equal, when I'
m better
off. Making it really intellectually painful btw that'
s a fundamental tenet of economics. And the basis for the socio-
biology of our evolutionary history as a social species.
3. If we don'
t build a world where everybody has a better shot at a bigger slice there'
s always a pretty chance we can
end up spending all our time squabbling over who gets which slice of a smaller pie. And in the process dropping the
whole thing on the floor and making a mess.

So, back to the beginning: what kind of world would you like to live in? Warren'
s or Attila'
s?

February 23, 2008

How Much for that Fish in the Window?

http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2008/02/wrfest_23feb08culturescience_h.html

There were a lot of interesting stories this last week, which led to the 3-part split you've seen today. But a useful
aspect is that it allows me to wrap some narrative introduction around each big category and linked them
together. If the Int'l Section focused on progress and it'
s requirements the Domestic Section flipped the coin to
ask what kind of government and policies do we want, need and will get. The two are not separate questions. Nor
is this third readfest post which focuses on Culture and Science. But what we' re really looking at here is what
values, choices & capabilities we choose to have or develop.

So what'
s your answer?

Unlike the survey pundits Values have never been a proxy for social policy, e.g. "Right to Life", to us. Values are
about the rules that one chooses to live by, or one learns with time and experience. Of course nobody does that in
a vacuum - in this case there are two very interesting posts. One on the split in Hollywood over what makes a
good movie. Who cares - well in my mind movies reflect and shape our values. They are to us what the shamans,
bards and poets were in their day - our repository of stories we tell ourselves about how to prosper in the world.
The other side of the house is "High Culture" which has yet again come forth with a screed against all things
popular. Not for their own sake but because it's dumbing down America. Not entirely sure I disagree - have you
every seen an NFL playbook or game plan. Stupid or uneducated people don' t make and use such things. But
you decide.

Because if those people focus their talents and energies just on playing a better football game then we do have a
problem. We' re starting to see some real major initiatives in tackling all the serious issues we face in the world.
Where instead of pursuing things in their traditional isolated and parochial silos various disciplines are
establishing major efforts designed to work across time and involve all the relevant disciplines. Hallelujah! I say.
About damm time. These are serious times and we need serious...well you know the rest, right?

At the end of the day what is Faith without Good Works. In other words Vision and Strategy are great things. But
the road to Camelot was paved with good intentions and nobody got there. Having squandered our best window
of opportunity (which if you still haven'
t figure it out I'
ll admit po'
s me just a tiny bit) we need to turn these values,
visions, and discoveries into actions, solutions, products and services.

Page 18 of 49
Let'
s let the new CEO of Pepsi, both a popular culture and business icon, have the last word here:

The Pepsi challenge CEO Indra Nooyi says the giant can go healthy, but cola wars and corn
prices will test her leadership. Nooyi didn't wait to become an elder statesman CEO before
making herself heard on the public stage. Her predecessor, Steven Reinemund, calls her a
"larger-than-life leader." In a speech to the food industry in January, she pushed the group to
tackle obesity. "Do you remember campaigns like ' Keep America beautiful'
? What about ' Buckle
up' ?" she asked. "I believe we need an approach like this to attack obesity. Let's be a good
industry that does 100% of what it possibly can - not grudgingly but willingly." At the 2008 World
Economic Forum in Davos she told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice it was critically
important that "we use corporations as a productive player in addressing some of the big issues
facing the world."

911 Memorial: Fix the Problem Don't Repeat the Crash

http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2008/09/911_memorial_fix_the_problem_d.html
Posted by dblwyo on September 14, 2008

I was of several minds about whether or not to tackle this and put it off but in my mind real respect for the victims
of 911 is to do something about it. Not have
another maudlin remembrance and go back and
re-create the disaster all over again for the same
reasons. So in that spirit we're going to start with
911 and re-treat it as the wake-up call it was and
then point out that much of the substance of he
911 commission report has yet to be enacted, let
alone implemented.

But it'
s not just the changes in security, defense
and foreign policy that the Commission called for
that are in dire straits as the result of the same
fundamental flaws. And are coming home to roost
(look up ROC on Wikipedia for how big these
birds are going to be). So in addition to talking a
bit about continuing failures related to 911 we' re
going to tackle, briefly, two other major
breakdowns that result from the same policy-
making dysfunctions. One of the things I like
about political cartoons is that whether you agree
or disagree they' re a good indicator of the
feelings, attitudes and spread of same. The
opening cartoon is sadly funny but not right on in my book. In fact it'
s got a couple of major flaws.

Were you ever in a small town, neighborhood, city what have you that had a "Deadman' s Corner"? You know the
place where the preponderance of accidents seemed to happen. Now there was always some reasonable
explanation for each accident: drugged out teenagers, bad storm, road repairs, whatever. But somehow that one
corner always got 60+% of the serious accidents. And nobody bothered to ask why - that is what design flaw was
causing the accidents to happen in the same spot. That' s called a "systemic risk" - that is there'
s a flaw in the
fundamental operation of the whole system - after all drunks, teenagers, storms and repairs are part of life. And
there wasn' t a rash of accidents all up and down the rest of the highway - just CRASH CORNER ! Well we' re in
the process of re-creating and re-experience a slew of crashes in several different areas and all due to the same
systemic flaws. Which to my mind is perfectly captured by the next political cartoon - the only one I' ve found that
is truly respectful of the 911 dead because it doesn' t deny the source of the problem. Our own unwillingness to
face reality.

Page 19 of 49
2nd Failure Source: Institutional Breakdown

Now after the break we back up that assertion with a series of

readings excerpts on National Security, the collapse of the
Frannie twins (btw - in case you don' t follow the news last
weekend the two biggest financial institutions were taken over
by the government. And this weekend Lehman Brothers is
headed for bankruptcy, Merrill has been bought by Bank of
America, Washington Mutual and AIG insurance aren' t in
much better shape), and on energy policy. In each case we
find the second major systemic flaw - and the same one. Now
in each of the readings sections we' ve not only listed some
key excerpts in these areas but also the pointer to a prior post
of ours that provides background context. So for 911 and
Security policy there' s a prior collection, for the Frannie
breakdown a couple of our economic/market posts from this
weekend that may be a little technogeeky but.... and our post
on a national energy policy for that. Now if you click on the
Twin Towers picture where you actually go is a 2004 panel
discussion at the Kennedy School on the aftermath of 911
and it's not a pretty picture. Just in case that doesn' t work the pointer is repeated below along with an easy to use,
read and understand version of the 911 report in graphics form by Slate. Which is unfortunately no longer free
online - you have to buy a copy.

Some Teaser Points

Notice we didn' t characterize the second major fundamental breakdown. Rather we' re hoping you' ll reach a
similar conclusion to ours in your own words and thoughts by watching the KSG vidclip (the whole thing is 90 min
but the first 30 min are the panel). The first two pointers after the break btw are to two earlier posts of ours laying
out all the machinery in detail that will give you a very complete and thorough diagnostic toolkit. As well as some
approaches to fixing it.

But let me see if we can get your dandruff up with a few summary points.

1. 911 was the result of a sustained period of ignoring the

world as it is and treating terrorism as a police problem
instead of a security problem but has it' s real roots in the
self-righteous emasculation of the intelligence agencies by
the Church Commission in the ' 70s. In other words we
created terrible long-term problems for ourselves by making
short-term feel good decisions that had terrible long-term
consequences. Wow, deja vu'all over again Pogo. By the
way, in passing, the two Senators who took the lead on
breaking some of the post-' 04 legislative logjams were
named Liebermann and McCain.

2. Our problems with the insolvency of Frannie aren' t like

nobody wasn' t trying to fix the problem. In fact, as you' ll
read, George Bush, Alan Greenspan and a host of others
tried to start a major re-structuring of the Bloated Twins but
were stopped dead by their lobbying clout with Congress.
Guess who the four largest recipients of their political
contributions was....read it for yourself.

Page 20 of 49
 3. Energy policy is a great irony. Was just chatting with my neighbor and telling him that back in my days as a
resource economist every single proposal on the table right now was on the table then. And btw we actually
have, believe it or not, a National Energy Policy and it' s a pretty good one. Just not implemented. Guess what
- it too was one of the earliest policy initiatives of President Bush and couldn' t make it thru the Congressional
barriers and special interests lobbying (that' s another hint btw). Here's another with an example: Having Fun,
Doing Good, Making Sausage: Goodtime Charlie'
s War

Now we're not holding up a brief for any party or politician here. At the end of the Clinton Administration Larry
Summers took a serious pass at the Frannie Twins too. And got as far as Uncle Alan and George W. And for the
same reasons. Like we pointed out in the last post policy makers and politicians often have a much better idea of
what needs to be done than we know, or give them credit for. They just can' t sell it no matter how hard they try.Oil
and Other System Shocks: Beyond Iraq & Georgia

At least until the dire consequences that you' ve been warned about are so serious and painful that you'
re willing
to do the hard stuff. You see the third major barrier is us - we're the ones that refuse to buy in and
instead go with the snake oil salesmen. As the record proves over and over again.
So if you'
re truly interested in change don'
t buy the snake oil - take the real medicine, eat right, loose weight and
exercise. Or face the penalties.

From Misconception to Collective Affirmation: the Inaugural

Renewal
http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2009/01/from_misconception_to_collecti.html
Posted by dblwyo on January 18, 2009

In her weekly column in last weekend' s WSJ Peggy Noonan talks about the Inaugural and what it means to her,
starting with tearing up as she flies in and sees the great monuments to our historic past. She continues by
dissecting things a little bit, admitting that there'
s going to be a lot of hoopla, maneuverings, posturing and politics.
Even, perhaps, some cynical manipulations, or three, in the days to come by various parties. She closes with the
appeal that "we suspend our disbelief". That is we don' t just watch a series of public ceremonies, a swearing in
and a multi-hour parade by everybody from the Old Guard to high-school bands selected more for who they are
than how good they are, but we suspend our modern cynicisms, our disbeliefs. While taking her point, even
understanding it and agreeing with the surface logic, it bothered me enormously. Suspend our disbelief ?

NO, absolutely not. While we don' t always agree with Noonan

we' ve always found her insights and humanity to be worthy. In
this case, though, we must vehemently disagree with her
fundamental premise. If we' ve learned anything in this last
election cycle it is that we are all children of our deepest,
unconscious emotions. Our lizard-brains, as it were. Yet we
also know that our lizard-brains are both trainable and
disciplinable. We also know that our most fervent beliefs and
values reside not in our higher rational processes but in our
deepest and oldest human characteristics.

Instead of suspending disbelief we should instead be affirming

our beliefs. No matter how hokey, maudlin or manipulative
these Inaugural events and celebrations might seem they are recognition of some of the best that is in us. And of
some of our highest ideals and greatest achievements. If you don' t think so then we urge you to listen to HBO'
s
broadcast of Sunday' s Inaugural Celebration. For which we thank them for broadcasting, online and now making
available (in case it disappears you can find some YouTube clips from which this picture is taken).

