Why Politicians Fear (or Hate) People Like Me

Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality. - Nikos Kazantzakis

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. - Albert Einstein

We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality. - Iris Murdoch

The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it. - George Orwell

I’m thinking about running an ad on Craigslist offering to sell the people of Alberta dead parrots.

Why?

Because as the election rhetoric (translation: BS, obfuscation, intentional misdirection, etc.) heats up in the Province of Alberta, people like me who study strategy (and people) for a living watch with a mix of amusement, sadness and disappointment as politicians fall over each other attempting to sell the equivalent of dead parrots to the people.

And it seems that too many people either won’t tell the politicians that they don’t want dead parrots, they are afraid to demand a living parrot or they don’t dare to demand something completely different than a parrot at all, living or deceased.

Oh sure, there is lots of complaining, bickering and the like but the specific, measurable, meaningful asks are few and far between.

With that, the typical exchange between politician and citizen tends to look more like Monty Python’s Dead Parrot Sketch, where a slick salesman sells an unsuspecting customer a dead parrot by waxing on about its positive attributes like its beautiful plumage.

Unfortunately for the people, they are often easily beguiled by such smooth talking individuals and shortly after “buying the dead parrot”, the people return to lamenting that their choice did not produce the result that they hoped for or desired.

Too many politicians don’t care about this, since they have bought themselves another term in which they hope to convince the citizenry that something great is being accomplished and if nothing else, they bought themselves another four years to do “whatever”.

And so the cycle repeats, with the same “customer” going back to the same “salesman” every four years and he / she again sells them something they don’t want or need.

Meanwhile, people like me come along and instead of succumbing to the polished, practiced, political patter, we ask questions like “Why?”, “How do you know?” and “What data / knowledge can you offer up to support your belief / intention?”

We tend to view politicians and their promises through lenses like this one (click on the diagram for a viewable version):

Unfortunately, when people like me do this, most politicians don’t stick around long to even attempt to answer our questions, with the assumption that we are not in the market for a dead parrot or anything else they are selling.

In fact, since we represent a threat to the dead parrot market, they work very hard to avoid us, discredit us, threaten us (yes – it happens) or to outshout us.

They reason that for every one of us who can’t be sold a dead parrot, there are thousands more who can be and are gullible enough to be convinced that it’s either the best thing ever or that there is nothing else out there anyway so they might as well settle for it.

And besides, they posit – even a dead parrot can look beautiful and valuable when positioned in the right way.

Are you in the market for a dead parrot?

Are you sure?

Because if you are not, it takes more than complaining out loud in coffee shops, on talk show radio and on social media streams to make this point clear to the people who would like to sell you one.

Otherwise you will end up squawking like a parrot – a lot of noise and wing flapping while the desired potential and result in government fades away ….. again.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum – Alberta PC Party Goes Down In Defeat - May 6, 2015

Former Premier Prentice guided to the PC Party to a crushing defeat in the Alberta election on May 5, 2015.  Those of us in the PC Party who warned the leadership about the importance of being honest with citizens, about being respectful and to use data instead of fear mongering were told to mind our own business.

I guess a few voters felt the same way also and made it their business to tell the PC Party what they thought of them.

To know the difference between confidence and arrogance is to walk the fine line between great results and embarrassment.

The PC Party just learned the difference.

The Reality of Statistical Improbability

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. - Albert Einstein

Nothing is worth more than this day. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The #1206 “fiction” series continues …

---

Robert sipped his coffee in the small coffee shop not far from his home as his eyes scanned the newspaper in front of him. “So much confusing news”, he thought, “How does one make sense of the world?”

He looked away for a moment to reflect upon the news when his eyes met the gaze of another man staring intently at him.  “A lot of bad news out there?”, asked the stranger.

“Seems to be”, replied Robert, returning his gaze back to the newspaper.

Moments later, the stranger sat in the chair across the table from him.  Robert looked up at the uninvited guest and asked “May I help you?”

The stranger ignored the question.

“All of this strange news kind of makes you wonder what the world is about, doesn’t it?”, asked the stranger.

Robert nodded, still unhappy that someone had chosen to enter his personal space uninvited.

