Thursday, June 01, 2006

The CIA vs. the CEO -- Part 1


Rummy and Dubya discuss strategery.

This is a three-part ramble, and I selected the pic above because it's from one of my all-time, desert island favorite moves: Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory".

Because it's one of the most brilliant, heartbreaking and efficiently plotted meditations on the price men pay when they find themselves powerless and imperiled in the hands of weak, vain, foolish and unaccountable power.

The specific of the story come to this: In WWI, in the heart of bloody trench warfare, elements of the French Army are being murderously hurled against an impregnable German position called “The Anthill”. Everyone knows it cannot be breached; that it is suicidal to even try. And yet for sordid reasons that have nothing to do with “victory” – a word that is utterly meaningless in this context to begin with – and safe behind the lines, General Mireau continues to do just that.

The meat of the movie plays out as doomed soldiers up and down the chain of command react to hopeless orders, and the scapegoating that begins after one hopeless assault fails.

Good men die or are caught up in the gears of an evil system. And like the rats and rot in the trenches, the weak and the sadistic thrive and fester in the nooks of the system, using it as a chance for advancement or to settle scores.

Those are the specifics, but it is a merciless reflection of what happens any time corrupt men are given unchecked and unaccountable power.

Which leads us out of a screening room and smack into the White House.

As we live through our own, devastating repetition of the same pathology.

Our real, live “Christopaths of Glory”.

There has been much said in the press over the last five years about Bush’s “CEO Style” of management. Setting a series of broad goals and operating parameters and leaving the details to soulless golem who at least theoretically have more active brain cells than Preznit Tipsy underlings is the inevitable form that the huge job of being the President must take.

Fine.

And there have been any number of leak-driven headlines about the brush war between the CIA and the White House especially over the last two years since the Administration has decided to play Pin The Failure on the Intel with the spooks at Langley. And while I have no special, penetrating information about what goes on in the churning viscera of the CIA (and was raised to have a massive distrust of an Agency with such a checkered past.) But I also live in the Real World and know that a powerful nation needs its agents and its analysts, and sometimes needs them to do things that might make Ben Franklin flinch.

Which is why there must be strict oversight by men and women who are both pragmatists, and get positively priapistic thinking about the beauty of the United States Constitution.

Yes, the CIA has done dreadful things. And, yes, it has been radically and repeatedly politicized -- first by Nixon and then, restarting the bone-rotting, hooker-ethics-based, “Tell me what I want to hear” culture, by Reagan. But there is also no way to dodge around this cold fact: as we absolutely require a National Weather Service to tell us what storms are over the horizon and heading our way, so we also absolutely required an Agency as devoid as possible of political devoted to collecting intel from every part of the world, sifting it, and telling our elected leaders what to look out for.

Of course hurricanes and terrorists have at least two things in common: First, each have destructive potentials that can be mitigated by advanced planning and timely warnings and, second, the fact that there is no way to force ideologically blinded imbeciles in the West Wing to look at that data honestly, comprehend intelligently it and act on it responsibly.


The problem is, of course, the entire structure modern CEO position is the antithesis of what the Founders had in mind for the man who presides over the federal government.

It is, among other things, set up to allow the man on top to take big gambles and to be somewhat shielded from the consequences when the gambles don’t pay off.

Now this is not an altogether bad thing: If you’re running a vibrant company that encourages innovation you are going to churn up a lot of bad ideas. Dozens of tons of Fool’s Gold for every ounce of the real thing, and if you’re at the top your job is to tease out the genuine article.

And you are gonna fuck up every now and them.

Of course if you pick too many dogs and you’re gone, but such as system -- when it works well – allows the CEO mechanism to act as a cushion against caution and a hedge against ossification.

Fine.

