Writing From Life
Introduction
Blood,
Sweat & Tears - Spinning Wheel
I’ve been a newshound and a sort of political activist from a very young age.
It would be inaccurate to suggest, until the last 5 years, that I have spent
a great deal of time researching world events and being formally educated on the details
of historical and sociological events. But I’ve always had my eyes and ears
wide open as an objective observer.
I am often reminded of a communications course I attended once where
they demonstrated a point about listening and observing.
The demonstration requires a volunteer from an audience who claims
that, no matter what, they can’t catch a tennis ball when it’s thrown to them. They’ll tell you, no matter what that they
just can’t do it. So, they’re thrown a ball several times, and it
does, in fact, prove they can not catch a ball.
Then, you take another tennis ball with its seams highlighted with a
black felt-tipped marker. And you give the
“catcher” a new instruction: “Don’t
worry about catching the ball, instead, watch and tell us what direction the threads are
turning.”
The next time the ball is thrown to them, they accurately explain the
direction of the spin. But, most importantly,
they almost always catch the ball from then on, and at first, they don’t even realize
it themselves because they’re more concerned with the spin and the direction the ball
is turning.
That’s the same way I view human, sociological and cultural
events. I don’t get caught up in the
rhetoric and semantical discussions unless I’m participating in their deconstruction. Instead, I maintain a personal mental database
that distinguishes earmarks of public
statements, the realities of the debate possible or required in order to reach those conclusions and therefore,
and the cultural impacts they have or are intended to cause. It might be easier to say that keep track of what
is the truth and what is perception, understanding the meaning of the phrase that
“perception is reality”.
Since the beginning of human existence, the effects of the human
instinct to survive, illustrated by the personal and factional manifestations of dominance
and submission and communicated perceptions have generated our lives.
Some may say that looking to the past to see the future would mean
learning the mistakes of the past, and then seeking different ways to implement leadership
strategies in order to accomplish more beneficial results.
It is unfortunate that leadership, and the “tools” required
and used to support it, are like any other tools. They
can be used in an honest, compassionate manner, or they can be used in a way that provides
advantage and perpetuates power and influence. Even
in the case of the latter, it is subjective to conclude whether the perceived result is
beneficial or harmful.
Regardless of accepted perceptions, the actual occurrences and the
observations of “the way the ball
spins” are more significant.
Whether looking at kingdoms and religious influence, banned books and ideologies, the actual results
are the actual results. Objective evaluation of the trends and the results can allow us to
not only learn from the past, but potentially offer clues as to how repetition and
improvement of prior tactics is less desireable than constructing new strategies that do
not rely on modification of older methods, but instead, create a new strategy to break out
of the mobius of former methods that generate predictable results and difficulties.
That is the inquiry I intend to demonstrate in this project. I seek to demonstrate my knowledge and
conclusions, to deepen my factual knowledge, and to examine if those conclusions parallel
perceptions and results of the past.
But, more importantly, to examine whether the compilation and
identification of patterns in historical events can lead to new conclusions that would, in
effect break humanity out of the repetitive history that has lead us to our contemporary
confrontations as people and as nations.