“Picture this”, the stranger said as he smiled.  “Remember the day you and your wife met at the coffee shop?”

“I do”, Robert replied, now surprised, “How did you know that my wife and I ….”

The stranger held up his hand, interrupting Robert.  “Not important at the moment”, he replied as his glittering eyes stared into Robert’s.  “Imagine that at the moment you and your wife were about to meet for the first time, your cell phone had rung and in the process of answering it, your wife-to-be had left.  You would never have met if that had happened.”

“Interesting thought”, replied Robert.

“Indeed”, replied the stranger.  “Now imagine that just before your phone rang, someone had called the friend calling you, thus preventing him from calling you.  You would not have been called and therefore you could have spoken to your wife-to-be as you did and things would remain as they are today.”

Robert’s eyes lit up.  “I see where you are headed”, he said.  “Now if I take your thought one step further, if the person who called my friend was suddenly killed in a car accident at the moment he was about to call my friend and therefore didn’t call him, my friend would have been free to call me, I would have answered the phone and my wife would have left without me ever having met her.”

“Precisely”, replied the stranger, his smile growing.

“In fact”, continued Robert, “If I take that one step further, each of us are in fact a collection of infinite possibilities, with the potential for an infinite number of experiences at any given moment.  There is an infinite number of what-ifs that I could invent to either ensure that I meet my wife or that I don’t.”

“Yes”, said the stranger, leaning over the table towards Robert without breaking his gaze, “Please continue.”

“Well”, said Robert, “If that’s the case, then every event that I influence impacts everyone and everything that I can reach, which in turn impacts everyone and everything they can reach, etc.  The six degrees of separation in the world therefore suggests that everything that I impact eventually changes the entire world and that I in turn am impacted by everything.  In the closed system that makes up our planet, this would mean that we are constantly influencing each other and constantly creating new realities for everyone from a set of infinite reality possibilities.”

The stranger’s smile grew broader but he didn’t interrupt.

“But”, Robert said, pausing uncertainly, “That would mean that my wife and I got together despite the odds of an infinite number of infinite permutations.  If that is true, my wife and I are statistically more likely to have never gotten together than to be together.”

“Possibly”, the stranger said quietly, “What does this tell you?”

Robert paused and reflected on where his logic had taken him.

“I’m not sure”, he stammered, no longer angry with the stranger for having sat in front of him.

“If all this is true, how can this instant exist at all?”, he asked himself quietly.

“In fact”, he said a little louder, “How can any of this be real?  My relationship with my wife, my interaction with you right now, anything at all.”  His mind reeled at the possibilities …. or the impossibilities.

“Well”, replied the stranger, “The fact that we are here means that our reality has to be possible in some way, doesn’t it?  However, it does suggest that if you are more likely to be elsewhere than here, it sure makes you appreciate the rarity and uniqueness of this moment, doesn’t it?”

Robert nodded quietly.

He frowned, started to speak, paused for a moment, frowned again and then spoke to the stranger, “But if we are far more likely to not be here at this moment than to be here, it begs a question.”

He paused again.

“Yes”, said the stranger, anticipating where Robert was going, “Please continue.”

“Are you telling me that this moment in time is a complete collection of random events through time or that in order for my current reality to have happened, that someone had to have orchestrated it?  In fact, the latter seems to be the only way possible.”

“Not necessarily”, replied the stranger, “Just because we are here now, it is easy to assume that your reality was orchestrated because the current reality seems to be the only one possible.  I would suggest that the current reality is mathematically impossible and mathematically guaranteed at the same time, regardless of whether orchestrated or not.”

The stranger paused for a moment before continuing.  “Now assume”, he said, choosing his words carefully, “That someone could tell you the future and based on this knowledge, you changed your thoughts, words and deeds in an effort to avoid bad things or to create a better world for yourself or others.”

“By doing so”, Robert said, seeing where the stranger’s thought process was going, “and in following our six degrees of separation theme, I could immediately change everyone else’s future without realizing it.  There would be tremendous power contained within that idea to make a better world.”

“Slow down”, said the stranger, raising his hand, “Let’s keep the scenario simple.  Instead of creating a better world for yourself and your wife, you might inadvertently change someone else’s Life, who in turn would change someone else’s until, much further down the chain, someone unknown to you causes your Life or your wife’s to be changed for the worse instead of for the better.”

