We Are Not Regenerating

As the readers of the P&H joint blog know, I returned from a two week vacation relatively recently, the first in too many years (a long story for a prof). Sure, I got bits of time in those years—a few days here, a few days there—but not a vacation, and I certainly don’t count “working vacations” (if work is involved, it’s not a real vacation). Frederick Taylor, for all his probable damage to the soul of work (or, in his defense, at least the perversion of his techniques by others), did determine that 14 days/2 weeks off (he is generally credited with scientifically establishing the basis for the 2-week American vacation) was necessary to return a modern, industrial-age worker to the same effectiveness and efficiency he had when he began to work.

But this frenetic American culture, and one tied in electronically at nearly all times, doesn’t get that. People “can’t afford” to be gone from the workplace that long—think of the work that will pile up, not to mention the emails, etc., as well as the workplace politics that will work against in the absence, plus, if you can be gone that long, they will think they can do without you, and they will—permanently. So people end up getting away in driblets of 3-7 days at most. It isn’t enough. If 7 or even 10 days had been enough, Taylor would have determined it, for he didn’t have a whole lot of sympathy for workers.

And so we don’t rest and recuperate, and we don’t regenerate. We plow forward in semi-panicky exhaustion, and we burn our adrenal systems out (even a small amount of stress effectively continual will do enormous damage, and we usually have far more than a small amount), let alone the damage we do to the rest of our mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and relational health.

And all this doesn’t even include the stress outside the workplace. We need the time off. ALL of it. In a row. But we don’t get it. Some of this we do to ourselves. Much of the rest, the culture does to us. And part of that culture is the exploitative nature of work—exploitative commoditized-labor companies and organizations that is the reality in far too many instances.

My Finnish friends were right—American workplace culture is not sustainable to the human spirit, and killing quality of real life around the world, because with globalization, everyone has to compete.

Watching

Will our political process get itself together before default? Stay tuned!

3D

I saw “The Green Lantern” in 3D recently. While its humano-centric, over-the-top theatrics got some critics’ attention, I was thinking of something not about the movie itself at all. I was thinking about my fellow movie goers, most of whom were young, and some who were even lively. How much does entertainment of all types, but especially electronic entertainment, divert, distract, and/or de-plug its partakers? How much are they inoculated against reality and anesthetized against its effects by entertainment? Are people, and especially many of the young adults, in modes of desperation, despair, or denial? Is entertainment mostly just innocent marketing of what we want, or are there elements of purposeful, perhaps even sinister, manipulation for desired effect? Given that I enjoy entertainment immensely, these are anxious thoughts to ponder…

Another Endless Theme

“It is the doom of men…that…they…forget.” Merlin, in ‘Excalibur”

The Flailing Sick Giant With No Memory

We live in a culture that continually emits the undercurrent thought that history is not important. That culture, and the society and country that house it, suffer so because of that lack of valuing, and worse, suffer in ignorance and arrogance, losing so much as so much spins away.

“A country losing touch with its own history is like an old man losing his glasses, a distressing sight, at once vulnerable, unsure, and easily disoriented.” George Walden

Calling All Cassandras

I was thinking of the frustration of those out there who understand, who are not fooled by the vaporous channeling of the media, or “leaders,” or “experts.” Who see complication, and deeper truths, not polarized absurd simplistic parochialism.

Sympaticos brothers and sisters, sympaticos.

“The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing”
-Herodotus

“It’s not easy you know…to know too much. Lacrimae mundi, the tears of the world.” Merlin, in “Excalibur”

Symbol Ick

America on Sunday took down the human symbol of its enemies.

Something lost in its jubilation is respect for the intelligence and abilities of its enemies.

That is a mistake.

This human symbol evaded the concentrated efforts of the supposed superpower for 10 years (actually longer, but at top of the list for the last 10 years certainly). Evaded a superpower with truly impressive electronic, satellite photographic, and other highly advanced spying techniques.

America, your enemies understand your weaknesses far better than you realize. You, in arrogance, dismiss their intelligence and abilities too much. Even if you don’t want to try to understand them and why they feel the way they feel (which will require you to understand yourself), you should at least respect that their planners aren’t backward or illiterate. They are educated, trained (we should know, we trained a lot of them directly or indirectly), and incredibly dedicated. It might help, for our sake, to know why.

Otherwise, “kicking ass” will be meaningless in anything but the short-term.