Principled negotiations with no absolutisms
Was Heisst Denken? Thinking.
At Thanksgiving we all are wont to pause and give thanks. Turkey and Packers have, for decades, brought laughter, excitement, and joy along with calories galore to Wisconsin tables. This year, let us tie that thanks to a new thoughtfulness, a thoughtfulness that then extends outward into all that we do and are, both for this present Holiday season and into our everyday lives. What calls for thinking? What is thinking? About what are we to think? And, why might it be more essential to our future than ever in our lifetimes?
Heidegger, in addition to challenging us with this intensely profound question, is justly famous for two oft-quoted statements: “Language is the house of Being” and “Language creates world.” He often uses philology and etymology to search for ways by which to ascertain the meaning behind the meaning, that which is concealed. In honor of our Thanksgiving Day celebrations, let me offer a glimpse at his thinking about “thanks”.
“The Old English, thencan, to think, and thancian, to thank, are closely related; the Old English noun for thought is thanc or thonc – a thought, a grateful thought, and the expression of such a thought; today it survives in the plural thanks.”
Did you pause and take notice of the final words? There is truly a deep-seated connection in our native language, a connection that links thought-thanks-thinking-memory together. “Language creates world.” Can we find the time to hear what the assertion reveals? Does that simple statement mean something to us; or, are we so distracted by our always on, 24/7 whirlwind of activities, and thus prevented from reading deeply? Do we see these words in much the same way we internalize an internal memo via email? Thanksgiving Day. A day of re-remembering; a day when we can gather, and in that gathering recognize that we do have a commonality, an obligation to listen authentically to one another, an obligation to come together and create world, an obligation which must be honored in this present now, if we wish to co-create a sustainable future, inclusive of all, demanding that all might flourish.
Heidegger is asking us to re-remember the power of thought, the power of language. It is not a new, or novel, concept. Take the Gospel of John. The Gospels, in our age of inclusion and cultural diversity, remain one cultural touchstone that many of us still share. Grab your Bible; open to the Gospel according to John. Read the opening verses about creation. Holding in our thoughts the fact that when John wrote, the opening of John is a Gnostic hymn: Language is in the presence of Being [God], and Language is Being: world was made through the power of thought and naming. Heidegger’s assertions about language and its power are based upon John, our cultural “locus classicus” pertaining to the creation of world.
So too each of us can create world, construct that House of Being in which we most want to exist, through Language. We live in a passionate, divisive time. We need passions now, perhaps more than ever. Our nation is in decline; politically and culturally we seem paralyzed by our partisan divide and our several fears.
It is time to set aside our fears. It is time to participate in this new social revolution, embracing the change it portends, shaping the change through our language and openness.
Our governors, city officials, and national politicians have failed in there tasks. Now it is our turn to solve the problems of our present-, and future-, nows. Ken Chenault from AmEx offered this advice: we need principled negotiations with out any absolutism. So as you sit down to dinner this week with family and friends, please take time to give thanks, to think, and to begin the healing process of coming together.
Then, take a new look at Heidegger. Begin your day with a short thought from his work on language and thinking. Holding thought, revealing that which has been concealed and hidden, are two challenges we all face. Together, however, having gathered and listened authentically, we than will be able to move forward together. We still can co-create a world for our children and grandchildren.
“Is thinking a giving of thanks? What do thanks mean here? Or do thanks consist in thinking? What does thinking mean here? Is memory no more than a container for the thoughts of thinking, or does thinking itself reside in memory?”
What are we to do with this? For many of us, it is easy simply to either dismiss, or acknowledge, and then to “walk away” from the thinking. Let us stay in the clearing, out of the darkness of media pundits and talking heads: let us use language to create, to heal, to fabricate a new house of Being for all.
the answer is always already there ( Deja toujours)
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Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Diagnostics and Strategy: getting from Here to There
Going from Here to There: using Diagnostics, Facilitation, and Coaching to lay out your roadmap.
As I walked in this morning, I saw a large horse fly resting on the sidewalk. Huge, not particularly attractive: it couldn’t possibly fly. When She (sic!) created flying creatures, people asked what God had been thinking to design the horse fly or the bumblebee. After all we know that God has a grand design and all creation fits into the plan according to Her design. In truth, however, God’s design of bumblebees and horse flies has come under question for centuries. As in: what was She thinking? Or, nothing designed that way can fly. Yet, we know that both creatures do fly and do so well. What works so easily for God does not work as well for humans when it comes to successful planning on how to get to there from here.