“What do you mean?”, Robert asked.

“Assume that someone can tell you that you will be killed in an accident tomorrow, breaking your wife’s heart”, the stranger replied.  “You avoid the location of the accident in order to prevent it from taking place and in doing so, you have a conversation with someone you wouldn’t have met had you been killed in the accident.  That person has a phone conversation with someone else based on the exchange with you and so on.  The final person in the conversation chain is having the conversation on a cell phone while driving and being distracted as they drive, they accidentally kill your child as she crosses a pedestrian crosswalk.  In an effort to make your personal world better, you destroy it and in fact, destroy or enable other people’s lives at the same time.”

Robert said nothing, unable to speak as the enormity of what he was hearing struck him.

“Now widen that scenario so that anyone might be affected as a result of your knowledge of the future”, the stranger said quietly.

The stranger observed Robert with some amusement.  “In fact”, he continued, “such knowledge could paralyze you into choosing to never take action again, to play Life safe, when in doing so, the choice of doing nothing is in fact an action that changes the world anyway, for better or for worse.”

“Paralysis is often as evil as recklessness”, the stranger continued as he leaned back in his chair.

Robert turned his head and looked out the window, thinking about everything they were talking about as he reflected upon a better understanding of his own reality.

“By the way”, the stranger said, “You will be killed in a car accident on your home from here tonight.  Maybe you should stay here.”

Robert awoke from his stupor as he heard the warning, turned to face the stranger and was stunned to find … that he was gone.

---

Magog frowned and rubbed his head painfully.  The AI simulation known as Terra had suddenly stopped functioning, with many of its modules freezing for no apparent reason.

An image of Gog appeared in his mind as his research colleague reached out to him telepathically.  “I think the Terran simulation has an issue in it”, Gog said to Magog in his mind.

“I know”, Magog replied.  “This is the furthest we have ever gotten to simulating a global culture but something has gone wrong.  In fact, I think I have tracked it down to a piece of rogue code that for some reason started interacting with millions of modules simultaneously.”

“Virus?”, asked Gog.

“Either that or a lazy programmer”, replied Magog, “Either way, the entire simulation is contaminated or ruined by now.  I recommend that we start all over.”

“Good idea”, Gog said, agreeing with his younger colleague, “Go ahead and restart the simulation.”

“I’ll do it immediately”, said Magog before saying goodbye to his colleague.

Turning his attention to the AI simulation, he shook his head sadly as he thought about how far the Terran simulation had come.

“Such potential”, he thought as he used the neural interface to bring up the simulation menu in order to select the simulation reset option.

“Yes indeed”, he thought, “Such potential.”

His eyes fell on the simulation reset option.

And with a final thought, Earth as known to 7.5 billion modules winked out of existence.

To be continued.

---

© 2015 – Harry Tucker – All Rights Reserved

Background

A lot of themes (some contradictory) are woven together here in a complex theme that includes but is not limited to:

• the idea that Life may be a collection of random events
• the idea that our lives may be controlled or predestined in some way
• that the uniqueness and near-impossibility of our current situation makes our situation a rare treasure to be embraced
• that knowledge of our future is not necessarily a positive gift
• that six degrees of separation highlights how easily we can impact the world or be impacted by complete strangers
• that our Life is a juxtaposition of that which is impossible versus that which is guaranteed
• that choosing to take no action is in fact an action taken
• that our existence may merely be as an artificial intelligence simulation being run by a more advanced species
• that Gog and Magog destroy our world as documented in some theological texts.

Pick and choose as you please.

Series Origin

This series, a departure from my usual musings, is inspired as a result of conversations with former senior advisors to multiple Presidents of the United States, senior officers in the US Military and other interesting folks as well as my own professional background as a Wall St. / Fortune 25 strategy and large-scale technology architect.

While this musing is just “fiction” and a departure from my musings on technology, strategy, politics and society, as a strategy guy, I do everything for a reason and with a measurable outcome in mind. :-)

This “fictional” musing is a continuation of the #1206 series noted here.

Who Defines Your Reality?