Government, OTOH, should virtually always be the most conservative (in the original, unbesmirched meaning of that word) bunch of sticklers in room. In other words, the government has absolutely no fucking business taking the kinds of wild risks with other people’s money that were the hallmark of George Bush tenure screwing Arbusto into the Texas desert and Neil Bush’s bust-out of Silverado Savings and Loan.


This is a family of weak men, leeches and crybaby princelings and anyone with a functional cerebral cortex could see that letting a dimwitted creep like George W. Bush occupy the Oval Office would be a disaster. Which, of course, meant that the GOP Base thought it was a fucking brilliant idea.

And WTF, even after seven years of partisan carpet-bombing, Clinton was cleaning our his desk in the White House and retiring with a nation at peace and with budget surpluses as far as the eye could see.

So how bad could George H. W.’s idiot son be?

Especially with George Schultz, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Jim Baker and all the rest of the GOP A-List lending the little dope their competence and bracing his incompetence against complete collapse from every side.

Some of us knew full-well what it would probably be like to have a vicious, stupid, cowardly Imperial CEO, buffered from scrutiny a gutless, complicit Republican Congress.

A man who was hired by swine who view government – not Small government, or Large government, or Smart government or Responsive government…but ANY Government – as a failed product line full of nags and auditors to be gutted and outsourced so that Corporations could complete their evolution and take direct control of the United States. And use all of that yummy-yummy jurisprudent and military power to advance the causes and fortunes of the few.

And now, after five years of this tragedy of a Presidency and comedy of a Congress we can see the results: The craven bleatings of Kenny-Boy Lay and Heckuva-Job Dubya have become indistinguishable from one another, because they are both spun from the same ethically debased DNA.

Both men are the most degenerate example of the CEO culture where leaders not only are unaccountable, but arrogantly braying that they deserve to be unaccountable. That how DARE any mere mortal tread on that special set of Divine Law vouchsafed to them and them alone by their Boards and Almighty God to do whatever the fuck they want, whenever they damned well feel like it.

End Part 1.

17 comments:

BitterHarvest said...

I beg to differ, Drifty.

The CEO style of retarded, pig-ignorant president was pioneered by Reagan in the modern era. No president with a laid-back management style has ever been a good one; in fact, they have always been bad: Grant, Harding, Reagan, and W, to name a few.

Also, presidential screwups are never a good thing; in fact, no person should ever be shielded from the consequences of his/her actions. Nor are presidents necessarily shielded from the consequences of their actions: Carter and H.W. Bush were blamed for economies that weren’t their fault. Carter was blamed for Operation Eagle Claw: again, not his fault. Reagan’s approval ratings dropped to the forties in his first term, again, because of a recession. Of course, he escaped blame or opprobrium for financing terrorists in Central America, exploding the national debt, sleeping through cabinet meetings, setting a modern record for most vacation days taken, or being an incompetent leader in general.

Just some thoughts on this section.

Anonymous said...

This is epic.

Karen McL said...

The Funniest *line* to be coming out of the BIG TENT is that somehow (Surprise- Surprise) it is "Fundamentalist" that have taken over the *beloved* GOP Party, as distinguished from "True Conservatives" and "True Conservative Values".

Hahahahhahahahahahaha!

As if that BIG TENT never invited all these misogynists and racists and ignoramuses IN. Coddled them into voting a straight GOP ticket, fed them Milk and Cookies while telling them bedtime stories of the Rapture to Come Once their *Plan* to reform the government to conform to their Permanent Majority RULE was Shat out in one long brown roll by ole Turd himself.

Any way...great JOB as usual Agent Driftglass. (And have an extra mug of Java-Jive on ME!)

Anonymous said...

I went to a funeral yesterday,, the preacher guy started off ok,, low-key and respectful to the bereaved,, then he launched into this rapturesqe thing. I wondered how that spiel comforted the dead womans daughter who cared for her for five long years before death took her,, btw, I always loved that movie,, never to connect it, as you poignantly did, to the mess we are in now. thanks

Karen McL said...

