reply to post by Illusionsaregrander
Human kind has amazing potential. And like Chomsky, I see victory. We are not worse off that 200 years ago. We ARE moving forward, becoming more
humane, caring more, becoming more cooperative. The evil geniuses that others see I dont see. I see the most fearful of all humans, who hoard, and
wheel and deal, not out of evil or genius, but deep fear that there will not be enough for them if they dont. And who sell their fearful agendas to
the rest of us, (who often dont see them as they truly are) and we all spin and dance to this fear based tune.
I really do love and admire your attitude. It is always a wonderful thing when someone sees the positive potential.
I don't know if I was lucky or cursed but about the time I was 6 years old something fairly unusual took place in my formation. While the other kids
were fighting over the swings, and trying to hop on the merry go round at the park, I thought the most fascinating thing in the world was to sit under
the pavillion talking to the old men. This was back in the early seventies, they didn't call the Swat Team then when they saw a small child talking
to a group of older people.
They were all members of what American History likes to refer to as our greatest generation and oh I just could not get enough of their stories. Some
of them were die hard capitalists, some of them were avid communists, some had been executives, some had been laborers, some were religious of various
denominations and some were agnostic while other's athiest. Of course they all loved to passionately argue their causes in gentlemanly ways, and when
they discovered I was actually absorbing and comprehending every thing they were talking about, who better to referee and judge a winner than the
person who had no vested interest.
They switched from debating strictly amongst themselves for jovial sport, to trying to impress upon me everything they knew and could share.
Despite their vast differences in political and religious and social idealogies they all loved the United States of America, the Constitution and
while none would concede there weren't better ideas to be had or found, that our way of government was certainly the one working best year after
year.
Most of them had fought in at least World War II and some of them World War I and II. the only ones who didn't worked in vital defense areas and
weren't allowed to fight.
They all shared another thing in common besides their love of America, and the Constitution, and that was their fear for it's future. They had
already spied and spotted disturbing trends, and seen the machinations of big corporations, and propoganda and the constant inroads into our liberties
and democracy they were making. They had all read 1984 and they were all afraid it would happen some day.
They explained to me about the powers that be, how the world really worked, that what I would be taught in books and at school were all watered down
versions of the truth, but more often than not out right bold faced lies.
They did a good job, too good of a job, by the time I was reaching my teens, it wasn't possible for me to be brainwashed in school, I knew too much,
I questioned too much, I attempted to correct too much.
Imagine my chagrin where my studiousness was not rewarded but condemned and I was declared incorrigible and made a ward of the state.
Of course I had already read and learned all about that system and process too, so the state even in a completely controlled environment just
couldn't get a handle on my independent ways. I made it just too humiliating and costly for them, and I imagine I made it look all too easy in the
process. It wasn't, but hey, when you are falling off a cliff you had better try learning to fly!
They threw everything including the kitchen sink at me, to therapy, incarceration, a CIA tutor, physical torture, deprivation, and I just kept holding
my ground, never yielding and making every attempt as coslty and frustrating as I could for them.
They became the Germans of 1916 way before I turned 16 and said, hey if you want to walk away, don't hold us to your right and our obligation to
school you until you are 16, no harm, no foul.
It was a victory, it was a defeat. The victory is I had held my ground and refused to accept nonsense or be cowed into submission, the loss was I
would never have an education pedigree to rise to any true prominence inside the system.
It was a heck of a gamble, I wasn't not just thinking outside the box, I was living outside of it, and not even allowed in it!
Have I championed some worthwhile causes in my day to help people. I sure have, but more often than not, when the deciding moment would come, that
would determine victory or defeat, the people I was trying to save, were usually off getting their beauty sleep, or standing in some line, to do the
thing, for the people, they hated to do, and wanted to rebel against, while I was facing down the opposing hordes and all their weight alone. No
problem, I could even win most of those, just one little problem, I wasn't trying to win it for me, I was trying to win it for the people who claimed
they wanted it.
As time went on I learned to focus helping individuals, not causes, or movements, and that I could do a lot more good that way, and have a lot more
positive impact that way.
I kept growing, and learning, and seeking out mentors, who could teach me more about outside of the box life and times, and why people so loved the
box.
By the time I was in my early twenties I had been around the globe a few times, learned all kinds of amazing things, often right from the source, and
by the time I was in my mid twenties I stumbled across the real powers that be in my work.
I was in travel, and I knew geography and cultures inside out, and I knew the best places to be if you were really somebody, and I knew the best
places to be if you were really nobody, and where you would be comfortable if you were somewhere in between.
I had no idea that my place of work was situated smack dab in the center of the enterprises, businesses and clubs of some of the most powerful and
influential people in the world, but it didn't take them long to find out someone who actually had a clue was available who could really comprehend
the level of service, style, access and sometimes secrecy they required in their travels.
When they realized I was actually able to guess accurately almost 100% of the time, why this one or that one would really want to travel to that
destination at that point in time, it really blew them away. I actually understood what they would be after and hoping to gain, and it really
fascinated them that a young man with no real education, but impeccable manners, and good presentation could almost magically know so much.
A lot of them would openly lament that they didn't teach the kinds of perspectives and deductive reasoning I had acquired on my own at Harvard and
Yale.
They became just like the old men under the pavillon themselves, now trying to explain their perspective for my approval.
I didn't but hey, when you are in business, and they can make your phone ring from calls coming from the halls of Congress, the White House, the
Mayor and the Governors Office, and some of the most prestigeous frims in the world, and you pick it up and the person on the other line says the
Powers that Be told me I should call you to get and do this, why look a gift horse in the mouth?
I try to get along with everyone, I try not to judge anyone, I see some merrit in everyone's side, at the end of the day I try to find the most
merrit in the mirror. I adjust accordingly based on what I see.
Those old men when I was a kid were right. What a kicker huh?