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. - Albert Einstein

We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality. - Iris Murdoch

The #1206 “fiction” series continues ….

---

Abigail sat in a busy restaurant, sipping on her latte and smiling in anticipation of her husband’s arrival.  It had been a busy day for both of them and as darkness approached, she shivered slightly in excitement as she reread his text “On my way, my love.  Be there in 10 minutes.”  As she took another sip of her latte, she happened to glance up over her mug and found herself staring at …. herself.

The person she was staring at seemed to be equally shocked and surprised and after a moment, she asked quietly, “Are you …….. me?”

Abigail stared in surprised but said nothing and then her alternate self sat down beside her as they both continued to stare at each other.

“What’s happening here?”, asked Abigail.

“I have no idea”, replied her alternate self, “I was just about to ask you the same question.”

“My name is Abigail”, said Abigail and her alternate self almost simultaneously and then there was silence again.

“This is not possible”, said her alternate self, “How can you be me?”

“I don’t know”, replied Abigail and then there was silence yet again.

“This is crazy”, said Abigail, breaking the silence and trying to get control of her thoughts.  “My husband Gabriel will surely know what’s going on”, she added.

“I was married to a guy with the same name”, replied her alternate self, “What a strange coincidence.”

“Was?”, asked Abigail.

“Yes”, her alternate self replied, “He was killed in a plane crash about a year ago.”  She pulled our her cell phone and showed an image of a news website, describing the airline, the flight and the tragedy that had befallen everyone on board.

Abigail frowned at the image, took out her own cell phone and Googled the information about the flight.  Google returned nothing of interest and there were no plane crashes of note anywhere in the world at that time.

“How odd that our husbands have the same name”, said Abigail.  Blushing with embarrassment, she said, “I’m so sorry …. had.  Oh, I don’t know what I am trying to say.”

“It’s ok”, said her alternate self, “We had just been married when he had to leave on a business trip.  His return flight crashed in a snowstorm and everyone was killed.”

“This is wrong”, said Abigail, “Something strange is happening here.  Gabriel has never flown without me.  Who are you really?”

“Well”, replied her alternate self, “I once read about this thing called multiverses where an infinite number of each of us exist simultaneously, each living our own reality.  Maybe in some strange way, we have been connected from two different multiverses.  In mine, my husband has been killed.  In yours, your husband is still alive.”

Abigail’s head began to spin as she thought about this.  “He will be here in about 10 minutes”, she said, “He will know what to make of this.”

Her alternate self frowned for a moment before replying.  “I don’t know if I want to meet him”, she said quietly.

Abigail thought for a moment, nodded and then reached for her purse to pull out some photos.  Having found them, she turned towards her alternate self to see if her alternate self recognized any of the people in the photos and realized that her alternate self had vanished.

She shivered with a sudden fear that swept over her and reaching for her cell phone, she opened the text exchange with Gabriel to tell him that she loved him and that she needed him.

Or she tried to, anyway.  She noticed that the text exchange had disappeared.  Frowning as to why, she opened her contact list to choose his name from the list but his name didn’t appear there either.

Her heart began to beat harder as the fear in her grew and with shaky fingers, she dialled Gabriel’s number.  After several rings, she heard a voice on the phone:

The number you have dialled is not in service.  Please check the number and try again.  Recording 12-06.

Something strange struck her and she Googled about the flight she had searched for earlier.  She was shocked as the search results described a plane crash that had killed everyone on board. 

Gabriel’s name was on the victim list.

To be continued.

---

© 2014 – Harry Tucker – All Rights Reserved

Alternate Ending:

I played around with the idea that she called friends and family to ask whether they had heard from Gabriel and nobody knew what she was talking about or who Gabriel was.

Background:

I have always been fascinated with the concept of the multiverse, where an infinite number of each us exist simultaneously.  There are some interesting theories about the possibilities that can be created if we could change which multiverse we are in, either just in perception of the multiverse or in a physical form.

In such a situation, if two multiverses accidentally or purposely overlapped, would or could the two realities meld into one.  Would the mere suggestion of a different reality in one multiverse in turn create such a reality in the other?  If the reality changed for someone in a multiverse, was the original reality ever real in the first place?  How would we know and whose reality would be the real one?