Getting from here-to-there is always on everybody’s minds; and, getting from here-to- there is always already a clearly visible destination. Truth is, however: often we get lost on the way. [And, no! I really do not just mean driving directions]. I’m thinking more along the lines of the transformation the US now faces as the Tea Party tries to hold the nation hostage and take its citizens back to the 1787-9 period; or, a lot more simple to solve, how to transform a business into a customer-centered, customer-based business.
The challenges are so immense as to risk hyperbole. The missteps made happen so frequently and predictably that there must be a better way.
We no longer can afford missteps in today’s hyper-competitive, always-on, flat world. No, what we need is a way to assure breakthrough performance and to assure creation of a roadmap that outlines our best chance to arrive at the destination, the desired end-state.
And it really is quite simple to effect best-planning and execution of these crucial transformations. The keys are diagnostics, facilitation, and coaching.
Plans, lucid, readable and comprehensible roadmaps are important, nay vital to success: whether it is a “simple” exercise, such as taking your family of 5 to [you fill-in-the-blanks] for a mini-summer vacation, or (more) complex such as planning for your 24 year old daughter’s dream wedding, or compound-complex as in establishing your firm’s new customer centered and customer focused strategy. (Thinking of plans as a type of sentence construction may be a helpful metaphor).
Distractions, unanticipated events, setbacks, life: all these “things” happen and so our best laid plans somehow end up producing horse flies rather than hummingbirds. Problem is our horse flies don’t fly. Our “success” at planning, unfortunately, does not translate into successful implementation and operational effectiveness.
And, so what?! What now? How can your B2B CRM & CEM strategy be implemented successfully, without a hitch? How do we plan for life to happen and keep on the path. As I began to write this paragraph these 2 phrases surfaced: “Seek first to understand.” “Start with the end in mind.” And, yes, both pieces of advice are apropos of this discussion. Do they give a way to find planning and implementation success? I think they do. And, I think they do because they un-conceal what has been hidden or that which may distract.
What is needed is diagnostics, facilitation, and coaching. The process will clearly define 3 critical areas: 1. Where you are starting from: the point of departure or your “Current State”; 2., Where you intend to end up: your destination or “Desired End-State”; and, 3., the stuff that has to be done, accomplished, solved, etc. so that you can, in fact, get from here to there: “the bridging tasks”.
Unterwegs zu…
As I walked in this morning, I saw a large horse fly resting on the sidewalk. Huge, not particularly attractive: it couldn’t possibly fly. When She (sic!) created flying creatures, people asked what God had been thinking to design the horse fly or the bumblebee. After all we know that God has a grand design and all creation fits into the plan according to Her design. In truth, however, God’s design of bumblebees and horse flies has come under question for centuries. As in: what was She thinking? Or, nothing designed that way can fly. Yet, we know that both creatures do fly and do so well. What works so easily for God does not work as well for humans when it comes to successful planning on how to get to there from here.
Getting from here-to-there is always on everybody’s minds; and, getting from here-to- there is always already a clearly visible destination. Truth is, however: often we get lost on the way. [And, no! I really do not just mean driving directions]. I’m thinking more along the lines of the transformation the US now faces as the Tea Party tries to hold the nation hostage and take its citizens back to the 1787-9 period; or, a lot more simple to solve, how to transform a business into a customer-centered, customer-based business.
The challenges are so immense as to risk hyperbole. The missteps made happen so frequently and predictably that there must be a better way.
We no longer can afford missteps in today’s hyper-competitive, always-on, flat world. No, what we need is a way to assure breakthrough performance and to assure creation of a roadmap that outlines our best chance to arrive at the destination, the desired end-state.
And it really is quite simple to effect best-planning and execution of these crucial transformations. The keys are diagnostics, facilitation, and coaching.