Page 21 of 49
The Miracle That Was and Is

Now the analyst in us suggests that the carefully, artfully and well-crafted Celebration be parsed out a bit. And if
you listen carefully, over and above enjoying the music, the performances, and the speeches you' ll find several
recurrent themes. Reinforced by the musical choices. If you want to know the tone this administration intends to
set, what it'
s major philosophies will be you'
ll hear all you need to know. All of which we agree with from "we can
face our challenges" to "we are one" to the emphasis on the dignity and value of work, the need for people to be
self-responsible and for government to help finding opportunity and lifting the burdens that prevent them from
achieving these goals. While also asking each and every one of us to bear our share.

But no matter our problems they continue to pale

in comparison to what we' ve faced historically.
Serendipitously the HBO mini-series "John
Adams" is now out on DVD and in my local rental
shop. Renting it this last weekend couldn' t have
been better timed. It's a very real, gritty, accurate
and honest portrait of the people, times,
challenges and events. But it also showcases
how our Founding Fathers (& Mothers) were
motivated by their ideals, governed by their
values and dedicated themselves to making this a
better world. Beyond that, we all take too much of
this for granted.

When they started their deaths by hanging were

more likely - they were after all 13 small colonies
taking on the mightiest and most powerful Empire in the world. More than that they were creating a Republic from
scratch by their own decision. Something never before done in human history.

Re-read that last line. As we stand on the shoulders of the giants who came before us we forget what leaps of
faith and imagination and courage were required for their achievements. The man who first made the "shoulders"
comparison was Issac Newton who' s own work on the Principles of Gravity required a conceptual leap, that action
at a distance without a physical connection, was possible and what organized the Universe. That was an act of
insight, intellect and Faith for which there was no logical or rational basis at the time.

The act of deciding that we would be governed by ourselves, in a form we crafted, that
we would be dedicated to the enabling the "pursuit of inalienable rights" for all was an
even bigger act of Faith.

So don't suspend your disbelief this week - affirm your Faith.

After the break we provide a YouTube playlist of the Adams series but if you listen to nothing else listen to the clip
that is embedded in the accompanying picture. John Adams gives the most pointed statement of that fundamental
faith that we'
ve ever heard. And take his message - the Faith that created, not just moved, a nation and pay it
forward. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Y1ougODMo )

Page 22 of 49
Welcome to Coach Carter's Gym: Renewal of Duty, Honor and
Country
http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2009/01/welcome_to_coach_carters_gym_r.html

Now that we' ve had some time (can you believe it' s
basically just a week since the Inaugural Speech - it
seems like months ago!) let' s stop and consider it. The
general quick take of the punditocracy seems to be that
it was a good, even very good, speech without flights of
soaring rhetoric but with a sober, realistic and grounded
call to arms. We sort of agree but think they missed a lot
of it being too narrow in their interpretations, for one
thing, and not able to step back and listen to what they
really heard. In fact our take differs somewhat from
theirs on several levels, both rhetorical and substantive.

On the latter the speech deserves to be parsed out and

analyzed line by line - which we intend to do at a future
date. There was a huge amount of substance but it was
entirely consistent with our prior takes on the Grant Park
speech, the nomination acceptance speech and what
came out of the debates. Perhaps one of the most
substantive we' ve ever heard. On the rhetorical front the standards of comparison were JFK, FDR and Lincoln,
particularly the latter'
s second Inaugural. Quite a standard, yet in each case they were ill-received at the time. In
fact so was the Gettysburg Address. Our opinion is that there were plenty of rhetorical and policy points that
worked well together.

Call for Responsibility

By this time you'

ve probably heard the old story, true to our knowledge, that the Chinese ideogram for Crisis is the
composite of the ones for Crisis and Opportunity.

Which seems to perfectly capture the times and the

speech. As Rhammie puts it, "never waste a good
crisis...do what you' ve been putting off and couldn' t get
support for it." That pretty well captures a central
message. Woven thruout the entire speech in fact was
the charge/argument/what have you that we all bear and
bore responsibility for these multiple crisis, not just a few
fat cats. A point we' ve argued several (many?) time
before and one which stands up to severe scrutiny.

Any time you bought a new giant TV using your house as

an ATM machine or lived on 0% savings you were part
and parcel of this whole shebang. We all rode this gravey
train for at least the last 30 years and put off facing the
hard decisions ( Party on Grasshopper: Digging Deeper....into
the Policy Agendi, Inside the Sausage Factory: the 4P's of Political Reality). Instead of posting the speech itself though
we' re going to let someone else put it in a nutshell - Samuel L. Jackson speaking/acting as the real life Coach
Carter. (IF there are some technical problems with the pop-up the highlighted section takes you hopefully to the

Page 23 of 49
trailer - which speaks amazingly well to our basic points. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOFhHEepF4s%20
).Otherwise search YouTube for "Coach Carter").

Listen to it and you' ll hear in a lot blunter language what the President told us. We can work our way out of these
messes. It' s not going to be easy and it' s not going to be quick and it will take hard work, discipline, sacrifices and,
MOST ESPECIALLY, working for someone besides our own selves. We are a team in other words or we' re going
to be road kill. Or, as one the Founding Fathers put, "Gentlemen, we must all work together or we will surely all
hang separately !" We' re all big people now and need to take responsibility for our own decisions and the
consequences.

Values for the Future

One of the best moments for us, among many, was where the President challenged us to rest our efforts on
fundamental values, built on the historic values that made this country great. This is what he said:

For as much as government can do, and must do, it is ultimately the faith
and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It
is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the
selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend
lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.
It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also
a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them
may be new. But those values upon which our success depends -- honesty
and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and
patriotism -- these things are old.

These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress
throughout our history.
What is demanded, then, is a return to these truths. What is required of us
now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition on the part of every
American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties
that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the
knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of
our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

Page 24 of 49
At heart this is, as Coach Carter has it, a call to suck it up. We' ve chatted before on the fundamental requirements
for peace and prosperity of a grounded and workable set of values. The accompanying graphic is taken from that
post ( Stories We Tell Ourselves: Values, Culture and Change, From Griffindor to Tatoonie: Searching for Good Ground in a Groundless
World) so we won' t repeat our discussion. But at the end of the day the central question here is what ground do
you stand on ? One way or another we are, "each and every one", going to find out ! For sure, for sure.
One final observation or look back if you would, the prior post (From Misconception to Collective Affirmation: the
Inaugural Renewal) was looking forward to the speech but also looked back before to the values, risks and
actions that made this country. In our book the Inaugural answered the mail, completely, thoroughly and on every
point. It was indeed a call for renewal ! After the break you' ll find a three-part readings collection: some lead-ins
that set the expectations, some selections from some pundits who got it better than most IOHO, and the most
important section. A set of key readings on the new Civil Society we need to build the world we' d like to live.
Those are the ones I particularly think you ought to read.

Back in the day, so-to-speak, someone who had full legal rights as a Roman Citizen was said to be part of the
CIVITAS. But Civitas implied much more than privileges and rights...it also implied and implies duty and
obligation. Most especially it implied that a good citizen would act to properly balance their own narrow interests
with a proper concern for the well-being of the city and the state. For all one's fellow citizens...Barry is asking us to
renew our Civitas in a modern age.

June 16, 2009

Reflections & Remembrances: Memorial Day, D-Day, Today

http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2009/06/reflections_remembrances_memor.html

Obviously Memorial Day was Memorial Day and

we' ve passed it by without comment but with a lot
of thought and reflection. The weekend after was
the 65th Anniversary of D-Day in Normandy but
we let that one slide as well. Now that was partly
due to poor discipline or lack of energy, technical
problems (we' ve been offair for over a week with
a fried DSL modem) but mostly it was caused by
a pause for reflection. That reflection was a
search for something to share and say beyond
the obvious or trite - not that our gratitudes
shouldn' t be expressed and certainly not that they
are not beyond well deserved. But others said
them last year and again this - as they should for
now and forever, amen - and we took our shot at
last year as well (). In fact we think this composite
set of oped cartoons captures things as well as
anything does. BtW - on that last panel and
courtesy of our friends at YouTube some of the
color film from WW2 and Iwo is now being
shared. Here' s a vidclip of the Iwo Flag Raising
for real and in color.

If you haven' t been in combat, and I haven't, it'

s
impossible to truly grasp what it means to have
your life at risk that way. Let alone constantly,
under strains and pressures all the time and when
somebody' s not shooting at you to have no sleep,
poor or non-existent food, worn out clothes, to live
in the mud and rain. The old joke that' s not before

Page 25 of 49
you volunteer dig a hole in the backyard, fill it with water, go spend a few days and hire the neighborhood maniac
to take a shot at you now and again.

Yet these people do it and they do it our name. Interestingly enough perhaps the best efforts to convey the chaos,
fear, sudden death and general discomfort some recent Hollywood movies may capture it best (Saving Private
Ryan, We Were Soldiers, Band of Brothers, others).

The scene on Omaha Beech from Private Ryan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDEeO57PpLE )is one of the
best, along with the D-Day jumps from Band of Brothers. Take a minute and refresh your memory. I' ve been in
situations where my life or well-being was at risk, and multiple times. But never multiple times a minute or over
multiple days in a row. If you haven't been there it'
s almost impossible to imagine. To the extent it can be
conveyed by re-telling the story, and remembering that these calm and quiet recountings are in the hell here are
some other heroes:

• Corpman G.E. Whalen, MOH, Iwo; Tibor Rubin, concentration camp survivor and Korean infantryman
• Sgt. Hoxie, wounded and crippled Iraq veteran;
James Lockhard, civilian engineer and posthumous
honoree

Going in Harm's Way

These veterans pay a terrible price, though as they all

point out, not as high as the real heroes they left
behind. Why do they do it ? Well for some it' s an
escape, for others an adenture or a chance to make
something of themselves. Sometimes it' s even from
boredom...at least at the start. But that's really two
questions - both of them deep and profound but very
different. The first one is why do they sign up. And
once they are in the game why do they fight? And for
whom? Every combat veteran we' ve ever heard
doesn' t talk about love of country, high ideals or
principles or anything like that. They talk about their brothers, their family in and of arms.

We Were Soldiers is about a battalion of the 7th Calvary (yes, that 7th Calvary) that made the first helicopter
assault in history and was cut off, surrounded and attacked by almost two divisions of North Vietnamese regulars
in the Ia Drang Valley in 1965. When the landing zone got to hot Hal Moore, the CO, closed it with the obvious
risk that his battalion would suffer Custer's fate as well. What saved them was the pilots of the helicopter company
who returned, under fire and in the darkness to keep bringing in food, ammo, water and take out the wounded.
More specifically it was Bruce (Snake) Crandall and Ed (Too Tall) Freeman. Both of whom were, years later,
eventually awarded the MOH for going far beyond and beyond the call of duty. But let' s let Snake and Too Tall tell
- again in the laconic, laid-back fashion of the veteran. If you want to know what it was "really" like go watch the
movie. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY5R7YhaRWw )

They went, prepared to sacrifice their lives, to save their family. Greater love hath no man than a mother cat
prepared to die to protect her kittens. Greater love hath no man...

