The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
I’ve been watching three areas the past few months: 01 Afghanistan and the non-existent exit strategy 02 NSA and the implosion of accountability in the US IC 03 Veteran suicides, active duty sexual assaults, and “the German disease” From where I sit, the senior leadership across the national security community and deep into every corner …
Continue reading “Reflections on Insanity & Integrity + Reflections RECAP”
The U.S. Army continues to be one of the most thoughtful of the services. Below is a superb list of responsibilities associated with the protection of civilians. Where the list goes wrong is in assuming that the military will have a major responsibility across all these elements. In fact US thinking continues to be severely …
I have been reflecting on the past twenty years, and the remarkable resistence of the US Intelligence Community, seemingly impervious to all manner of reform recommendations, be they presidential, congressional, or public. Reform is not transformation. This from Dr. Russell Ackoff, a pioneer in systems thinking and reflexive practice: Reformations and transformations are not the …
Coherent, the Force is…. Restrictive Control and Information Pathologies in Organizations Wolfgang Scholl* Humboldt-University, Berlin Although the relation of power to knowledge is an often discussed theme, a psychological and sociological scrutiny of the issue is lacking. A new conceptual and theoretical approach to this issue is presented here that distingushes between restrictive and promotive …
Power corrupts, no doubt about it. What most people miss is that it is not just about financial corruption that explicitly mis-directs scarce resources to benefit the few over the many (with Congress taking its standard 5% kick-back for delivering earmarks). Power also corrupts intellect. People forget how to think. They begin talking among themselves, …
Continue reading “Reflections on the Inability of Washington to Think with Integrity”
EDIT of 21 January 2013: I have gotten both sharp criticism from folks I revere, and complements. I am more than willing to delete this, but I am more interested in having people think outside the lines. I’ve made some revisions, adding issues and readings in each section. Email me as you please, robert.david.steele.vivas [at] …
Joseph Stiglitz, an economist I admire and would trust as one of several advisers has written a provocative essay, “The Post-Crisis Crisis” (Project Syndicate, 9 January 2013). Here is his opening: NEW YORK – In the shadow of the euro crisis and America’s fiscal cliff, it is easy to ignore the global economy’s long-term problems. …