Plans, lucid, readable and comprehensible roadmaps are important, nay vital to success: whether it is a “simple” exercise, such as taking your family of 5 to [you fill-in-the-blanks] for a mini-summer vacation, or (more) complex such as planning for your 24 year old daughter’s dream wedding, or compound-complex as in establishing your firm’s new customer centered and customer focused strategy. (Thinking of plans as a type of sentence construction may be a helpful metaphor).
Distractions, unanticipated events, setbacks, life: all these “things” happen and so our best laid plans somehow end up producing horse flies rather than hummingbirds. Problem is our horse flies don’t fly. Our “success” at planning, unfortunately, does not translate into successful implementation and operational effectiveness.
And, so what?! What now? How can your B2B CRM & CEM strategy be implemented successfully, without a hitch? How do we plan for life to happen and keep on the path. As I began to write this paragraph these 2 phrases surfaced: “Seek first to understand.” “Start with the end in mind.” And, yes, both pieces of advice are apropos of this discussion. Do they give a way to find planning and implementation success? I think they do. And, I think they do because they un-conceal what has been hidden or that which may distract.
What is needed is diagnostics, facilitation, and coaching. The process will clearly define 3 critical areas: 1. Where you are starting from: the point of departure or your “Current State”; 2., Where you intend to end up: your destination or “Desired End-State”; and, 3., the stuff that has to be done, accomplished, solved, etc. so that you can, in fact, get from here to there: “the bridging tasks”.
Unterwegs zu…
Blink or Think: Be Here now
Be Here Now: Blink or Think
A decade ago, while still consulting heavily, I entered the office of the President of a Billion $ business. The brass-plated desk-ornament in the middle of his desk gave one simple admonition: “Be Here Now!” This leader wanted everyone to be present. When I ask myself or you “Was heisst Denken?” I am, to begin with, asking myself to be here now, to be present. I am asking myself, and I am asking each of you as well, to locate that way, that path on the way to; and, to be here now, to be present and accounted for.
Our current situation is one that calls for thinking; it is one that calls for each of us to be fully present, to be engaged to be here now. If we believe Thomas Friedman’s presentation in That Used to be Us, we are a divided nation in decline, one that has brought itself to this precipitous predicament. We have failed our country, our citizen, our nation’s children - our own gift to the future - in that we have failed to invest in our future. We see it now in our dearth, in our unemployment; in our inability to generate meaningful, fully engaging work; in the homeless, the under-employed. We see it in this State’s decision to cut back on education; its decision not to invest in much-needed infrastructure and renewal efforts; in our ever-widening gap between those who have and those who have not. Rather than attend to the now, we turn away. We choose not to attend to what calls for thinking; instead we blink and we turn away.
It is not unexpected that we blink; that we turn our backs on what calls for thinking; that we turn back to our comfortable lives; turn on the Tube, and plug in un-thinkingly to what Thomas Pynchon referred to as “mindless pleasure”. In fact, a highly popular “pundit”, Malcolm Gladwell incites us to blink. His book Blink: the power of thinking without thinking admonishes us to “blink – don’t think”.
Whereas by contrast, in his 5th lecture, Heidegger begins: “What is called thinking? We must guard against the blind urge to snatch at a quick answer in the form of a formula. We must stay with the question. We must pay attention to the way in which the question asks: what is called thinking, what does call for thinking?” Our present now calls for thinking. We turn away, however. We blink.
“What does that mean? Blink is related to Middle English blenchen, which means deceive, and to blenken, blinken, which means gleam or glitter. To blink – that means to play up and set up a glittering deception which is then agreed upon as true and valid –with the mutual tacit understanding not to question…”(lecture VII).
While I see many of us trying to solve the issues of today, I see equal or greater numbers who turn away. Regardless of party affiliation, we no longer can turn away. We cannot, however, solve any of the current problems by blind adherence to party lines. Nor can we solve today’s issues neither through rancorous argument nor partisan paralysis. We cannot take Gladstone’s advice and decide what is important based on 2 seconds of ephemerality and what we knew to be true in that present-now, now long past. We must be present; we must be here now. We must understand and act knowing that “what is most thought-provoking in our thought-provoking age is that we are still not thinking.” We need to, we can and we must, get underway, unterwegs zu.