And if you want a little YT on how some folks think about it...Gary Owen: the 7th at Ia Drang or the 7th: Frontier to
Baghdad.

Page 26 of 49
Signing Up

Like we said, there' s being there and going there. Why do

they go ? You can list the reasons as we' ve done and be as
cynical as you like. And thruout history being a soldier has
often been a cynical thing to be for many reasons. But
still...and especially in our system people don't fight for loot or
because the king said so or to ransack a city. They fight
because they see it as part of their duty to the nation. Time
filmed the crew of the Lincoln repeating the greatest words
ever said about the purposes of the nation.

When we fought the Civil War the survival of the US was at

stake but so to was the entire notion of democracy. That a
government of the people, by the people and for the people
could survive, work and eventually prosper.[If the Time server
is malfunctioning you can either search for USS Lincoln or try this
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877093_1877109_1878930,00.html ].

When the crew of the Lincoln goes to see the are putting themselves in harms'way for the same principles that
their forefathers spent three of the bloodiest days in American history fighting for, with the issue in doubt. The
Republic almost died in those three days and is a tribute to the courage, tenacity and dedication of all our
veterans that we can watch our Memorial Day picnics. If you haven' t read Lincoln' s Gettysburg Address recently
we urge you to; years ago we gave the Memorial Day recital in a role as CO of the local NJROTC unit (since Dad
was a decorated veteran himself he set it up thru the Legion). One of my great regrets in life is that then I didn't
know what I was saying.

I and Thou: Love of the Other

One of the side-benefits of stopping to reflect on the

real meaning of our veterans sacrifices was a chance
to re-review Joseph Campbell' s "Power of Myth". He
makes the startling, but on contemplation, proudly
true observation that when a soldier sacrifices his life
for his brothers and for his country he does it because
it reflects his deepest commitment to the welfare of
the Other. They see the Other as Themselves, as a
Thou. Bill Moyer' s offers a great observation when he
ads the story of an acquaintance who talks about
taking the subway to work every morning and dying a
little bit every day.

It'
s not just soldiers in war touching the deepest and most profound wellsprings of humanity. It's every one who
ever acted, in small or large ways, for the betterment of someone else. When my neighbors go out of their
way to host their annual Christmas party, at serious expense and an enormous amount of work, they do it to
make the neighborhood a better place. When a policeman saves a suicide at risk of his own or those firemen
went back into the Towers they did it for the best that'
s in us. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRv7PXU-l2E )

Each and every one of us can do the same. In ways that are large or small.

It'
s what makes us human, makes the world a better place and let' s us touch that small spark of Divinity that we
each carry around with us. A spark that needs nurturing to flame up but is there, potentially, in every one.

Page 27 of 49
Perhaps the best memorial to what our veterans have done for us is to do for our friends, family, neighbors,
colleagues and fellow citizens the best we can for them. Not just for ourselves. And to remember what they have
done and are doing.

June 23, 2009

Frontline Lessons Brought Home: Others, Selfs and Manners

http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2009/06/frontline_lessons_brought_home.html

This is another post that' s taken, even required, some

thought and our focus is on the fundamental question we left
on the table at the end of the last post (Reflections &
Remembrances: Memorial Day, D-Day, Today). What
lessons can we take from the sacrifices of the veterans and
how can we bring it into our lives, private and public ?
People join the service for many reasons but a major one is
in service of our core ideals: government of, by and for the
people. Without exception that we know of veterans endure
what they endure for the sake of their brothers, and now,
sisters. Major Dick Winter, the real life hero of Band of
Brothers, tells the story that he wasn' t a hero himself but he
served with a company of them. They all say the real heroes
are the ones left behind.

A Hero is someone who sacrifices themselves, in whatever form, for the betterment of us all. Ultimately they are
motivated by COMPASSION, the ability to see the other as themselves. We argued that for those of us not there
the best we can imagine is from movies and TV but in some ways an even better source are the works of the
artists who were there, as this drawing from the Navy's Combat Art Collection shows. If that'
s not the most
profound love of one's fellow man on the faces of these Marines, watching their fallen comrade to see if the
plasma will save him, we have no clue as to human nature.

Hero's Virtues and Ordinary Lives

One of my favorite artists is Norman Rockwell, even if it' s customary to sneer at

him more often than not these days, because of the bedrock virtues of ordinary
life. A favorite Rockwell painting (to the best of my recollection) is the umpire
glowering down at the tiny batter arguing with him about a call, "You' re OUT !
Now PLAY BALL !!". Unfortunately we couldn' t find that one and have
substituted another that still speaks to the same message. I' m sure we' ve all
been there, done that or seen it. But, especially when Rockwell drew them the
chances that the umps had in fact been veterans of one sort or another were
pretty good, in fact so good as to be likely.

My dad flew C-47s in combat, my math teacher P-51s and the science teacher
was a ball turret gunner on a B-17 while both another teacher and a family
friend had lost arms as infantrymen. Some of the prices were daily reminders
for us then. Yet here is the man, who may have been to hell and back, arguing - if not calmly then civilly - about a
call according the book of rules everybody had agreed to play by.

Rami Khouri, the editor of the Beirut Daily Star lived in this country and become a baseball nut. He tells the story
during a Rose interview about one of the reasons he loves the game. It' s because it didn't matter who you were,
the rules were the rules and no matter who your father was you were out if the ump said so. That respect for
playing by the rules of the game and the voluntary support of a civil society is at the root of our society. In fact we

Page 28 of 49
argue, and have argued (Peace, Stability and Prosperity: the Nature of Good Government), that it is the root of
the long-term stability and success of all prosperous societies.

Welcome to Notre Dame

Which brings us to our core question - how do we take the willingness

to serve others into our normal lives and especially the public sphere?
Slightly over a month ago Pres. Obama gave the commencement
address at Notre Dame. The invitation and actual event provoked
outrage, debate and critiscism among a wide range of commentators.
We can applaud his courage for stepping into the lion' s den, but then
that's his job just as on another day it was the job of the Rangers to go
up the cliffs of Pont du Hoc. Better that we applaud the courage of
Notre Dame for inviting him, even though they clearly had
disagreements. Most of the commentariat recognized a (typical ?)
great speech but didn' t pay much attention to the substance of the
arguments. As for the demonstrators and objectors, well....we suspect they are so trapped in their own viewpoints
that the issue didn' t even come up. Shall we consider what he actually said?
(http://www.c-
span.org/Watch/Media/2009/05/17/HP/A/18634/Pres+Obamas+Commencement+Address+at+Notre+Dame.aspx
)

Every one of you should be proud of what you have achieved at this institution. One hundred and sixty
three classes of Notre Dame graduates have sat where you are today. Some were here during years that
simply rolled into the next without much notice or fanfare - periods of relative peace and prosperity that
required little by way of sacrifice or struggle. You, however, are not getting off that easy. Your class has
come of age at a moment of great consequence for our nation and the world - a rare inflection point in
history where the size and scope of the challenges before us require that we remake our world to renew
its promise; that we align our deepest values and commitments to the demands of a new age. It is a
privilege and a responsibility afforded to few generations - and a task that you are now called to fulfill.

This is the generation that must find a path back to prosperity and decide how we respond to a global
economy that left millions behind even before this crisis hit - an economy where greed and short-term
thinking were too often rewarded at the expense of fairness, and diligence, and an honest day' s work....
we must find a way to reconcile our ever-shrinking world with its ever-growing diversity - diversity of
thought, of culture, and of belief. In short, we must find a way to live together as one human family.

I said a prayer that night that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the
doctor had extended to me. Because when we do that - when we open our hearts and our minds to
those who may not think like we do or believe what we do - that's when we discover at least the
possibility of common ground. That' s when we begin to say, "Maybe we won' t agree on abortion, but
we can still agree that this is a heart-wrenching decision for any woman to make, with both moral and
spiritual dimensions. So let' s work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by
reducing unintended pregnancies, and making adoption more available, and providing care and support
for women who do carry their child to term. Let' s honor the conscience of those who disagree with
abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are
grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women." Understand - I
do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away. No matter how much we may
want to fudge it - indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex
and even contradictory - the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable.
Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we
can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature.

Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words.

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Whatever your personal position on the specific issue the OTHER question on the table is do you respect your
fellow citizens enough to grant them the right to their own opinions, to respect the necessity for free and open
debate as each side tries to persuade the other and respect the foundations of our civil society that those
veterans spent so much to sustain ? Or are some issues so over-ridingly important that being right and winning,
forcing compliance with your views is so critical, that you are willing to win at any cost ? We remind you of the
other side of coin of Rami Khouri's story, coming as he does from a society torn to pieces by sectarian strife for
decades.

Freedom Is Not Free

Another of my favorite Rockwell series if his paintings on the "Four

Freedoms", which he did as a reaction to an FDR speech which were
later turned into posters during WW2. Freedom of Speech, Freedom
of Worship, Freedom From Fear and Freedom From Want are not just
slogans or nice sentiments. They are both some of our loftiest goals
and the bedrock on which we' ve built this society. Let me quote from a
recent e-mail exchange of mine:

“Two small hopes and a big one though. I hope it's more than a
sentiment, or just a sentiment. We're all "moved", or at least give
lip service to their sacrifices. I think it's because we all recognize
it's for us all and not self-serving. The same way we applaud the
righteous who risked their lives to stand for decency and help
the Jews during the Holocaust. They act for the best that is in us.

My big hope is that we can all learn, in some small way, to learn that sacrifice for the other is not limited
just to war but that we each can and do do it in small and large ways in every day of our lives.

And contrawise when we act out of narrow interests, hate or anger we do so for the worst of us.
Especially when it's not just in the heat of the moment but a sustained or deliberate act of damage.”

The answer to how we best honor the veterans sacrifices is not in laying flowers on their graves nor in applauding
them as they walk by in the airport or during the Memorial Day parades. It lies in conducting our own lives
according the values of honor, integrity and self-sacrifice that they showed in theirs.

As We Speak: the Posturing Inquisition

Last fall, literally, Western Civilization almost collapsed. Two men were
primarily responsible for saving it - Hank Paulsen and Ben Bernanke. If
they had failed to arrest the collapse of the credit markets, restore order
and get things moving again our chances of having a Great Depression
again were near certainty. Given the scope and magnitudes of the
potential breakdowns the downsides were so much worse that the GD
might have looked like a walk in the park. Yet despite being under
enormous pressures 24 X 7, dealing with unprecedented events that
nobody had faced in years, if ever, they managed to right the ship and
save us all from disaster. And their rewards have been an almost un-
ending stream of criticisms from all points of the compass.
(http://www.c-
span.org/Watch/Media/2009/06/25/HP/R/20148/Fed+Chair+says+he+did+not+pressure+Bank+of+America.aspx )

Page 30 of 49
There behavior in the crisis was truly heroic. There is nothing so difficult as keeping you head in a crisis,
especially when everyone around you is loosing theirs. To do it day after day under a drumbeat of one damm
thing after another is extraordinary. To do when the answers aren' t clear yet you must remain calm, collected and
decisive is more extraordinary. As Gen. Peter Pace pointed out in his commencement address to the cadets of
VMI it often takes more moral courage to support an unpopular position, let alone carry it, in the meeting room
than it does to command in combat. It' s all to easy to give in to the common wisdom, even when you know it' ll
lead to disaster.

