CELEBRATION OF A CAREER CHANGING SPEECH & WHY

THE SPEECH:

THE TWENTY-FIFTH (25TH) ANNIVERSARY OF DR. JAMES R. FISHER, JR.’S

CAREER CHANGING SPEECH

1984 DCAS FORUM

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 1984

CARIBBEAN GULF RESORT

CLEARWATER BEACH, FLORIDA 33515

SUBJECT: "PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT - AN ADVERSARY POINT OF VIEW"

BY

DR. JAMES R. FISHER, JR., Ph.D.

MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PSYCHOLOGIST
HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT
HONEYWELL AVIONICS SYSTEMS GROUP

CLEARWATER, FLORIDA 33546

©
March 1984 Dr. James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

(No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author.)

© Dr. James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
March 30, 2009

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“Moral courage is a virtue of higher cast and nobler origin than physical. It springs from a consciousness of virtue, and renders a man in the pursuit or defense of right, superior to the fear of reproach, opposition, or contempt.”
Samuel G. Goodrich (1793 – 1860), American author

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“Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil; but its duty, like that of other passions, is not to overbear reason, but to assist it. It should not be suffered to tyrannize in the imagination, to raise phantoms of horror, or to beset life with supernumerary distresses.”

Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784), English author and lexicographer

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REFERENCE: WHEN, WHAT & WHY

Today, March 30, 2009, is the twenty-fifth anniversary of a speech I gave on October 30, 1984. It was a career and personal changing event, but why do I make reference to it now?

I am no great orator, or “great” in any sense, but an ordinary man who witnessed a trend, a pattern and an inclination of a nation that made no sense to me. The speech registered my concern before civilian and military executives in the military industrial complex at a Florida resort.

Looking back now, it was like a motion picture in my head because it was “Star Wars,” not the film, but life as it was being lived at the time, surreal and tragic and comic.

The seeds of our troubles today were sprouting weeds then, and yet far wiser men than I said nothing, did nothing, but went along and got along as if the fantasy would last forever.

This speech was published on this blog (www.fisherofideas.com) in four parts on these dates: March 12, 13, 14, 15, 2009.

The great privilege of my long life has not been that I feel no fear, but that I have come to treat fear as a companion and to embrace it, as my lights would allow. It was fear not courage that drove me to make that speech. Had I not made it fear would have haunted me as having betrayed it, and therefore myself. Fear has allowed me to set no man, no institution, no government, no counsel, no individual above what life, living, experience and being has taught me, and continues to teach me. I am not a rich man but richest man I know for this gift of fear. I shall take it to my end of days.

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© March 30, 2009