A decade ago, while still consulting heavily, I entered the office of the President of a Billion $ business. The brass-plated desk-ornament in the middle of his desk gave one simple admonition: “Be Here Now!” This leader wanted everyone to be present. When I ask myself or you “Was heisst Denken?” I am, to begin with, asking myself to be here now, to be present. I am asking myself, and I am asking each of you as well, to locate that way, that path on the way to; and, to be here now, to be present and accounted for.
Our current situation is one that calls for thinking; it is one that calls for each of us to be fully present, to be engaged to be here now. If we believe Thomas Friedman’s presentation in That Used to be Us, we are a divided nation in decline, one that has brought itself to this precipitous predicament. We have failed our country, our citizen, our nation’s children - our own gift to the future - in that we have failed to invest in our future. We see it now in our dearth, in our unemployment; in our inability to generate meaningful, fully engaging work; in the homeless, the under-employed. We see it in this State’s decision to cut back on education; its decision not to invest in much-needed infrastructure and renewal efforts; in our ever-widening gap between those who have and those who have not. Rather than attend to the now, we turn away. We choose not to attend to what calls for thinking; instead we blink and we turn away.
It is not unexpected that we blink; that we turn our backs on what calls for thinking; that we turn back to our comfortable lives; turn on the Tube, and plug in un-thinkingly to what Thomas Pynchon referred to as “mindless pleasure”. In fact, a highly popular “pundit”, Malcolm Gladwell incites us to blink. His book Blink: the power of thinking without thinking admonishes us to “blink – don’t think”.
Whereas by contrast, in his 5th lecture, Heidegger begins: “What is called thinking? We must guard against the blind urge to snatch at a quick answer in the form of a formula. We must stay with the question. We must pay attention to the way in which the question asks: what is called thinking, what does call for thinking?” Our present now calls for thinking. We turn away, however. We blink.
“What does that mean? Blink is related to Middle English blenchen, which means deceive, and to blenken, blinken, which means gleam or glitter. To blink – that means to play up and set up a glittering deception which is then agreed upon as true and valid –with the mutual tacit understanding not to question…”(lecture VII).
While I see many of us trying to solve the issues of today, I see equal or greater numbers who turn away. Regardless of party affiliation, we no longer can turn away. We cannot, however, solve any of the current problems by blind adherence to party lines. Nor can we solve today’s issues neither through rancorous argument nor partisan paralysis. We cannot take Gladstone’s advice and decide what is important based on 2 seconds of ephemerality and what we knew to be true in that present-now, now long past. We must be present; we must be here now. We must understand and act knowing that “what is most thought-provoking in our thought-provoking age is that we are still not thinking.” We need to, we can and we must, get underway, unterwegs zu.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Language and Politics: TeaParty calls Dems Nazi's in Wisconsin
“Language is the house of Being. In its home man dwells.”
“It is language that tells us about the nature of a thing, provided that we respect language’s own nature….
Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.
… Among all the appeals that we human beings, on our part, can help to be voiced, language is the highest and everywhere the first.”
Martin Heidegger.
I want to stop the misuse and abuse of language. Especially the “words that work” of the Tea Party and Republicans who are trying only to throw out our President. They still are just a “party of no”: and lest you hate me and send me nasty notes: I am a life-long Republican. Now, recovering, I am a proud Obama republican.
Let me digress and offer a brief explanation, if I might. My love is and has been Literature, philosophy, the classics and structural analysis &criticism (my Comparative Literature background) and teaching. With only a few regrets, I spent 30 some years in “Business” & Consulting. While in my business career I both had a modicum of success in marketing, sales, and consulting, I was also afforded quite a bit of time delivering training or other seminars. In doing so, I confess that I was not always careful with language. I want to write about language and its use, and maybe whatever else strikes my fancy.
But again: Why the insistence that we attend to language? I can only reply with a question, or two, and a suggestion. Have you turned on the news? Have you heard the lies, the distortion of facts, coming out of Fox News? Whom can you trust? Haven’t we reached a time when it now is vital for us to silence the furor and to listen with authenticity?