To conduct yourself in such a manner subject to so much criticism is more difficult yet. When that criticisms is
both ignorant and largely motivated by narrow self-interest the challenges are beyond my imagination. Yet day
after day during the crisis, and as I write, these guys were civil, calm, intelligent and right.

As the President pointed out at Notre Dame, and many times before and since, we face challenging and difficult
times that call for new solutions. They do NOT call for the continued search for partisan advantage. To act in that
way, seeking a scapegoat to sacrifice to the political gods, is a violation of everything that we should have learned
from the veterans.

That calm face preparing to respond to yet another ill-informed, vituperative and critical attack, masquerading as a
question, is the Chairmen listening as he is accused of perjury by the ranking Republican and ex-chairmen of the
committee. You can listen to some of these attacks starting around minute 40 and continuing on and on.
In my book we don' t deserve such public servants, do everything we can to drive them away, and we can only
wonder that they do serve. Truly heroic in every sense of the word IOHO!

July 12, 2009

McNamara's Legacies and Lessons: Beyond Simple Answers

http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2009/07/mcnamaras_legacies_and_lessons.html

Robert McNamara died at home in his sleep this last week, prompting widespread commentary and reflections.
Perhaps the most thoughtful was on PBS' s Newshour, at least IOHO. After the break you' ll find some reflections
and ruminations from a wide spectrum of observers, commentators and participants. Reading them and reflecting
on the lessons ourselves we were, and are, struck by several things. First everyone sees things thru their own
prism, naturally, but fails to some extent to broaden that prism to include the entire context. Second, McNamara' s
Legacy is widely held to be a failed strategy that led to a failed war; and beyond that, a legacy of distrust with
government and divisions in society that persisted for years. It can be argued that in fact they persist until recently
and we are only now beginning to move beyond them. Of course Mr. McNamara wasn' t alone in making the
decisions that so shaped and warped our public discourse, attitudes and culture for the last 30+ years but he was
and is a bit of a lightening rod. History will reach its own conclusions in the fullness of time but the damage
created and the difficulties in re-bounding seem to be clear. Nor is Vietnam the sole legacy of the ' 60s from
legislation to civil changes, many of which suffered similar fates for similar reasons; and for which we are only
now beginning to come to terms with and respond adequately to!

So what are those legacies? We'll work thru that but we'
ll suggest (assert) three major ones for you to think about.
1) It is fundamentally necessary to understand how things work in context and not impose simple
models on a complex universe.

2) It is equally necessary to adapt your understanding to new learnings and change your
strategies and actions accordingly.

3) The core requirement of a public servant is to have the moral courage to admit when things
aren't working and take responsibility for finding alternatives. In other words see the world as it is,
not as you fantasy it and then adapt yourself to reality to achieve your goals. And have the
courage, discipline, persistence and old fashioned gumption to stick with it long enough to reach
a conclusion.

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Ugly Americans, Real Lessons of 'Nam and Responses

The majority of the commentators (though not the PBS guests who were biographers)
failed to assess McNamara and American policy in the context of the times.
Retrospective criticisms are all well and good as well as fun and entertaining but they
can' t be taken seriously. Decision-makers have to act with situations as they are, with
the tools they have and the information available, not operate in some ideal and
theoretical world where infinite time and resources are available. So before we judge
Caesar let us properly bury him by making the real record clearer. In the readings we' ve
collected a reading list on Vietnam per se and on the history and context, e.g. John
Lewis Gaddis'short history of the Cold, which underpins this section. We' ve also
collected a set of Rose interviews on ' Nam, Somalia/Balkans and Iraq that trace the arc
of American institutional response to these sorts of crisis and challenges.

1. Cold War - we went into Vietnam at the height of the Cold War which, despite
revisionist popular history was both a real war and not something we were guaranteed to win. Remember that not
only were the leaders veterans of WW2 but had watched the Soviet Union almost take over Western Europe after
conquering Eastern Europe, the success of the Communists in China, the attack on Greece, support for civil wars
and rebellions in Latin America and Africa and massive worldwide efforts to undermine the West. Bottomline: this
was the real deal and a real concern. It's not at all clear that the Domino Theory would not, in fact, have worked
out as Eisenhower envisioned it without our intervention.

2. Nuclear War - this was a real, continuing threat that was as serious as it's possible to get. The #1 foreign
policy objective of the US was to prevent an local conflict from escalating into total war. A risk that didn'
t move on
to a move tractable path until Kissinger and Nixon's Detente.

3. Civil/Military Relations - the movie Thirteen Days gets it exactly right. The Chiefs of Staff were all WW2
combat veterans. In fact at this time they included, or had recently, Gen. Curtis "Bomber" Lemay and Adm.
Arleigh "31-kt" Burke. During the Cuban Crisis these guys wanted to go full bore (cf. #1) and were intransigent in
their advocacies. On top of which the DoD was a collection of feudal fiefdoms, large, cumbersome and inefficient.
Both of which problems McNamara was brought in to fix but the attack on which led to the unwillingness of
inability of the Military to "speak truth to power". Which was perhaps the single greatest failing institutionally after
the original policy and strategic failures.

4. Operational Execution - there were three, perhaps four, prongs (or as the military now calls them)
operational dimensions, to the Vietnam effort. Conventional military operations, unconventional operations,
nation-building and civil affairs and socio-political development. Other than the first the other three, which were
arguably both essential and more important, were under-emphasized and resourced. Despite participants and
commentators at the time knowing better. Even on the great strength of US forces, conventional operations, we
pursued a "heavy" approach instead of a more infantry and light, agile approach (cf. David Hackworth' s books
especially). Yet when more agile infantry tactics were put in place by skilled leaders with the right skills and
experienced they worked and worked well. These problems were made worse by several orders of magnitude by
careerism on the part of the command hierarchy, officer rotation policies (ticket-punching) and limited tours, which
ensured that unit cohesion was poor, the troops ill-trained and ill-led and morale damaged and almost destroyed
(cf. fragging; as an NJROTIC student and CO my unit visited a naval base in the mid-' 70s and had beer bottles
thrown at us on the public streets. We almost had a riot between the sailors and the unit).

5. Forlorn Hope - the conventional wisdom now is that not only was Vietnam unwinnable but it was never
feasible or workable nor worth the effort required to fail. In addition to all the other failures of leadership, moral
courage and political will the final straw was when, in a fit of political correctness and moral picque, the US
Congress cut off all funding to South Vietnam. Up until that point Vietnamization was working, the South
Vietnamese were holding their own and there was a clear but difficult chance to make things work. But when you
design an armed force that requires fuel, ammo, intelligence and air support and completely cut it off it should

Page 32 of 49
come as no surprise that it fails. In other words we completely abandoned our allies and failed to honor our
commitments (cf. Czech Uprising:1956, Prague Spring:1968, Somalia:1993, and Shia Uprising: Iraq 1991).
6. Reverberations (?): After all that it's not clear that it in fact didn'twork. By essentially fighting a holding
action while regimes changed in Russia and China, monolithic relationships broke up and the workability of the
Communist system in the long-term was tested the sacrifices made by our forces on the ground - despite all we
did to screw it up - probably bought us enough time to win the Cold War. Though certainly not the only or even
prime cause Vietnam was a major component.

Lessons Learned: a Long Time Coming

If you look a the arc of US foreign and national security

policy from Vietnam thru the ' 80s and '90s adaptaion
and response was a very long, hard time coming. If you
look at US society the same can be said. In fact we
never came to term with the legacies of Vietnam and
how to learn from them and adapt ourselves in a
mature and responsible way. Instead in places like
Somalia and upto and including the current Iraq War
from 2004-2006 we basically repeated them.

It was at the end of 2006 if you' ll recall that a blue

ribbon panel put together a series of recommendations
essentially calling for us to cut and run again, though
they sugar coated it. Yet somehow or another the
military, who had gone into the fight with the wrong
capabilities, managed to re-invent all the discarded
lessons of counter-insurgency and nation-building
while adapting it's conventional forces, tactics and strategies into a cohesive framework that reversed that trend.
And did so with little or no support form Washington and the country with the single and exemplary exception of
the President. Yet, as the graphic shows, a complex, difficult and highly skilled strategy was developed, put in
place and effectively executed. And it has been effective and successful to date.

Yet the military is not the only institution that failed to learn the lessons of hubris and mal-adaptation that should
have been taken from the ' 60s and ' 70s. Without going into great detail the last few weeks have seen the
bankruptcy filings of both Crysler and GM for example (Detroitosaurus: Iconic Death vs. World Industry Futures ).
Resilience and adapation will be the sine qua non of the next decades in all spheres, whether it' s business, the
civil or public policy. Right now we' re in the midst of an economic crisis yet at the same time the administration is
tackling the issues of Healthcare, Energy and Education that have been known, neglected and ignored for three
decades. Our poor ability to respond under adaptive pressures in Vietnam is just one of many major examples of
inabilities and unwillingness to change. But we' ve come to the point where the alternatives are stark and the
consequences much clearer. We may not exactly know how to fix these things perfectly but we are moving
forcefully with the best we know how to do to deal with issues too long neglect.

Principles for the Future

Like we said there are not simple answers to complex questions and you need to make courageous strategic
decisions but also balance that with learning and change as you go.

And if there'
s one fundamental lesson to be learned from McNamara it'
s this:

You have to have the moral courage not just to admit you're wrong. You've got to do
better than that and figure out how to stay in the game and get it right. Mea culpa's don't
count. Performance does.

Page 33 of 49
August 18, 2009

Sausage Eating Lizards: Sonia, Spooks, Death Panels and the

Pope
http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2009/08/sausage_eating_lizards_sonia_s.html

Welcome to "Reset World" where we' re having to face up to the

last thirty nears of grasshopperian neglect of vital issues and
public policy. This is a post we' ve been holding in the pending
file for too long because it' s just been one damn thing after
another. The bad news is the delay and, perhaps, the amount
of reading materials in the excerpts section. The good news is
that there' s a bunch of stuff to point too. The worse news is that
we' re going to be trying to weave together a bunch of different
threads into a coherent fabric. The possible news is that if we
do this bear dance you may get something out of it. Just
remember though the miracle of the Dancing Bear is that it
dances at all, not how well it dances.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYKY2lpxMg8 )

Serendipitously this was the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock, you know the celebration of peace and love that set
the tone for the next 40 years ! Yeah, right. Just not quite the way it was intended. That clip was Woodstock then,
for Woodstock now try this vidclip of the old surviving hippies (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwKNyvZMDiU
)who are now tour guides, and the museum, all selling the vision.

