HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOURSELF -- READERS RESPOND: THE PROBLEM OF IDENTITY IN A LOST SOCIETY!

HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOURSELF – READERS RESPOND

THE PROBLEM OF IDENTITY IN A LOST SOCIETY

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© April 8, 2009

FOR ALL READERS:

This commentary precedes a short poignant note of one reader followed by a longer one from another.

What prompted this piece (How Do you Define Yourself?) was a conversation with my daughter on the fifteenth birthday of my grandson, all nearly six-six feet and 230 pounds of him. He is gifted, especially in math and science, but is a bit lazy when it comes to schoolwork. His mother is attentive and I think she will get him through this patch.

She didn’t get the same attention from her father, who was constantly traveling wherever we lived. It was as true in South Africa, as anywhere else. Even with the limited exposure to each other, father and daughter have much the same tenacity and chutzpah. How could that be? My answer is identity. The home is a society unto itself if that home is not lost in the same tsunami as is its greater society.

BB and I rented “Slumdog,” the Indian film about a boy who became a millionaire on India’s television program. The film won an Oscar for the best picture of 2008. People ask me how I liked the film. It made me terribly sad to the point of tears. I suppose I wanted to push from my mind such suffering, neglect, discrimination and cruelty.

The film was not entertainment to me but a documentary of a societal fault line. My faculty dissertation adviser for my Ph.D. was Dr. Kant Nimbark, who was born in India’s caste system, but escaped it by winning an academic scholarship. He would eventually relocate to the United States, and become a professor. I wonder what he might think of this film. I wonder also if all those extras in the film were paid properly, or paid at all.

When I traveled South America and Africa for Nalco Chemical Company in the 1960s, I saw how American companies exploited the land and the indigenous people. It was the major reason I retired so young, not because I was financially independent, as many believe, but because I was spiritually bankrupt, as the novel I am now writing attests. I had lost my religious faith, and belief in man. It doesn’t get much heavier than that. Now, I write books and articles and even blogs that people tell me are too long, too serious and too pessimistic.

When women of Afghanistan and India and other places can have the same rights as women in the United States, when children of Africa and India and several countries across the globe have the same opportunities I have had, a person whose main gifts are tenacity and chutzpah, I will cease and desist.

In my long life, I have been exposed to many people far more gifted. I have watched them throw their lives away. There was that African American young man who prompted me to write that article for The Reader’s Digest (June 1993). He took more pride in making babies he couldn’t support than making use of his intellectual talents. Now, there is my grandson who I think will ultimately be all right because he has the right mother, as I did as well.

Many times I have said this to BB: we live in a broken society, and not to throw a single letter, note, notebook or email (I keep them all!) that I have written because even societies one day will have to grow up. I was forced to grow up as a little boy, and I thank God for it because it is through suffering and human kindness that the plant called “life” grows, and in no other way.

In my most recent book, A LOOK BACK TO SEE AHEAD (2007), I included an editorial article I wrote for the St. Petersburg Evening Independent, an afternoon complement to the morning St. Petersburg Times. This newspapaer died a long time ago, now newspapers are dying everywhere every day.

The title of my piece was “America is Dead! Long live America!” The newspaper gave the article front-page headlines, and printed it on the editorial-opposite page. It was published on January 1, 1976, when we were about to celebrate our 200th birthday as a nation.

A writer friend, who is a far better writer than I am, Charles D. Hayes, once wrote this of THE WORKER, ALONE! (1995):

“This is indeed a book alone, in a category all by itself. In it, Fisher calls for an awakening of America’s workforce as fundamentally profound as Emerson’s SELF-RELIANCE essay was to the nineteenth century.”

A writer, alone, I have no doubt but not because I think it is desirable but necessary. We are not happy campers. We have lost our moral compass and our way. What is worse, the world is following our example.

THE TABOO AGAINST BEING YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND covers the issue of identity. Many readers, far too many for me to answer, might discover themselves in its pages.

