All that makes a lot of sense I would think.
"Yesmanship" is one of the worst deseases of our societies, and a very common one for that matter. The more you go up within corporations the more obvious the phenomena becomes. It is easy to establish a connection between most collective failures and this sheepish desire not to oppose the dominant line of thoughts.
This is why I refer to most people as sheeple. Too many people want to "please" those around them, even if it means living a lie. Who wants to "cause a fuss," after all, and awaken the drunk driver? Better to just let him be and enjoy the ride.
I hope this example will not be taken for what it is not, but the way the US society handled the war with Irak is the a telling example of this disease, even if it was triggered and supported by organized mass manipulations of unseen scale. There wil be more of the same since I have not seen much individual introspection being made besides the recognition at gov level of some mistakes conveniently swept aside in the transition from one administration to another. Why am I talking about this although I am not a US citizen. This isn't my problem, right? Well nowadays we are global enough that it is my problem also.
Talking about Belgium, my own country, I could deep into the awful example of the Rwanda genocide where most citizens in the country decided not to move a cm to react against the lack of actions of our government when tens of thousands of people were being murdered. It was all too easy to yesman the agreed on attitude which was not to raise the point in daily discussions.
Well, I think it's a little deeper even than that, Bernard. I mean, it all goes back to dependency on oil and human overpopulation, does it not?
I can't speak for Belgium, but if the US would but relieve itself of its dependency on this product (and it could, if it wished), then not only would we stop destroying our world at such an alarming rate, but we would also cut-off the lifeblood servicing our own perceived "enemies." The US has the power to be an autonomous resource unto itself; the Middle-East does not. The Middle East is a desert, with but one viable source of sustenance, while the US (if organized properly) could sustain most if not all of its own needs. Yet we no longer take advantage of our own position. The idea that our country would waste even $1 of its own money "helping" people of other nations ... when our own nation is in such chaos ... is an affront to every single taxpayer whose money has been picked from his pocket to be given to someone else not even living here. It's worse than domestic welfare and such, which at least helps fellow US citizens (who really don't deserve help either).
But, gosh, just start talking about major reform and
making major changes and people start getting their panties all in a wad. (We don't want to upset anyone, right?) I mean, you have so-called evironmentalists, who "say" they want to stop the deforestation of our world, but yet they don't want to address the perpetual global human population growth.
AS IF the forests of the world won't continually shrink as the human population coninually grows. I mean, it's simple math folks: the more and more people that get produced, the more and more room we need to house them, and the more and more resources we need to help sustain them. Thus there will NEVER be
anything but a continual deforestation of our world UNTIL the human population growth stops. It really is that simple. But, shhhhhh, we can't whisper the truth in public places, because the world is full of dull-headed sycophants who don't want to disturb the status-quo by actually confronting and dealing with
the true problem. Oh no. Instead, we'll just buy more "environmentalist" stickers to put on our car, and we'll tell everyone we've "gone green" and other such meaningless nonsense. That way we can "pretend" that we're doing something positive while the majority "approve of our actions." Because that's what's most important, right, approval not reality?
So we'll continue to spend money feeding people who can't feed themselves, and then we'll scratch our heads as to "why" they keep creating more-and-more mouths to feed ... while we pat ourselves on the back for being "caring" people. Oh, and of course since all of these mouths need to get fed and serviced through the use of boats, planes, and other vehicles (all of which depend on oil, because we don't want to make changes in this regard either) ... we'll continue to rape, pilage, and desecrate our planet from still another angle ... and we'll also wonder "why" little countries can hold such sway and power over us.
You want to talk about ignorant? THAT is ignorant (dare I say retarded?). Shhhh, but we can't talk about the truth, because it disturbs the delicate sensibilities of those who don't wish to think too deeply ...
We keep watching these movies full of heroes, yet many of us (I am part of that all too often myself also) struggle to apply the same attitude in our daily lifes. Fear of risk is the main cause and it is often easier to attack/ignore the carrier of a message (France during the war with Irak) instead of considering the idea being proposed.
I agree that
most want to do this. It's too unpleasant to think about the harsh realities of the direction we're headed; it's far more pleasant to photograph a sunset, to play polo, or to enter another boat race ...
Politeness and respect matter because Nomanship required tact and smarts to be efficient. It is so much easier amidst our busy and stressful daily lifes to just let go.
Cheers,
Bernard
Politeness can be good and all, but every now and then you have to shake the tree to get the apples to come down ... and, yes, it is so much easier to go to a gas station, fill-up our tanks, and buy soda and chips for the road ...
Jack
.