As David Clayton Thomas of Blood, Sweet and Tears reminds us in this BNN interview
(http://watch.bnn.ca/trading-day/august-2009/trading-day-august-14-2009/#clip203565 )it wasn' t quite like that.
For one thing Kent State had just happened and people were angry, for another none of the headliners got paid
so they aren' t memorialized in the historical videos. For another there was sure a lot of violence in other places
and a lot of folks who didn'
t buy into the "it'
s all different now" message. In fact the Greatest Generation who had
survived the GD, fought WW2 and built modern America that Woodstock was so against were just in their forties.
Woodstock is now twice as far behind us as their adventures were
behind them.

BUT...and this is the point...the decisions and divisions we created

then have been reverberating every since. Have we done any better ?
That' s not an easy answer btw - the Boomers fought the Cold War,
'Nam, dealt with the biggest social changes in our history and
changes in our society and economy that were phenomenal, to say
the least. How we wrestle with the consequences of those legacies
going forward is going to define America for the next forty years. How
will we deal with our mental imps - rationally with a sense of decency,
commonality and public interest ? Or pursuing private agendas that
put partisan advantage ahead of the public good?

One final clip, audio, this time from the historical archives of "This, I Believe": Our Noble, Essential
Decency. Scifi Master Robert A. Heinlein.

Page 34 of 49
Inessential Indecencies: Sotomayor, Spy Kicking, and Bashing Ben

Like we said it'

s been one damn thing after another this whole month (part of the reason for our delay) where the
public discourse started out partisan and got shriller, louder and antagonistic. Start with Sonia Sotomayor'
s
confirmation hearings (which we listened to some and for which the PBS coverage is linked in below), the
possible threat to go back and charge members of the CIA with crimes for doing what they were asked to do to
protect the country, the partisan, bigoted and abysmally ignorant attacks on Ben Bernanke and the Fed by
members of both parties and, the piece de resistance' , the Death Panel Wars.

Sonia's Journey in the Inferno

These hearings and the public statements were

amazing, not least because instead of making a
decision on qualifications and what' s best for the
country the decisions appear to have been made by
what was best for the party. First off we have 17
years of careful, reasoned, judicious, balanced and
mainstream decision making by Judge Sotomayor.
Plus a few speeches talking about a "wise Latina
women" being better able to understand the facts in
some cases.

All qualified observers and reasonable ones,

including David Brooks of the NYT, concluded that
she was eminently qualified, a good judge and
dedicated to the law and moderation. In fact she had
been a prosecutor for years. Any time before the
culture wars got out of hand she would have been a conservative candidate for the High Court. But perhaps the
most important point is that the Law is not some magisterial, magic set of machinery that guarantees absolute
outcomes. It is a combination of precedent, cases, experience and judgment and a judge needs to understand
and allow for their own backgrounds and biases. A point Sotomayor made. To argue otherwise, that she was to
biased and empathetic is to argue that a panel of old white men have no biases. But to implicitly admit they do
and don' t control them.

On the other side, which we won' t dive into deeply, we have the threat of legal actions against the staff of the CIA.
Back in the mid' -70s the Church Commission passed legal reforms to control CIA abuses. Well intended, but
leading to perverse consequences, some of which include 911 and the intelligence failures in Iraq. Those so-
called reforms put a premium on managing to the rules and not doing what was and is necessary to get good
intelligence. To some extent they emasculated the CIA. We got away with it then because technical intelligence
(satellites, etc.) could fill in. But in this day and age we need feet on the ground and they have to be qualified feet.
A witch hunt against the agency doing what it was authorized to do in our name is going to re-emasculate our
national intelligence capabilities, put national security more at risk and when we can least afford it.

Bashing Uncle Ben

Interestingly enough the case that was potentially the most

damaging for the public safety, and still could be, was the
public bashing of Ben Bernanke, of the Federal Reserve.
There was a recent survey asking what people thought of
major public institutions and even the IRS ranked well ahead
of the Fed. But for decades, mysterious, arcane, complex and
opaque as it' s been, the Fed has managed our money

Page 35 of 49
supply...which is the lifeblood of the economy. Every time in history for almost ten millennia that political decisions
have controlled the money supply the result has been chaos and collapse. It' s only recently that we' ve learned
that we need an independent money manager.
(http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec09/fed_08-12.html )

But the Fed really paid its way over the last 18 months - in fact we were literally hours away last Fall from
triggering Depression 2.0 and the Fed and the Treasury saved us. Don' t take my word for it - here's a recent
interview with David Wessel of the WSJ discussing the real world and not Congress' s fantasies. His reward - to be
called in front of Congress, accused of every crime under the Sun and in the Spaceways by politicians on the Left
and Right. All of whom were wrong, all of whom were grandstanding, none of whom thanked him for his service or
saving the country and, least of all, none of whom were prepared to defend him.

Healther Skelter: HC Reform vs Death

Panels

The one that really takes the case for out-of-control

polemics is healthcare reform. My favorite quote
that' s not hyperbolic is the little '
old lady who,
literally, called to yell at the President about
socializing medicine and wanted to make sure
here Medicare wasn' t touched. Now if you don't
find that funny, sad and scary probably nothing
we' re saying here is going to mean much for you.
Just in case you take the point, and for the record,
there' s no proposal for death panels. Healthcare is
something that' s been on our agenda for series of
major posts for a long time now and hopefully we' ll
get to it. In the short-run here' s what you need to
know for now (taken from an e-mail response of
mine to David Axelrod):

Actually it'
s time for a better communications
strategy. A couple of months ago I called the
President' s Georgetown speech the finest on
economic policy I' d ever heard and did so in public
several times on my blog. That wasn' t entirely an
amateur opinion either (Re-building On A Rock:
Policy, Economy & Values).I mention that to give
some credibility to the following: your
communications strategy on healthcare needs
work, quite a bit of it.

Here's the central problem - people don't know how the current system impacts them, what the changes are nor
how they'll be impacted. You need to fix that. You also need to get yourselves back on a higher plane in the
discourse....hard as it is if you can manage to continue turning the other check in the long-run it'll pay off.

Specifically:

1. Total per family healthcare costs are estimated at $15K/year/family and have grown from $8K in the last few
years; this has stopped wage growth and harmed the direct well being of all the insured. We think that figure will
double in the next 10-15 years. And coverage will get worse and worse..... BRING IT HOME to the average voter.

2. There are large-scale social consequences about which you'

ve talked to much because it'
s top-down and
inside Washington.

Page 36 of 49
3. Everybody's unhappiness with the insurance industry is really a reflection of them trying to control costs while
everybody else tries to maximize benefits. Need to face up to that.

4. We think, on the whole, that about 1/3 of current healthcare expenditures are wasted because of excess tests,
treatments, etc. We also think admin costs absorb about a 1/3 of total expenditures in practices. Finally the
uninsured get treated they just aren'
t covered; it'
ll be cheaper to cover them than not.

Those ARE your central arguments. KISS !

You can add a) the root cause is medical care provided on a piecework basis, b) that moving toward paying for a
job, i.e. I pay to have my house roofed not for each laborer' s every shingle, c) that over time this moves us more
toward preventative medicine, d) that a public option in fact introduces local competition and e) can be made into
what the Brits call a quango, i.e. a semi-private enterprise, and finally f) that a huge chunk of costs are incurred in
heroic treatments at end of life. Which ought not to be covered by public monies. You can also mention that care
is already rationed and that the gov' t already dictates healthcare rates thru the Medicare reimbursement rate
settings.

Charity in Truth: Civil Discourse and a

Healthy Agora

Lost in all this sturm und drang was Pope Benedict' s

social encyclical "Caritas en Veritate", or "Charity in Truth"
in which he called for a humane capitalism with respect
for human dignity and social justice. If you go back and
look at the previous four posts in this series on values and
citizenship and the preceding five posts on a health public
square (the Agora series) you' ll find our position is nearly
identical to the Pope' s.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji8zEe9MkNY )

Free markets are the most efficient and effective method

for organizing a prosperous, productive and progressive society. But they do NOT work by themselves but require
a set of rules to govern their operations and protect their participants, a set of civic institutions to support and
protect them and a certain level of support and civil responsibility by the citizenry.

We all do better when we each do better and we each do better when we all prosper, at
least ideally.

Now of the cases we review which satisfies any of those tests ? Certainly Judge Sotomayor, the spooks at the
CIA, the Fed and even the Administration are doing the best they know how, doing it well and acting in what they
think is the public interest. And, on the whole, being balanced and recognizing it' s an imperfect world, they must
be judged to be doing well. From the headlines, talking heads, pandering politicians, and demagogic buffoons and
outraged gatecrashers you' d never know that of course. Good intentions are NOT a substitute for knowing how to
operate the saw when you working in a lumber mill and ideology is NOT a substitute for understanding how the
world works. A proposition we ran the largest field test in history on in the 20thC at the cost of hundreds of
millions of lives and trillions in resources and the near death of Western Civilization.

But, in the spirit of charity and compassion, the last two years have under-mined, even destroyed, the certainties
of the last forty. The ones where progress and prosperity were our natural right. So we come full circle back to the
New Woodstock. We will choose to do what' s right and workable or will make our choices blindly out of fear, lack
of understanding and demagogic leadership. On the record to date one would have to say we' ve nothing on the
Iranian leadership putting their own personal gain ahead of the welfare of society.

Page 37 of 49
Of course the lumber mill is actually the political sausage factory and if you don'
t know that you probably shouldn'
t
be trying to make sausage. But a few less mouse droppings and feline innards would sure help us all out as we
face these major decisions.

September 01, 2009

Lizard-brains vs. the Public Good: Time to Embrace the Suck

http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2009/09/lizardbrains_vs_the_public_goo.html

Right now we' re in the midst of an ugly, pejorative

and distortionate debate on Healthcare Reform
that' s dominated by our lizard, or hind-, brains. The
outcome of this debate is important, in many ways
the most important of this administration and not just
for its own sake but because it will define the context
of the rest of this term. It will also tell us a lot about
whether the American people are willing to face the
hard decisions we' ve deferred for three decades in
pursuit of debt-fueled hedonism. Or whether we' re
willing to be told the truth about the way things really
are, facing the "brutal realities" as Jim Stockdale
taught Jim Collins or whether we want to continue to
be lied to.

It will also tell us a lot about whether or not the

political class will put staying in office/power ahead
of some attempt to do what' s right for the country.
Now we don' t expect all politicians all the time to pursue the pure public interest, we expect and hope for them to
strike a workable balance.

We also expect them to learn something about the issues, to engage in reasonable debate, to treat each other
with some civility and respect for the other and to conduct themselves with Civitas (the pursuit of the public good).
We particularly expect them to be constructively critical, which means presenting their own proposals for fixing the
mammoth problems we face. Most especially, importantly and critically we do NOT expect them to pursue pure
and purely obstructive opposition by appealing strictly to the worst nature of the voters. While the Democrats have
their Dimowackic factions on the whole they' re passing these test and have passed them with respect to all the
other major pieces of legislation proposed or passed since Jan.20. On the other hand the Republicans appear to
be letting the darker angels of the Ripudiacan fringe dicate policy, strategy and tactics.