If such things could happen, consider the idea of someone who was committed to an institution and who rants and raves about what they claim to be a life partner who vanished, a life partner that we assure them never existed.  How do we know that they didn’t experience such an event?

How would we know anything at all?

Series Origin:

This series, a departure from my usual musings,  is inspired as a result of conversations with former senior advisors to multiple Presidents of the United States, senior officers in the US Military and other interesting folks as well as my own professional background as a Wall St. / Fortune 25 strategy and large-scale technology architect.

While this musing is just “fiction” and a departure from my musings on technology, strategy, politics and society, as a strategy guy, I do everything for a reason and with a measurable outcome in mind. :-)

This “fictional” musing is a continuation of the #1206 series noted here.

The US Budget–Where Hope and Reality Collide

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. - Winston Churchill

Imagine that you are having this dream.

You are seated at a table and then blindfolded.

In your hand is placed a stamp with your signature on it so that you can stamp your name onto things without having to see them.

A group of people unknown to you then files into the room, each representing his or her personal interests.

Some of these interests will generate revenue for you.

Some of these interests will take money from you.

The number of people, their relationship to you (money generator or money extractor) and the scale of their opportunity is unknown.

You stamp every piece of paper they put in front of you, vowing to honor each “contract” without understanding its potential, good or bad.

One year later, someone shines a bright light in your face and demands that you answer why you have just condemned your family and others to financial disaster because you never took the time to understand what you were signing.

You protest vehemently, claiming that you were too busy to be bothered with the details and therefore you agreed to sign things sight unseen with the hope that everything “would just work out”.

As your inquisitors mock and deride such weak-minded, short sighted thinking, you suddenly wake up and realize what a stupid dream this is.  You know that you would never do what you did in your dream for fear of the risk that you might create for yourself and your family.

However, that is what happened when the 1.1 trillion dollar budget, described in more than 1580 pages, was approved by Congress this week.

When asked who had read the lengthy, extremely complex piece of legislation before agreeing to it, Democrat Congressman Earl Blumenauer laughed and said “No one did”.

This has occurred before for large, complex legislation including the Affordable Care Act, the Patriot Act and others.   These bills defy the ability for most human beings to understand and are often delivered just in time to be signed.  Yes it is true that bits and pieces are “shopped around” but that means nothing until seen from the context of the whole document and yet people sign them into law in ignorance of their content or their impact.

Would your attorney allow you to sign a 10 page document if you professed to having read a paragraph on page 3 and a couple of paragraphs on page 8?

I didn’t think so.

I would like to think that you would take more care before signing anything that defined the future of you, your family and your community, whether that future is abundance-filled or fraught with risk.

And if that’s the case, why wouldn’t you hold your political representative to the same standard since what they are signing has the same potential impact?

That’s why this not only feels like a bad dream but it has the potential to turn into a nightmare.

Or has it turned into one already and we’re unable to awaken from it?

Congressman Blumenauer thinks this is funny.

What do you think?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

The Fatal Flaw in Out of Sight, Out of Mind

I think the greatest illusion we have is that denial protects us. It's actually the biggest distortion and lie. In fact, staying asleep is what's killing us – Eve Ensler

My blog yesterday, Morals - Setting the Bar Lower, had two images that some people found offensive.

I knew it would – that’s why I used them. :-)

The funny thing with both images, one being of Miley Cyrus in her over-the-top actions at the VMAs on Sunday and one being from an HBO special from last year, was that they were front and center in the media and so people had to have experienced them before.

That’s what I thought, at least.

I asked one person who wrote to me about what he found offensive about the images and his answer really struck me.

Here it is:

Dear Mr. Tucker,

I know that such things exist in the world.

However, seeing the images on your blog remind me of them.  When I don’t see images like this, I don’t have to think about those things in the world.

It is the same reason I don’t watch the news.  I find that when I don’t hear about the problems in the world, I can pretend they are not there and remain optimistic about our future.

Thank you for asking for my opinion so respectfully.

<<name removed>>

While I respect this person’s opinion, it reminded me of a blog I wrote back in 2010, Is Optimism Killing Us?, where I mused:

But until we acknowledge that oftentimes there really are difficult and challenging obstacles that must be overcome first, we will still be smiling with the deer-in-the-headlights look when the thing we pretended wasn’t there runs right over us, whether it be a personal failure, a corporate blunder or a government collapse.

