The Peripatetic Philosopher shares a project in process:

SEARCH FOR A COVER

WORK WITHOUT WORKERS

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

© November 14, 2017

Cover Designer Writes:


I'm toying with a few concepts. If work is to be carried out entirely without workers, that's magic, right? Sorcery might be a better description.


Q. How to depict sorcery in the context of the workplace? Which workplace?


Dr. Fisher responds:

I don’t believe the confluence of my books suggests sorcery, but rather the collapse of confidence in the productivity of man, given man’s increasing irrelevance in the scheme of things.

There is a consistent theme to my books -- and articles -- over the past forty years. I shared this recently with Henry.

Individualism and the power of personality, and the insights and intuitive wisdom of that dominate centrist orientation, has enabled the person of such characteristics to get out of his self-consciousness and truly observe, perceive and understand others as they are.

When Prentice-Hall, the publisher of my first book CONFIDENT SELLING (1971) asked me if I could explain my book in one paragraph, I replied, "I can explain it in one sentence: If you have the ability to accept yourself as you are, you will be able to accept others as you find them, which gives you an amazing advantage because bias does not get in your way."

Back to Henry (who had written earlier purpose of the efficacy of purpose), I explained that some two centuries ago, when absolutes of science as well as religion were challenged, sincerity, itself, became a virtue and authenticity backed up sincerity with commitment. It was a time when Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, with no formal education, but with the grit of will and determinism won the "Battle of New Orleans" (1815) against the British against enormous odds, and then went on to be President of the United States (1829-1837) taking on Eastern Establishment to move power to the people, establishing what would come to be called "The Age of Jackson."

Jackson, for a time (he died in 1845), gave voice to sincerity, authenticity, and identity moving power to the Executive Branch over the Legislative and Judicial Branches, but also to the common people, working men and women in the heartland of the country.

Now, Jackson or the history of the past 200 years is not my theme, but I can see how sincerity, authenticity and identity have been fundamental to my life's work and now my writing. As that writing attempts to show, I came to see the power of tolerance manifested in accepting oneself and others, and how that has eroded in my lifetime, a retreat that is quickening as the mania is driver-less cars, people-less factories and clerk-less department stores and waitress-less eating establishment, and beyond.

With retreating roles for people as workers, we have seen a rise in anxiety and psychosis; a rise in murder and suicide; a rise in depersonalized violence; a rise in ubiquitous apathy; and a rise in violent polarity and confrontation among neighbors.

The mania is to replace the human will and mind with Artificial Intelligence, not because it is good or necessary or desirable, but because man in his hubris sees that it can be done, forgetting AI and all these brainless schemes follow the prescience of Frederick Perls, "In and Out of the Garbage Pail" (1969), who obviously had no idea what it would be like in 50 years. Well, we are here! And this is how it is.

Briefly, my books are of hedgehog consistency, or the idea of "one big thing," that is, man's consciousness and his selective choices (endeavors) is key to his survival or destruction.

(1) CONFIDENT SELLING (1971) was about buyer and seller as partners, not adversaries, and that the seller's greatest obstacle was himself, not the buyer; overcome that and meaningful relations were not only possible, but inevitable.

(2) WORK WITHOUT MANAGERS (1991) was about the schizophrenia of corporate management with several divisions in search of a company while the collar of workers were drastically changing from blue to white, but management was driving these enlightened workers into greater dependency.

(3) CONFIDENT SELLING FOR THE 90s (1992) elaborated on the "Confident Selling" theme as a counseling and consulting tool.

(4) THE WORKER, ALONE! (1995) addressed the passive professional worker on why conflict was inevitable and managed conflict was the key to his performance and satisfaction. It illustrated for the first time Isaiah Berlin's negative and positive freedom. With negative freedom, the professional had more latitude and control of his destiny because he was essentially in charge without constraints or restrictions, while positive freedom was less risk apparent but at the sacrifice of many of the freedoms of negative freedom for security, predictability, comfort and less anxiety.