ONE CAVEAT:

THE TABOO is not an answer or solution book. It is a problem identifying and exploration book, where the reader can sift through the text and put it in the sub context of his or her life. Building solutions not seeking solutions “whole” somewhere else is the root to all solutions. We cannot seek solutions because in every case we will be disappointed, but we can create solutions, as does the artist. I am not encouraged with the state of art or the product of today’s artists.

This is from the pages of THE TABOO:

“The artist is bent on self-realization through the painful process of creation, not comfort. There has never been a place for the artist in corporate society, so he has always been an outsider. Corporate society holds the bored artisan to its bosom, not the ingenious artist. Ultimately, the corporate insider gravitates to self-defeat through adolescent self-indulgent practices. There is little sense of purpose to what he is doing. He is doing it mainly ‘for the hell of it,’ or to escape monotony.

“Compliance is the key to corporate society. Those who comply with its inanities are given comfort and made complacent. This suspends them in adolescence and insulates them from the pain of reality and therefore the need to grow up or take charge of their lives. Totally dependent, unable to focus on anything real or for very long, they are driven to excitement, danger and the unexpected. Shock is their therapy.

“They are captives to their fears, not driven by either their passions or convictions. They are most with themselves when they are freefalling from airplanes as parachutists, deep diving for fauna several fathoms into the ocean’s cavity, or engaging in the madness of the triathlon.

“This is because corporate executives represent corporate society. Corporate executives wear the blinders of linear logic and miss most salient nuances. Unilinear people gravitate to corporations and then make it their religion.

“Corporate society never understands how working people think, feel and breathe. What is ironic is that once workers of spiritual depth and temperament are promoted into the ranks of the corporate world, they quickly forget their roots and become heretics to their forebears.

“Corporate capitalism lives in relation to an all embracing ideology. There is no room for individualism, but this does not stop individualism from being pontificated as if a dogmatic encyclical for His Holiness, The Pope.

“The executive class and its managers either believe in this American ideology completely, or they are destined to be excommunicated, posthaste. Evidence of this captivity is free floating anxiety and lack of identity.

“In the 19th century America, given a similar sense of captivity, the concern would have been expressed in terms of losing one’s immortal soul, an expression of individualism. When Americans were individual entrepreneurs, when the home was one’s castle, when there existed ethnic and neighborhood pride, when people were poor but didn’t know it, when religion was a private affair, and one’s personal life was sacred, individuals shared a baroque spirit in their hearts and gave much room to multifaceted eccentricity.

“Now, all of that is gone, replaced by corporate society. In a word, America is brainwashed. Americans do not appear to know what they are running from or toward. Alas, there are no more artists, only computer programmers.” (pp 325 – 327)

RESPONSE OF READER NUMBER ONE TO – HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOURSELF?

Ah yes, but have we dealt with the societal factors, which tend to affect our decisions, those over which we have little or no control? I guess that IS the cage.

All the best.

B

* * *

RESPONSE OF READER NUMBER TWO TO THIS SAME MISSIVE:

Jim,

I really enjoyed your message today. I have been interviewing for full-time jobs for the past year and I am often asked to "describe myself" or "tell people about myself" or I am advised by colleagues to "brand myself". I must say that I am learning a lot about myself in these interviews and in my preparation for interviews.

However, I feel like I am type casting myself or "putting myself in a cage" as you say. I have had a broad range of experience and interests in manufacturing, supply chain operations, continuous improvement, and quality over the last 20+ years. I have not found the right job yet apparently since I have not landed. I have interviewed with six companies face-to-face and several more in phone screens.

I am practicing interviewing and I am working on selling myself and portraying an image of relaxed confidence in my interviews, but it has not paid off thus far. I should re-read your book Confident Selling! Yet I am earning decent money working on my own as an Industrial Engineering consultant and a contract engineer so I cannot complain too much. I enjoy consulting but it is so uncertain with cash flow; it runs hot and cold as you know.