…….

Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel may actually be a train.  If I deny it’s a train, it will run right over me.

But if I acknowledge it is a train, then I can work to solve the problem and convert the light at the end of the tunnel into a ray of hope.

It also reminded me of this blog that I wrote in 2011, Strategy 101: What Are Your Objectives?, where I noted this method of dealing with reality:

We can wait and hope that the right solution magically appears.

However, if that is the strategy, I fear we will run out of time long before that happens.

The oil light on the dashboard of our planet has just illuminated.  That’s ok – we can cover it up with a piece of tape.

Meanwhile, the low gas light has just illuminated.  No problem – wherever we travel, we need to make sure we are going downhill with a strong tailwind to help keep us going.

Ah, but now the brakes are squealing really loudly.  That’s why we have a radio – we just turn it up and the problem disappears.

Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately being reactive while avoiding reality is not going to get us where we need to go much longer, despite our intention to pretend otherwise.

The ostrich that chooses to stick its head in the sand instead of dealing with the situation at hand ends up being highlighted on websites like this – in the cooking section of the American Ostrich Association.

If we don’t choose to deal with reality, whether it is the project deadline that is impossible, the team member that is tearing our project apart, facing public opinion regarding a difficult choice, a personal relationship that is sinking us or whatever the issue we is, then at some point that reality will deal with us.

Unfortunately, the situation will be resolved on its / their terms and not ours.

Pain deferred so that we can deal with things later (or not at all) often becomes pain amplified.

And while it is easy (and human nature) to defer facing the pain until you are forced to, wouldn’t it be better to deal with it now while the terms and results are still potentially within your control?

So … in that case, what are you waiting for?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Addendum

Here is an example of how “out of sight, out of mind” can be fatal.

A report that was released with little fanfare and little media attention a couple of weeks ago indicated that many U.S. nuclear power and research facilities are vulnerable to terrorist attack.

While some facilities are vulnerable to classic terrorist attacks, some are vulnerable to attack by weapons legally available to the average US citizen.

Most disturbing of all, the report also describes examples of infiltration, such as one where an American citizen, suspected of al Qaeda membership, worked for five different US nuclear power
plants from 2002 to 2008 after passing federal background checks.

Acknowledging that such exposure exists, while frightening, is the first step to addressing it.

Balancing Hope and Reality

Once again, after writing some blogs calling for accountability in politicians and business leaders, I am receiving a fair bit of email from faithful readers asking me to stay with the stuff that inspires them, raises their spirits and reminds them of the potential of humanity and NOT the stuff that reminds them of the problems that need to be solved.

I would love to but here is the challenge I see.

I am amazed with the potential of humanity.  Every day I witness examples of unlimited kindness between strangers, stories of inspiration that blow my mind, incredible solutions in the areas of technology and medicine and a plethora of stuff that makes me gape in awe at the positive things we can create.

Every day I have exchanges with friends, family and complete strangers that makes me reflect on the day and be thankful for the blessings in my Life.

We ARE an amazing species when we choose to be.

However …..

There are things going on in this world that call us to stand up and fight for what we believe is right.

When we don’t, we are telling the Universe that protecting that which matters to us doesn’t really matter – that  we are taking the blessings in our Life for granted instead of choosing to fight for them.

Unfortunately, many of of us have discovered what happens when we take things for granted in Life.

The world is made up of incredible people containing an amazing combination of love, intellect, talents, strengths, purpose and passion ….. people that remind us that the world is a beautiful place.

But it also has people in it who don’t care about making the world a more beautiful place - people who are playing the game for their own benefit for a variety of reasons and often at the expense of others.

And some of these people can’t be reasoned with by sharing a little love, inspiring them with a powerful story that reminds them that they are doing the wrong thing or by turning the other cheek when they slap us.

The only language they understand is confrontation and so they must be dealt with in a manner that they understand.  Sometimes they need a cranial defibrillator applied to their head, sending them a message that we won’t stand for what they represent or how they live their life at our expense.