If you read Thomas Pynchon, you might simply remind individuals that a cure is available: they merely need to enroll themselves in a Tubal-detox program: cure themselves of “Tubeitis” that illness that permeates American life. It isn’t just on TV and Cable; it’s everywhere They can buy the placement of Their fear-mongering, society-splintering, destructive messages: all “no!. You have Rush L., Glenn Beck, and of course, WTMJ’s very own Charlie Sykes, who believe that if they use “words that work” often enough you will gladly, lemming-like allow yourselves to become victims of a Plutocratic Oligarchy. But hey! Who cares? Right? If the talking heads create enough noise pollution backed by the Koch brothers and other fear-mongerers such as the current lot of TeaParty-ites and Republicans pool of candidates, it will be perfectly alright with you?
And, let me add that yesterday I noticed someone say that Democrats are the same as Nazi’s to be defeated by the Tea Party. OMG! (As my 15, 13, and 10 year might say, but probably not). I felt compelled to add some “local color” if I might and stir the pot, but without language that is so blatantly outrageous and maybe even add a few words, as an Obama Republican, for our current Commander in Chief.
As my continuation I want to add, and expand upon, a blog I wrote in part nearly 2 years ago concerning how language was destroying our ability to talk about food. The problems, as it relates to language tearing apart the fabric of our national tapestry, has become worse.
Language, that which has the power to “create worlds”, apparently has been purchased, by what now is called the Tea Party and the Republicans. A paid “pundit” for the past few years has been publicly creating verbal playbooks for politicians to manipulate, to distort, to instill fear and mistrust, and to conceal. A lifelong Republican I confess to cringing at the lies. I also quickly found myself a proud Obama Republican. I want to use this blog to talk about language and to examine with others this current phenomenon of media: noise pollution designed only to un-elect a sitting president.
Language is the most powerful and under utilized tool at our disposal, individually, severally, and collectively. Sadly, in business, politics, and virtually all walks of life, certain powers with greater reach are broadcasting rancor during a time when this nation needs healing, a coming together, and the stimulus of growth.
Originally what got me riled up was the realization that we need more conscious use of language. At the time Food and Agribusiness were in the news. in business was the finger-pointing and railing against the machine concerning food: genetics, modified seeds, chemicals, food production, food safety, food labeling, etc.
Nearly two years ago, I found myself becoming increasingly angry over the public debate, the “national palaver” to quote Carlyle. I was heavily involved with agribusiness. I had been blessed , or cursed – if you must – to have been able to work with the leaders of that field: Dow AgroSciences, Bayer, Monsanto, Case/IH, AGCO – and so on. The industry was under attack. The “blogosphere” was filled with anger, misinformation, and a lot of noise. The anger was over mistakes made by certain executives in the past; and, as so often happens in the world, one person’s errors become to some the entirety of the company.
Like many of us, I am deeply bothered by the current public debate about food, food production and safety. The traditional, and newer "social" medias have taken this very, very complex issue and lumped together factoids about "feeding the world", "clean air", "global warming", "genetically modified crops", and the very sustainability of our planet.
Doing so only made things worse and certainly more confusing for most listeners. A great deal of positioning; a good deal of shouting; not much listening and working together going on there, so far, in this public debate. Agribusiness cannot allow itself to be dragged into a public brawl such as the one we've recently watched - and still are watching - about Health Care Reform and The Public Option.
Now, 18 months later, we have suffered through months of partisan paralysis. "Debt ceiling" debates became fodder for TeaParty radicals to stop progress and civility. The issues surrounding agribusiness and farmers, are among the most important topics of today because we all are involved in food and clothing and environmental issues. Yet, journalists such as Michael Pollan, Paul Roberts, and notable world citizens, such as Vandana Shiva, are inciting their audiences and special interest groups, mostly through fear and "adjustment" of the facts.
In contrast to these divisive voices, Peter Senge, of Fifth Discipline fame, offers a much more tempered approach, deeper and more thoughtful and quite a bit more challenging to each of us in his newest book, The Necessary Revolution. Today, however, the debate about Food seems not to be among the top 10 topics on the World News Tonight (whichever of the networks you follow). Instead, that same rancorous discord, those same outrageous, divisive language has been turned to again divide our nation. Radical claims concerning the future of our nation are fueling fear; causing the paralysis of recovery; the death of job creation; and, shutting down much of our hope for recovery in the near term.
