Forget Mice & Men, Steinbeck could have written a quite similar novel called, "Of Paradigms and People."
Parts of this sounds good, but then it all goes south. Buddy, can you spare a paradigm?
Gates Slams Congress for 'Managerial Cowardice'
First the good.
"Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday issued a scathing criticism of lawmakers who he claims are willing to cripple the U.S. economically and strategically in the world to retain the votes and financial backing of the ideologues they’ve become beholden to.
“Too many are more concerned with winning elections and scoring ideological points than with saving the country,” he said in remarks at a meeting of the Center for Security and International Studies in Washington."
Gets even better.
“Across the board cuts are the worst possible way to exercise budget discipline,” Gates said. “When Mike and I were working together, my guidance was if we had to cut or find more resources we would never resort to across the board cuts. I referred to it as managerial cowardice, a refusal to make choices and establish priorities,” he said.
...
Gates likened [across the board budget cuts] to a scene in the Mel Brooks Western spoof, “Blazing Saddles.”
“The sheriff holds a gun to his own head and warns the crowd not to make him shoot,” Gates said."
Then it all goes south!
"Gates said if the politicians are serious about getting the country’s spending under control, they have to look at Social Security and Medicare, which constitute a much larger percentage of federal spending than defense."
Does this vaguely remind you of a troupe of ballerinas trying to discuss ballistics? Or quantum physics? Try as they might, there's simply nothing in their training that prepares them to discuss operations outside their prior areas of experience and reading. It's baffling. Even DoD managers can't extend situational awareness past points of propaganda that "every one knows?"
When it comes to situational awareness, what part of transition from a gold-std to a fiat currency standard didn't the Pentagon recognize?
How can military planners dare to try contingency management without at least determining which paradigm they're tasked with working in?
“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”
But what if you don't get 'em fast enough? Or can't handle them? Predator prey cycles feature crashes when the predators can no longer find rabbits. If we run out of our own ideas, or we can't find and explore 'em, we'll crash too. There's a suspicion that a Deficit Terrorist couldn't find a free idea even if it tried to gate-crash what passes for his brain. There's no "snare," there.
What do you call it when a managerial class is prejudiced against any paradigm outside it's class-based ideology? A Dead-Culture-Walking?
Gates Slams Congress for 'Managerial Cowardice'
First the good.
"Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday issued a scathing criticism of lawmakers who he claims are willing to cripple the U.S. economically and strategically in the world to retain the votes and financial backing of the ideologues they’ve become beholden to.
“Too many are more concerned with winning elections and scoring ideological points than with saving the country,” he said in remarks at a meeting of the Center for Security and International Studies in Washington."
Gets even better.
“Across the board cuts are the worst possible way to exercise budget discipline,” Gates said. “When Mike and I were working together, my guidance was if we had to cut or find more resources we would never resort to across the board cuts. I referred to it as managerial cowardice, a refusal to make choices and establish priorities,” he said.
...
Gates likened [across the board budget cuts] to a scene in the Mel Brooks Western spoof, “Blazing Saddles.”
“The sheriff holds a gun to his own head and warns the crowd not to make him shoot,” Gates said."
Then it all goes south!
"Gates said if the politicians are serious about getting the country’s spending under control, they have to look at Social Security and Medicare, which constitute a much larger percentage of federal spending than defense."
Does this vaguely remind you of a troupe of ballerinas trying to discuss ballistics? Or quantum physics? Try as they might, there's simply nothing in their training that prepares them to discuss operations outside their prior areas of experience and reading. It's baffling. Even DoD managers can't extend situational awareness past points of propaganda that "every one knows?"
When it comes to situational awareness, what part of transition from a gold-std to a fiat currency standard didn't the Pentagon recognize?
How can military planners dare to try contingency management without at least determining which paradigm they're tasked with working in?
“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”
But what if you don't get 'em fast enough? Or can't handle them? Predator prey cycles feature crashes when the predators can no longer find rabbits. If we run out of our own ideas, or we can't find and explore 'em, we'll crash too. There's a suspicion that a Deficit Terrorist couldn't find a free idea even if it tried to gate-crash what passes for his brain. There's no "snare," there.
What do you call it when a managerial class is prejudiced against any paradigm outside it's class-based ideology? A Dead-Culture-Walking?
