This book changed my life in the sense that it served as a foundation for my first Master's thesis on Predicting Revolution, work that has not yet been surpassed.
I myself developed one side of the matrix, finding through the secondary literature that revolutions were generally distinct within each of the following domains:
It was not until I chanced across this work, which the author points out is the first ever theoretical dissertation at the Harvard Business School. I share the author's disdain for the Know-Nothings stepped in their rote learning who label all that they do not understand as “naive idealism.” They've become prostitutes, while the author and those like him continue to “live free.”
What this book did for me personally was provide and explain “Radical Man” in terms precisely suited to explode my first thesis from something pedestrian to something that today, a quarter of a century later, is still “best in class” (available at OSS.Net in Library, Steele's Early Papers).
He provided a model of psycho-social development with the following elements:
Along the other side of the matrix, that allowed me to create a framework in which the secondary literature could be pigeon-holed into a third of the boxes, and then I did primary research to both complete the other two thirds, and to operationalize each element (identify specific collectable data with which to determine the degree of risk, scope, etc.).
Charles Hampden-Turner is in my view one of the great minds of our time, and I point readers to my review of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable so as to meet the second mind that I most admire in my time (there are others, of course, like E. O. Wilson, Alvin Toffler, but see my reviews for the details).
5.0 out of 5 stars Book Cover Cartoon Undermines Really Solid Contents
August 30, 2003
Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
Do not be deceived by the cover of this book, whose cartoon may suggest that this is light reading or comic level stuff. It is not. This book is a professionally-prepared, well-documented catalog of the “platform of lies” that the incumbent (2000-2004) US Administration has pressed upon the public in the course of executing six wars (two public) and two occupations, both of which are going *very* badly, at great expense.
I have to give very high marks to the authors and their employer, the Center for Media & Democracy, for this book represents a “must read” for every voter.
Among the highlights (please note that all references to the US government actually refer to the political administration, which is abusing the good faith and loyalty of the millions of loyal Armed Services members as well as the civil service):
1) Documentation of US government manipulation of images coming out of Iraq
2) Documentation of how US government emphasis on manipulating the truth for the US public has actually left it unable to listen and hear and understand the truth as spoken by the Iraqi and Afghan people.
3) Documentation of the clear and present need to restore the US Information Agency (USIA) as an independent organization with a considerably expanded budget–in the age of information America is losing the mindwar, the culture war, because it is overspending on a heavy metal military and underspending on information power–what Joe Nye calls “soft power.”
4) Documentation of what the author's call America's “astonishing historical amnesia,” assuming they can go into the Middle East without reference to the history of British and US imperialism, including the deposition of the legitimate rulers of Iran and the continuing acceptance of Israeli disrespect for UN resolutions.
5) Documentation of why Charlotte Beers failed America, in two parts:
a) She did not know how to, was incapable of listening to, Arab voices. According to the New York Times, cited by the book, those who spoke to her “came away shaking their heads, saying American officials do not appreciate [their circumstances and views].
b) The product she was selling, the US “brand”, is simply too defective, too unilateralist, too arrogant, too brutal, too harmful to multi-cultural and multi-national interests, to survive in the marketplace of the real world. This is “unsafe at any speed” writ very large, very global, very angry.
6) Documentation of the blatant (and expensive) manner in which the US government manipulated the message to the US public (if CIA had done this they would have been in violation of the law–when Hill & Knowlton does it is called “public relations” even though everything is a complete fabrication and a betrayal of the public trust). The authors excel at one point in contrasting how Washington listens to a handful of talking heads on the Middle East, while ignoring “the 1,400 full time faculty members who specialize in Middle East studies at American Universities.”
7) Documentation of US government plans, under the abusive grip on power of the neo-conservatives, to carry out future “over-whelming, non-surgical, nonproportional military force” actions against the governments of Iran, Libya, Syria, and Sudan, as recommended by Richard Perle and his colleagues.
8) Documentation, over the course of the book, of both specific lies told to the US public and the world by the US government, and of the vast underlying insinuations, not quite the truth, misleading, and generally deceptive statements of all the senior political appointees, and especially Dick Cheney. The authors essentially compare George Bush and his team to Orwellian vision of governments controlling the people through doublespeak, and they label this US government as being intellectual dishonest, through and through.
9) Documentation (continuing from 8) of how this government's manipulation of the truth can be compared with Hitler's. They quote Goering to make this point: “but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in every country.” Sound familiar? Remember Bush (and Clinton) saying that dissent is treason? People, we have a problem here.
There are many other important points documented in this non-fiction work–it is NOT humorous nor should the cover suggest it is told in comic fashion–but I will end with the ultimate point of it all: the author's document, on the pages leading up to page 195, that the US public is hearing and seeing and reading perhaps one tenth (1/10th) of the truth as it is available to European, Asian, Middle Eastern, and other audiences where the media is not under political and corporate control to the extent that exists in the USA. At the end of this book, I was reaffirmed in my view that real patriotism, real national unity, comes from tough love and the full truth, nothing but the truth. Against that criteria, and as documented by the authors of this book, George Bush Junior, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and all of their politically-appointed minions are liars who have betrayed the public trust and deserve to be impeached before or after they are thrown out of office in 2004. This is a non-fiction work of vital importance to the future of the Republic.
4.0 out of 5 stars All About Rights–Very Little About Loyalty or Duties, June 2, 2001
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the most positive side, it is the only, and therefore the best, treatment of the issues of citizenship that I could identify, and that is why I bought it. The range of authoritative essays that have been brought together is very worthy, and anyone contemplating this topic must take this work into account.
On the other hand, as I went through chapter after chapter, what I tended to see was an awful lot of academic whining about how the world is getting too complex and too multi-cultural to be able to pin someone down to just one citizenship, let them have many. Reality check needed here. Governments exist to preserve and protect very specific moral, ideological, and cultural values, and governments are the means by which a Republic finances what are called external diseconomies–those things that are needed for the common good but not profitable for the private sector to do.
There are glimmers here and there of how one might better integrate new immigrants and otherwise promote good citizenship, but overall what this book is missing is a major commitment to thinking about how one draws the line between nationalized citizens truly loyal to their newly chosen nation-state, and those who choose to retain another primary citizenship and simply enjoy the bounty of the land they have chosen to VISIT….
Of all the contributions, the one that stood out for me was by Adrian Favell, on “Integration Policy and Integration Research in Europe: A Review and Critique.” Despite the title, the heart of this chapter concerns the information “sources and methods” that underlie conclusions about citizenship and the policies on citizenship. There is a great deal of meat in this chapter, and it could useful guide the next book in what I hope will become a series.
I like this book. It forced me to think and it certainly opened my eyes to how we are letting a whole bunch of people debate the nature of citizenship without ever really being committed to the idea that an oath of loyalty is fundamental–as universal service should be fundamental, not to flesh out the military, but rather to provide a common foundation for knowing one another intimately, for respecting one another from that common ground. How one defines citizenship is fundamental to the future of every nation–this book both enlightens and frightens.
Shortly after this message that began connecting the dots for a “break-out” to create the inter-agency generic all-source fusion workstation. the MCIC IT budget was hijacked by DIA to test “small DODIIS”, and an Admiral over-turned the JNIDS VI award to MCIC, but kept the malfeasance secret for a year so we could not get CMC to restore the win. On such “administrative” decisions does a Nation turn. It's time (2010) to restore integrity to all that we do, at every level, every day.
Seminal Work, Get It Used, Should Be Reprinted
