Saturday, April 23, 2016

Progressive


If we don't learn from the past we are doomed to repeat its worst mistakes . Until Niall ferguson arrived on the scene of big Ideas ABC last week my generation largely dismissed the idea that we were going to learn much from history . progressives have had their blinkers on and whether they like it not their faith system is quite foolishly simple and inadequate

Progressives amongst us treat us like dinosaurs if we talk of what worked , The assumption is that the future is in innovation (confusing some science with all science) "drop the old  dinosaurs"chatter often mean you ditch the foundations of the future
Such simpletons  fail to recognise that some of our most successful businesses copy others ( Dick Smiths ) AND that much economic and spiritual life is enjoying what works long term ( We will benefit before thinking change when we know why the old stuff works)

The worship of change as the savior is losing its shine as the formative ABC show Utopia shows so well.
The worship of change as the savior is losing its power  because participants , when they are not laughing , are noting that its not working and switching off

No generation has seen the huge number and terror of tyrants who really believe and promote the above "drop the unfit dinosaurs") find that their simple faith doesn't work ( Hitler Ammin , Pol Pot , Stalin etc )  Many who drop the past so quickly do it in faith - a faith that has lots of popular appeal , but doesn't work.

First SHAKESPEARE
I will let others tell the story, Having rejected the idea of the divine comedy we have no comedy
https://radio.abc.net.au/search?service_guid=RN-bay-20160423-7347170

Then CHESTERTON   "Progress is obviously the antithesis of independent thinking ....everyman starts at the beginning , and goes , in all probability , just as far as his father before him , But if there really be anything of the nature of progress , it must mean , above all things, the careful study and assumptions of the whole of the past. "    Heretics

more recently ELLUL and WHITEHEAD
From a blog entry of mine
J Ellul implies - worship of technique will subsume our ability 2 build on de old , A recipe for throwing away what might have been quite satisfactory

Monday, March 28, 2016

Innovation

If I as an innovator hear another shallow Ad from Malcolm's  name only solutions bureau I will throw up . No one needs more  paper ply to survive than a politician whose popular for the wrong reason - who looks good , sounds good when really things are not good ; when the rich rip off the poor and pretend to care.
When all you can do is name a problem ( who can't ) - Malcolm T and Donald T are populat  because they focus on it .
When your cut on the truth is as shallow as the public birdbath . When you are as rich as hell but not prepared to share. "you make me fell good about myself  is always the most popular way to go in such circumstances.
When you use all the right words for the day but forget about the lessons traditional meaning and its context in the full year lectionary.  When you live away from the real world and pretend to know it
The real drivers of productivity are in the german genius ( see the book )- respecting everyone's role and rewarding the most productive .
Malcolm Turnbull's policy is much more simple ;ripping off the innovative and respecting those who retail and get high margins for taking what's not theirs and reselling it .

My family are great innovators , but that means they back their own ideas with the little money they have .  They only ever develop and remain innovators if they know there stuff and get it right --over decades. They would join the huge class of hangers on if they , like most , failed to really know how the thing works - to be successful their own way . See my book  "The Australian Genius".    ( About the miner in us) To teach that a job done well is a job done successfully is the key . They don't even teach that in schools these days -- just get high marks like Tumbull gets high margins.

The media ,by contrast,  as representative of the majority who only think they know how the thing works, are agreed - we will tell you how to succeed . ie make a profit a big profit . Like mixing oil with water.
The world is not a monopoly of monoculture of business who know how to get a decent margin year or fie  but a living diversity of symbiotic parts. Heaven too is not everon e doing the same thing and discussing the price of their shares .
Turnbull policies are killing off innovators and he doesn't even know it - let alone why. Success is not indicated by the size of your bank balance but your efforts on the ground
Such is the paradox that real innovators always succeed - its just that they don't get paid in the same way as dummies do.
Blokes like Malcolm Turnbull have got rich , not so much by backing innovators but by asset stripping innovative institutions that build on the hard work of innovators . Its parasites like that who prevent people taking risks because,  in the end,  it only takes a bit of capital the innovator never has to leverage him/her out of his key role in industry .As for taxes!!!
With Malcolm's friends advocating their high margin driven policy of "how to get rich "they forget we can't all get rich that way ; the way of trumping  the real innovators .
For all there bluster we can only hope that they aren't all  Australian versions of  Donald TRUMP . How terrifyingly simple.
The greatest evil is done in the name of the best invention intention.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Bullying

