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News & General Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Baruch on December 12, 2017, 07:07:54 PM

Title: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Baruch on December 12, 2017, 07:07:54 PM
It is not enough to empower. One must empower for a noble purpose. The only noble purpose yet proposed is servant leadership.

The corruption of this is rulers waiting to be served.

And empower all, not just the few. A majority empowered to be servant leaders, nay all … would be a world unrecognizable to us.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Mike Cl on December 12, 2017, 08:26:09 PM
Quote from: Baruch on December 12, 2017, 07:07:54 PM
It is not enough to empower. One must empower for a noble purpose. The only noble purpose yet proposed is servant leadership.

The corruption of this is rulers waiting to be served.

And empower all, not just the few. A majority empowered to be servant leaders, nay all … would be a world unrecognizable to us.
I very much agree with that thought and conclusion.

But where is the corporate profit in that???
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Baruch on December 13, 2017, 06:30:13 AM
Quote from: Mike Cl on December 12, 2017, 08:26:09 PM
I very much agree with that thought and conclusion.

But where is the corporate profit in that???

No politico is a public servant, they are public rulers.  And that is why history sucks.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Mike Cl on December 13, 2017, 08:50:47 AM
Quote from: Baruch on December 13, 2017, 06:30:13 AM
No politico is a public servant, they are public rulers.  And that is why history sucks.
I love it when they pound each other on the back and call each other 'public servants', or label what they do as 'public service'.  Newspeak was alive and well a long time ago.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Cavebear on December 15, 2017, 02:24:56 AM
Quote from: Mike Cl on December 13, 2017, 08:50:47 AM
I love it when they pound each other on the back and call each other 'public servants', or label what they do as 'public service'.  Newspeak was alive and well a long time ago.

Many politicians are dedicated to power and staying in power (as in "You'll only pry my body out of this chair when I'm dead"), but not all are.  Some leave willingly. 
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Baruch on December 15, 2017, 05:31:16 AM
Quote from: Cavebear on December 15, 2017, 02:24:56 AM
Many politicians are dedicated to power and staying in power (as in "You'll only pry my body out of this chair when I'm dead"), but not all are.  Some leave willingly.

Al Franken?  I give him credit for that, though not for being a Democrat.  Not enough R-scum leave office willingly.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Cavebear on December 18, 2017, 06:06:42 AM
Quote from: Baruch on December 15, 2017, 05:31:16 AM
Al Franken?  I give him credit for that, though not for being a Democrat.  Not enough R-scum leave office willingly.

I'm sad to say there ARE differences between Democrats and Republicans. 

When party members ethically or morally fail, Republicans circle the wagons and defend their own to death.  Democrats shun the failures among them.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Baruch on December 18, 2017, 06:40:18 AM
Quote from: Cavebear on December 18, 2017, 06:06:42 AM
I'm sad to say there ARE differences between Democrats and Republicans. 

When party members ethically or morally fail, Republicans circle the wagons and defend their own to death.  Democrats shun the failures among them.

That is because the D party used to be the R party .... aka New England Puritans.  Do they hand out red A's to adulterers in a hypocritical manner? (rhetorical question).  That is why the DNC is having heresy trials ... to purge all the Bernie-bro heretics.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Cavebear on December 18, 2017, 07:47:27 AM
Quote from: Baruch on December 18, 2017, 06:40:18 AM
That is because the D party used to be the R party .... aka New England Puritans.  Do they hand out red A's to adulterers in a hypocritical manner? (rhetorical question).  That is why the DNC is having heresy trials ... to purge all the Bernie-bro heretics.

Please...  You are talking to a Political Science Major with a Minor in American/World History and a lifelong interest in the subject.  I sort of know that stuff. 

I know the Republicans of today are the Southern Democrats of the 1960s until Nixon seduced them.  I know the Democrats of today are the Republicans of yesteryear and the remnants of the Progressive Party of La Follatte. 

