Category: Opinion

Nationalism: Where the Sidewalk Ends

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Source: The Cistercian Informer
Photo Credit: The Cistercian Informer

The difficulty in changing the mind of the Nationalist isn’t in providing facts. It’s providing an acceptable lineage to accompany anything factual.

What could I possibly be missing? Over my morning coffee I scrolled the length of a Facebook thread between friends who immigrated to the US decades ago from the former Soviet Union. One friend is convinced of the following:

[The] BLM organization runs on Marxist platform! Coming from Soviet Union and knowing very well what the last stop of Marxist platform is, I cannot support this organization and I cannot support party that backs it up..fully backed up by Biden!

A Facebook User Posting…like so many others

I held my coffee suspended over my breakfast…wondering where this idea came from and how this person found it credible. Fortunately I didn’t need to look far, as the author added a few links supporting her argument. One was to a Facebook post from Dan Bongino, a source I had never heard of before, and a second linked to the New York Post.

After a bit more research I traced an association of BLM (and the Democratic party) to Marxism via a Perspectives post on The Heritage Foundation Website (a reprint of an article from The Daily Signal). In general, the comments ranged from vitriolic to incoherent. The Heritage is very clear in their mission to drive “conservative” policy and Dan Bongino has expressed his dedication to “own the libs.“

After only a few paragraphs, patterns quickly emerge in the arguments used by both Bongino and The Heritage. The rhetoric goes something like this: because the founders of BLM and the liberal left have “Marxist roots,” undermining “Capitalism” using “Socialist” tactics and ideology is the inarguable purpose and direction of the organization.

“Marxist roots” appear to be anything ranging from prior comments in a speech or attending a particular University or class. A significant part of the text is dedicated to establishing lineage between a person and a concept in order to explain behavior. “So, it is not a stretch to say..” is a common rhetorical bridge between the person(s) in question and the author’s version of Marxism or Capitalism:

In a 2015 interview, Patrisse Cullors, one of the three founders [of BLM], said that she and Alicia Garza were trained Marxists, which is true…So, it is not a stretch to say that all of these ideas are Marxist at base, right? Because Marxism is a theory that sees all of life as being a question of group dynamics, of the oppressed and the oppressor. And this is exactly what identity politics is all about.

“What’s Behind the Plot to Change America?” Rachel del Guidice. The Daily Signal, July 29th 2020.

After connecting the BLM founders to a controversial idea such as Marxism, the author uses biblical references to argue for the stagnation of human nature.

Human nature is unchanging. No ideology can change human nature..If you read ancient texts, read the Bible, or you read any books, you read the Quran, any book from ancient times or any of the classical, any of the texts from the Classical Age, you see that man was back then exactly the same way we are today.

Ibid.

Nationalists scaffold their opponents in pseudo-ideology, then add a healthy measure of biblical concrete to cement the relationship and its immobility. After a few days to cure in social media, a fresh length of mental sidewalk opens to an already fearful American public.

For the Nationalist, the most important question is whether you’re walking on their side of the road. The Nationalist is about lineage. There exist “conservative truths” and “liberal truths” based on the perceived orientation of the speaker. “Marxist” professors” and “Liberal” media are common examples, but the question has spilled over to more tangible things…like counting seats. Given the same aerial photo of a Trump rally, Nationalists will trust a blessed source to decide whether the rally was well attended. Rationalists will trust the authenticity of and evidence suggested by the photo.

For the Nationalist, the “true” answer depends on the lineage of the evidence. Objective standards of journalism do not matter, and Journalism itself is suspect. The Washington Post and The New York Times cannot be trusted because they have been branded too liberal, despite the papers’ journalistic integrity. This creates space for bullhorn personalities like Bongino who amplify the Nationalist lineage without any semblance of journalism or objective reasoning. In contrast, Rationalists (liberal and conservative) value objectivity in journalism despite the unavoidable bias left or right.

The difficulty in changing the mind of the Nationalist isn’t in providing facts. It’s providing an acceptable lineage to accompany those facts. For years, journalism provided America with a shared lineage of truth available to purchase in print on sidewalks across America. Today we are stranded on a few remaining slabs of concrete journalism. Neighborhood streets that were once pedestrian friendly have either been abandoned or crushed under the weight of social media traffic, leaving Americans stuck staring at directionless piles of news rubble.

Believe in Truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

Snyder, Tim. “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons for the Twentieth Century.” p.65. Tim Duggan Books. 2017.

History may be our greatest hope for the future. Consistently reminding America of what our guiding principles actually are may be the first rope tossed and received to bridge our separating nation.