The United States has become a country of Haves and Have-not's. Jobs have been taken away, sent overseas, leaving Americans unable to be fully engaged – all for the sake of the Plutocrats now hoarding their cash and chanting “No!”. The problem is how quickly the widening of the gap is becoming; and, that widening is not slowing down. Instead of using language, political power, and spending power to recreate a stronger America, distinguished by its equality and sense of inclusion for all, our media and those political talking heads, paid for by the ultra-wealthy, the Plutocrats, is fracturing the nation even further. We need that to stop.
We need authentic listening. We need to silence the lies, distortion of facts, and to begin using Language in order to create the sustainable future world we all desire. Not a world that excludes those the TeaParty doesn’t understand and are being taught to fear. Certainly the majority of us do not want an America for just the few who have control of all the wealth. 1/2 of 1% controls 80% of the wealth.
They cannot control the Language and ideas, however, or our nation will suffer tragic consequences. The issues we face in government are more complex, more divisive, and at a quantum level greater than the battle over food. Crafting a sustainable solution - just to guide the public debate - can, and will, not result from singularly slanted, or otherwise distorted preaching. These interrelated problems can only be corrected through a creative learning process. Rather than creating an atmosphere in which a true long-lasting solution can be crafted, these activists see only one-way: their own.
Instead we need to work together. Education and communications will play a huge role in shaping the outcome for many of us. It will take hard work. We lose all chance to shape the future, however, if we allow ourselves to be controlled by the puppeteers speaking into the ear-pieces of the TeaParty backed candidates and their media talking heads (or in the case of agribusiness: those outside agribusiness) to shape the public debate. Certainly we do not want to engage them at their level and try to yell over them: god help us if we try to do that – it’s just a waste of more money that could have been put into the economy to add value and thus would have been relevant to all citizens.
We need to listen. We need to look for the clearing. We need to listen for what has been concealed to become un-concealed. We need to practice what Stephen Covey suggests: "seek first to understand, then to be understood". We also need to build a dictionary that guides this conversation and mutual learning. All of us need to shape the language and use words that work and metaphors that reach across the gap between sides, pulling them into our conversation.
Keep this truism on a Post-It: "...those who define the debate will determine the outcome" (c.f., Frank Luntz, What Americans really want ... really). It's time to re-tell, or to tell anew, the story of farming, of how the world is fed and clothed - and what it will require when there are 9 Billion people on earth. It is time for us to educate the rest of the world about farming, agriculture, tillage practices, land and water conservation, seeds and chemicals. If we shape the conversation, without rancor and with a complete and easy-to-comprehend story, which helps reveal the truth in its complexity, everyone will come out ahead. Then we can move ahead proud of our stewardship and assured of a sustainable future.
But remember, "It's not what you say; it's what they hear" that matters We need business leaders and politicians to stop paying for words that work, words that distort and hide the truth. Our agribusiness leaders have worked exceedingly hard to being to address these same sometimes-difficult-and-admittedly- complex subjects through education and communication - the ones the extremists have distortedly made visible - so that our fellow citizens of the planet can help better understand the reality, the rancorous, drama can subside; constructive conversation, dialogue and trust can be built; and, we can craft a sustainable future together. We need that self-same commitment to renewal of our nation, as one of inclusion. We need to stop the fear mongering. We need to use language to un-conceal and to make the world we all want. The few that want to be the few can afford to go buy their own island: I suggest that they do just that. For the rest of us, let us co-create a sustainable future for America. That future will renew the social contract. Then we can walk our talk proudly. - old consultant adage, however: easy to say, harder to accomplish.
“It is language that tells us about the nature of a thing, provided that we respect language’s own nature….
Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.
… Among all the appeals that we human beings, on our part, can help to be voiced, language is the highest and everywhere the first.”
Martin Heidegger.
I want to stop the misuse and abuse of language. Especially the “words that work” of the Tea Party and Republicans who are trying only to throw out our President. They still are just a “party of no”: and lest you hate me and send me nasty notes: I am a life-long Republican. Now, recovering, I am a proud Obama republican.
Let me digress and offer a brief explanation, if I might. My love is and has been Literature, philosophy, the classics and structural analysis &criticism (my Comparative Literature background) and teaching. With only a few regrets, I spent 30 some years in “Business” & Consulting. While in my business career I both had a modicum of success in marketing, sales, and consulting, I was also afforded quite a bit of time delivering training or other seminars. In doing so, I confess that I was not always careful with language. I want to write about language and its use, and maybe whatever else strikes my fancy.