Fear, Shock, History and Change vs. the Lizard-brain

The US has its historical roots in a set of peoples and cultures that had good reason to distrust authority (Born
Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America by James Webb), which has been a strength and a weakness.
These bedrock tendencies got super-charged at the end of the 19C when the sudden industrialization of the
country made us a true continental nation-state of huge size and complexity dominated by large institutions in
business, government and public service. (The Search for Order, 1877-1920 by Robert H. Wiebe) But with size
and complexity comes a fundamental necessity for large mechanisms to keep the wheels on the track. It was the
(real) Progressives invention over three or more decades of the modern administrative apparatus that allowed us
to govern this country and grow to our present state of prosperity (take that how you like). In the process though
the distance between the citizen and the centers of power went from village scale to national scale and people,
rightly, felt themselves the fungible victims of forces beyond their control. The turmoils of the '
60s and the failures
of large-scale social engineering iced that cake but what really turned it sour, IOHO, was the confirmation of all

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the worst conspiracy theories by the Enron/WCOM scandels and the malfeasant and self-serving behaviors of the
Finance Industry and outright criminal behaviors in this last go-around.

The human brain is a funny thing. We like to think of ourselves

as being led by our rational, mature and adult mind - the
forebrain, or the thing that makes us Home Sapiens. Influenced
by, of course our trained in reflexes and emotions. Those
emotions arise partly/largely out of our mid-brain, the Monkey
Brain, and all too often when we' re looking for the next bright
shiny thing it's the Monkey Brain which is in charge. But when
we react viscerally out of fear, anger, hunger, what have you
we' re reverting the oldest and most primitive part of us - the
Hindbrain, or Lizard-brain. That' s all literally true and in many
ways it' s not entirely a bad thing. The Weapons control officer
on a British warship who fired his missiles saved it from attack
by Iranian missiles on a gut-call using experience, training and
his lizard-brain.

Since he was unable to explain the rationale he was relieved of

duty until investigations confirmed his judgment. So the LB is
what evolution has given us to deal with emergencies. And, as
we' ve learned in the last decade, it is the LB and the MB that
can control us and actually tend to dominate, without sufficient
training and discipline. You could even say that the whole goal
of Buddhist training is to put the Adult Brain in charge.

The reason the military tries to stress people in training is to

teach them to keep their AB in charge during emergencies and
Jim Stockdale devotes the first third of his book of essays (Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot) showing why
learning to function under stress is necessary. But when the LB is strictly in charge and the AB under lock and key
things get a little dicey because it'
s that adult brain that helps us work our way thru problems. You can choose to
use the forebrain to rationalize the decisions the lizard has already made for you or you can use it to develop new
insights and train the LB to build them into your reflexes.

People tend to use the forebrain when they are calm and collected. Unfortunately all the hidden assumptions
we've based our lives on about how our society functions, how reliable things were and are and what the future
might look like got swept away, literally, within a matter of weeks and the turmoil has continued for months. The
fact that much of that turmoil was the three-decade accumulation of previous LB-decisions is irrelevant. The
Lizard decides, when panicked, on what it sees in front of right now. As it must. Sadly though our supposed public
leadership, or at least certain segments of it, has spent all its energies pandering to the Lizards and not enough
time explaining to the Adults. Which just added nitro and an igniter to a fire already smoldering.

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Cage-match: Adult vs. Lizardbrain and
Change

To push any piece of legislation thru one has to

analyze the problem using the best data and
analysis available, develop workable, practical and
affordable solutions that can be implemented and
then one has to sell it and get it implemented. That
means persuading the Adult on rational grounds.
getting the Monkey interested because it' s kind of
neat and interesting and CONVINCING the Lizard
that this is a better thing to do than what its
comfortable and familiar with.

Did you ever stop to wonder why the teachings of

the great religious leaders have survived as living,
breathing guidance all these years? It's because
they were able to analyze the most difficult
problems of humanity, boil the challenges and
complexities down to hard kernels of truth, arrive at
workable guidelines, or rules-of-thumb, and
present them as stories, parables and metaphors
to the average person and convince the Lizard that
following those rules would help them live better
lives.

There are many qualities that made Lincoln one of

our two greatest Presidents - an ability to master
complexity, a deep understanding of human nature, dedication to principles wrapped in enormous tactical political
skills, the ability to express himself clearly, simply and directly but, perhaps at the end the most important, the
ability to present his views using the simplest of stories that related these huge problems to the every day lives of
the citizens. Both TR and FDR had similar qualities.

Sadly the Rips have mastered the art of telling simple stories that are not grounded in fact while the President and
his administration as well as the Dems are struggling to explain, clearly and simply, the complexities of a very
complex thing that they aren' t clear on in the first place to a bunch of scared, apprehensive and angry Lizards who
think the world is out to get them because it has.

Lizard vs. Adult: Selling Healthcare

Reform

The man who invented social policy, insurance and

healthcare was, of all things, Otto, Furst von
Bismarck. The Iron Chancellor of Germany. We' ve
struggled with Healthcare Reform since the1930' s
but specifically under Truman, (another surprise)
under Nixon and obviously under Clinton and never
been able to do as well relative to the times as Otto.
In a great and wonderful irony the HC deal that
Nixon and Kennedy almost had in 1971 was actually
more progressive than any of the proposals
currently in Congress. In act the entire set of current
proposals already took off the single-payor option

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that would have resulted in "medicare for everyone". Not only aren' t the current proposals socialism, a pejorative
label that the Rips have been throwing at every initiative since Jan20 to appeal to the LB until something sticks,
but they actually are market-oriented and competition enhancing.

NB: just for the record the US spends more on healthcare, has the worst results on the whole, the fastest increase
in costs, the most uncovered (not just the 45+ million uninsured but the next 20-40 million who' s insurance is
gimmickry and doesn' t do any good), has the fastest rising costs, does the most damage to the competitive
position of our businesses, the most damage to the incomes of most people and is the only system in the
developed world that exposes people to catastrophic financial risk. In the readings you' ll find the URLs for several
excellent PBS programs that go into all this in detail; before you object our suggestion is you at least listen to
them but for now we' ll take the point as being proven.

Do you wonder what Otto was doing? He was trying to improve the overall health and well-being of his society for
just that set of reasons. The last time we tried this in '
92 with Billarycare unfortunately a more "socialistic" (NB:
most of the other major HC systems are not in fact socialism but market-based), massive, centrally controlled
single-payor system. Worse yet it was put together by alleged technocrats in secret and rammed down the throats
of Congress. Even more sadly a dialed back version could have been sold and passed, according to Daniel
Patrick Moynihan, (Miles to Go: A Personal History of Social Policy) but Hillary refused to budge. After
campaigning on a more centrist agenda this was the first, and last, major initiative of the Clintons, violated all that
they' d politiced on (unlike Blair and Labor in Britain who did find a 3rd way forward), and angered the people and
gave the Rips their major opening. One which that tactical genius Next the Grinch brought lizardbrain-labeling as
a key and abiding political tactic that's metastasized into an enduring infection in general and become strategy
and policy for the Rips.

Teddy, Sausage-making and Prospects

This weekend saw the services and final celebration of Ted

Kennedy' s life. It'
s worth listening to the whole set of memorial
services and the Mass on C-Span. Or the discussions on
Rose. You learn more about the man and how he helped
people, hear some wonderful stories and heartfelt tributes
(even from political opponents) and a lot of discussion of what
an influence he had. In fact he was a lead sponsor on some
1,000 major pieces of legislation and the originator of some
300, many of which fundamentally changed America.
Something we were unaware of. But over and over again you
heard what a master of the legislative process he was, about his ability to work across the aisle to get what he
could get and his ability and dedication to stick with his goals and ideals for (literally) decades while still able to
tack into the wind and adapt to the currents of the time (he was also a dedicated and very good sailor). In other
words he was a master sausage-maker who understood persuading the adult, selling the lizard and, as Joe Biden
said, "at the end it was never about him, it was about you".

Now all this sturm und drang, as Otto would say, is not all bad. Americans want to lay everything out in some nice
neat logical order and quickly reach a decision. The Japanese are notorious for slow moving consensus building.
What you never hear though is the consequences. In rushing to judgment Americans never get all the difficulties
and naysayers uncovered so that when it comes time to make sausage lots of folk drag their feet and obstruct
things. The Japanese on the other hand have gotten all the issues, stakeholders and special interests out on the
table and slowly arrive at a conclusion that may not in fact be a consensus but is the judgment of the senior
people as to the best path forward in a difficult time.

Now we' ve had to rush thru major legislative agendii since Jan20 that just added to the shock, awe, fear and
pitchfork sharpening. Including rescuing idiots from their own bad decisions when it turns everybody' s stomach
because the damage to us all would be worse. And, just for the record, the Treasury managed to arrest the next
round of a credit collapse in March and the early stimulus is in fact working. Credible and grounded estimates by

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non-administration experts estimate that the economy was 4% better this last quarter than it would otherwise
have been. I' m tempted to say so there but that would be pejorative and LB of us.
What we' re seeing in Congress though is the revolt of the Lizards. But they' ve all pretty much been uncovered.
And the townhalls are, in a perverse way, a good thing as well. It' s unlikely that anything worse than we've seen
and heard - can you imagine bringing loaded weapons to a civil discourse in the public square to intimidate your
fellow citizens? - will surface.

Nor is that to say, and this is important, that the Administration or Congress has handled this well. It would have
been nice to have a clearer explanation that spoke to the average citizen (which is possible as we proved in our
last post ) in their own terms. And make no mistake we will get a Healthcare Bill...the question is what kind of
healthcare bill ? In the readings Steve Perlstein of the WaPo sketches a reasonable compromise that still leaves a
lot to be worked on but would nonetheless be a great improvement. None of the great pieces of social legislation
of the past started in the state they're in now but went thru incremental evolution; including that paradigm of purely
socialized medicine the Medicare program (how ironic is that btw - listen to Michael Steel' s interview on PBS
Radio to hear someone contradict himself every thirty seconds in a 7 minute interview and strike a note of
terminal incoherence). And all this gyration doesn' t have any technical impact - the actual details will be worked
out this ball by a joint Senate and House reconciliation committee where the final legislation from both chambers
will be hammered into the final joint bill.

What we need from the Dems and Administration is a clearer explanation that combines appeals to the Adults
and the Lizards. What we need even more badly is responsible behavior from the Rips where they are
constructively critical. There are sensible conservative proposals floating around that they have not brought
forward while the concentrate on the politics of denial and lizardbrain posturing. Jim Stockdale saves his harshest
criticisms for the public servants who refused to accept responsibility for their decisions when it was their civic
duty. No matter if they' d screwd up - their jobs, held in trust for the People, the Country and the Constitution is to
figure out how to fix it. To do otherwise is a failure of duty and irresponsible.