It’s like taking a walk down a street in the bowels of a large city.

One minute, you may be witnessing a heart wrenching scene as you see a homeless person lying on the street in despair, all hope being lost.

Then your heart is raised to dizzying heights when a complete stranger approaches the homeless person and extends a gift of food, love or companionship.

As you walk down the street contemplating this, someone steps out from a darkened doorway and says “give me your *&@%#(@ wallet or I’ll kill you”.

Telling that person a powerful story about the homeless man you just saw is not likely to sway their intentions for you.

And so while we must always be aware of and share the beauty, love and inspiration we see around us, we must also be prepared to defend against those who don’t care or would see it destroyed.

It is only when we demand better from those who seek to make the world a darker, more dangerous place, those who steamroll over us to achieve their own selfish objectives or those who allow misinformed / uninformed emotion to carry the day instead of relying on facts and dialog directed towards solutions can we ensure that the prospects of a better world remain within our grasp.

Life is not about seeing everything that is bad or by assuming that by pretending it’s all good, that the bad disappears automatically.

It is about balancing hope and reality.

The things that inspire us, motivate us and remind us of the positive power of the human spirit are not simply a right as some people believe nor are they guaranteed.

It is something we have to choose to fight for and defend.

Well … only if we really care about it.

So there are days when I will make my readers laugh or cry or inspire them to model the inspiring work of others.

But then there are days when I may frighten or anger them, either in what I state explicitly or in what I hide between the lines.

No matter what the result, I will have made the reader think and perhaps encouraged action to be taken as a result.

And at the end of the day, if I have accomplished this, then I will have considered my mission to be complete.

How is your mission coming along?

How do you know?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

When Yelling “Fire!” Is Of Little Value

I’m having a moment this morning where I feeling like yelling “Fire!”.

As I review my briefings for the past week and for the upcoming weeks for my Wall St., government and military clients and contacts, I don’t like where the data points are trending.

I layer on ongoing scandals in institutions like the Roman Catholic Church and other organized churches, the massive failure of the Rio+20 Summit, the disguised intentions of many in the “green” space, the inadequacies in the UN as demonstrated by the Syrian disaster and how solvable problems such as world hunger and disease continue to run rampant and I think that if Jesus / the Buddha / the aliens / “whoever you are waiting for” are going to arrive, now is a good time.

I’m ordinarily an optimist who encourages others to see the glass as half full but today as I reflect on the data points that are trending in the wrong direction, I must admit that pretending all is well in the world is not helping solve our most pressing problems.  Promoting successes while ignoring failures or pretending they are not there is also not working very well.

Don’t get me wrong.  There is MUCH beauty and potential in the world and we must champion and promote such things.

However, the number of things that need to be fixed is growing rapidly and with ever-increasing significance and impact.  We need to grasp this and do something about them while they are within our ability to do so.

The people in power who make decisions on our behalf every day know this but don’t know how to share it for fear of creating a panic that will grip the world and make things worse.

“Fire!”

Trying to educate people whose brains are already being painfully squeezed is like yelling “Fire!” in a burning theater.

In such a situation, the weak-minded will instantly have a mental meltdown or a heart attack and add to the problem.

The uber optimists will get angry with the alarm and will say that pointing out the existence of a fire is too pessimistic and should be ignored.

The people without a plan will trample each other to death while randomly or aggressively searching for an exit. 

The people who think they know it all will be indignant that a good movie is being interrupted and will immediately discredit the person yelling “fire!”.

The people who see opportunity to benefit from the disaster will sell useless products or ideas that won’t prevent the deaths of anyone in the theater but the theater-goers will feel better about their situation until the end comes.

Some people in the theater will decide that now is the right time to insist that the REAL issue at hand is the need for cheaper or more comfortable seats or that they should be able to demand that the seats be in their favorite color.

The politicians in the theater will insist as smoke fills the room that not only is there no fire but if people stick it out for the second movie of a double feature, there will be free popcorn for everyone. 

Meanwhile they go borrow some popcorn from the theater down the street, ask everyone in the burning theater to give back their popcorn so that it can be returned to them as free popcorn later or have their military beat up the people in the next theater and steal their popcorn. 