But again: Why the insistence that we attend to language? I can only reply with a question, or two, and a suggestion. Have you turned on the news? Have you heard the lies, the distortion of facts, coming out of Fox News? Whom can you trust? Haven’t we reached a time when it now is vital for us to silence the furor and to listen with authenticity?
If you read Thomas Pynchon, you might simply remind individuals that a cure is available: they merely need to enroll themselves in a Tubal-detox program: cure themselves of “Tubeitis” that illness that permeates American life. It isn’t just on TV and Cable; it’s everywhere They can buy the placement of Their fear-mongering, society-splintering, destructive messages: all “no!. You have Rush L., Glenn Beck, and of course, WTMJ’s very own Charlie Sykes, who believe that if they use “words that work” often enough you will gladly, lemming-like allow yourselves to become victims of a Plutocratic Oligarchy. But hey! Who cares? Right? If the talking heads create enough noise pollution backed by the Koch brothers and other fear-mongerers such as the current lot of TeaParty-ites and Republicans pool of candidates, it will be perfectly alright with you?
And, let me add that yesterday I noticed someone say that Democrats are the same as Nazi’s to be defeated by the Tea Party. OMG! (As my 15, 13, and 10 year might say, but probably not). I felt compelled to add some “local color” if I might and stir the pot, but without language that is so blatantly outrageous and maybe even add a few words, as an Obama Republican, for our current Commander in Chief.
As my continuation I want to add, and expand upon, a blog I wrote in part nearly 2 years ago concerning how language was destroying our ability to talk about food. The problems, as it relates to language tearing apart the fabric of our national tapestry, has become worse.
Language, that which has the power to “create worlds”, apparently has been purchased, by what now is called the Tea Party and the Republicans. A paid “pundit” for the past few years has been publicly creating verbal playbooks for politicians to manipulate, to distort, to instill fear and mistrust, and to conceal. A lifelong Republican I confess to cringing at the lies. I also quickly found myself a proud Obama Republican. I want to use this blog to talk about language and to examine with others this current phenomenon of media: noise pollution designed only to un-elect a sitting president.
Language is the most powerful and under utilized tool at our disposal, individually, severally, and collectively. Sadly, in business, politics, and virtually all walks of life, certain powers with greater reach are broadcasting rancor during a time when this nation needs healing, a coming together, and the stimulus of growth.
Originally what got me riled up was the realization that we need more conscious use of language. At the time Food and Agribusiness were in the news. in business was the finger-pointing and railing against the machine concerning food: genetics, modified seeds, chemicals, food production, food safety, food labeling, etc.
Nearly two years ago, I found myself becoming increasingly angry over the public debate, the “national palaver” to quote Carlyle. I was heavily involved with agribusiness. I had been blessed , or cursed – if you must – to have been able to work with the leaders of that field: Dow AgroSciences, Bayer, Monsanto, Case/IH, AGCO – and so on. The industry was under attack. The “blogosphere” was filled with anger, misinformation, and a lot of noise. The anger was over mistakes made by certain executives in the past; and, as so often happens in the world, one person’s errors become to some the entirety of the company.
Like many of us, I am deeply bothered by the current public debate about food, food production and safety. The traditional, and newer "social" medias have taken this very, very complex issue and lumped together factoids about "feeding the world", "clean air", "global warming", "genetically modified crops", and the very sustainability of our planet.
Doing so only made things worse and certainly more confusing for most listeners. A great deal of positioning; a good deal of shouting; not much listening and working together going on there, so far, in this public debate. Agribusiness cannot allow itself to be dragged into a public brawl such as the one we've recently watched - and still are watching - about Health Care Reform and The Public Option.
Now, 18 months later, we have suffered through months of partisan paralysis. "Debt ceiling" debates became fodder for TeaParty radicals to stop progress and civility. The issues surrounding agribusiness and farmers, are among the most important topics of today because we all are involved in food and clothing and environmental issues. Yet, journalists such as Michael Pollan, Paul Roberts, and notable world citizens, such as Vandana Shiva, are inciting their audiences and special interest groups, mostly through fear and "adjustment" of the facts.