There is widespread agreement among the brighter lights of the Conservative (Brooks, Gerson, Frum) that the
Repulcans have lost their way, sold out to the extremists and need a new way forward. Gerson proposes a
possible forward path by focusing on "Communitarianism" - but the heart of that is being a responsible citizen,
acting with Civitas and acting cooperatively in the Public Square for the good of the Republic. What really
saddens us is that good, decent and honorable men like Hatch, Gregg, Grassley and McCain have not chosen to
step forward and be constructive critics. Instead they'
re letting the Juggernaut roll forward. We are at a complete
loss to explain or understand.

November 09, 2009

Veterans, the Wall & Magic: Fear,

Stress & Loathing on the Reform
Road
http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2009/11/veterans_the_wall_magi
c_fear_s.html

Tomorrow, Nov. 11th, is Veterans Day when we recognize

and celebrate the lives and contributions of those who have
served the country at such great cost. A cost the tragedies
at Ft. Hood remind us is greater than we' re willing to
acknowledge or do something about. There are going to be
all sorts of emotional tributes, and we'
ve made our share
because this is a debt that can only be recognized not repaid. If we ever manage to get to that point we also
ought to recognize that the ones who come back pay their own high costs, often for years to come.

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In talking about Memorial Day and the Anniversary of D-Day this last summer though we were led to consider
what payback might look like. Inadequate perhaps but its bedrock is "pay it forward". We honor the sacrifices of
our veterans by how we choose to live our lives, the contribution we make and the world we jointly create.
(Frontline Lessons Brought Home: Others, Selfs and Manners) An opportunity they only made the initial down
payment on. It's all to easy to see something like these cartoons have a weepy moment or three and move on
back to our daily existences. Yet we' re also learning that back in the "World" that the stresses and strains and
strengths of combat have their analogs as well.

The Prices That Keep Being Paid

Bill Moyers last Fri. took a small step in reminding us of

the larger and on-going price that many veterans pay for
their service with his special on "The Good Soldier". In it
he portrays the experiences and lives of veterans from
WW2, Korea and Iraq. And, like we said, the recent
incident at Ft. Hood certainly brings home in an ugly and
terrible way. The Media feeding frenzies that are going on
may serve some good though by finally getting people to
recognize what a small minority of our fellow citizens our
paying for our lives. The photo is taken from the film clip
and tells us part of the price paid in war, and a terrible
one. But to know the real price listen carefully to the
veterans or, better yet, watch their faces. Go ahead it' sa
short clip. Then tell us these aren' t men who' ve experienced the stress of combat and are still experiencing it
years later. And continuing to pay a price. (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11062009/profile.html )

In the readings you'

ll find one of the more interesting excerpts we found that talks about Homer' s Illiad and
Odyssey. Most of our impressions are Trojan horses and the strange creatures that Oyseus met on his long
voyage home. But, as the writer reminds us, these are works about the terrible devastation of war and how the
strains and psychological damage persists for years and may never go away. We like to forget that most of these
works were more about an unflinching look at violence and how men deal with it and how it was the same for
them 4,000 years ago as it is for us today. With one major difference - they didn' t deny its existence or impact.
Though the veterans of that day had as difficult a time in explaining it all to the civilians who didn' t know.

The Wall and Its Aftermath

Last week Bundskanzellor Angela Merkel addressed a

joint sessions of Congress, one of the few heads of state
to do so and only the second Chancellor - the first being
Konrad Adenauer, the George Washington of modern
Germany. It was a powerful, moving, deep and
challenging speech that' s well worth watching for its own
sake but also for what she had to say about the Fall and
the consequences. As is now no surprise all the
reporting we saw completely mis-represented the thust
and majority of her speech and focused mainly on
Climate Change. In fact she had a lot to say about the
challenges we face with Financial Reform and
Globalization and continuing to deal with the current
crisii. Most interesting to some people were her
statements on Israel and its absolute right to exist, and
Iran. And the unequivocal position of Germany against
their acquisition of nuclear weapons. But she started with her memories of the Wall, life in Germany before and
after the Fall and what Freedom meant to her. And how it was something she never expected to see in her life.

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What' s most interesting for us in the here and now is her backstory. Before the Wall fell she was a physicist
teaching at a German university who chose to give up everything and move west. What kind of courage, discipline
and ability to handle stress, doubt and uncertainties did that take? Let alone to then rise to being the leader of her
country, one of the most powerful leaders in Europe and a major world leader. One of the biggest impacts of the
Wall and all that went before is the deep rooted damage it did to Eastern European society, especially its
psychological foundations. If you want some of the deepest insight try The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz, the
Nobel winning Polish poet. Before the Cold War Eastern Europe had been a creative and forward-looking part of
European culture for centuries. It' ll take a long time to recover but that recovery depends on the abilities of the
people to deal with the damage - on finding new ground to stand on.

Learning To Sail in Storms

Forgive the sailing metaphors and conceptual models. The two problems will be that intellectualizing this will
make it not as constructive and useful a set of thoughts as we'd like. We hope that after thinking about the ideas
though you' ll move onto the next steps and take it down to a gutcheck level. It'
s only when ideas turn into
conviction and then become emotional commitments and daily practices that they become real. Sometimes it
helps to bridge that gap with stories or metaphors though sailing is probably not one of the best since it'
s not
familiar.

The key thing for now is that a sailboat can't sail directly into the wind which means it has to steer back and forth
to get from where you' re at to where you want to go. The other thing you need to know is that a sailboat isn' t fast
enough to run away from trouble either but must be handled in a skillful and fearless manner when the weather is
bad if you're going to survive.

Leaning to Tread Water in Storms

Most of us go through life by hopping on the
first reasonable looking boat that drifts by,
often times because that' s the limit of the
options we know of or can see. Few of us have
the energy, discipline and skills to learn to
skipper our boat and sail it where we can. At
best we putter outside the harbor and sail back
and forth along the coast. So very few of us
are willing to take the risks to go out into the
deep waters and not just risk the big storms
but know that' ll we be facing them. Our
veterans have to be in this class and the
storms they faced and face are big ones. But
very few have the capabilities to build their own
boat or acquire one and these are the folks
who, one way or another, change life for the
rest of us. We all face the requirement though
of sailing where we can, given the boat, crew,
and conditions. Sooner or later though we' re
going to be rough conditions, ones that might
sink the boat.

Whether we drown depends on whether or not we can tread water long enough. In those circumstances we
ultimately depend on somebody else coming by in another boat and saving us. In the meantime whether we'
re
there to be picked up or not depends on whether or not we can keep treading long enough.
When your boat gets swamped you have some ugly choices:
1. Accept your fate, that is just give up.

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 2. Trust in the Divine to rescue you but here we're reminded of the old jokes about the man caught
in the flood who turned down all the chances that God kept providing to save his life, if he'd only
act.
3. Sort of a final choice is to recognize the brutal realities of the situation, keep kicking as long as
you can but accept that we all reach a breaking point and trust in your friends and fellows to reach
out.

Centuries ago a great Greek philosopher named Epictetus had some advice for us in those circumstances. Worry
about the things you can control but don'
t sweat the things you can'
t. Life, circumstances, the attitudes of others
and the condition of the economy are among the things we experience but don' t control. The only thing we
ultimate choose is how we react to them.

Finding Ground in the Modern World

You might think we' ve gone very far afield but Epitectus'advice turns out to be very modern and it' s been tested
by one of the great heroes of the Vietnam War in the worst circumstances. That hero was Adm. James Stockdale
and he spent seven years in prison, four in solitary confinement and was subject to constant torture. On his return
he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his leadership of the Hanoi Hilton, the prisoners refusal to
surrender and their organization of their own little civilization based on the best principles of ours. Over the years
he wrote several books and essays, gave speeches and emphasized the lessons of Epictetus. You see his
salvation was in the ancient Greek philosopher' s principles and he wrote one of the most amazing books about it:
Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot (Reprint ed.).
As Epictetus told us and Stockdale proved the
ability to tread water is based on your ability to
focus on the things you can control. It turns out
that's based on understanding how your mind
works and training it to do the things it should
do rather than the things it wants to do. For
centuries the ideal model of the mind was one
dominated by a preponderance of the rational
mind, which only had to be educated to control
one' s thoughts and actions. Now actually the
philosophers and religious thinkers knew better
but that was the ideal.

Then along came the new model thinking

where nothing was ever our fault and we were
all victims of our subconscious. In the last ten
years there' s been a revolution in our
understanding so that we can know see the
mental circuitry actually working in near real-
time and know that our thoughts are circuits
between our rational forebrain, the monkey-
minded midbrain always looking for the next bright shiny thing and the the lizard-minded hindbrain always on the
alert for the next meal or to avoid a bigger predator. It we just let things run the lizardbrain wins every time and
our forebrain finds it'
s efforts spent on rationalizing its choices. Now that' s not all bad - the lizardbrain is where we
get the reflexes to respond quickly and intuitively in an emergency. But as the military has been proving over and
over gain the better trained a soldier is the better
the lizard will jump.

Who Wins: You vs. the Shell-Shock?

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Another piece of news that came out last week was the new Employment figures, with Unemployment at 10.2%.
Far worse than anybody anticipated. This whole decade has been a shock to most of us from the bursting of the
Tech Bubble when we all expected the good times to roll on forever. That was followed by 911 and two wars. And
now the giant cherry on the cake - the worst economic crisis the world has seen but almost noone saw coming
since the Great Depression. People are in shock and reacting with fear and loathing to this stress. As they will
should.

The problem is that the lizardbrain is making all the decisions without discipline or training. If you want to keep
treading water as long as you really can manage then you need to learn to keep calm, be clear-minded and how
to swim most efficiently. When very experienced and highly ranked soldiers want to join the Green Berets they go
to the "Q-Course" at Ft. Bragg which subjects them to weeks of hard effort, no sleep and little food. What the
instructors look for is someone who never quits. They' re also looking for someone who keeps their minds clear,
makes good decisions under extreme stress and plays well with others.

It'
s interesting that this military training works so well when for so long the common wisdom would say that it
shouldn' t. But aside from Epictetus and Stockdale much that modern neuroscience is finding out was anticipated
and described in detail by William James over a 100 years ago and he' s proving right in great detail. He doesn't
talk about how to train the mind much though - the engineering of treading water if you would. Aside from going
thru Basic, serving in Afghanistan for a few years and passing the Q-course it turns out that the folks who' ve spent
the most time on practical pscyho-engineering are the Buddhists. Ironically enough the modern practices of
Happiness Psychology and Rational Emotive Therapy are confirming a lot of what they have and had to say, and
in the case of RAT borrowed a lot.

Whether or not you end up huddled in the corner is mostly up to you. There are no magic answers that will
suddenly make it all go away for sure. But one of the most profound lessons Stockdale has to pass on is that
everybody has a breaking point, given sufficient stress. Whether you survive to be picked up depends on how
hard you fought going down and on your friends to help you back up. In the meantime, if you like, you can think of
this as the beginning of one long Q-Course in which we' re all in the Selection Phase.

