Those People Again...

I am looking for those people. 

You know; ‘those ones.’

 

The ones that everyone seems to know about; but nobody actually knows.  You know; those people.  Surely somebody should know someone.  You hear about them all the time.  Always less sophisticated than the people who talk about them.  Always never like us.  They are all the same.  Those ones.  

Maybe its time to be asking... does anybody have something new to say?  Does somebody actually know what they are talking about? 

   

So I am looking for those ones to find out if it is true.  Could there really be a population of people who are really all the same?  Not like ‘my own people’ to whom the grace of individuality has been extended to explain away our own ‘bad apples’.  You know; ‘those ones’.  “They’re all like that.”   

And so when asking around if anyone knows anyone from ‘those ones.’  The answer is always the same.  ‘No, we don’t actually visit those ones.  We don’t communicate.  We don’t get along.  We don’t talk.  We don’t even associate with those ones.  And so if you don’t talk, communicate, get along or associate for that matter, I think it is most reasonable to be asking - how is it that you think you know so much about those ones that you actually do not know? 

Not sure about you..., but I am confused.

My diversity of life experience has destroyed any illusion that I can claim to know anything about ‘those ones’.  I’ve lived in too many places; have too many people I care about, crossed to many cultures to know that ‘those ones’ are always very much like me.  That ‘those ones’ are me and I am ‘those.’  And any of ‘those’ are likely to be in my direct family or circle of friends. 

The luxury of ignorance is not in my corner on this one.  As soon as someone starts talking about ‘those ones,’ I know they don’t know what they’re talking about.  What becomes abundantly apparent is that they know so little about their own humanity that they can look at other people and convince themselves that they have nothing in common.  They’re not like them.  They’re better.  That is a lie.  It is really too bad that they’re simply human too and are unaware.   

      

And as long as we continue to dialogue about ‘us’ and ‘them’, we lose touch with our humanity and grieve our Creator.  

And so while I continue to hear so much about ‘those ones’, about how they are and what they do, for the life of me, I cannot seem to figure out, who the hell are “those people” anyway?

Does anyone actually know them?

- END -

Listen Dumbo, Get out of my Face - A Call for an Increase in Common Sense

I recently sent through a strategy document that focused on social development and received a very polite, ‘thank you very much but we don’t think you are qualified to advise’.  That’s the politically correct version, of “Listen Dumbo, get out of my face”.  The funny thing about strategy is that it needs to address the question at hand and I think the biggest and most common mistake that we make is asking the wrong questions and as a result; we define the issue incorrectly. 

It would appear that I continue to have some of my least intelligent conversations with experts. 

I dread a conversation with ‘experts’.  

I swear that something must happen after someone is handed their PhD papers.  The brain goes on leave or something.  They are the quickest to power play and seldom answer my questions (my assumption is that their expertise has run out – their assumption is that I am simply so not on their level).  Whatever the cause, it seems almost impossible to teach an ‘expert’ anything or get a straight answer.    

  

My latest conversation with a so called ‘expert’ went something like this;

“So let me understand this, you want to increase the regulation and policy on a trade that is already illegal”...

“Yes.  In order to better manage the current situation we need to focus on the policy, legal and judiciary aspects of the trade.” 

“Okay, but the trade is already illegal and statistics indicate that this intervention strategy has had little to no effect to date.  So the fact that the trade continues means that the people who are engaged in trading have little to no regard for the law, which would suggest that making more laws will have little to no impact... Thus the definition of ‘illegal’...”

The dialogue degenerated rapidly from there.  Am I the only one who thinks that making more laws to manage people who simply disregard law as a waste of time, money and effort?  Why is it that when ‘an expert’ is not able to answer your questions your qualifications and title becomes automatically relevant.  

      

One of the biggest questions that is seldom asked is:  Is it working?  Are we getting the results that we are looking for?  What is the bottom line or cause (politically correct for ‘why’?)?  

  

And so having this experience regularly has highlighted another question; what makes somebody qualified?  Somebody with experience...  Somebody with knowledge...  Somebody with an education in the field...? 

These so called ‘experts’ that we hold in high esteem are often well equipped with knowledge.  They hold a piece of paper which they earned by researching a subject that is narrow in focus and makes them a specialist in a very specific field; a ‘paper’ which somehow in today’s society places them as an ‘expert’ in some field.  But somehow, possessing knowledge and the application of knowledge seem to be different activities all together.    