I wrote my senior case study comparing the Goldwater takeover of the Republican Party in 1964 to the McGovern takeover of the Democratic Party in 1972, showing how similar they were and how they were doomed to fail.

Don't bother with me there.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Baruch on December 18, 2017, 10:41:58 PM
So which winning Presidential election campaign did you manage, sport?  So much air, so little dirigible.

Progressive Party - yes, that was McGovern and HH ... and later Bernie.  We haven't seen actual Progressives (not the faux SJW kind) since 1992 (when the Clinton Mafia took over).  Republican Progressives went out of fashion with Lindsay leaving the Rs for the Ds in 1971.  Powell Memo?
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Cavebear on December 23, 2017, 05:58:08 AM
Quote from: Baruch on December 18, 2017, 10:41:58 PM
So which winning Presidential election campaign did you manage, sport?  So much air, so little dirigible.

Progressive Party - yes, that was McGovern and HH ... and later Bernie.  We haven't seen actual Progressives (not the faux SJW kind) since 1992 (when the Clinton Mafia took over).  Republican Progressives went out of fashion with Lindsay leaving the Rs for the Ds in 1971.  Powell Memo?

"Zepplin (dirigable)"  balloon coated with iron aluminum oxide (modernly called "solid rocket fuel").

When you use the nonsensical term "Clinton Mafia", I stop listening.  I don't refer to Bush Mafia or even Trump Mafia.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Baruch on December 23, 2017, 07:00:24 AM
Quote from: Cavebear on December 23, 2017, 05:58:08 AM
"Zepplin (dirigable)"  balloon coated with iron aluminum oxide (modernly called "solid rocket fuel").

When you use the nonsensical term "Clinton Mafia", I stop listening.  I don't refer to Bush Mafia or even Trump Mafia.

Clearly you are Dark State.  You don't like illumination, nor reflective materials.  Too easy to shoot you down.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Cavebear on December 23, 2017, 10:17:27 AM
Quote from: Baruch on December 23, 2017, 07:00:24 AM
Clearly you are Dark State.  You don't like illumination, nor reflective materials.  Too easy to shoot you down.

I am the bright side of Government.  The part that makes sure our water is drinkable, food is safely edible, and roads don't have sinkholes.  Etc...
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Baruch on December 23, 2017, 11:26:17 AM
Quote from: Cavebear on December 23, 2017, 10:17:27 AM
I am the bright side of Government.  The part that makes sure our water is drinkable, food is safely edible, and roads don't have sinkholes.  Etc...

Toward the end of your service, you must have been as lonely as the Maytag repairman ;-(  That isn't what people want now, they are feral, not domesticated.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Cavebear on December 23, 2017, 12:48:18 PM
Quote from: Baruch on December 23, 2017, 11:26:17 AM
Toward the end of your service, you must have been as lonely as the Maytag repairman ;-(  That isn't what people want now, they are feral, not domesticated.

I told Management I would be leaving in Feb 2006 in Feb 2005.  I got to choose and trsin my own successor.  I left the last day the only person in the office.  I turned out the lights, locked the door, and drove off into the sunset.  I was eventually replaced with 3 full time employees and they couldn't keep up the program.

I TOLD them it required more people and smarts...  I will die smiling.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Baruch on December 23, 2017, 01:29:41 PM
Quote from: Cavebear on December 23, 2017, 12:48:18 PM
I told Management I would be leaving in Feb 2006 in Feb 2005.  I got to choose and trsin my own successor.  I left the last day the only person in the office.  I turned out the lights, locked the door, and drove off into the sunset.  I was eventually replaced with 3 full time employees and they couldn't keep up the program.

I TOLD them it required more people and smarts...  I will die smiling.