Hmmm...and this might make you spew that Java-Jive all out yer nose in surprise!

But here's yet another defector from that "House Rove Built":

Jeff Harrell - pissing and moaning about the WRONG track he's found himself *inexplicably* tied to while all the Snidley BushLashes have left and that Train Wreck of the new Millenium is barreling down upon him while he screams:

OH, OH...what can I Do *gasp* *moan* *faint*....WHooooo Will Save ME???? WHooo's got an Answer to my Dilemma????"

Not that I'm not glad those blinders are OFF...but Sheesh, as you have so often captured, Drifty -- What the FUCK kind of Mess have these assholes left ALL of us in WITHOUT any ANSWERS to fix this disaster.

Anonymous said...

DG another masterly post, however the mind boggles at the idea of women becoming priapistic, even at the beauty of your Constitution.

tech98 said...

Carter and H.W. Bush were blamed for economies that weren’t their fault.

The miserable economy of the early 90s was the hangover from the debt-binge of the 80s and the S&L disaster, for which the Reagan administration is directly responsible. Bush was VP during all of this and cheerled the disastrous policies and legislation that led to the recession, so while he was not the most responsible, I would hardly say it wasn't his fault.

jurassicpork said...

So, in your analogy, what is the impregnable anthill? Iraq? Conquering an insurgency on its own terms, in their own land? Or does it matter if there's an analogy or not?

Anonymous said...

I see the analogy with the anthill in what everybody in the US is doing. If you saw the movie you know that the French generals lived in a large and comfortable villa and had all the comforts in contrast to the soldiers who were living in trenches. The generals were quite concerned with parties and furthering their own careers and the plight of their own troops never caused a blip on the radar screen.

In contrast to DG I never want to see this movie again, it made me so angry that even after many years I still am furious that humans can treat others this way. This same feeling I get when I think of the English generals in Galipoli and the pigs in Animal Farm.

Still I am not ready to give up, as hopeless as it all seems to surrender to these assholes now is just something I can not yet do.

driftglass said...

dan of steele,
Never give up. WWI ended. Vietnam ended. Humans walked on other worlds and cured polio (sorta).

jurassicpork,
Anthill = Reality. You can fling as many petroleum flaks as you like at global warming, for example, but in the end, the climate wins.

Karen McL,
Yeah, it'll be a helluva mess to clean up. That's one of the thinngs that distinguish us from the Bushies. We look for a mop and say, "Let's get to it." They look for a torch and say, "Fuck it all."

sightunseen,
Been to two Catholic weddings that veered of into screeds on abortion and patriotism. Always tempted to stand up, point at the preacher and scream, "He's a WITCH!"

Gaias-child,
OK, that was a stretch. Sometimes my analogies get out too far over their skis. But it only counts for 1/3 of my final grade, so...:-)

BitterHarvest,
Differ away, pal. This is always a conversation, not a sermon. You're wrong, but...:-)

Anonymous said...

Drifty,

If you get a chance read "Smartest Guys in the Room" the book about Enron. I couldn't help but notice the similarities between how Enron was run and BushCo. Enron would sign 10-year deals and make wildly unrealistic assumtions as to profit, then book all those profits right then and there before a single thing was done. Then, of course having booked the profits nobody would bother with actually, you know, doing the work.

They even had staged photo-ops of their broadband division that were completly phony.

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Anonymous said...

A typical dictionary definition of hypnosis states that it is: a state that resembles sleep but that is induced by suggestion. However, anyone who has tried hypnosis (and any self respecting hypnotist) will tell you that this is a very simplistic view of the subject!
A much better description comes from the Free Online Dictionary which states that hypnosis is: an artificially induced state of consciousness, characterised by heightened suggestibility and receptivity to direction. So what does this mean and how can it be used to your advantage?