A good piece of advice I got from a person that I respected was to "own who you are". I felt like I was trying to force-fit myself into some positions, such as Operations Director, which I had not done in ten years. I would get interviews but then it seemed like I had to really convince them that I could do the job because the hiring manager seemed skeptical. Not a strong place to stand.

So now I am going with my strengths, which are my analytical abilities, cost reduction experience, creative problem solving, project management and cross-functional team leadership skills. I am also using a lot of the things I learned with AQP - it is all about people, OD works! I will see where it leads me.

Best regards,

J

* * *

DR. FISHER’S FINAL COMMENT:

The first comment is from a retired educator and university creator, and the wisest man I know, the second is from an engineer still trying to eke out a living in these difficult times.

FIRST READER

To my wise friend I say we have forgotten that “we” are society, and no society exists apart from us. We have allowed this mess to be created tectonically, and now must turn it back into dust and resurrect a new Phoenix.

To his second point, and the reason for this long essay preceding his remarks is that corporate society is, indeed, the cage. It has become stultifying and suffocatingly so.

I think the demise of the auto industry is symptomatic of the “corporate cage.” This was illustrated in the GM incident alluded to in WORK WITHOUT MANAGERS (1990). A GM supervisor attempted to hammer a left panel into place on the right side because the proper piece wasn’t available.

We are attempting to force fit post modernity into corporate society in the same manner.

We have moved beyond corporate society but there is not a single book that creates an alternative. I am not talking about Band Aids and cosmetic interventions, or solution formulae, which imply corporate society is with us forever more – we have plenty of those – I am talking about a radically new organizational structure and a radically different mindset and problem solving approach to our problems.

This is something I write about in NEAR JOURNEY’S END? CAN THE PLANET EARTH SURVIVE SELF-INDULGENT MAN? I couldn’t find a publisher, as my BB says, I like being noncommercial. She may have a point. She also says I am afraid of being discovered.

The question is not whether America will grow up, and a more suitable system will evolve. The question is will America have enough left in its tank when it does.

Capitalism promised never to have scarcity by the movement of the invisible hand of the marketplace. Marxism promised that all would be right once workers controlled and equitably distributed the means of production. Both systems have failed. Hybrids are being tempered with across the globe with marginal success. Meanwhile, corporate America moves increasingly towards socialism while bragging about its capitalism. It is a tragic comedy worthy of Shakespeare.

* * *

SECOND READER

You are a very bright and innovative man, a man who tries to fit into a society in which he has moved well beyond, but a man who is not comfortable being an outsider. Have I got that about right?

Have you ever thought of starting your own company from scratch, using your ingenuity and moxie in ways that your attributes are value added to others?

From your correspondents you seem not in sync with the job market. That is not surprising. The job market is schizophrenic.

As I have written elsewhere, most of the questions interviewers ask are inane or of little consequence because this is the most dominant formula to hiring:

(1) Am I comfortable with this person?
(2) Can I see my people working with him?
(3) Will his talents fit with what we are now doing, or will he be disruptive?
(4) Is he technically qualified?

Often, interviewers “think” the last is first but it never is. It is not the questions asked or the answers given but how “you” are perceived that makes the difference.

It is a sales call, and I go into great detail in CREATIVE SELLING with this, along with CONFIDENT THINKING, which provides rationale for the very discussion that you provided here. These books are at a publisher’s now.

When you keep running into the same wall, it is a great opportunity to learn about the wonderful person that you are, and to realize that that wall is not going to disappear because you didn’t construct it nor can you tear it down.

You can use it to get a new appreciation of yourself, a better understanding of the scheme of things, and an opportunity to put that fine brain of yours to work – I suggest starting your own company – in ways that are self-fulfilling and fun. I have no solutions. I am just in the defining problem business. People such as you are far better at the solution part. In that quest, as you know, I wish you well,

Be always well,

Jim