Jan 07
27
Companies and Governments
The spin merchants of government are doing their work. They make sure that there are enough policy balls in the air to keep everyone confused. That way there can be no major wave of unified public opinion…
Global warming: Is it real? Is it caused by people? People are confounded by the questions that they have no way of intelligently answering, and the government can just get on with doing their work… ensuring that they stay in power.
Solving the problems in Iraq: Are the Iranians to blame? How do we give Iraq democracy? Take the focus off the fact that the US is now exporting the worst aspects of its societal problems into Iraq under the guise of democracy: racism, gangs, etc…. and putting its forces in place for a push into Iran.
When you see people like Bush and his cronies talking it is like looking at a CEO of a major corporation talking at an AGM. Their primary goal is to keep the shareholders in the dark while giving them the rhetoric about the great opportunities that are coming soon for the company.
And recently I have started to see companies follow the same sort of weird logic in dealing with their employees as both the Australian and US governments are using with their populations:
One company I know quite well recently (last year) went through a re-org. (It was the 3rd in so many years). The new structure now has the feel of the US government. People at or near the top who do not want anything to be reported to them that is contrary to the way they think. Specific orders given to the middle management that they may not communicate at any time to senior management without going through their direct report. Disobeying this has the threat of being fired.
The concept of “Its my way or the highway” has been around for a long time. But if you run a company (or a country) and are not putting smart people around you who can challenge your belief systems, your rhetoric, your strategies…. you run the risk of doing exactly what Bush is doing to the US and to the world – bankrupting it financially and morally.
And there is one thing that is different nowadays, and becoming more so every day. The ability to communicate rapidly. The ability to make decisions because of the wealth of information that is available. And the honeymoon will only last as long as the scrip that they dole out to the employees is going to yield quick profits for the recipients…
As Bob Dylan said in Talking World War III Blues:
“You can fool some of the people all of the time
and you can fool all of the people some of the time,
but you can't fool all of the people all of the time….
Abraham Lincoln said that.
You can be in my dream if I can be in yours…. and I said that….”