Well, the subject of hypnosis has been discussed and pondered since the late 1700s. Many explanations and theories have come and gone though science, however, has yet to supply a valid and well-established definition of how it actually happens. It's fairly unlikely that the scientific community will arrive at a definitive explanation for hypnosis in the near future either, as the untapped resources of our 'mostly' uncharted mind still remain something of a mystery.
However, the general characteristics of hypnosis are well documented. It is a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, deep relaxation and heightened imaginative functioning. It's not really like sleep at all, because the subject is alert the whole time. It is most often compared to daydreaming, or the feeling you get when you watch a movie or read a captivating book. You are fully conscious, but you tune out most of the outside world. Your focus is concentrated intensely on the mental processes you are experiencing - if movies didn't provide such disassociation with everyday life and put a person in a very receptive state then they would not be as popular (nor would TV advertising be as effective!). Have you ever stated that a film wasn't great because you just couldn't 'get into it'???
This works very simply; while daydream or watching a movie, an imaginary world becomes almost real to you because it fully engages your emotional responses. Such mental pursuits will on most occasions cause real emotional responses such as fear, sadness or happiness (have you ever cried at a sad movie, felt excited by a future event not yet taken place or shivered at the thought of your worst fear?).
It is widely accepted that these states are all forms of self-hypnosis. If you take this view you can easily see that you go into and out of mild hypnotic states on a daily basis - when driving home from work, washing the dishes, or even listening to a boring conversation. Although these situations produce a mental state that is very receptive to suggestion the most powerful time for self-change occurs in the trance state brought on by intentional relaxation and focusing exercises. This deep hypnosis is often compared to the relaxed mental state between wakefulness and sleep.
In this mental state, people feel uninhibited and relaxed and they release all worries and doubts that normally occupy their mind. A similar experience occurs while you are daydreaming or watching the TV. You become so involved in the onscreen antics

Anonymous said...

Six Steps to Success
Throughout the centuries history tells of men and women with the midas touch, who achieved greatness against what seemed insurmountable odds. To some their successes appeared to be the result of blind luck, to others the reward for hard work, but the truth about the successes of men such as Andrew Carnagie and Henry Ford is much more interesting.

Success is a state of mind to which all people should aspire. Like many others you can unlock te gate to achievement and the fulfilment of yor personal desires. With the six steps outlined below anyone can arrive at a set destination, with the added advantage of renewed self-confidence and secure in the knowledge that every goal is attainable.
Step 1. Desire
The key factor involved in the process of achieving any desire lies in the response of one's mind to the objective. If a complacent attitude is apparent then there will be a lack of enthusiasm leading to failure or only half-success.
If a goal is to be reached determination is needed to carry set plans through to a successful conclusion. This determination must have enough mental 'weight' behind it to propel you forward onto the road of achievement. This mental state can only be instilled by one thing - desire!
As can be easily seen, when we look around us, it is this desire-force that has launched mankind on his frenzied zest for ever-new knowledge and has enabled him to push back the boundaries of science to never dreamed of achievement.

It is this same desire-force that must be used in our business and personal affairs if the success we seek is to materialize. It is not very hard to develop this kind of desire for all you have to do is go after what you really want - its that simple. With this desire you will have all the persistence you need to accomplish your goal. There is a great saying "you never fail until you give up"!
Take heed of what Napoleon Bonaparte said "What we ardently and constantly desire, we always get".

Step 2. Goals
If success is to come your must realise what is expected to materialize. This statement may seem obvious at first but if careful thought is given its meaning takes on deeper significance.
Many people fail to gain satisfactory results from their endeavours because they did not know what they wanted to accomplish in the first place. Your objective must not be hazy or incomplete. Before you reach your goal you must be able to identify how your life will be different when you achieve it. You must know exactly what it is that you want to achieve. How will your life be better/different? How will you feel? What way will you look? What situations will you find yourself in? Will other people in your life be effected and if so how will they react? You need a clear definite picture in your mind of what the attainment of your goal will mean to you.