In the heart of the night,

The moonlight framing

A small boat drifting,

Tossed not by the waves

Nor swayed by the breeze.

Dogen (1200-1253)

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 READINGS
Values & Attitudes

'The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West' The sophisticated story that Mark Lilla, a professor of the
humanities at Columbia University, presents in “The Stillborn God” adds nuance and complexity to the intellectual account we
tell about the West’s thinking on religion and politics, and how it managed to separate (sort of) the one from the other. Lilla
wants to challenge the view that the “Great Separation” — the prying apart of political theories from theology — was
analogous to, say, the Copernican Revolution, that it constituted a discovery at which those thinking well would eventually
arrive and that, once discovered, was secured in intellectual history’s linear progress. In Lilla’s telling there was, first of all,
nothing inevitable about the Great Separation. In fact, it is political theology that comes most naturally to us: “When looking to
explain the conditions of political life and political judgment, the unconstrained mind seems compelled to travel up and out: up
toward those things that transcend human existence, and outward to encompass the whole of that existence. ... The urge to
connect is not an atavism.” Indeed, this urge is so irresistible, Lilla argues, that only highly unusual circumstances can compel
us to give it up. Those unusual circumstances were provided by Christian theology — but not, as some recent religious
apologists have argued, because the Judeo-Christian framework itself promotes rationality and tolerance. Rather, it is
Christianity’s own fundamental ambiguities — torn between a picture of God as both present and absent from the temporal
realm, an ambivalence powerfully represented by the paradoxes of the Trinity — that made it “uniquely unstable,” subject to a
plurality of interpretations that became institutionalized in sectarianism, and hence to several centuries’ worth of devastating
upheaval.

In the Shadow of Horror, SS Guardians Frolic Last December, Rebecca Erbelding, a young archivist at the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, opened a letter from a former United States Army intelligence officer who said he wanted to
donate photographs of Auschwitz he had found more than 60 years ago in Germany. The photos provide a stunning
counterpoint to what up until now has been the only major source of preliberation Auschwitz photos, the so-called Auschwitz
Album, a compilation of pictures taken by SS photographers in the spring of 1944 and discovered by a survivor in another
camp. Those photos depict the arrival at the camp of a transport of Hungarian Jews, who at the time made up the last
remaining sizable Jewish community in Europe. The Auschwitz Album, owned by Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust museum,
depicts the railside selection process at Birkenau, the area where trains arrived at the camp, as SS men herded new prisoners
into lines. The comparisons between the albums are both poignant and obvious, as they juxtapose the comfortable daily lives
of the guards with the horrific reality within the camp, where thousands were starving and 1.1 million died. [ Slide Show ]

What I Learned from My Dad's Death Sol Gellman was my dad and he just died. I want to tell you the most important thing
about my dad and the most important thing I learned after he died. Dad was an architect, and he possessed an amazing skill
rare even among architects. Dad could draw upside down. That way the client would see the drawing face on without Dad
having to turn the paper around. I always thought it was a terrific achievement that I would never master. Now I am convinced
that dad did indeed teach me how to draw upside down. Drawing upside down is really just taking into account how other
people are seeing things. It is the ability to put yourself not into their shoes, but into their eyes and their minds. Drawing upside
down is a skill we can all possess. It just requires learning and love. When we help our children not to just follow the rules we
set for them but to understand the wisdom of those rules, we are drawing upside down. When we encourage our employees or
those we supervise to stop us and ask us to explain something until they understand it fully, we are drawing upside down.
When we try to understand how our words might be heard by those we love, we are drawing upside down. The most important
thing I learned after my dad's death is the immense importance of expressing your condolences to those who mourn.

A Beloved Professor Delivers The Lecture of a Lifetime Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science
professor, was about to give a lecture Tuesday afternoon, but before he said a word, he received a standing ovation from 400
students and colleagues. He motioned to them to sit down. "Make me earn it," he said. They had come to see him give what
was billed as his "last lecture." This is a common title for talks on college campuses today. Schools such as Stanford and the
University of Alabama have mounted "Last Lecture Series," in which top professors are asked to think deeply about what
matters to them and to give hypothetical final talks. For the audience, the question to be mulled is this: What wisdom would we
impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? It can be an intriguing hour, watching healthy professors consider their
demise and ruminate over subjects dear to them. At the University of Northern Iowa, instructor Penny O' Connor recently titled
her lecture "Get Over Yourself." At Cornell, Ellis Hanson, who teaches a course titled "Desire," spoke about sex and
technology. At Carnegie Mellon, however, Dr. Pausch' s speech was more than just an academic exercise. The 46-year-old
father of three has pancreatic cancer and expects to live for just a few months. His lecture, using images on a giant screen,
turned out to be a rollicking and riveting journey through the lessons of his life. He began by showing his CT scans, revealing
10 tumors on his liver. But after that, he talked about living. If anyone expected him to be morose, he said, "I'
m sorry to
disappoint you." He then dropped to the floor and did one-handed pushups. [ Video ]

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Culture

Red vs. Blue In Hollywood, Too The House of Oscar is never more fascinating than when divided against
itself. And this year, the division runs deep. It'
s not exactly the same as the red state/blue state divide -- the
Academy' s membership, politically speaking, is a big bucket of indigo splashed across the screen, with some
lonely red droplets here and there. But its taste in films comes in red and blue shades of aesthetic conservatism
and progressivism. And if the main Oscar contenders are any sign, the two sides are dug in across a wide chasm,
bickering over what a good movie and the future of Hollywood should look like.

Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge? But now, Ms. Jacoby said, something different
is happening: anti-intellectualism (the attitude that “too much learning can be a dangerous thing”) and anti-rationalism (“the
idea that there is no such things as evidence or fact, just opinion”) have fused in a particularly insidious way. Not only are
citizens ignorant about essential scientific, civic and cultural knowledge, she said, but they also don’t think it matters. She
pointed to a 2006 National Geographic poll that found nearly half of 18- to 24-year-olds don’t think it is necessary or important
to know where countries in the news are located. So more than three years into the Iraq war, only 23 percent of those with
some college could locate Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel on a map. Ms. Jacoby doesn’t expect to revolutionize the nation’s
educational system or cause millions of Americans to switch off “American Idol” and pick up Schopenhauer. But she would like
to start a conversation about why the United States seems particularly vulnerable to such a virulent strain of anti-
intellectualism. After all, “the empire of infotainment doesn’t stop at the American border,” she said, yet students in many other
countries consistently outperform American students in science, math and reading on comparative tests. In part, she lays the
blame on a failing educational system. Ms. Jacoby also blames religious fundamentalism’s antipathy toward science, as she
grieves over surveys that show that nearly two-thirds of Americans want creationism to be taught along with evolution. Ms.
Jacoby doesn’t leave liberals out of her analysis, mentioning the New Left’s attacks on universities in the 1960s, the decision
to consign African-American and women’s studies to an “academic ghetto” instead of integrating them into the core curriculum,
ponderous musings on rock music and pop culture courses on everything from sitcoms to fat that trivialize college-level
learning. For all her scholarly interests, though, Ms. Jacoby said she recognized just how hard it is to tune out the 24/7
entertainment culture. A few years ago she participated in the annual campaign to turn off the television for a week. “I was
stunned at how difficult it was for me,” she said. The surprise at her own dependency on electronic and visual media made her
realize just how pervasive the culture of distraction is and how susceptible everyone is — even curmudgeons.

Science

Introduction to the Grand Challenges for Engineering Throughout human history, engineering has driven the
advance of civilization. From the metallurgists who ended the Stone Age to the shipbuilders who united the world’s peoples
through travel and trade, the past witnessed many marvels of engineering prowess. As civilization grew, it was nourished and
enhanced with the help of increasingly sophisticated tools for agriculture, technologies for producing textiles, and inventions
transforming human interaction and ommunication. Inventions such as the mechanical clock and the printing press irrevocably
changed civilization. In the modern era, the Industrial Revolution brought engineering’s influence to every niche of life, as
machines supplemented and replaced human labor for countless tasks, improved systems for sanitation enhanced health, and
the steam engine facilitated mining, powered trains and ships, and provided energy for factories. In the century just ended,
engineering recorded its grandest accomplishments. The widespread development and distribution of electricity and clean
water, automobiles and airplanes, radio and television, spacecraft and lasers, antibiotics and medical imaging, and computers
and the Internet are just some of the highlights from a century in which engineering revolutionized and improved virtually every
aspect of human life. Find out more about the great engineering achievements of the 20th century from a
separate NAE website. For all of these advances, though, the century ahead poses challenges as formidable as any from
millennia past. As the population grows and its needs and desires expand, the problem of sustaining civilization’s continuing
advancement, while still improving the quality of life, looms more immediate. Old and new threats to personal and public health
demand more effective and more readily available treatments. Vulnerabilities to pandemic diseases, terrorist violence, and
natural disasters require serious searches for new methods of protection and prevention. And products and processes that
enhance the joy of living remain a top priority of engineering innovation, as they have been since the taming of fire and the
invention of the wheel. In each of these broad realms of human concern — sustainability, health, vulnerability, and joy of living
— specific grand challenges await engineering solutions. The world’s cadre of engineers will seek ways to put knowledge into
practice to meet these grand challenges. Applying the rules of reason, the findings of science, the aesthetics of art, and the
spark of creative imagination, engineers will continue the tradition of forging a better future.

• MIT Energy Initiative

• A conversation with Susan Hockfield, President MIT

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Billions of investment dollars flow to climate change, clean tech Institutional investors are committing
billions of dollars to investments in climate change and are embarking on a bold new action plan to raise the profile of energy
efficiency and clean technologies around the world. Nearly 50 leading U.S. and European investors representing more than $8
trillion of assets met on Feb. 14 at the United Nations to lay out a timetable for their commitments to global climate change and
to call on governments and other investors to act with their money as well. The group says its investment commitments will
boost energy efficiency and clean technologies as well as require tougher scrutiny of carbon-intensive investments that may
pose long-term financial risk. That means investments in industries that are heavy carbon emitters are under threat. By raising
the specter of divestments due to risk these investors are firing a warning shot.

• Climate change debate needs revolution A revolution of society on a scale never witnessed in
peacetime is needed if climate change is to be tackled successfully, the head of a major business grouping has
warned.

Devastation of Trawling Visible from Space Bottom trawling for fish stirs up billowing plumes of sediment
that can be seen from space and destroys entire seafloor ecosystems, new imagery reveals. The technique, used
all over the world, is a way to catch fish in deeper parts of the ocean with huge, deep nets, now that many near-
shore fish populations have been virtually wiped out from over-fishing. Several studies have shown the significant
impact that trawling has on ecosystems, killing corals, sponges, fish and other animals.

Virtual Teachers Outperform Real Thing Never let schooling get in the way of your education, Mark Twain
supposedly said, and the latest advances in psychology and behavior science take that to a new dimension - virtual reality and
the digital domain. Virtual characters and digital tutors are helping children and adults develop advanced social and language
skills that can be tough to learn via conventional approaches, according to researchers who briefed reporters here last week at
the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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