Our Universal Freedoms

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Scott Catalogue USA 933

I would pay a lot more than five cents for a Roosevelt stamp to support our postal service, and to remind America of the actual freedoms that have guided our nation.

In his Four Freedoms Speech, President Roosevelt introduced new universal human rights that influenced political support for WWII at home and the ideological purpose of the United Nations.

  • The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world.
  • The second is freedom of every person to worship god in his own way – everywhere in the world.
  • The third is freedom from want…everywhere in the world.
  • The fourth is freedom from fear…anywhere in the world.

The first two bullet points, freedom of speech and religion, are protected by the first amendment of the US Constitution. Freedom from want refers to “economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants, everywhere in the world.” And Freedom from fear is a plea for disarmament, “a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.“

In 1965, over 20 years later, President Lyndon Johnson expanded on the Four Freedoms in his vision of The Great Society, one that “asks not how much, but how good; not only how to create wealth but how to use it; not only how fast we are going, but where we are headed.” And as steps towards realizing The Great Society, LBJ proposed the following as part of a new national agenda:

  • I propose that we begin a massive attack on crippling and killing diseases. 
  • I propose that we increase the beauty of America and end the poisoning of our rivers and the air that we breathe.
  • I propose that we eliminate every remaining obstacle to the right and the opportunity to vote.
  • I propose that we honor and support the achievements of thought and the creations of art.

Today we have a President walking in the opposite (ideological) direction while demanding our loyalty along the way. Here are a few examples:

Right now the Postal Service is at risk of financial insolvency placing the entire mail-in ballot vote at risk. The President is thrilled at this prospect, and continues to actively sabotage American institutions created after WWII to protect our human rights. Today we have a President taking the path of isolation his predecessors warned will only end in a false sense of peace and a cheap forgery of liberty.

Let’s take a moment to remember the actual principles that make America great. The true freedoms that have propelled America since WWII are humanitarian.  They speak to the strength of universal human rights against the brutality of dictatorship and the rule of a few.

Reader Love for Amazon Books

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I am sitting under a neat row of industrial light bulbs, glowing loops of exposed filament in wire-framed shades providing no real shade.  Coffee and cookie and Whole Foods sushi are making peace in my belly.  I’m wearing a surf cafe T-shirt and a blue hoodie and a beard.  The hipster serving coffee for Peets ends our brief relationship with a “hey…take care man” with decaffeinated sincerity.

Amazon Books is full of books…and curious people exploring and reading.  Helpful people work here.  This is a place fueled by data and designed by someone who loves to read.  The books…oh the books…are grouped by category but curated by people not publishers.

Two zaftig women sit across from me talking, drinking coffee, paging through a stack for grandchildren.  National Geographic, Guinness Book of World Records, “How Things Work.”

I wandered the stacks here for 45 minutes before sitting down for coffee and cookie.  The Whole Foods sushi doesn’t seem to object.  The New Hardcover Nonfiction was “selected using customer ratings, pre-orders, sales, and popularity on Goodreads – plus books we love.”  No lawyer requires this disclosure.  But clearly some data geek wants you to know that all basis were covered…no stone left unturned…to bring you the best possible selection known to man or machine.

People are wandering the aisles carrying small stacks of books and smiling.  Young people and older people, parents and grandparents.  Amazon Books is a place for curiosity.  It is not a small independent bookstore for the literary intelligentsia.

I spent the 90’s reading in Harvard Square…a lost Mecca for independent bookstores.  I am comfortable here.  And those four words speak volumes.

 

 

Do Ice Cubicles Freeze Innovation?

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IKEA meets Office CubeThe fastest way to freeze innovation is to stick your employees in an ice cube tray.  “Clean, very white, and efficient” rarely describe the creative workspace.

In “A Capitalist’s Dilemma, Whoever Wins this Tuesday,” Clayton M. Christensen describes three types of innovations: Empowering, Sustaining and Efficiency.  Christensen argues that the US has under-invested in Empowering innovation that “transform complicated and costly products available to a few into simpler, cheaper products available to the many.”  I argue that large-scale irony happens when the workforce building Empowering innovation shows up to an office built for Efficiency.

“How do you like your new space?”

The truth is that I like the aesthetics of my new workspace, pictured above.  I live in a contemporary house, and I enjoy modernist design.  But I don’t think it’s the right design Al Gore's Officefor a team tasked with Empowering innovation. By comparison, take a look at this photo of Al Gore’s office space.  Countless stacks of research piled across a broad workspace. A triptych of flat-panel monitors serve a smorgasbord of information to the former Vice President.  We don’t need to know exactly what he’s staring at.  This is the portrait of an Information Artist delivering  Empowering innovation on a global scale.