My boss, who is very capable and experienced, is leaving at the end of this coming June.  He picked his date about 7 months out, mostly to please his boss, who he respects.  That boss is leaving shortly before him ;-)  My boss per GS procedure in the military (and true for most people in uniform as well), will have no opportunity to train his replacement.  That is considered an impossible luxury ;-(

He is currently training the most junior person who just joined us last Monday.  People in our organization, learn on the job, often it is a new job for them, they only have approximate background for it.  Think lots of 2Lt types, but in all ranks.  The people who know what they are doing, are the lucky ones, they got trained in their previous job.

I hope to retire sometime in 2018 as well.  There is nobody to replace me .... we are a small unit with most positions one person deep.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Cavebear on December 23, 2017, 01:47:20 PM
Quote from: Baruch on December 23, 2017, 01:29:41 PM
My boss, who is very capable and experienced, is leaving at the end of this coming June.  He picked his date about 7 months out, mostly to please his boss, who he respects.  That boss is leaving shortly before him ;-)  My boss per GS procedure in the military (and true for most people in uniform as well), will have no opportunity to train his replacement.  That is considered an impossible luxury ;-(

He is currently training the most junior person who just joined us last Monday.  People in our organization, learn on the job, often it is a new job for them, they only have approximate background for it.  Think lots of 2Lt types, but in all ranks.  The people who know what they are doing, are the lucky ones, they got trained in their previous job.

I hope to retire sometime in 2018 as well.  There is nobody to replace me .... we are a small unit with most positions one person deep.

Really?  They allow crazed lunatic religious nazis in your office?

Seriously, I understand.  The military assumes rules to follow and that any replacement should be able to follow them.  I know better.  And apparently, so do you.

Sadly, after a decade of being the #1 perso in my office, I was transferred (in a power play) to an office that hadn't the slightest idea what I did (voice telecommunications management).

I could have taken over the Division (the useless occupant was retiring), and I had some good ideas, but  was also eligible for retirement myself and looking forward to it. 

I offerred to stay as a contractor for 2 years, but they declined.  It only cost them twice as much to replace me.

They didn't consider how much of myself I put into the job (and most of it was in my head).

So I might know how you are feeling right now... 
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Baruch on December 23, 2017, 01:55:29 PM
Quote from: Cavebear on December 23, 2017, 01:47:20 PM
Really?  They allow crazed lunatic religious nazis in your office?

Seriously, I understand.  The military assumes rules to follow and that any replacement should be able to follow them.  I know better.  And apparently, so do you.

Sadly, after a decade of being the #1 perso in my office, I was transferred (in a power play) to an office that hadn't the slightest idea what I did (voice telecommunications management).

I could have taken over the Division (the useless occupant was retiring), and I had some good ideas, but  was also eligible for retirement myself and looking forward to it. 

I offerred to stay as a contractor for 2 years, but they declined.  It only cost them twice as much to replace me.

They didn't consider how much of myself I put into the job (and most of it was in my head).

So I might know how you are feeling right now...

I consider military medicine, an important mission that doesn't deserve individual or organizational incompetence.  But the system always gets in the way.  The system would have a coronary, trying to allow alternative arrangements, even if they made sense.  They would be smart to keep me on half-time ... but no smarts in the machine.

They have had power plays occasionally here ... at one point they eliminated a civilian position, while one guy was on reserve duty, to prevent him from coming back.  After a year, they re-established the position.  That guy later came back in a different new position (IT), and that guy hired me.  He loved overcoming the jerks who screwed him (but they were probably rotated out before he was able to come back).
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Cavebear on December 23, 2017, 02:12:45 PM
Quote from: Baruch on December 23, 2017, 01:55:29 PM
I consider military medicine, an important mission that doesn't deserve individual or organizational incompetence.  But the system always gets in the way.  The system would have a coronary, trying to allow alternative arrangements, even if they made sense.  They would be smart to keep me on half-time ... but no smarts in the machine.

They have had power plays occasionally here ... at one point they eliminated a civilian position, while one guy was on reserve duty, to prevent him from coming back.  After a year, they re-established the position.  That guy later came back in a different new position (IT), and that guy hired me.  He loved overcoming the jerks who screwed him (but they were probably rotated out before he was able to come back).

