tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post4093085034338188542..comments2024-03-28T06:07:03.667-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: DOWN MEMORY LANERobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-20501619776659815802021-08-25T14:23:11.734-04:002021-08-25T14:23:11.734-04:00Best Qualified Leads For MCA method has several l...<a href="https://businessleadsworld.com/about-us/" rel="nofollow"> Best Qualified Leads For MCA </a> method has several leading elements needed to modify the MCA Leads Guide to the approaching jobs in the <a href="https://businessleadsworld.com/" rel="nofollow"> Qualified MCA Leads Data.</a>Business Leads Worldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06682586770344781777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-11248436416938870082017-09-15T11:43:13.682-04:002017-09-15T11:43:13.682-04:00Of course, "closed door" talk doesn'...Of course, "closed door" talk doesn't *always* match public talk.<br /><br />LBJ taped a lot of his phone conversations w/ people (as did JFK), but it was Nixon who appears to have taped virtually everything said in the Oval Office, and most (if not all) of those tapes are now publicly accessible.<br /><br />We consequently know, for example, what Nixon and Kissinger were saying privately to each other during the '71 Bangladesh crisis, w Nixon, for instance, referring to Indira Gandhi as a "bitch" and the Indians as "bastards" who needed a "mass famine," and ruminating about using nuclear weapons:<br /><br /><br /> Kissinger: "If the Soviets move against them [the Chinese] and then we don’t do anything, we’ll be finished."<br /><br /> Nixon: "So what do we do if the Soviets move against them? Start lobbing nuclear weapons in, is that what you mean?"<br /><br />See, e.g.:<br />https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/23/unholy-alliances-3 LFCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-64688180870723785712017-09-15T00:34:29.735-04:002017-09-15T00:34:29.735-04:00As I listened to the discussion, I was dismayed to...<i>As I listened to the discussion, I was dismayed to discover that when these big wigs were talking privately to one another, they uttered exactly the same ridiculous ideological hogwash that they put out to the press and public. </i><br /><br />When I was in law school (or otherwise spending time at Penn in various positions)it wasn't unusual for some medium to semi-high level government official to come and give a talk. People would get excited, but I never wanted to go, because I knew from experience that it would just be a PR show. I could find out the same stuff from reading something, and that would take a lot less time. Even questions would not help - they would either be an opportunity for someone to grandstand, or would be met with a sort of brush off. I do still expect that, at some level, there is some "realism" within these organizations, where some deeper level of thought is reached, but given the people I know who have gone into government in various ways, and knowing what _they_ thought of these presentations at the time, I am not surprised that there are a large number of people for whom this sort of stuff really does seem like deep, serious, thought.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01446428606119200980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-20483668776939170452017-09-14T16:47:03.482-04:002017-09-14T16:47:03.482-04:00Professor Wolff:
Note that someone could do a boo...Professor Wolff:<br /><br />Note that someone could do a book-length study on the concept of “closed-door” meetings and the idea of secrecy within various institutions (government, corporate world, academia, scientific laboratories, etc.). Ostensibly, secrecy within organizations is necessary to keep sensitive information out of “enemy hands” or away from those who might carelessly spread it about. Think here of the old dictum: “Loose lips sink ships.” Nine times out of ten, however, secrecy serves the key purpose of maintaining the rigidity between the class and even caste divisions within a given institution – highlighting the differences in employee job distinctions. Indeed, the issue of secrecy often segregates employees to a degree that some may find humiliating. It is in this sense that secrecy can be used to resocialize employees within their respective job positions. Once an individual is granted access to certain secrets it tends to facilitate feelings of privilege, elitism, and power among those with access. Within organizations practicing secrecy, compartmentalization of knowledge consolidates the power of senior members over their subordinates, who are less well-informed. Note that it is of little consequence that forbidden secrets often turn out to be surprisingly mundane and unexciting once they are revealed. The point is that secrecy is a means by which power constitutes itself as power, and the knowledge of secrets is a perquisite of power. Since most secrets are of trifling consequence, it is relatively easy for “big wigs” to manipulate underlings by granting or denying them access to secrecy.<br /><br />-- Jim<br /><br />p.s.: A tip 'o the pen to anthropologist Hugh Gusterson who observed this dynamic while studying the employee culture at the Lawrence Livermore labs. See his book, "Nuclear Rites" (1996).Jimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00826600172627425879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-41083935879554216502017-09-14T15:47:17.691-04:002017-09-14T15:47:17.691-04:00There's a great scene in the Woody Allan movie...There's a great scene in the Woody Allan movie, Broadway Danny Rose. The mafia is after him and want to kill him, so he and Mia Farrow are hurriedly gathering their possessions to flee the mob, but Woody Allan has to make sure that his socks, which are drying on a clothes line, are completely dry. Mia Farrow is screamingly at him to hurry up, but Woody Allan has to check out sock by sock. s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-76239287652240900452017-09-14T15:35:24.629-04:002017-09-14T15:35:24.629-04:00The trick is getting out in time, something I have...The trick is getting out in time, something I have been obsessed with all my life after reading about German and Austrian Jews who hesitated about fleeing, because of their possessions until it was too late.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-38237875951012998952017-09-14T14:34:47.239-04:002017-09-14T14:34:47.239-04:00That behind closed doors the big wigs talk the exa...That behind closed doors the big wigs talk the exact same ideological hogwash as they do to the public and the press is revealing and frightening. Never having talked to big wigs, I had always assumed that they were Machiavellian realists when the press and the public is not around. I remember that as a student opposed to the Viet Nam war in the 60's one recurring discussion among friends was whether Lyndon Johnson really believed what he was saying about the war. I always sustained that he did not, but apparently those who insisted that he did were right.<br /><br />Did you really expect commercial airlines flights to function normally after a nuclear war?s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.com