In contrast, take a look at this photo of a garment factory in the 1970s.  Workers are organized for efficiency and provided just enough space for the tools of their trade and for temporary storage of the end product.1970s Textile Factory  And this is the industrial workspace we expect to see when Efficient innovation is the primary driver.  Assuming that this factory was operated in accordance with the fair labor laws of the time, there is nothing wrong with this use of space. We can assume that workers and management were in agreement about the purpose of the space.  This was a playground for Efficient innovation.  You can almost imagine the man standing at center with a clipboard and stopwatch, trying to figure out how to best organize workers, space, equipment and time to maximize production.

So what’s the problem with my clean, very white, efficient cube pictured above?

The issue is that the space is clean, very white, and efficient.  It was designed to support a factory of Information Workers.  One argument for the new design was that it increases collaboration.  The cube walls are only half-height.  Look at the picture of the textile factory again.  While there is no physical barrier to collaboration, we don’t see any hobnobbing either.  And why should we?  The purpose of the space is to get the craft done efficiently.  I haven’t seen any new collaboration since occupying my cube.  In fact, voices have dropped to a whisper.Holliston Mills Art Studio

But the real problem with my clean, very white, efficient cube is that my team does not identify with the Information Workforce.  We are creative professionals, Information Artists who prefer massive amounts of data served raw, messy and spilling across the monitors and tables.

A workspace needs to support more than the number of workers.  A workspace is an asset shared by management and staff towards a common innovative purpose.

Zombie Analytics: Data Hungry vs. Data Driven

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The Walking Dead Want HorseAll is well…in the beginning.  Your leadership team attended schools like MIT and Wharton.  The latest issue of the McKinsey Quarterly lies dog-eared and defeated on the coffee table.  During the interview, you were in awe of a quantitative religion and by-the-numbers decision process.

And then it happens…

You realize that most meetings are requests for data…and more data.  Email scrape your nerves, hinting that horrible things may happen if data isn’t available by Friday.  Your mind-blowing A/B Testing plan is greeted with vacant stares and growls for more measurement of the status quo…Testing is too risky right now…maybe later when Sales improve.

Zombie Analytics feed an insatiable hunger for data.

The Zombie Apocalypse spreads quickly in corporate environments, driving waves of shock and terror into the few analysts that manage to survive.  Here are a few tips inspired by the The Walking Dead to avoid becoming a cranial cookie for your co-workers:

Ditch the Horse and Hide in a Tank

Ride into your next meeting carrying a thick, juicy report with every conceivable metric.  Once the smell of fresh data triggers the Zombie reflex, run to a secure location where you can plan your next move.  Note that this strategy will help you live another day, but will do nothing to cure the Zombie Apocalypse ravaging your office.

Sacrifice Your Sidekick

Blame your consultants.  Curse at the data.  Basically give the Zombies someone else to chew on while you run for safety.  You might live another day, but you just fed your strongest allies to a mindless eating machine.  And that will raise a few eyebrows among your remaining friends after you catch your breath.

Shoot ’em in the Head

Don’t bother aiming for a rancid arm or leg.  The fastest way to put down a Zombie is right between the eyes with a “double-tap” decapitation just to be safe.  “Here’s your Page Views report…you want fries with that?”  This strategy might get you out of a tight spot, and nothing feels better than offing the undead, but you will get exhausted or run out of bullets at some point.  And there never seems to be a shortage of Zombies…

Find a Cure

Lock yourself in your secret, high-tech lab (good follow-up to “Ditch the Horse and Hide in a Tank” from above).  Setup your defenses (read: Out of Office Assistant) and focus on saving humankind.  Using your analytical blood and scientific skill, find a cure.  Run a high volume of tests and iterate on promising therapies.  It only takes a small dose to start reversing the Zombie plague.  Encouraging signs include:

  1. Creative Review meetings that end half-way with an executive saying “shouldn’t we just test that?”
  2. Demands for a holdout population on any major redesign decision
  3. Clamoring to quantify the financial value analytics brings to the organization

The only real cure for The Zombie Apocalypse is a steady dose of quantifiable results that build faith in the analytical process.  One shot never does it.  Reversing the plague takes time and persistence.  Never forget that the staggering hoard of undead outside your cube are brilliant people trying to find meaning in data.

Now get going…find that cure and stop throwing meat at data hungry Zombies.  The world depends on data-driven survivors like you.