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Notebook entry, November 26, 2000

Today I placed my book, Man In the Mist: The Evolutionary Musings of a Blue-Collar Worker© online under my essay sections.  I was waiting to hear from Abika.com to see if they would publish the book in downloadable format, but I guess everyone is away for Thanksgiving holiday.  If and when they do, I'll place the link in the upper right of the index page and send the traffic to Abika.com. You can link to the essay page by clicking here. Read the cautionary note about paper and ink.  Enjoy.

Notebook entry, November 25, 2000 

Business Week, November 27, "Workers in Bondage," p. 146 by Gail Edmondson in Prato, Italy tells us once again, of workers with little resources being exploited by unscrupulous factions within the manufacturing industry; particularly clothing and shoe ware.  Only this time the story shifts to the new European Union instead of the American Southwest and California fruit fields. Because of tariff barriers being lowered and increased competition in the European sector, manufactures are finding that the old formula of indentured bondage is still profitable.  Once again, stories of children working 12 hour shifts, and adults being chained to walls come to life from real police files. Read and save the article for future debate.

Notebook entry, November 23, 2000

Today is Thanksgiving day in the USA.  It is generally considered the start of the Holiday season over here where family and friends reunite and give thanks for all the special events and objects that surround our lives.  I hope all of you, wherever you reside, are: housed in a warm dwelling, well-fed, and feel safe from harm.  

This morning I changed the index heading, "Politics 2000," to "Politics and Evolution," and intended to expand the section when ever I have the time to make notes considering any evolutionary perspectives to local political happenings in the USA.  You may visit the revamped section by clicking: Politics and Evolution.

Notebook entry, November, 20, 2000

My first book is now up in lights and waiting to hear from abika.com whether or not there will electronic publish the work on their web-site.  It would be free and downloadable in PDF format so that students could download the book into their laptops or their personal electronic readers. It's title: Man In the Mist: The Evolutionary Musings of a Blue-Collar Worker.©

Notebook entry, November, 14, 2000

Business Week has an interesting article this week, (Nov. 20, 00 issue, P. 75), titled:  AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE, by Rochelle Sharpe in Boston. In five categories, which included, Motivating Others, Fostering Communication, Producing High-Quality Work, Strategic Planning, Listening to Others, Analyzing Issues, women outscored men substantially.  Men only scored statistically even with women in Strategic Planning, and Analyzing Issues.  

One interesting quote from Harvard Business School Professor Rasabeth Moss Kanter, author of the 20-year old management classic, Men and Women of the Corporation: "Women get high ratings on exactly those skills needed to succeed in the global Information Age, where teamwork and partnering are so important." pp. 75-76.

Now, compare that quote with the first paragraph of the inside cover of Helen Fisher's 1999 book, The First Sex: "This explosive book will change the way you see yourself, your family, and the world around you, including every man and woman you meet.  Drawing on original research, the celebrated anthropologist Helen Fisher reveals in The First Sex how women's natural talents are changing the world, making women ideal leaders and successful shapers of business and society today and on into the twenty-first century."

Sound similar?  You bet, because the evolutionary perspective of viewing the genders as two separate, yet intertwined entities is catching on everywhere, and that includes the business world.  The Renaissance is coming.

Notebook entry, November 5, 2000

The New York Times again....hey, they are on a roll. This time it is a short essay by Alan Ehrenhalt, who is the executive editor of Governing magazine and author of The Lost City.  Mr. Ehrenhalt writes that he believes that he political era of the Republicans that is over.   Mr. Ehrenhalt writes: "Between the late 1960's and the early 1990's, the dominant fact of our political life was a cultural backlash -- a reaction against the larger events in America (and all the Western Democracies) that Francis Fukuyma has appropriately called the "Great Disruption." The reaction was a protest against rising rates of crime, illegitimate birth and drug addiction and a defense of religion, patriotism, authority and conventional family life. It roots stretched back as far as the early days of the Vietnam War and the urban riots of the mid-1960s and it endured long enough to generate the Christian activism and anti-abortion fervor of the early 1990s."

I agree that the Republican conservative era is over; the lock-up of the far right into the basement at the Republican national convention is proof positive of that fact.  But, what I disagree with is the explanation of the Great Disruption.  In my opinion, what happened was that after WWII, the United States was very cocky and expected that everyone on the planet would keep buying its obsolete and very expensive cars, heavy machinery, and televisions. 

The destroyed foreign nations (with our help) built efficient factories that spit out high quality, low-priced products.  It was only time before the results would hit the United States as consumers made the logical choice.  The "Great Disruption" was the loss of high-paying, blue-collar jobs that were the backbone of America's middle class.  The culture that dominated the political life of the country, (white males of European extraction) merely reinforced their belief that they were entitled to be hired first, and fired last through words and actions; anyone else was "lazy" or for some reason, "undesirable."

The "conservative" reaction to "black bucks," "welfare queens," and "affirmative action quotas" and the lifting of money out of the hard-earned wallets of the working man through government hand-outs was just too much to take.  The reaction to overturn the "compassionate" era that followed the good times of the 50s and the 60s was simply an allocation of shirking resources (because of deficit spending) to those who controlled those resources and the elimination culling of the chafe.  

Was this "great disruption" moral?  WWJD?