There are a few more things I think should be asked of someone when holding ‘experts’ in high esteem and those are:  What is their track record?  Do they hold a stake in the outcomes that are being sought?  How do they weigh the significance of result and process?  (Working hard and producing nothing, nor should getting the results at all costs be held in high esteem)  What are their intentions insofar as contributing to the matter at hand?  Do they actually care to use their expertise in a way that contributes positively to society and achieve the results that have been prioritised?   

When a position held or expertise sought is to attain money and power... whatever the decisions, the outcomes will generally not be ones that will benefit the majority. 

This way of thinking is not new and is bound to reoccur in a society that holds in high esteem; money, position and power.

 

Another conversation of note with an ‘expert’ concluded something like this...

“Please excuse my wife as she is just not that educated you see.”  A statement followed by a condescending little pat on her arm and a flicker of hurt on her face.

 

                A statement said to the same wife who raised his children while he pursued his PhD.  A statement to the same women who got pregnant in high school with the same man and who paid her in dues in lost opportunity and a life time spent with a man who now looks down at her.  A woman who, even though he is the reason why she never had the opportunity to pursue her own dreams, is the reason he has a PhD today. 

“Yes, there we agree.  There is a fool in the room.  But it’s just not your wife” I think to myself.

Thus, my conclusion on the matter is quite simple.  There is a big difference between knowledge and wisdom and an educated fool is simply that: a fool with a bunch of papers. 

That being said, isn’t it time we start addressing the issues and the outcomes?  

Please!?!

...

- END - 

 

The Need to Know Who... Well sort-of!

 ‘Hey, whose going to be the leader if you’re leaving,’ one of the girls called anxiously as her pigtails bounced.  My daughter at age seven diligently appointed a leader and climbed into the car ready to depart from school while I stifle a smile, my desire to laugh out loud and the urge to roll my eyes.  Not only did she have to make the decision, she already had a full five year plan on who was going to be the leader of their little primary school group of friends as they transitioned from grade one to grade five. 

A plan which she diligently followed as she got older and threw her support behind whomever was allocated ‘the leader’ for that particular year.  A plan which regularly provided me with high levels of amusement as she faithfully talked about the leader over the years not realising that she was orchestrating the dynamics of the group from the back. 

A plan that still makes me chuckle to this day and I periodically remind her about. 
 
To her credit, she strove to be faithful and fair to all the members of the group; an endeavour that did make me somewhat proud of the person she is. 

When I started this blog, it was my hope that people would follow ideas and not the person behind the scenes and thus deliberately left my name out of the site.  And while I do understand the hesitancy..., a great deal of hesitancy, I would like to know why is it that we follow people we perceive to know because we simply recognise their face from some magazine, seen them somewhere, or admire their talents, or they hold a position of power, etc,

Or why is it we are much more willing to follow people who simply tell us what it is we would like to hear instead of the truth or what we need to hear. 

We seem content to settle for an illusion of knowing someone rather than an understanding of what that person stands for or represents.   

I worry about this concept of ‘follow...’  The word has come to represent a passive activity despite its active contribution towards some of the greatest human rights violations and atrocities in history.  Its passivity allows events to happen that never would have if people understood that following should essentially be an active activity.  An activity whereby one should continually evaluate the vision and merits of the person being followed and as a result, makes an active decision to put their support behind that person because they agree with what the person stands for and what they intend to achieve.   

And so the tendency to passively follow is perpetuating a language and a culture of power.  We follow people because of their monetary worth, beauty, status, position, or what we stand to gain by aligning ourselves with those who hold a degree of power due to circumstance; ... a circumstance subject to change. 

I, the chronic sceptic that I am, cannot imagine placing my support behind someone who has no vision of what they intend to achieve and who leverages their ‘power over’ instead of seeing value in anyone else... simply because they hold a position of power (for the moment).       

So rooted deeply in my cynicism, I am in search of a leader...  one who has a vision for this country.  Someone who holds fast to the principle that humanity has value by virtue of it being a common humanity; a leader whose moral compass is not shifted by the relativity of the time and who stands for something worth standing for and not the accumulation of personal wealth and power. 

A leader whose absence seems to be increasingly apparent...   

An absence that active followers and general citizens should become increasingly concerned about... because it is seldom leaders who pay for their mistakes, but rather the followers who take the brunt of their leader’s poor decisions. 

Just ask those at Marikana...