Yes it's a big problem . .
My problem is that no one can expect a new class program to reverse the growth in non coping with anger and assertiveness.
It's a world view problem that will only be better resolved by recognising we have somehow told ourselves,  as a post Christian culture, that  it is right to put the individual ( not the parent or teacher) in charge ..That such rampant individulaism actually works ( those watching our own cultural demose can see it) ..
We must find a way to give authority back to both parties before mere word stating reactions like "this is now a problem " will make a difference .
We now call anger a sin when for thousands of years we were told and trained to call it a risk ; the classical post modern crap of letting correlation be seen as  causation , We weren't taught to sit on it like we are now ; were taught to deal with it .We weren't tutored in the desperate art of denial ( somehow adrenalin is not mentioned) but in the realistic art of expressing yourself . Minister Cash wants men to not be angry and just show respect ( Today ) This is foolish unnatural unworkable blind religious talk  of a new kind
 Calling it a sin means we are tempted  to deny it in ourselves( a simple reality) and then  say the outward expression of it in others is "deeply wrong" . Jesus the master spoke to the inside , most moderns are hopelessly lost trying to read from the outside.
Our post Christian culture has no effective way of dealing with this projection guilt and denial; A program to" fix it " must involve radical surgery of ideas not the patches governments and reactionary medicine men will apply .
Denying that the old way is now wrong is denying history and experience . Denial leads to fanaticism and there is plenty of that in program ideas for schools at the moment. Watch it grow and fester as evidence of the denial it is.

Any wise parent with more than one child learns to deal with bullying before the kids go to school , So why would anyone expect a mere " education program ' at school to really resolve these things?.
I fully accept that school can be the place where modelling how to cope with bullying can occur ( mainly through individual modelling and personal coping strategies )but  only those who have never left school think you can deal with it easily in class .
Attitude standards is a very sensitive issue and hard work driving many teachers away from jobs they once loved - you can also be expected end up ALONE if you try to teach values carelessly making kids feel guilt and shame ; Whatever good you do there is more of the same behind the sheltershed.

It's also wrong to categorize all perceived "bullying "  as wrong .Calling a spade a spade is calling a real sin a real sin and not getting diverted-( precision helps )- that of course was the old way which is the only way it works .( precision a prerequisites= )
Now - people are confused--- is it natural to lie or be aggressive
Yet years ago , telling a lie shouldn't mean you are called a liar - thats the law of lible .To call someone a liar is an offence under the eight commandment.   Getting angry with your partner wasn't considered wrong and now that  it is it means the path to resolution is NOW closed in some households .
The proper dealing of these complex matters is an urgent matter YES

Some people see bullying as assertiveness but we all need to learn assertiveness and whether you want to see it or not , we can learn it in the context of a situation of anger and mostly do.
.What we perceive as someone else's problem may become our problem if we don't see our part in resisting the call .Maybe parent training would help more , but not back door and "out the door with anger" policy .

Advocates of the proposed program in schools think they can run assertiveness training in schools .They are focused on a few things they know and not the full picture which "who knows who really knows" . I don't know many teachers who could do it and parents MUST have a say in the contents as they would have had in methods classes before school. As Neiman might say , its bringing uncertainty into the curriculum which it should not bear to achieve  the great status Fairfax gave it . Keep teachers comfortable in the job by keeping it simple . The ideologues will cause even more  early retirement .
 Integration as a means to effectiveness
Clearly both mentorship and modeling go together with insight on this . I simply don't accept secular schools should teach values unless they get parents approval to run those sorts of classes. As every one knows the system meddles with disintegrated concepts of  "confidence , assertiveness and resilience " and in a fractured and incomplete way that sends thinking parents off to Private schools  where subjects are subject to less pedantry .Humpty dumpty reactionary experimentation( non curriculum or temporary) instead of consistent competency ( known and accepted curriculum)  Training not playing . Pedagogy not pedantry,