I get that.  My dad was a civilian in DOD.  Never got respect in spite of being co-director with the 1 Star of the Month.  So I went civilian in civilian agencies.  Temp GS-5 and up from there. 
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: JCM800 on December 25, 2017, 01:25:47 AM
Quote from: Cavebear on December 18, 2017, 07:47:27 AM
I know the Republicans of today are the Southern Democrats of the 1960s until Nixon seduced them. 
I thought it was FDR's "New Deal" legislation that made southern dems exit the party? I'm just an uneducated millennial though.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Shiranu on December 25, 2017, 01:50:46 AM
Quote from: JCM800 on December 25, 2017, 01:25:47 AM
I thought it was FDR's "New Deal" legislation that made southern dems exit the party? I'm just an uneducated millennial though.

I know my grandmother's parents were the one's in my family who switched from So. Dem. to Republican, so that would fit about FDR's time.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Baruch on December 25, 2017, 08:33:39 AM
Quote from: JCM800 on December 25, 2017, 01:25:47 AM
I thought it was FDR's "New Deal" legislation that made southern dems exit the party? I'm just an uneducated millennial though.

Yes and no.  FDR liked the South, died there (Warm Springs GA) and enjoyed buying his own moonshine.  Upper class New Yorker slumming.  It was a sequence of disappointments in Democrat policy.  Everything was fine in 1932, in the South (ugh).  The rest of the US was hurting, but the South was still rural, you knew where your food came from.  Big cities not so much.  Then came ...

1. Rural electricfication/TVA
2. More enforcement of anti-moonshine laws
3. Mobilization for WW II, caused race mixing in the South on military bases
4. The military had been integrated during WW I, but fell back into ghetto thinking in the 1920s
5. Many Southerners supported Adolph Hitler, and Hitler lost
6. After WW II, the military was reintegrated as it had been during WW I, but still bigotry was normal even in the military
7. The Eisenhower administration ignored civil rights decisions by the courts
8. The Kennedy administration payed attention to civil rights decisions by the courts
9. The Kennedy administration didn't want to go as far as MLK at all, but saw political advantage and took it
10.  The Kennedy administration applied Federal policing to local segregation issues
11.  The Johnson administration passed the Voting Rights Act that allowed more poor and Blacks to vote, and they did

That was the last straw, old fashioned bigotry died by 1975 ... but it is still there, in hibernation ... bigotry is the natural position of human beings, open mindedness isn't
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Cavebear on December 26, 2017, 05:13:12 AM
Quote from: JCM800 on December 25, 2017, 01:25:47 AM
I thought it was FDR's "New Deal" legislation that made southern dems exit the party? I'm just an uneducated millennial though.

It was Nixon's "Southern Strategy" that started to shift conservative Democrats (aka "Dixiecrats" to the Republican side with a "Law and Order" (and vaguely racist) campaign in 1968. 

Before that (and this may seem odd to you) there were liberal and conservative Republicans and liberal and conservative Democrats.  The liberal Republicans were economically-oriented and the conservative Republicans were economically conservative.  The liberal Democrats were socially liberal and the conservative socially conservative.

Nixon joined the conservatives of both parties together.  That ended the old Republican North and Democratic South of Civil War days, mostly. 

It can get more complicated, but you can go with that.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Jason Harvestdancer on February 03, 2018, 08:34:00 PM
Quote from: JCM800 on December 25, 2017, 01:25:47 AM
I thought it was FDR's "New Deal" legislation that made southern dems exit the party? I'm just an uneducated millennial though.

The Southern Strategy is overblown sour grapes based on the musings of one particular racist, sour grapes that the South is now up for grabs instead of being a solid lock for the Democrats.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Baruch on February 04, 2018, 08:15:08 AM
Quote from: Jason Harvestdancer on February 03, 2018, 08:34:00 PM
The Southern Strategy is overblown sour grapes based on the musings of one particular racist, sour grapes that the South is now up for grabs instead of being a solid lock for the Democrats.