(5) THE TABOO AGAINST BEING YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND (1996) addressed the mania to have a friend, to belong, and to be part of the herd, while failing to be a friend to oneself, or to have any since of belonging other than in connection with others. Choice became a frenzied attempt to save others from themselves while having no time to save oneself from one's own challenges. The book attacked the idea that it was good to carry others pointing out that it only weakened them and their resolve, and when they failed, and failed they would, who would they blame? Obviously, not themselves. Companies bought into the idea of carrying people with entitlements and benefits not associated with productivity, until economics proved this an impossibility. A frantic turn from people to robotics and depersonalized approaches to management followed.

(6) SIX SILENT KILLERS (1998) emphasized the passive behaviors that had become endemic to professionals who were intent on avoiding conflict and distress while behaving as inconspicuous social termites destroying the workplace from within their devastating passive behaviors only to be discovered when too late for damage control.

(7) CORPORATE SIN (2003) looked at the growing division between doers (workers) and managers (watchers) since WWII with several developmental factors being ignored. Workers as doers were now predominantly college trained often with superior acumen and skills to their watchers, yet the pay differential was escalating to impossible delta, bringing management guru Peter Drucker to register his disappointment. An unanticipated but totally understandable persona characterized the complex organization across the United States if not the Western World as well: leaderless leaders and dissonant workers. Once again, those in charge, who were most comfortable managing things, and not motivating people, turned to technology with increased emphasis on computers, software, intelligent designs, and robotics.

(8) IN THE SHADOW OF THE COURTHOUSE (2003) was a memoir as a novel on what it was like to grow up as a preteen in the middle of America in the Middle of the Century in the Middle of a Community of 33,000 in the time of World War Two. Evidence of the hedgehog in my personality was already apparent.

(9) A LOOK BACK TO SEE AHEAD (2007) attempted to put the trends in perspective of work, workers and the workplace with a blueprint for a possible escape from the entrenchment, along with the emerging "Feminine Paradigm" that was increasingly illustrated that intuitive and conceptual approaches to the problem solving with creative thinking was a possible complement to cognitive and concrete approaches.

(10) TEN CREATIVE STAGES TO CONFIDENT THINKING (2014) was a systematic attempt to put the reader in the driver seat thinking creatively rather than critically, as we have moved beyond critical thinking that is limited to what we already know, and has become a circular argument that drives the problem solver deeper into the hole of frustration without resolution. Creative thinking is designed to embrace what is not known but can be found out. The book values especially written by Edward de Bono.

(11) Alas (10) that was a first edition, and the nine other books were second editions including all those listed here. These books were heavily edited and expanded along with extensive illustrations and more comprehensive BUT THEY ARE NO LONGER IN PRINT as the publisher TATE PUBLISHING COMPANY has gone belly up. Many are still available on Amazon.com while some have gargantuan prices well beyond reason.

Five years (2012 - 2017) were devoted to this project but to no avail. It is the nature of a hedgehog who has no support system. Not to be dissuaded, three new books came out in paperback in 2017 with amazon's KINDLE LIBRARY:

THE VELVET GLOVE & IRON FIST (2017), a book that emphasizes the Feminine Paradigm (Velvet Glove) and the anachronistic Masculine Paradigm (Iron Fist). I took a gigantic risk naming the book as such as it has not sold well, but I would do it again because it is consistent with my hedgehog's confluence.

CONFLUENCE IN SUBTEXT (2017) got inside the hedgehog's confluence to reveal why the subtext and not the content and context that is the focus of our current attention is more relevant and consequential.

A WAY OF THINKING ABOUT THINGS (2017) represents a collection of social psychological essays on the themes of these books that have been published in another form somewhere else.

Back to negative freedom, I have had the luxury of time, comfort and no demands other than self-imposed to chronicle what I have observed; what I have experienced; and what I have learned from this exposure and experience. I have always been my own person at nearly every decade of my life, having come from little I've needed little -- other than books and my Beautiful Betty -- to keep me engaged.

This will be perhaps my last work of some moment. I write to satisfy no reader or promote any particular agenda. I write because I can and my only wish is that I could write better. I hope this helps in completing a cover for this book.

PS A "fox" is good at many things, while a "hedgehog" is good at only one thing with a singular focus and obsession.