Commentary by Roger Erickson
“Misinterpretation and Confusion: What is Mission Command and Can the U.S. Army Make it Work?”
Personally, I think this should be required reading BEFORE any student is allowed to study theoretical economics. So they don't rush off to spend their whole lives precisely analyzing - even CALCULATING! :) - flawed concepts. Nor inflict their out-of-paradigm analyses on whole generations of citizens - not to mention certain Nobel Prize committees.
The essay linked above includes great questions and commentary from an Army whistle blower speaking out about perennial flaws in the DOD approach to staff - and especially officer - development. As you read, you'll recognize that nearly everything the author says about officer training also applies to citizen development.
Ever wonder why, say, operational staff at the Federal Reserve, understand MMT intuitively, and practice it? While, simultaneously, every regional Fed organization is ruled by political appointees who wouldn't know fiat from a gold coin! Most other institutions are even greater slaves to form-over-function than the Pentagon is.
The few, whistle-blowing, rebels like Don Vandergriff are typically drummed out of the military at the Major or Colonel level, being deemed not fit for more politically malleable roles as Generals or Admirals. There's a Dark Art to the politics of control of any bureaucracy, and YOU aren't privy to it ... unless you're born with a silver spoon you-know-where.
Without a prepared, practiced electorate ... how can we ever hope to have an electorate able to select the leaders we need, when we need them?
Since even the Pentagon struggles constantly with this task, we who don't take it near as seriously aren't gonna do even half as well - unless we start working a wee bit harder at cheap prevention of ignorance, rather than just continuing to fall behind on expensive repair of democratic processes.
JIT/JAN - just in time, just as needed? Why does that so rarely apply to politics? Another policy choice? To NOT allow agile democracy? What if we need some again ... someday?
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