And that happened because of the Kennedy Administration ... doubled down on by the LBJ administration.  Eisenhower ignored the original SCOTUS decision in 1954 on Brown vs Board of Education.  Truman did piss some people off, because he reintegrated the armed forces, which had been Jim Crowed circa 1920.  FDR did little to overturn the Jim Crow laws.  First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt did promote the Tuskegee Airmen.  But then conservatives hated her for a lot of reasons.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Cavebear on February 07, 2018, 02:26:33 AM
Quote from: Baruch on February 04, 2018, 08:15:08 AM
And that happened because of the Kennedy Administration ... doubled down on by the LBJ administration.  Eisenhower ignored the original SCOTUS decision in 1954 on Brown vs Board of Education.  Truman did piss some people off, because he reintegrated the armed forces, which had been Jim Crowed circa 1920.  FDR did little to overturn the Jim Crow laws.  First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt did promote the Tuskegee Airmen.  But then conservatives hated her for a lot of reasons.

No, it was that Nixon (correctly) thought he could get the Southern conservative Democrats (Dixiecrats).  I was there.

That is where the Republicans and Democrats basically switched sides (ideologies).  Which is why, to this day, the Republicans lost the North and gained the South.

And that is why, when Republicans proclaim themselves "the party of Lincoln" today, they are blowing gas out their nether regions...
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Deidre32 on April 06, 2018, 09:53:06 PM
''Empowerment'' tends to be an overused word in our political and social justice culture. Like I should feel ''empowered'' because I'm a woman, and you should hear me roar, and all that.

If you have to tell people that you're empowered, you're most likely not.
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Cavebear on April 07, 2018, 12:29:06 AM
Quote from: Deidre32 on April 06, 2018, 09:53:06 PM
''Empowerment'' tends to be an overused word in our political and social justice culture. Like I should feel ''empowered'' because I'm a woman, and you should hear me roar, and all that.

If you have to tell people that you're empowered, you're most likely not.

I understand that.  If you have to tell people you are or are not something, you may have failed in previous posts.  And in that regard, I have no idea what your general views are.  I don't mean to be insulting, but given a list of atheists and theists here, I wouldn't be sure where to place you. 
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Deidre32 on April 07, 2018, 11:24:02 AM
Quote from: Cavebear on April 07, 2018, 12:29:06 AM
I understand that.  If you have to tell people you are or are not something, you may have failed in previous posts.  And in that regard, I have no idea what your general views are.  I don't mean to be insulting, but given a list of atheists and theists here, I wouldn't be sure where to place you. 

I’m not a theist nor an atheist anymore, I would consider myself spiritual in the sense that I have found positives in different belief systems but don’t adhere to religion. I was once very religious, but I don’t follow religion anymore. It’s been a long path for me these past five years and much of my choice has to do with my grandmother dying three years ago.

I think that many people feel you’re either an atheist or theist, but that’s too rigid in my opinion.

And my political views are that I’m an independent/left leaning. What are your political views?
Title: Re: A thought on empowerment ...
Post by: Cavebear on April 07, 2018, 11:22:11 PM
Quote from: Deidre32 on April 07, 2018, 11:24:02 AM
I’m not a theist nor an atheist anymore, I would consider myself spiritual in the sense that I have found positives in different belief systems but don’t adhere to religion. I was once very religious, but I don’t follow religion anymore. It’s been a long path for me these past five years and much of my choice has to do with my grandmother dying three years ago.

I think that many people feel you’re either an atheist or theist, but that’s too rigid in my opinion.

And my political views are that I’m an independent/left leaning. What are your political views?

Spiritual = theism.  If you think there is "something beyond mortal existence in any way", you are an irrational superstitious theist.