Tag: Food for thought

Gesellschaft

German words are frightening. They jam as much consonants together as they possibly can. And usually the most jagged ones. It’s like getting on the 6-train during rush hour, nothing but elbows, knees and those pointy edges at the base of every book bag and purse. Nevertheless, German words are very specific. Whenever they cram all those letters together, they usually come up with an interesting word.

Gesellschaft is a group made up of different interests, norms and concerns all gathered in one area. Usually, the gesellschaft has an overarching goal, but it’s loosely defined. You can find a good example of a gesellschaft in an office environment. Everyone in the office is pressed together from different walks of life and then laden with slightly different tasks for some vague goal set by a faceless company or agency. Due to those conditions, it’s easy to understand how most offices devolve into laboratories for petty behavior and/or studies in social Darwinism.

Don’t get me wrong; I do not blame gesellschaft. It’s not his fault; the word basically can be broken down to mean society. I blame society. Societies are tough nuts to crack. For instance, the sum of all those differences in an office building multiplied by a thousand could equal America. And America is pretty complicated right? Some many people from so many different places and so many different understandings. It wouldn’t take much to cause that kind of large-scale gesellschaft to aimlessly stumble into division. Conversely, I can think of only one thing that could make it blossom into a collective and agile force for progress, overcoming the differences we have. My answer would be a sense of purpose, not just individually by way of personal achievement, but in the pleasure one gets from contribution. Maybe one day America will stop feeling like this giant office building crammed to capacity with individuals but without an actual common point of focus. Maybe one day all the different threads of humanity that America contains will weave into a particularly strong tapestry made possible by a galvanizing and shared purpose.

Shades of Severity

Dr. Jekyll said: “…I led a life of such severity as I had never before attained to, and enjoyed the compensations of an approving conscience.” Robert Louis Stevenson – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

What is the value of an “approving conscience”? At what point does the freedom of mind and action become a hindrance to the soul? Moreover, when does the soul become the restraint to the freedom of mind and action? Dr. Jekyll struggled with these questions in the novel, but we all find that understanding difficult. As severity – in relation to the use of self-discipline – can often instruct us subjectively, one can decide that the moral position is determined best when an external power or holy power is in control; however, what if that authority seems to have abandoned you. If we woke up tomorrow and authority – both religiously and politically – were gone, would we regret the discipline and restraint of action that we showed during our lives or would we be stalwart in the standards of morality we accepted.

We The Hunched Over Wordies

Have you noticed that no one wants the two spaces after the period anymore? Apparently, Microsoft decided to make it one – most likely for Its own convenience. There’s a whiff of that compromise in all things language and literature. It’s no coincidence that a tech mega-company decides what’s best for writers and readers. Sometime between the Scientific Revolution and when the term ‘Language Arts’ became obsolete, people began to discredit and disrespect the written word and all of us hunched over and vocabulary-laden wordies. Where were you when they came for our non-colloquial definitions, our leather-bound editions, our tiny notepads, and our odiferous library corners and, at last, our word-processing etiquette? “Tech Evolution” cannot take the history of the letter away by simply adding an E (E—Mail – excuse the pun, but I pun when I get upset)! So forgive my tedious and troublesome double space, but we’re a package deal.

Athletes aren’t Heroes

Athletes should not be paid more than teachers!  It is one of the great injustices of Life.  And I don’t just feel that way because my mother and father taught for many years or that Ms. Ramirez from 2nd grade was super-hot (I won the perfect attendance certificate that year).  No, I think teachers and all professions, for that matter, should compensate solely on their positive societal impact.  The greater the positive societal influences, the higher the compensation.  On another note, I believe the gap between the occupations’ societal impact and its proportional compensation is what really makes a Hero.  The teacher’s hard work and value to society combined with the limited monetary compensation makes him/her a Hero in my book.

Entertainment, although necessary in our increasingly discouraging times, is not hero-work.  With all the impact this virus is having on our society and communities, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the real heroes in our world wear a mantle of thanklessness.  Health Care workers are not just doctors.  The nurses, nurse aides, in-take personnel, hospital security, hospital janitors and the like are the day-to-day, impactful members of the health care industry.  Moreover, very similar to teachers, those kind of workers often get a middling check paired with high responsibility.

Athletes are as much heroes as let’s say… tight-rope walkers: both are skilled, but they’re essentially useless to the overall functionality of society. Now before you label me as some anti-sport, semi-masculine bookworm (see previous post Boring Beetle), you should know that I have spent a good deal of my discretionary time on sports (see previous post  Truly America’s Pastime). In addition, I know first-hand, with my failure to fabricate a sports career, that an athlete has unique physical skills. However, the professional athlete’s application of those physical skills are non-contributive. How much impact can Aquaman have on the swim team or The Flash playing wide receiver for the 49ers?!

Estimate the Opponent

I’ve always said, “Underestimation can turn a farmer into a general”. To me, that maxim speaks to the severe danger of underestimating an “opponent” (I’m very competitive and slightly paranoid so I treat most people like opponents). And as I’ve applied the Never-Underestimate Philosophy to my life, with fruitful results, the philosophy is not FOOL-PROOF (pun intended). There will always be someone who’s talent or ability is worthy of UNDERestimation. Consequently, overestimation can create a detrimental blind-spot that could potentially lead to the downfall of any budding, young strategist. It’s a delicate understanding, but an important one. Chess seems to illustrate the point most clearly: during a game with a new opponent the advanced player can create an intricate strategy with built-in defenses against the most likely moves ahead, which only works if the other player knows the likely moves. If one player is better than the other, he or she can open-up a direct path to victory because he or she is guarding against more complicated routes. So when in business, sports or life, in general, the analysis of the opponent should take place at all levels of the game. Don’t over or under, just estimate the threat!