Between the two movies, they will deliver the message that if there was a real fire (which they assure everyone does not exist), it is the fault of someone else.

The media covering the event will over-analyze it, comparing it to past fires while offering nothing of value for preventing future events of a similar nature.  They will also reiterate the need to feel afraid for no reason in particular while not offering ideas to protect one’s self or enhance theater safety moving forward.

So yelling “Fire!” serves no function.

However, as I finish reading my briefs for the week, I am moving quietly but steadily towards the exit.

I am still very optimistic about our future.

But being an optimist often means we have to be realistic about what is happening around us and to take appropriate action in order to bring our optimism and the realism of our situation into alignment so that we can manifest our unlimited positive potential.

As for the people left behind in the “burning theater”, many times we have to acknowledge that we can’t save everybody.

If we get caught up attempting to save those who can’t or won’t be saved, we all go down together.

Such an approach is not being pessimistic or evil.

It’s being an optimistic realist (or a realistic optimist).

We need more of this outlook to create the world that we are capable of creating, saving that which is worth saving and that which contributes to a better, stronger world.

The Universe is not an optimistic system.  It is a realistic one with a mix of good and bad - beautiful things and ugly things.

Sometimes evil wins over good despite our best hopes, intentions and efforts.  After all, evil and good are often just perspectives, something many of us don’t like to admit.

With that in mind, those who live in the Universe need to make sure that their optimism is tempered with appropriate levels of realism if they are to live as productive a Life as possible.

And so while we should enjoy the beauty of Life, we must know how to react appropriately when someone yells “Fire!”, or better yet, take proactive action by seeing the potential for fire before the cry for help goes out.

What do you think?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

PS There is a great TED talk presented by Tali Sharot about the danger of unrealistic optimism, found here.

Strategy and Monty Python’s Dead Parrot Sketch

I was in a meeting with an organization and their PR firm a couple of days ago to attempt to save a company that had flat lined when all of a sudden I felt like I had been written into Monty Python’s “Dead Parrot Sketch”.

For those who are not familiar with the sketch, John Cleese plays the role of a guy who bought a parrot at a pet shop but the parrot that had been sold to him was dead from the start.  When he returns it to the store, the store owner does everything he can to prove that the bird is not really dead but is resting.  If you are interested in the clip, I have a link to it at the end of this blog entry.

The organization I was speaking to was in real trouble, hemorrhaging money for years and with no semblance of any type of strategic plan or tactical roadmap in any area including corporate, finance, product development, competitive analysis, sales, etc.

The reason they had no strategy was because the PR firm in question had challenged the need for strategy some years before.  Apparently they had reasoned then that it was better to craft a strong branding strategy than it was to set strategy around things that might be impossible to attain.  Plus, it seems that the financials for this organization looked pretty bad a couple of years ago and it was more fun to dream about pretty promotions than stark realities.  “You’ve got to think positive” was the mantra of the PR guy.

As I listened to this, I couldn’t help but think of the “Dead Parrot Sketch”.  While John Cleese was describing how his parrot was dead, the pet shop owner, ever the spin master, was complimenting the  bird on it’s beautiful plumage.  When Cleese pointed out that the bird never moved, the pet shop owner indicated that it was resting after a long squawk.  Finally, Cleese said that the only reason the bird was sitting on its perch was because it had been nailed there, to which the pet shop owner indicated that if he didn’t nail the bird to the perch, it would have “muscled its way through the bars”.

Fortunately or unfortunately, reality is not always pretty or fun and spinning it to look like that which it is not is not helpful or useful.  It therefore makes sense that the process of strategic planning must be grounded in reality (even when the reality is not pretty), otherwise the results of the organization will be  haphazard at best and probably fatal in the long run. 

Casting a bright, empowered future is fun and exhilarating.

However, if we don’t accept reality in assessing our as-is situation or we choose to spin it to look like something else, then we have no hope of getting to the desired outcome that we dream about.

In fact, we may have a dead parrot on our hands.

Beautiful plumage … but still dead.

In service and servanthood,

Harry

My Musings-in-a-Minute entry for “Strategy and Monty Python’s Dead Parrot Sketch” is the same as this one and can be found here.

Here is the clip – warning – strong language in parts.