In contrast to these divisive voices, Peter Senge, of Fifth Discipline fame, offers a much more tempered approach, deeper and more thoughtful and quite a bit more challenging to each of us in his newest book, The Necessary Revolution. Today, however, the debate about Food seems not to be among the top 10 topics on the World News Tonight (whichever of the networks you follow). Instead, that same rancorous discord, those same outrageous, divisive language has been turned to again divide our nation. Radical claims concerning the future of our nation are fueling fear; causing the paralysis of recovery; the death of job creation; and, shutting down much of our hope for recovery in the near term.
The United States has become a country of Haves and Have-not's. Jobs have been taken away, sent overseas, leaving Americans unable to be fully engaged – all for the sake of the Plutocrats now hoarding their cash and chanting “No!”. The problem is how quickly the widening of the gap is becoming; and, that widening is not slowing down. Instead of using language, political power, and spending power to recreate a stronger America, distinguished by its equality and sense of inclusion for all, our media and those political talking heads, paid for by the ultra-wealthy, the Plutocrats, is fracturing the nation even further. We need that to stop.
We need authentic listening. We need to silence the lies, distortion of facts, and to begin using Language in order to create the sustainable future world we all desire. Not a world that excludes those the TeaParty doesn’t understand and are being taught to fear. Certainly the majority of us do not want an America for just the few who have control of all the wealth. 1/2 of 1% controls 80% of the wealth.
They cannot control the Language and ideas, however, or our nation will suffer tragic consequences. The issues we face in government are more complex, more divisive, and at a quantum level greater than the battle over food. Crafting a sustainable solution - just to guide the public debate - can, and will, not result from singularly slanted, or otherwise distorted preaching. These interrelated problems can only be corrected through a creative learning process. Rather than creating an atmosphere in which a true long-lasting solution can be crafted, these activists see only one-way: their own.
Instead we need to work together. Education and communications will play a huge role in shaping the outcome for many of us. It will take hard work. We lose all chance to shape the future, however, if we allow ourselves to be controlled by the puppeteers speaking into the ear-pieces of the TeaParty backed candidates and their media talking heads (or in the case of agribusiness: those outside agribusiness) to shape the public debate. Certainly we do not want to engage them at their level and try to yell over them: god help us if we try to do that – it’s just a waste of more money that could have been put into the economy to add value and thus would have been relevant to all citizens.
We need to listen. We need to look for the clearing. We need to listen for what has been concealed to become un-concealed. We need to practice what Stephen Covey suggests: "seek first to understand, then to be understood". We also need to build a dictionary that guides this conversation and mutual learning. All of us need to shape the language and use words that work and metaphors that reach across the gap between sides, pulling them into our conversation.
Keep this truism on a Post-It: "...those who define the debate will determine the outcome" (c.f., Frank Luntz, What Americans really want ... really). It's time to re-tell, or to tell anew, the story of farming, of how the world is fed and clothed - and what it will require when there are 9 Billion people on earth. It is time for us to educate the rest of the world about farming, agriculture, tillage practices, land and water conservation, seeds and chemicals. If we shape the conversation, without rancor and with a complete and easy-to-comprehend story, which helps reveal the truth in its complexity, everyone will come out ahead. Then we can move ahead proud of our stewardship and assured of a sustainable future.
But remember, "It's not what you say; it's what they hear" that matters We need business leaders and politicians to stop paying for words that work, words that distort and hide the truth. Our agribusiness leaders have worked exceedingly hard to being to address these same sometimes-difficult-and-admittedly- complex subjects through education and communication - the ones the extremists have distortedly made visible - so that our fellow citizens of the planet can help better understand the reality, the rancorous, drama can subside; constructive conversation, dialogue and trust can be built; and, we can craft a sustainable future together. We need that self-same commitment to renewal of our nation, as one of inclusion. We need to stop the fear mongering. We need to use language to un-conceal and to make the world we all want. The few that want to be the few can afford to go buy their own island: I suggest that they do just that. For the rest of us, let us co-create a sustainable future for America. That future will renew the social contract. Then we can walk our talk proudly. - old consultant adage, however: easy to say, harder to accomplish.
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