Step 3. Belief
Belief is the back-up system of desire. It keep the fires of enthusiasm burning and makes us continually strive to get nearer the goal attainment. Faith can truly move mountains; the mountains of fear, inferiority, worry and low self esteem - 'the success killers'!
Once a goal is firmly fixed in mind and our desire-force is hurtling us toward seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the firm belief that we can gain a favourable outcome can spur us on to victory. When the mind has been manipulated to reflect this state, wonderful physical results can ensue, producing symptoms of success in our lives in every area imaginable.
Although many can attest to the power of belief and to the wondrous accomplishments that were achieved through nothing else except faith, it still remains that many individuals find it hard to believe that a positive outcome will be forthcoming when they are faced with momentous opposition. Whether the opposition is mental or physical the fact that nothing seems to be going right and everything seems to be wrong is enough for even the strongest of us to 'throw in the towel'. But it is in these very situations that faith can conquer all. Faith in yourself, what you are doing and belief that that your objective will be reached.
There are some who bemoan "easier said than done". This is exactly the kind of mental attitude that sustains the problems that they are trying to eradicate. If your belief power is not apparent, take hope for it can be acquired.
Each morning and night recite your intentions from a written list of your goals. Voice your belief in your own abilities. Tell yourself that in due course you will be successful. As you go about your daily affairs reflect as often as possible on your goals and affirm that they are yours now. Fool your mind into believing it and you will see your world reflect it!

Step 4. Plan
Having decided upon your goal and being determined to build your faith you need to give your desire-force a 'vehicle' through which it may materialize. This 'vehicle' will take the form of a definite plan of action.
Do you need to acquire certain skills? Do you need to know certain people or be in certain places to help you achieve your goal? Make a plan that will help you get closer to your end objective. Research your desires and get clear on what you need to do. Then do it!
Ensure that your plan is workable and realistic for you. Although your plan should remain flexible so that changes can be made when appropriate only make changes after careful consideration. Trial and error will eventually show the way to a good plan although you should be open to intuition also.
However, I should point out that, it is very likely your goal will materialize in a most unexpected way. The fact that you have set a plan for its accomplishment tends to set things in motion and like a chain reaction (or the butterfly effect) subtle changes made by you may cause dramatic changes elsewhere and your goal may come before your plan is completed.

Step 5. Visualization
Visualization is the art of creating mental movies of your completed goal. This has many beneficial effects upon your consciousness. Without going into the deeper esoteric benefits of using this art let me just say that you are truly designing your life when you use it. It has one other major benefit - it strengthens your desire and persistence because you momentarily experience the thrill of having achieved your goal!
Just form a mental picture of having achieved your goal. See what you will see. Feel how wonderful it will be. See how it effects everyone around you. Hear people congratulate you. When this state is experienced nothing will stop you in your quest for your objective and thus your belief-power will also be reinforced.

Step 6. The Subconscious Mind
It is within the subconscious part of your mind that you hold all th positive and negative beliefs about yourself - your self-image. These beliefs are reflected back to you in the form of attitudes. Therefore it is from the subconscious mind that the thought of failure or success comes.

Attitudes are just mental programs and so is your self-image. They can easily be changed (yes I said 'easily'). Any attitude or belief can be changed by using the formula outlined in this article - by combining affirmations with visualization. Henry Ford used it, as did Ralph Waldo Emerson and even Arnold Swatzeneger. It is reported in some circles that a similar technique was employed by Bill Gates to build his global empire. Andrew Carnegie used it exactly as described to attain and give away multi-millions even though he was an unschooled manual worker when he started it. Carnegie's legacy can still be seen today when you freely borrow a book from any Carnegie library of which there are thousands.
If you use these six steps there is nothing you cannot achieve. Luckily we have the advantage of living in the Twentieth Century with all its new technology and innovations such as hypnosis and subliminal programming. Use these steps in conjunction with your favourite personal development system and you are assured success. hypnosis